 | The Poetical Works of (Richard Monckton Milnes) Lord Houghton |  |
ARABIAN LEGENDS.
I. THE PRIDE OF NIMROD.
They are thine to take or give,—
We are but thy will's creations,—
In thy breath we die or live.”
So the servile courtiers chanted,
But the tyrant's heart replied
That some stronger food was wanted
To content his swollen pride.
Round him,—work as he may bid,
To invade God's realm of æther
By the Babel pyramid:
God the pitiful intrusion
Checks not by his lightning hand,
But imposing and confusion
Frustrates every proud command.
See the tyrant's golden car,
Upward, through the air afar:
Now he glows in rage delighted,
Thinks he grasps Jehovah's throne,
But that instant falls benighted
On a desert rock alone.
How, at last, God's vengeance came;
Not in tempest, not in thunder,
Not in pestilence or flame:
One of Nature's meanest features,
Hardly to your vision clear,
Least of tiny insect creatures,
Crept into the Tyrant's ear.
In the tissues of his brain,
And the anguish never rested,
And his being turned to pain:
Thus four hundred years tormented,
Nature's God he learnt to know,
Yet his pride was unrepented,
And he sunk to endless woe!
The Kuràn makes Pharaoh also build a huge tower to scale heaven with: Pharaoh ascended it when completed, and having thrown a javelin upwards, which fell back again stained with blood, boasted he had killed the God of Moses; but Gabriel, at one brush of his wing, demolished the tower, which fell, crushing a million of men.
II. ABRAHAM AND HIS GODS.
Abraham is the great Patriarch of Arabia; he is declared by Mohammed to be neither a Jew nor a Christian, but a Muslim and the friend of God. The great idol of red agate, with a golden hand holding seven divining arrows, which Mohammed destroyed in the Kaabeh, after his capture of Mekkeh, is supposed to have been a representation of Abraham. The Black Stone set in silver, which the Prophet left there, and which has remained an object of idolatrous homage, is said to be one of the precious stones of Paradise, and to have been brought by the angel Gabriel to Abraham, when he was rebuilding the Kaabeh. The Books of Abraham are spoken of with those of Moses, chap. lxxxvii. v. 19; the Kuràn is full of him: Mohammed seems, whether intentionally or not, to have fused his character into his own; he makes Abraham speak as himself, and he himself speaks in the person of the Patriarch. The following story expresses either the process of Abraham's reasoning with himself, or was used, by way of argument, to convince the idolaters among whom he lived. Josephus (lib. i. cap. 8) writes of Abraham, “that he was the first that ventured to publish this notion, that there was but one God, the Creator of the Universe, and that, as to other gods, if they contributed anything to the happiness of man, each of them afford it only according to his appointment, and not by their own power: this his opinion was derived from the irregular phenomena that were visible both at land and sea, as well as those that happen to the sun and moon, and all the heavenly bodies.”
The Patriarch, lost in reverence, raised
His consecrated head, and soon
He knelt, and worshipped while he gazed:
“Surely that glorious Orb on high
Must be the Lord of earth and sky!”
The glory rose, yet paused not there,
Drawn downwards through the western air,
Until it wholly sunk away,
And the soft Stars had all the sway.
With face upturned the sage remained,—
“At least Ye stand for ever bright,—
Your power has never waxed or waned!”
Even while he spoke, their work was done,
Drowned in the overflowing Sun.
“Creatures of Night! false Gods and frail!
Take not the worship of the wise,
There is the Deity we hail;
Fountain of light, and warmth, and love,
He only bears our hearts above.”
Who seemed so absolute a King,
Only ordained his round to run,
And pass like each created thing;
He rested not in noonday prime,
But fell beneath the strength of time.
To bring his toil to fruitful end,
Whereto his aspirations tend,
Still Abraham prayed by night and day—
“God! teach me to what God to pray!”
Arose to which the Sun is pale,
The knowledge of the Infinite,
The sense of Truth that must prevail;—
The presence of the only Lord
By angels and by men adored.
III. MOSES ON MOUNT SINAI.
There is a Hebrew tradition that the Israelites asked two things of God, —to hear his voice and see his glory: these were granted them, and in consequence they fell down dead: but the Law (which is here a personality) addressed God, saying, “Shall a king give his daughter in marriage and destroy his own household? Thou hast given me to the world which rejoices in me, and shall the Israelites, thy children, perish?” Upon this, the dead were restored to life; for “the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.” Ps. xix. 7. The Kuràn limits the vision of God to Moses. The leading events of that Prophet's life are there given with little variation from the Jewish scriptures: the events connected with the departure of the Jews from Egypt have, of course, afforded much scope to traditions of the marvellous. One miracle ascribed to him, as being exhibited for the terror of Pharaoh, is very picturesque, viz., that he was a most swarthy man, but when he placed his hand in his bosom, and drew it forth again, it became extremely white and splendid, surpassing the brightness of the sun.
