The Rain That Befell Poem by Ahamad Ilyaas Vilayathullah

The Rain That Befell



The rain that befell
On the people
Who were warned enough.

Never has rain been
So unwelcome to mankind
Who adored and admired
The rain that cooled their inside
And beautified every spot
On the surface
Of this blue planet.

The greenery, the flowers
The fauna and the flora
And every living thing,
Even the hard rocks
That gushed forth the crystal drops
Of purity and life,
Owed it thanks,
And was readily given.

But oh for this rain!
How mortifying,
How deadly,
You and I cannot say.

It changed
The very chemistry of elements,
The earth and all on her.

They beckoned it on them
As they changed
The chemistry of life,
And challenged
The very flow
And order of nature.
As when they approached men
And spared the ways with women.

Only the twin cities,
Sodom and Gomorrah,
Can tell you
How dead they were
When it befell upon them
Late that night, or by day break.

A rain that was not forecast
And none waited for.
But warned they were
That went unheeded.

And when it came,
It spared not any
But the virtuous.

The rest were submerged
With their sins
And went under water,
Or was it under the earth
That quaked violently
And looked agape?

Neither the earth
Nor the water could
Receive them happily,
Their remains,
So against nature,
Changed the very nature
Of the water and the earth there.

You and I do not know
But the twin cities,
Sodom and Gomorrah,
Can tell you
How much was the brunt!

They say it was
But a story of the past
Among the fairy tales,
Not of any value today.

They still indulge in the same sin.
Nay, they have made it
The order of the day,
Challenging the heavens,
For another Sodom
And another Gomorrah.

The world has gone far ahead.
I hear, they can
Even make it rain today.
But I wonder if they can
Stop a rain like this,
If one comes today.
When the skies fall asunder,
Can your joined hands
Stop their falling on your heads?

***

POET'S NOTES ABOUT THE POEM
A poem inspired by ayahs 160 - 175 of the surah Al-Shuara in the Quran. Accordingly, the cities near the Dead Sea, to the people of which Allah's messenger Lut (peace and blessings upon him) was sent, were notorious for their practice of homosexuality and other sins. They didn't heed to Lut's warnings and were destroyed in the brimstone rain and the violent quake of the earth. The two cities are believed to have been submerged under the Dead Sea, the water of which is known for containing no life of any sort, its high density and the objects fallen in it floating on the surface without ever sinking.
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