OF MADMEN AND HERETICS
1 . In the darkness swords clashed, guns roared
Bombs fell upon the earth, voices cried out in agony
The people of the earth were warring among themselves
In the name of race politics and religion
They slew one another and burnt their cities.
- In despair many cried out “where is God,
Is there no God to save us, if there is no God
Then let the devil take us
We would fain go to heaven
But we will be satisfied with hell” - Suddenly all stood still!
The voice of God bellowed
Through the immensity of space
“O you wretched of the earth!
Wherefore rebel you against me
Be still! Know that I Am God!
You are My servants.
From dust have I created you
From the holiness of My spirit
I breathed into you the Breathe of Life
Which caused you to become living souls - I have made a covenant between Me and You
I did according to the exigencies of the times
Raise up wise ones among you;
That they may teach you to walk in my ways
You hearkened not unto them.
You have repudiated my covenant and rejected My ways
To worship the works of your idle fancies. - O you sons and daughters of error
Countless times to your earthly minds
Have I forgotten your disobedience
Yet you continued to transgress My Laws
You have bartered the glory of my Immortal Beauty
For the ugliness of your own vanity.
I Am that I AM and I Am God
I did command you to have love among yourselves
That there should be peace on My earth
Even as there is peace in the realms of My Heavens
You have disobeyed Me, you have waged wars among yourselves. - From the same substance of dust
Have I created you and your fathers before you
I did ordain
That you should be different races
Even as the flowers and the trees are diverse and different
I gave unto you the sameness of my spirit
That you should reflect the oneness of my love
Wherefore then do you exalt one race superior to another? - You are all my servants
I Am the only Supreme power
Within the realms of my creation
Behold I Am He, before whose power and Might
All demigods, angels, and spirits
Bow in servitude, to my omnipotence.
I Am He Who graspeth the lightening by the flame of its brow
And hurls it through the vastness of the universe
That you tremble in fear when you see it. - I am he who walks upon the tempest
And maketh the sun moon and stars
Glorify the majesty of My universe
My voice is like the rolling of a billion thunders
Let all created things, be aware of their powerlessness
And acknowledge My Sovereignty and Might.
Behold I Am Almighty and peerless
Though there are divers races among you
I exalt not one race above the other
The worth of a man lies not in his race or his religion
Rather within the willingness of his heart
To achieve excellence and piety.
The political systems which you have devised among yourselves
Have only served to cause divisions and wars among you
All would have been well
Had you hearken unto my messengers
Now I shall judge every man
And reward him according to his deeds - The voice of God ceased to speak
A great silence fell upon the earth
The people were greatly troubled
They cried one to another saying
“Let us choose a speaker that he may plead our case before God”
Great confusion came upon the people
They could not agree on who should be the speaker. - A man whom had been declared a madman and a heretic
Came forward and said, “ let me speak unto God
I am already condemned to die;
Give me this last privilege; let me unburden my soul unto God”
The Madman was given the privilege to speak to God
He lifted up his voice and cried out aloud
“O God! O God! Thou sayest Thou art a God of love
And thou art a God of Justice.
Thou art superior to all things in Thy creation
We are but Thy servants whom Thou created,
From the sameness of thy spirit
That we may reflect the oneness of Thy love.
Why didst Thou then subjected Adam and Eve
To be tested against the great spirit Satan
When Thou knowest in thine Heart
That they could not have resisted the temptation,
Of so great and powerful a spirit. - Wert Thou showing Thy love
When Thou cursed Adam and Eve and rewarded them with death
Because they succumbed to a temptation, thou knowest they could not resist
Which Thou exercising justice
When Thou didst confer death upon the offspring of Adam.
If thou truly lovest thy servants
Why didst thou cast the sin of Adam upon his posterity
Surely thou knowest that they were innocent.
Thou art he who knowest all things
Why didst thou create the great spirit Satan
Thou knowest that he would have become evil.
Thou knowest the great power Satan
Yet thou didst hurl him out of heaven
That he should fall with his demons;
Upon thy defenseless earthly servants.
Then had thine angel callest out from the loftiness of thy Heavens
“Woe! Woe! Be unto the inhabitants of the earth;
For the devil has come down unto you with great wrath”
How didst thou expect Thy servants
To keep Thy commandments and obey Thy laws
After thou had sent them Satan, to plague and torment them.
Thou knowest that Satan is the foundation of evil
Thou knowest that Thy servants are helpless against his power - How could Thy servants not lose faith in Thee
When you are the one who cast Satan upon them
Allowing him to cause wars and confusion among Thy servants
Thou knowest how great is the influence of Satan
Yet Thou didst not restrain him.
Now when Thou seest how Thy servants are misled
And cannot find guidance;
Thou callest down to them,
“O you wretched of the Earth, wherefore rebel you against me
Be still and know that I am God and you are my servants” - In truth we are wretched
Art Thou not He Who made us the wretched of the earth,
Art Thou not God who created all things
Art Thou not he Who has knowledge of all things;
Which were and is to come.
Didst Thou not know that Adam and Eve would yield to Satan
Yet Thou didst allow Satan to deceive them
And Thou didst reward them with death
But Thou didst let Satan go free.
