Khalid Mukhtar

(Narrator)
Upon a little patch of earth
Beside the Masjid an-Nabi
There blew a warm and gentle breeze
Upon the sands, and date palm trees.

(Tree 1)
It was just yesterday that he
Reclined on me so peacefully.
I long to feel his blessed touch
Againt my trunk; I miss that much.

(Tree 2)
I understand your pain, my friend,
For I remember that day when
He played with his little Hussain
Despite the softly falling rain;

Around and round me did he run
So playfully with Ali’s son,
I hoped they would not leave my side,
But then they did, and how I cried.

(Tree 1)
Oh yes, indeed. I do recall
That day when all that rain did fall.

(The Earth)
I long for his mubarak feet
To walk upon my every street;
I love him and his every trace
In me and in my every space.

(The Wind)
And when he speaks or breathes a word,
It is the sweetest thing you heard;
I carry all his blessed speech
To everyone within my reach.

(Tree 1, whispering)
Quiet! Here he comes again.

(Tree 2, whispering)
SubhanAllah.

(The Earth, whispering)
AlhamdulilLah.

(The Wind, whispering)
Allahu Akbar.

(Narrator)
And so they rustled, shifted, blew
Until the Prophet was with them.

(Tree 1, Tree 2, The Earth, The Wind, all say together)
SallAllahu ‘alaa Muhammad
SallAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallam.

SallAllahu ‘alaa Muhammad
SallAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallam.

SallAllahu ‘alaa Muhammad
SallAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallam.

(End.)

My Lord, send forth Your Prayers and Peace
And Blessings on those hands
That pressed the saplings of release
Into submitting sands,

And like the spring abundant flowed
Beneath his father’s heel,
You’ve blessed these palms that his palms sowed;
This son of Isma’eel

And all of matter he did touch,
And all that he did say,
Proclaim the highest Truth with such
Serenity, I pray:

My Lord, increase the ones who tend,
And buy and sell and touch
The ajwah palms that well extend
The fruit we love so much;

My Lord, increase my host who gives
Me so much from his share
Of barakah that lives and lives
As long as you declare.

Do you think it fair to say I may care
When I care enough to say: “I do not care.”

I think it depends on how I may say it,
With distance in tone or rebellious gait,

An arching of eyebrows, a smile forged in hell,
Or the weight of the world in the sighs I expel.

I hereby do gather the silence you spare
Is loud confirmation that you do not care.

We’re hurting bad, America,
You know we’re hurting bad
When a schoolboy brings a project in
That sends us kicking mad.

He just made a clock, this thing that tells
The time with gears and wires,
But we see the clocks that brown hands forge
As objects starting fires.

Doesn’t matter what you learn in school,
Let me tell you what makes dumb:
Is when prejudice and fear
Fashion every rule of thumb.

You say guns don’t kill, people do,
Yet a schoolboy’s doing time.
Need a license now to make a clock?
Now, learning is a crime.

If we really don’t like bullies
And the weapons that they draw,
We can’t let bullies run our schools
Nor let them press the law.

What can I say! What can I do!
How can I deserve to stand before you!
I am like my raiment, divided in two:
One that I know, the other knows You.

But I don’t know the other.


All of the dirt that covers my heart
Is on my skin now, I’m falling apart,
I smell of the foulness I’ve wrought with my hand,
I’m broken so fine, I’m one with the sand.


But I long to find the other me,
I’m blind although I can see,
And the words that I write that I may be free
Make me slave to my each fantasy.


Take me now and let me be free.
Help me now that I may find me.