From Sinai's sandy ridges rose aloft,
Osarsiph, priest of Hieropolis,
Now Moses named, ascending reverently
To meet and hear the bidding of the Lord.
But, though he knew that all his ancient lore
Traditionary from the birth of Time,
And all that power which waited on his hand,
Even from the day his just instinctive wrath
Had smote th' Egyptian ravisher, and all
Were nothing in the presence of his God;
Yet was there left a certain seed of pride,
Vague consciousness of some self-centred strength,
That made him cry, “Why, Lord, com'st thou to me,
Only a voice, a motion of the air,
A thing invisible, impalpable,
Leaving a void, an unreality,
Within my heart? I would, with every sense,
Know thou wert there—I would be all in Thee!
Let me at least behold Thee as Thou art;
Disperse this corporal darkness by thy light;
Hallow my vision by thy glorious form,
So that my sense be blest for evermore!”
As in low thunders over distant seas:—
A hollow trench divides the cliffs of sand,
Widen'd by rains and deepened every year.
Gaze straight across it, for there opposite
To where thou standest, I will place myself,
And then, if such remain thy fixed desire,
I will descend to side by side with thee.”
And the air darkened, and a lordly bird
Poised in the midst of its long-journeying flight,
And touched his feet with limp and fluttering wings
And all the air around, above, below,
That separate tones were undistinguishable,
And Moses fell upon his face, as dead.
Yet life and consciousness of life returned;
And, when he raised his head, he saw no more
The deep ravine and mountain opposite,
But one large level of distracted rocks,
With the wide desert quaking all around.
And prayed—“O! pardon the presumptuous thought,
That I could look upon thy face and live:
Wonder of wonders! that mine ear has heard
Thy voice unpalsied, and let such great grace
Excuse the audacious blindness that o'erleaps
Nature's just bounds and thy discerning will!”
IV. SOLOMON AND THE ANTS.
Solomon is the Hero of Wisdom all over the East: but wisdom there must be manifested by power: he is therefore the great Magician, the ruler of all the spirits of Creation, and to whom all inferior creatures do homage. The Targum to the Book of Esther, i. 2, relates: “that Demons of the most different orders, and all evil Spirits, were submitted to his will.” The 8th verse of the 2nd chapter of Ecclesiastes has been interpreted to have a similar meaning. One of the singular uses to which he applied his power, according to the Mohammedan commentators, was to get the demons to make a depilatory to remove the hair from the legs of the Queen of Seba before he her. The following story from the Kuràn is evidently connected with the mention of the wonderful instincts of the ant, Proverbs, vi. 6, 7, 8.
The sun has never shone
On one to match in power and worth
With ancient Solomon.
He ruled o'er sea and land;
Nor bird in nest, nor beast in den,
Was safe from his command.
One morning to review
The creatures God on earth has made,
And give Him homage due.
A troop of Ants perceived
The coming pomp—and struck with fear
Death close at hand believed.
That here in splendour meet,
What care the Genii, birds, or beasts,
For us beneath their feet?
Shall check their mighty way?
Fly to your inmost homes or rue
The glory of to-day.”
No haughty mood beguiled;
He, bent the Ant's small voice to hear,
Beneficently smiled;
Of kings Almighty King!
Preserve my progress free from blood,
Or hurt to living thing!
Let all thy servants know,
That I thy servant, too, am here,
Thy power, not mine, to show.
Of myriads, I will guard
Secure from hurt each little head,
As thou wilt me reward.”
Beheld, as glad a throng,
As if their tiny forms had been
The strongest of the strong.
V. FALLING STARS.
In ecstacies of song conspire,
And mingle their seraphic tones
With words of wisdom, words of fire;
Discourse so subtle and so sweet
That should it strike on human ear,
That soul must leave its base retreat,
Attracted to a loftier sphere.
Of God exiles to outer pain,
Yearning in their dark bosoms still
For all their pride might most disdain,
Round the serene celestial halls
Hover in agonised suspense,
To catch the slightest sound that falls,
The faintest breeze that murmurs thence.
Into each pure angelic breast,
The moment any sinful thing
Approaches its religious rest;
Th' audacious listeners to surprise,
'Tis said by mortals in their world,
That Stars are falling in the Skies.
VI. THE INFANCY OF MOHAMMED.
This legend does not seem to me to be orthodox, but rather to be a later invention arising from a desire to assimilate the nature of Mohammed to that of Christ. The humility of Mohammed in all that concerns his personality is conspicuous throughout the Kuràn. “I do not say unto you, that in my possession are the treasures of God, nor that I know what is unseen; nor do I say unto you, Verily I am an angel,—I only follow what is revealed to me.” Chap. vi. v. 50. “Mohammed is nought but an Apostle: other Apostles have passed away before him.” Chap. iii. v. 138. Nor does Mohammed even attribute to himself any specialty of nature such as he gives to Christ, whom he declares to have been born of a Virgin by the Spirit of God. “She said, O my Lord, how shall I have a son, when a man hath not touched me? He answered—Thus. God will create what he pleaseth. When he determineth a thing, he only saith unto it, Be, and it is.”
