(Rumuz-e-Bekhudi-04) Arkan-e-Asasi Milba Islamia - Rukan-e-Awal : Touheed

The pillars of Islam
First pillar: the Unity of God

The Mind, astray in this determinate world,
First found the pathway to this distant goal
By faith in God the One; what other home
Should bring the hapless wanderer to rest?
Upon what other shore should Reason’s barque
Touch haven? All men intimate with truth
The secrets of the Godhead have by heart,
Which is implicit in the sacred words
He comes unto the Merciful, a slave.
In action let faith’s potency be tried,
That it may guide thee to thy secret powers:
From it derive religion, wisdom, law,
Unfailing vigour, power, authority.
Its splendour doth amaze the learned mind,
But giveth unto lovers force to act;
The lowly in its shadow reacheth high,
And worthless earth becomes like alchemy
Precious beyond compute. Its mighty force
Chooseth the slave, whereof it doth create
Another species; sprightlier he treads
Upon the path of truth, and in his veins
The blood burns hotter than the lightning’s shaft.
Fear dies, and doubt; toil is new vitalized;
The vision sees the inner mystery
Of all creation. When in servanthood
To God man’s foot is established, beggary’s bowl
Becomes the magic cup that Jamshid bore.
There is no god but God: this is the soul
And body of our Pure Community,
The pitch that keeps our instrument in tune,
The very substance of our mysteries,
The knotted thread that bids our scattered thoughts.
And when these words, being uttered on the lips,
Reach to the heart, they do augment the power
Of life itself; graven upon the rock,
They wake a heart therein; but if the heart
Burns not with the remembrance of that faith
It doth convert to clay. When we inflamed
The hearts within us with the passionate glow
Of this belief, we set ablaze the barn
Of all contingency with but a sigh.
This is the lustre glittering in the hearts
Of men, those steely mirrors liquefied

By Faith’s consuming flame, whose torch is
like
A tulip in our veins, and so we bear
No other mark of glory but its brand.
Through this true Faith black man becomes as
red,
Kinsman to Omar, aye, and Abu Dharr.
The heart’s a lodge to self and the Not‐self,
And passion quickens when the cup is shared;
When several hearts put on a single hue
That is community, which Sinai
Grows radiant in one epiphany.
Peoples must have one thought, and in their
minds
Pursue a single purpose; to one draw
Their temperaments respond, one testingstone
Discriminates their hideous from their fair.
Unless the instrument of thought possess
The fire of truth, it is impossible
Its range can be so wide. We Muslims are,
Children of Abraham, which fact is proved
(If proof thou seekest) by Your father he.
Though nations’ destinies their lands control,
Though nations build their edifice on race,
Thinkest thou the community is based
Upon the Country? Shall so much regard
Be blindly paid to water, air and earth?
It is dull ignorance to put one’s boast
In lineage; that judgment rests upon
The body, and the body perishes.
Other are the foundations that support
Islam’s Community; they lie concealed
Within our hearts. We, who are present now,
Have bound our hearts to Him who is unseen,
And therefore are delivered from the chains
Of earthly things. The cord that links this folk
Is like the thread which keeps the stars in place,
And, as the sight itself, invisible.
Well‐pointed arrows of one quiver are we,
One showing, one beholding, one in thought;
One is our goal and purpose, one the form,
The fashion, and the measure of our dream.
Thanks to His blessings, we are brothers all
Sharing one speech, one spirit and one heart.