A Risk I'll Take

I arrived here with certain impressions,
already within me traditions long in the tooth --
images unfolded ever so gradually in childhood
and reached their head in my heart's search for truth,

some four decades back, as I met and embraced
the path of devotional love and of service, uncompromised,
expressed through traditions of all the world's faiths --
for which I would risk at times being criticized.

I'd loved my Old Testament since I was a child,
now reading the New one I suddenly got it --
something was brewing in me, waking and wild,
wind of The Great Love came in and I caught it.

From this time forth and for a dozen years further,
I studied and practiced, was intimately instructed:
in Scriptures and Yoga, Sufism of some Orders --
and I did love what I believed was Islam, Qur'an and Muhammad.

So what I know now I knew then but not really --
one adheres to a myth and reflects not on all,
for to be confronted oneself is most painfully
clear, yet for love of Sufism I'd felt oddly loyal

toward just that which had seen to the murder of Sufis
over centuries, and of Sikhs, of Hindus, of Christians, Jews,
as a matter of course, a matter of Scripture and example, pleas
for mercy notwithstanding -- so what am I risking if I lose

the shine of unquestioning appreciation for Islam?
The sign of maturity is worth the risk of angering those less awake
who may be appeasers or compromisers, I remain what I am
and always was, and God willing will be:  it is a risk I'll gladly take

 
for the sake of love, that love which brought me here,
brought me here with certain impressions.  The greatest of these
was awakened in me anew, the love which sees God everywhere,
and serves Him in every form, by awakening that love likewise

reflected through these eyes, the smallest gesture, accepting each
fellow creature as divine and dear, overcoming base loathing and fear.
The Sufi tradition, alive in me as ever, how dearly I would any teach
who came wanting it -- Gospels, Yoga, Bhajan, Kirtan -- it's all still here

wherever I am, and should Islam and its Muslims be irritated as hell
that I don't bend, that's a risk I'll take, even welcome -- but bend I won't;
nor for their apologists nor appeasers nor enablers, each of whom I still wish well,
knowing well they wish not the same.  I might regret this but still I don't.

Sufism will always be Sufism, expanding and blessing with its presence and God's;
compassion and empathy for Islam's victims, Muslim and non-Muslim alike,
is the way of ishq, karuna, agape, all terms expressing unconditionally what
"tolerance" never could.  And Islam will always be what it always was, to wake

up to this is by no means easy, but healthier and more responsible --
though should I ever prove to be mistaken, that is a risk I'm willing to take,
for in the meantime I remain for all my actions and sympathies accountable.
And should Islam prove me correct, I will confront it for God's sake.

That's a risk, again, to be taken -- I've had so many come and go -- God will stay,
by whatever name, I wish each dearly that experience.  No illusions, nothing fake,
no Sikh would fault me for defending the defenseless, or one's culture, come what may.
I will witness, I'll speak out, I will pray and I will fight, I'll risk my life -- that risk I'll take.