A Scholar Poem by Sadiqullah Khan

The fortification is like the great wall
Raised on bones of dead slaves,
From your books flow clotted blood,
Serum of accumulated history
Pride in wars, glory unto the Absolute.
The whip-tongued priest’s pulpit
Has the strength of Solomon’s columns
Held by giants, made by mysterious forces.

From your eyes emit, abject rationalizations
Of a phenomenon, none is aware of.
Hold the secret thread of the power,
Theologian turned scientist, a social
Economist. Unaware, illiterate,
On the dialectical materialism;
Of Averroesian philosophy, and cyclical
Khaldunian theory of history.

Sadiqullah Khan
Islamabad
February 27,2014.

Scholar at the Table 1865-1867, by Emile Charles Wauters, Hemitage Museum Russia @ Jason M. Kelly blog