Flame of Life

Consider ye that thou hearest the call to prayer of the Temple,
And that thou bowest low before the Presence of Allah.
Yet this call is not heard by the swine in the sty,
nor by the goat or its kid;
Neither doth the camel turn aside from its course ~

Or that the rays of the sun cease their brightness;
Neither doth the winds pause in their blowing,
And in the ceaseless beat of all creation about thee
There is none to listen to this Voice ~ save none, but man.

For surely as God hath made all these things about thee
Are ye less than one of these,
Or of the swine or of the goat, or of the camel?
That ye have a small perdition in thy heart
and that ye prayest for succor from this evil.
For surely as the swine, and the goat,
and the camel have committed no evil
They needeth not the succor of prayer.

For surely, virtues of Heaven are not contained in thy prayers
But must be contained in the vessel of thy life;
For if thou containest not these virtues,
then thy vessel is empty,
And thou art less than the dust of the desert winds.
Virtue needeth not the power of prayer
Nor is it increased in the barter of the market place,
Or that it can be plucked as dates,
or the harvest from the vineyard.

For virtue is the flame of life which shineth
before the altar of God;
And as it is thy lamp, so He filleth it with oil
of His Most High Presence,
And that he trimmeth the wick with moderation

So that its flame burns brightly without excess,
So that you see not about thee, the shadows of despair
And that thy countenance is illumined before
the Altar of His Graces.

by Ernest L. Norman
Excerpt from The Anthenium