Now Thou art still avenging Thyself upon the posterity of Adam
If we rebel against Thee, Satan is the guilty one;
Why wilt Thou not destroy Satan
If Thou destroyest him we will glorify Thee
But if Thou wilt not destroy him, we shall rebel against Thee
Thou mayest consume us with fire if Thou so desire”.
There were many who were wroth
Against the words of the madman
They feared that the anger of God would be upon them
They fell upon the madman and beat him until he was dead - The learned and wise men of religion
Held a conclave, from which it was decided
That the only way to make atonement unto God
Was to burn all madmen and heretics - Four hundred and sixty men pronounced “madmen and heretics”
Were bound in chains and brought to the foot
Of the mountain of sacrifice.
Where fanatics beguiled by ignorance
Prepared their destruction by fire. - Kazim Anika whose poetry had caused him,
To be labelled a madman and a heretic
Was released and given freedom to speak
Before they were all burned alive. - Kazim Anika, unruffled by the prospect of death
Calmly surveyed the faces of the multitude,
Which reflected many deaths and few births
Slowly like a man gazing beyond the reach of men
He began his discourse.
“ let me o life today, stretch forth my hands
And fill them with the fire of understanding
So that I will illuminate the faces of these people
Who out of ignorance sentenced me and my kind to die.
They have o life been inebriated,
By the wine of decadent customs and traditions
Which veil their eyes from the mysteries of life.
We have dispensed with constricting dogmas
Which have out lived their usefulness.
For this o life we are here to suffer death
We ask not for mercy;
Mercy is reserved for the guilty
Of what are we guilty, save the awakening
Which you o life has kindled in our minds - These o life are men whose fathers before them
Have cried, “thou shall not kill”
Yet thou dost witness today the intention of their hearts
In their foolish minds o life;
They think, by killing us they will appease God
Would that they would o life
Destroy the images of the God they have created
And seek the will of the God who created them - They may burn and destroy our bodies
But they cannot touch the will of our spirits
What we say today with feeble voices
Shall soon be echoed by the power of forces
Strong enough to cause even rocks and the trees ,
To cry out.
21.Let the beacons of truth be kindled o life
Let the mysteries be unraveled.
Let each man be judged of his own deeds
Let him not pass judgement upon his brother
Judgement will be administered at the eternity’s behest
Open thou o life the floodgates of knowledge
Let its luminous waters cleanse the filth of ignorance
From the minds of the men whose visions,
Were obscured before they were born.
- O posterity! Posterity! Distant posterity
For you, we who shall die as madmen and heretics
Have kindled a torch; let not its flame be extinguished.
When you have achieved the freedom of your minds
When you have quaffed from the fountain of living poetry
Know that the power of its essence;
Emanated from the flaming spirit
Of men who died as madmen and heretics. - O ye mighty bulwarks of religion
The edifice of your hierarchy is falling down
The houses of falsehood which you have erected
Upon the minds of the credulous are wavering in the wind
The flaming sword of truth which has long lain buried beneath the sediments of lies and deception has been disinterred.
- Kazim Anika ceased speaking
A great silence fell upon the multitude
It was as if they were so mesmerized by his words
They became frozen to the ground upon which they stood. - kazim Anika again began speaking , in a clear ringing voice.
“ I will now speak of a vision that was revealed to me
The spirit took me upon a mountain of fire
I saw the heavens being cleft asunder.
The Devil abandoned his hell and expired into nothingness
I saw the triune God of Christendom
Standing with his left foot in the east
His right foot firmly planted in the west
Those who created him were kneeling at his feet pleading,
“Lord deliver us from the wrath of Satan;
Save us from our sins, lead us to dwell in the Kingdom of Heaven”
He answered not.
Suddenly creation gave birth to a mighty warrior
Who with a sharp sword smote the god of Christendom
And he fell upon his face and died.
Lo the host of Christendom wept with a terrible weeping
They sought to lay hold upon the mighty warrior
That they might put him to death,
But he retreated to the mountains of Kermanshah
I Kazim Anika saw him standing,
Upon the consciousness of a chosen few.
Words of lightning and thunder spewed from his mouth
The children of Christendom heeded him not
They were too busy resurrecting their God
Behold the sons of Islam did march forth
To make war against the mighty warrior
They laid hold of him and bound him in chains - He cried in a loud voice saying,
‘You may fetter my body with chains
But you cannot silence the Bul Bul* within me
It is endowed with the spirit of truth
Its voice shall be lifted up, all creation will hear its song.
Know ye o servants of strife
I am come to unite the children of Adam’s fallen race
I am the embodiment of Krishna, Moses, Zarathustra,
Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad.
- Bul Bul- a Persian nightingale
- Interpret this vision, as you will
I say to you here and now
Some of you shall live to see children of the cross
Living in harmony with the children of the crescent moon and stars
Many of you shall come to know,
That Allah, Jehovah and Yahweh are one and the same
That the messages of Krishna, Moses, Zarathustra,
Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad and the mighty warrior are from the same source,
God!
We shall now stand ready to die for what we believe”. - Four hundred and sixty men declared madmen and heretics
Were burnt alive at the foot of the Mount of Sacrifice
The men of that age had failed to learn from history
History is asking the question today
Who were the madmen and who were the heretics?