Had wandered from the parents' tents some way into the wild.
Although the rocks strange figures made and night was threatening near.
Two forms of noble maintenance and beautifully bright.
As Sirius or Canopus shine in purest summer sky.
Was greeting, that with subtle charm might temper her amaze.
That breathed as in a happy dream, and delicately smiled:
Took out its little beating Heart—all pure but one black stain.
That thick black stain like cancerous ill that eats the flesh away.
And poured on it a magic flood, no evil could withstand:
Vanished, and that one mortal Heart became entirely pure.
Closed up the gaping wound, and gave the blessing of the blest:
And placed it in the nurse's arms, and passed she knew not how.
Thus in the Prophet's life did God his work of grace begin.
VII. MOHAMMED AND THE MISER.
There was sorrow all around it—not the grief of servile fears,
Though the good Abdallah dying, to his son's especial care
Had bequeathed his needy neighbours, making him his virtue's heir.
Good will often spring from evil, evil often rise from good;
So th' ensample of his father, and the trust to him consigned,
Could not change the rebel nature, could not raise the niggard mind.
Yield their sweet and wholesome burden into the glad lap of man;
To up-glean the casual fruitage, freely scattered on the ground.
Watchers placed to guard the entrance, watchers all the wall along;
And the Lord announced his harvest on the morrow should begin,
Swearing he would slay the peasant that should creep the pale within.
And he proffered them his counsel, and he soothed them with his word,
And he bade them trust in Allah, Father of the rich and poor,
One who wills not that his children pine before their brother's door.
All that night the veil of water fell before the flashing flame,
Not the date-fruit, but the date-trees, strewed the desolated plain.
VIII. MOHAMMED AND THE BLIND ABDALLAH.
Referred to in chap. 80 of the Kuràn. Abdallah Ebn Omm Maktoun seems to have been a man of no rank or importance, but was treated with great respect by the Prophet ever after this adventure. It is interesting that Mohammed should make his own faults and the divine reproofs he received a matter of revelation, and a stronger proof of his sincerity and earnestness could hardly be given.
Where, 'mid the eager listening croud,
Mohammed gave his wisdom vent,
And, entering fast, he cried aloud—
“O Father, full of love and ruth!
My soul and body both are blind;
Pour on me then some rays of truth
From thine illuminated mind.”
Or busied well, seemed not to hear,
Or, interrupted, then forgot
How all mankind to God are dear:
Disputing with the great and strong,
He frowned in momentary pride,
While through the jeering outer throng
Th' unnoticed suppliant crept aside.
The Voice that seldom kept aloof
From his blest pillow spoke the right,
And uttered words of stern reproof:—
“How dost thou know that poor man's soul
Did not on thy regard depend?
The rich and proud thy moods controul;—
I meant thee for the mourner's friend.”
The holy reprimand remained,
And blind Abdallah for his part
Kindness and reverence then obtained:
Twice, after years of sacred strife,
Within Medeenah's walls he ruled,
The man through whom Mohammed's life
Into its perfect grace was schooled.
No one, however humble, past
Without salute the Prophet's sight,
Or felt his hand not held the last:
And every one was free to hear
His high discourse, and in his breast
Unburden theirs without a fear
Of troubling his majestic rest.
Though new the face and strange the road,
His “Peace be on you” sweetly greets
The ear, and lightens many a load:
Proclaiming that in Allah's plan
True men of every rank and race
Form but one family of man,
One Paradise their resting-place.
Salutation in the East seems almost a religious ordinance, and good manners part of the duty of a good Muslim.
IX. MOHAMMED AND THE ASSASSIN.
The best-loved voices grieve me
When falls the weary day:
My heart to God is yearning,
My soul to God returning:
Leave me alone to pray.”
The silence was unbroken;
While on a tree close by
He hung his arms victorious,
And raised his forehead glorious
As glows the western sky.
Further the Prophet wended
His course behind the hill;
Where, at his motives prying,
An Arab foe was lying,
Hid by a sand-heap still.
Treating with scorn and gibe
God and the Prophet's name:
Creatures of evil lust,
Base as the desert dust,
Proud of their very shame!
Burning to slay or bind him,
Stealthy the traitor trod;
He cried, “At last I brave thee!
Whom hast thou now to save thee?”
“God,” said the Prophet, “God!”
Gabriel had heard that voice—
Had seen the felon's brand;
Swift from his hand he tore it,
Swift as an arrow bore it
Into the Prophet's hand.
To find the man defenceless
Whom God loves like a son!
He cried, “Who now shall save thee?
Which of the friends God gave thee?”
“None,” said the Arab, “none!”
Evil the deed now done—
Still thou hast found a friend:
Only believe and bow
To him who has saved thee now,
Whose mercy knows no end.”
| The Poetical Works of (Richard Monckton Milnes) Lord Houghton | |