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Chapter 34
Creation Stories
Beyond the flowers of Sinai you see the House of Reflections.
It contains diverse ideas from Iqbal’s mind, each contained
in a poem that comes to life as you concentrate on it.
One of them is ‘The Conquest of Nature’. It consists
of five holograms with separate subheadings.
1. The birth of Adam
There is commotion in the universe. Love rejoices
while Beauty trembles. Lying unaware in the embrace of Life, Desire
opens eyes and a new world comes into being. Life declares that
since it struggled restless in the darkness of the earth for many
eons, a door has at last opened in the dome of the sky.
2. The Devil's refusal
God bids angels to bow down to the newly created
Adam. Since the Devil was born of fire, he considers himself superior
to the human being. He refuses to obey and says to God, “This
short-sighted ignoramus creature was born in your lap but it will
grow old in my arms.”
3. The temptation of Adam
The Devil avenges his expulsion from heaven by tempting
the first couple. “A life of passion and longing is better
than eternal quiet,” he says. “Do you not know as
yet that passion fizzles out if union is achieved?”
4. Adam speaks on coming out of Paradise
The human being comes out and says, “How good
it is to fill life with passion and longing: to open the door
of the cage on to a spacious garden. I would exchange certainty
for doubt, for I have become a martyr of the quest.”
5. The dawn of Resurrestion
(Adam in the presence of God)
Adam says to the Almighty, “You whose sun
illumines the star of life, with my heart You lit the candle of
the sightless world. My skills have poured an ocean into a strait,
my pickaxe makes milk flow from the heart of stone. Venus is my
captive, the moon worships me. Although his sorcery deluded me,
excuse my fault, forgive my sin: the world could not have been
subdued otherwise, for pride could not be taken prisoner without
the halter of humility. Reason catches artful nature in a net
and thus Ahriman, born of fire, bows down before the creature
of dust.”
Adam’s address to the Almighty on the Dawn of
Resurrection sounds like it is coming from you: words printed in
this book are like stones and your soul is hacking at them to allow
streams of life flow out and become this garden.
The Garden is suddenly filled with the fragrance of
a houri who had turned into a rose and withered away. Time begins
to play its song, and its five stanzas make a strange parallel to
the five episodes of the Creation Story.
1
Everything in the world seems to be pegged on the
wall of Time, which is nothing if you look at it but it is your
soul if you look within: the primary description of your life
is the span of time you get to spend in the world. The birth of
Adam – Time as yourself?
2
Time is an artist who paints with blood: Genghis
Khan, Tamerlane, European colonialism and the greatest catastrophes
of history are sparks shed by the flame of Time, which is also
a pleasing garden at the same time. The Devil’s refusal
– Time as a sign of God?
3
Time appears to be passing but is also eternity
and stays still: tomorrow can be seen in today except that the
human eye cannot behold the wine’s effect in the wine directly.
The temptation of Adam – Time as God?
4
While you propose your plans, Time disposes destiny
beyond the spell of reason. You are free to choose only because
the highest choice will take you to another dimension of Time
and never possibly beyond it. You are the secret of Time just
as it is yours. Adam speaks on coming out of Paradise –
Relativity of Time?
5
Time is the traveler seeking you as its destination.
You are the fruit of its labors. You are a song of a thousand
melodies with a single heart, which is the only container big
enough to contain the ocean of Time as if it were a storm rising
of your own tide. The Dawn of Resurrection and Adam in the presence
of God – Time as your reward?
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