On Poetry, Poets and the Abuse
of Knowledge
and Power
Or rather, the expertise and lack of same

Over it are nineteen.

And We have not made the wardens of the fire others than angels, and We have not made their number but as a trial for those who disbelieve, that those who have been given the book may be certain and those who believe may increase in faith, and those who have been given the book and the believers may not doubt, and that those in whose hearts is a disease and the unbelievers may say: What does Allah mean by this parable? Thus does Allah make err whom He pleases, and He guides whom He pleases, and none knows the hosts of your Lord but He Himself; and this is naught but a reminder to the mortals. - The Cloathed One (or hidden secret) from the Glorious Quran. This is the sura for the non muslims who languish in the land of their own ignorance. It is the proof to the physicists, Darwinists, numerologists and those of whom have in their "books" the symbol still existant in their knowledges. It is the coup d'etat.


Who cares really? What I think about poets and poetry can be found here. That is a poem titled The Flood and it covers what I think about that issue.

Truth. How does one explain to someone who doesn't understand it, the notion that there is an ultimate truth? It is the case that only those who have knowledge understand it and until a person has that knowledge a person will invent a tremendous number of theories regarding the constitution of truth. They will go to many extremes in order to demonstrate to others that they do indeed possess this thing called (interchangably) truth, knowledge, certitude. Certitude being the best descriptor for that exceptionally valuable characteristic which is in fact, the thing that poets ought to possess, seek and how to say it? Win. Yes. Win. Certitude comes from being on the right side of the collective argument. Certitude is also a function of time and the hewing of the soul in the same manner that precious metal is smelted from the combination of basic elements that constitute reality.

The delivery of that certitude to a person is seemingly an arbitrary thing. It is extraneous to the actual job of getting it i.e. by studying, acquiring, purchasing, etc. I imagine that those who are hell bent on the process (like this very entertaining example suggests) like to refer to it as intellectual property. Those in fact believe that there is an actual commerce to be had in it. Some people on this planet literally possess it as a birthright. That is, I imagine, the hardest pill to swallow for those without that precious birthright.

In some ways, the actual possession of certitude is akin to the act of lapping up the water in a mirage, it is that delicate. Now, think about it. If a person is able to drink from that mirage and they know that they are quenching their thirst from such a thing, how likely is it that that same person might surrender their right to that well? Not very likely but even so, it is the case that a person sipping or gulping from the edge of such a tremendously fragile thing must forever be on their guard for tricksters who present a variety of other types of illusions as was the case with the famous pair, Harut and Marut.... "evil was the price for which they sold their souls, had they but known this."

So, what then, is the job of poetry and the measure of poets?

You tell me Mr. Silliman. You are the expert. Sadly enough, the polluted well you drink from is nearly dry. What then?

In what is widely cited as the "17th" sermon of Ali ibn Abi Taleb (May Allah be pleased with him and his Ahl Bayt), the four types of experts in the world are described and hence, I liken you to at least one type in there:


About those who sit for dispensation of justice among people but are not fit for it.

Among(1) all the people the most detested before Allah are two persons. One is he who is devoted to his self. So he is deviated from the true path and loves speaking about (foul) innovations and inviting towards wrong path. He is therefore a nuisance for those who are enamoured of him, is himself misled from the guidance of those preceding him, misleads those who follow him in his life or after his death, carries the weight of others' sins and is entangled in his own misdeeds.

The other man is he who has picked up ignorance. He moves among the ignorant, is senseless in the thick of mischief and is blind to the advantages of peace. Those resembling like men have named him scholar but he is not so. He goes out early morning to collect things whose deficiency is better than plenty, till when he has quenched his thirst from polluted water and acquired meaningless things.

He sits among the people as a judge responsible for solving whatever is confusing to the others. If an ambiguous problem is presented before him he manages shabby argument about it of his own accord and passes judgement on its basis. In this way he is entangled in the confusion of doubts as in the spider's web, not knowing whether he was right or wrong. If he is right he fears lest he erred, while if he is wrong he hopes he is right. He is ignorant, wandering astray in ignorance and riding on carriages aimlessly moving in darkness. He did not try to find reality of knowledge. He scatters the traditions as the wind scatters the dry leaves.

By Allah, he is not capable of solving the problems that come to him nor is fit for the position assigned to him. Whatever he does not know he does not regard it worth knowing. He does not realise that what is beyond his reach is within the reach of others. If anything is not clear to him he keeps quiet over it because he knows his own ignorance. Lost lives are crying against his unjust verdicts, and properties (that have been wrongly disposed of) are grumbling against him.

I complain to Allah about persons who live ignorant and die misguided. For them nothing is more worthless than Qur'an if it is recited as it should be recited, nor anything more valuable than the Qur'an if its verses are removed from their places, nor anything more vicious than virtue nor more virtuous than vice.

Why would I bother with such a thing? Well, because I can. Because yes indeed, I'm one of those who is blessed with this commodity called certitude and in that I can discriminate about those that do not possess it nor can they nor do they claim to possess it. It is the one characteristic that is best in people like you i.e. this mandatory piousness of the ignorant although I'm relatively sure that some like you literally bite off the ends of their fingers in rage at us Shia Muslims (Glen Beck comes to mind). It is truly a brave assertion we Shia make and it is ours to make. No....I do not have the Y chromosome (like Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah or Sayyed Sistani or the Grand Ayatollah Khomeini (May Allah be pleased with all of them)) but for whatever reason, I was arbitrarily selected by Allah to have this precious commodity that is (in the words of the Quran) a mighty good fortune.

And of course, I know this about you. You will not assert that you have this certitude. The great thing about certitude is that we are allowed to know this about those who lack it. But go ahead...claim it if you believe it to be your right. In the meantime, continue showing how your ignorance plays such a vital role in this vanity known as poetry. It's awfully entertaining sometimes. And I mean, awfully.

I cannot assert that you do not possess faith in something because obviously you do. If it was the case however that you possessed faith in the right thing, then...it would be obvious not only to me but to the thousand or so readers you have every day. The great thing about certitude is this power of recognition.

Surely the (true) religion with Allah is Islam, and those to whom the Book had been given did not show opposition but after knowledge had come to them, out of envy among themselves; and whoever disbelieves in the communications of Allah then surely Allah is quick in reckoning. - Imran, The Glorious Quran*.

*Not the "almost great" Quran mind you. The Glorious Quran. Imran (pbuh) was the father of the most holy of women, the mother of the prophet Isa (pbut) whose name was Miriam and whose noble sura is in the most special of numerical/gematric positions of "19".

Go figure. I study the most perfect long poem of them all Mr. Silliman. What would a stupid person like me know about this thing called poetry! Heh. I know more than Nietzsche ever could have imagined. All things considered however, this doesn't make me a better muslim or a better person. It simply means I know the power of knowledge, the effect it has on others and the manner in which to use it to elicit a variety of responses from a variety of people. I must always be careful not to abuse it but in this case, you asked for it. Therefore, the blame rests solely on you Ron Silliman. Don't ask questions that you do not really want the answers to.