For Ali bin Abi Talib

This is a poem for Ali bin Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him. Now just because I’m writing in honor of him doesn’t mean I’m Shia. Sunnis can show love to Hadrat Ali too. Seriously, after 1300 years, isn’t it enough already with the whole Sunni-Shia conflict? We’ve both said things we didn’t mean, did terrible things to each other, called each other infidels. But now we’ve been two millennia according to the Christian calendar and nearly 1.5 millennia in our own. It’s time to move on. No?—————————— 

The Lion Who Surrendered 

 

From a noble house

You descended

Through your veins

Flowed the blood of the Beloved

 

When no one dared

To speak the name of Faith

You stood up

Though an awkward youth you were

 

In battles for freedom

You carried the flag

Wielding a sword

Forked like a serpent’s tongue

 

Your sacred marriage

Was a union of saints

And brought forth

Two lights of the world

 

Wisdom radiated from you

Like beams of the moon

Knowledge is a city

You were the gate

 

Of the Messenger’s Successors

You were the Fourth

With your death

Light left the world ——————————”There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance.” – Ali bin Abi Talib, radiallahu an