From:	Heaven
To:	Salman Rushdie

 

[In response to Rushdie's recent writing "Imagine no heaven", what Heaven might say!]


Mohammad Omar Farooq 
(Initial draft: 10/28/99)

Imagine no heaven! Recently, you wrote.1
Rushdie, that's an interesting thought!
Those well-versed in your "verses"
This idea, they may have already bought.

Your devotion to free others
From the thought of me,
Does deserve some heavenly feedback -
I can clearly see.

Whether I exist or not
You don't really know. Do you?
Yet, to see a disconnect between me and humanity
Zeal similar to yours is not at all new.

It's no surprise that on your pen
There are dark, ineradicable curses;
You won't be able to produce
Anything other than like Satanic verses.

To speak about love, conscience 
Or anything that people might call good,
Is a genuinely admirable task,
And, everyone definitely should.

But my record does not show since when 
your soul got filled with love and love for what is right!
When Shah was brutally repressing his people
Where was your righteous fight?

Billions of ordinary people who imagine of me,
Before your "verses," did they, to you, commit anything wrong?
But you did not have the least decency; rather with greed for fame and money
You wounded their feelings with your Satanic song.

If anyone committed wrong due to thinking of me,
With those wretcheds I don't have much to do;
I am the abode of love, peace and happiness,
I understand that those things might not fit your intellectual shoe.

You hurt the feeling of so many people,
And due to you some people were dead; 
But still the zealous ones shouldn't have 
Declared any bounty on your head.

For those lowly creatures whose Satanic intellect
Spread the message of prejudice, not of heavenly peace or joy,
That Rebel one of Bengal, Nazrul,2 got it right, when he proclaimed:
"Due to grace we spare them, thinking them as ant or toy."

That Rebel was again right on target for those who teach that
Eternal good and beauty shouldn't be part of their imagination:
"Let them enjoy mud-slinging, their weapons are malice and vilification,
We will throw bouquet at them, and trumpet to one God our salutation."

Yes, I am what you see in brotherly love,
In motherly affection, haven't you seen my trace?
Those who love me don't return in evil kind,
Bouquet is often the more appropriate weapon of grace.

If you did not know, only those
Whose hearts are filled with goodness and love,
Are invited to knock 
At the door of heaven above.

You don't like the idea of heaven? that's fine!
Since I am divine mercy and love, I CAN'T tell;
"You don't want to seek me?
Well, you can go to hell."

In the name of "whatever" -
Hatred, prejudice or malice those who harbor,
Let me say loud and clear, I am not for
Undue intellectual or religious fervor.

You don't know even the C of creation,
But your arrogance, it seems, knows no bound,
No one really created you! Really think so?
Well, with such "scientific" notion keep monkeying around.

It won't make any difference if I say that you are disturbed and confused,
Indeed, you have got it all wrong;
Why don't you wait until your eyes close,
And then wake up with Satan's hell-hot, scream-song?

The first rule of heavenly bond:
You must CHOOSE to come here;
You must cherish, seek and fight for FREEDOM
To begin your journey toward me, O dear!

The second rule is simply this:
You must have some COMMON SENSE;
A world without higher accountability is not necessarily better,
But it won't be understood by Satanic intellect - a fog so dense!

The third rule is even simpler:
If you love me, to others also you show love and care;
Otherwise, if mean spirit, hatred or greed is all that you can offer,
Bringing someone here simply won't be fair.

The fourth rule is very straight:
Truth and beauty, with your heart and head, you must seek;
Let knowledge not make anyone arrogant,
True wisdom has always made people noble, not meek.

The fifth rule is not so easy:
For what you cherish you must make sacrifice and face what may come with courage!
Hiding behind the old Queen's skirt - many might consider cowardice;
Not as a brave and truthful you will be recorded in history's page.

The sixth rule is profound:
One's word and action should bind hearts, not repel.
Toward what is good, positive, creative and dynamic,
One's message of hope and creative imagination should propel.

It is only with the brush of imagination of my guests
I become animated as the eternal joy-and-love tree;
You seek freedom from me?
LET THE WORLD KNOW THAT FROM ME YOU HAVE BEEN SET FREE.

What about those who love you
And whom your love does cherish?
Well, the simple rule of love is:
Whomever you love, with them, you perish.

Devil's desire is to repel;
To bind hearts it has no power;
I am like a magnet that attracts,
So to scare people away from me, keep grumbling from Satan's tower.

One last thing, though it may not matter.
If you ever shift your heart from DOWN there to look me UP;
The gate of my love and happiness are open to all
Who seek me to take a sip from my eternal cup.


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1"Letters to the Six Billionth World Citizen" published in English by Uitgeverij Podium, Amsterdam. 1999. You can read excerpts at http://www.egroups.com/group/eshomabesh , messages #721, 725.

2Want to learn more about the Rebel one? Visit http://www.nazrul.org