The Rock Poem by Ahamad Ilyaas Vilayathullah

Every time I see the hardest kind of rocks,
I am reminded of the heart of a Jew
Who rebelled and transgressed, and flung to the skies
The manna and the salwa of divine grace
And asked Musa to pray his lord
For herbs, cucumbers, garlic, lentils, onions,
And all other paltry leafy shrubs.

The rock Musa struck with his miraculous wand
Wherefrom gushed forth springs twelve,
A drinking place for each of the dozen clans,
The clouds that hung above their heads
Like a canopy of shelter for no less than
Forty years, their eventful tenure in the desert
Seem not to have softened the heart of the Jew.

It grew harder and harder every day
That it knew no mercy, tenderness,
Sympathy for pain and misery,
And concern for truth and justice,
And soon it was like a rock!
Nay, it became harder than the hardest of all rocks.

For rocks are, at times, tender enough for
Streamlets to gush forth from their bellies.
Some of them split up and give birth to brooks
And cascades of crystal clear foamy flow.
Yet some others crack up and fall down
Headlong to the ground from top of the cliffs
In fear of none but their lord who created them!

Musa once witnessed the rocky mountain in Sinai
Cracking up and falling down as his supreme
Lord's profuse illumination manifested to it at his will,
Incapable of standing upright bearing the radiance
Of the divine light that took into its hold
The sky and the earth as a whole.

I wonder how the Jew could stand the wrath
Of his lord and disobey Harun
When Musa went for receiving the divine book
And the criterion for life's issues from his benevolent lord!

No wonder why they refused to slaughter the cow
At their lord's command when they killed a man
And disputed over it putting the blame on each other
And in after times, publicly flung to the skies
The sacred Sabbath rules and challenged the heavens
To make the skies fall down over their heads
And turned themselves into apes of self mockery!

Every single clause of the divine instructions
They violated, transgressed, and challenged
And threw over their backs each one of the sacred
Terms of their covenant with their mighty lord,
Turning their hearts into the hardest of all rocks!
You shall not worship any false gods besides the true lord,
Do virtue to your parents, close kinfolks, the orphans, and the hapless
Say good things to the people,
Forget not to hold intact your tie of prayer with your lord
Give the poor their rightful due share in your wealth
You shall not spill unjustly the blood of your own people,
You shall not turn out any from their homes.
None of the sacred terms they observed in piety,
And in course of time, the rock of their hearts
Found no modicum of tenderness left to keep it moist!

Centuries have slipped by pushing generations into oblivion
The waves of the Red Sea have not changed their color yet
A Jew is a Jew is a Jew; the Jew is still the Jew.
Even the hottest sun ever doesn't melt the hardest rock!

The heart of the Jew knows no tenderness.
They kill the hapless and the innocent and set up
Their settlements driving out the rightful from their homes
And when they come claiming for theirs,
They turn their barrels and trigger at them,
And bombard their rooftops
Turning them all into a heap of ashes and rubble!

Can a leopard ever change its spots? Can a Jew ever change?
They've done worse than these to the apostles from their lord
Knowledge will not cure them of their disease
Nor affection and appeasement teach them tenderness,
For who knew Muhammad, the final messenger of Allah,
Better than the Jew who recognized him
As easily and as vividly as their very children?
Did any in the annals of their clans ever treat them
More tenderly than Muhammad, the final messenger of Allah?

The heart of the Jew grew harder, day in and day out
That it's harder than the hardest of all rocks today.
And in the end-times, even rocks turn hostile to him
And yell out: Oh the one who submits to the lord of the worlds,
Come, here behind me is a Jew hiding!
Come, catch him and kill him, for he deserves no mercy!