Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79.
Sheik Huiabi’s Creed
By Semen Sergeevich Bobrov (c. 1763–1810)Translated by J. Bowring
’T
To all gives laws, as he gave life to all!
He rules the unnumbered circles bright with bliss
That from the ends of heaven send forth their beams:
He rules the space, the infinite abyss,
The undefined and wandering ether streams,
Where thousand, thousand stars and planets play,—
What are the laws that guide them on their way?
They are no perishable records,—laws
Written with pen and ink. No! Allah spreads
The golden roll of nature: o’er our heads
Opens his glorious volume and withdraws
The veil of ignorance: read the letters there,
That is the blazing, burning record, where
The letters are not idle lines, but things:
Read there the name of Allah, dazzling bright,
In works of eloquence and words of light!
Shut, shut all other books; and if thy soul,
Borne upward on devotion’s angel-wings,
Soar to the heaven, from earth and earth’s control,
Thou shalt perceive,—shalt know the Deity.
His splendors then shall burst upon thine eye,
An effluence of noontide round thee roll,
Thy spirit glad with light and love;—a sun
Of pure philosophy to lead thee on.