‘Beyond Dates and Pomegranates’
Syed Afsar Sajid
Title: ‘Beyond Dates and Pomegranates — An Epic Poem
on the Life and Times of the Holy Prophet of Islam (PBUH)’
Author: Ejaz Rahim
Pages: 345 — Price: Rs.1000/-
Renowned poet and intellectual, Ejaz Rahim has recently published his 28 th book of
poetry titled ‘Beyond Dates and Pomegranates – An Epic Poem on the Life and Times of
the Holy Prophet of Islam (pbuh)’. It is his second epic composition, the first being
‘Garden of Secrets Revisited: An Epic Poem on Divine-Human Encounter’.
Starting from 1993, the span of his creative productivity spreads over some 30 years to-date. And this is notwithstanding his cumbersome bureaucratic engagements until around the end of the first decade of the present century when he gracefully exited the higher echelons of the native bureaucracy. The wide aura of his poetic themes and subjects graphically seems to loom ‘from here to eternity’.
The vast landscape between the two poles (‘here’ and ‘eternity’) encompasses a
multitude of heterogeneous content of an untainted metaphoric imagery which has been
partly denominated as the dreaming clayjar, the imprisoned air, the moon, cactus in
throat, suspended animations, floating landmarks, motherhood, moonrising, poems or
arrows, earthquake, heart’s eyes, edging roots, a mosquito universe, the December
carnage, levity, sacred thirsts, secular hungers, losing a brother, the Kaaba, the
Karakorams, Toledo, Kashmir, the Garden of Secrets, Buddha, Confucius, Charlie Hebdo,
and dates and pomegranates.
Famous examples of classical epic poetry include the Sumerian ‘Epic of Gilgamesh’, the
ancient Indian ‘Mahabharata’ and ‘Ramayana’, Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ and ‘Iliad’, Virgil’s
‘Aeneid’, Firdowsi’s ‘Shahname’, the Old English ‘Beowulf’, Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’, the
Finnish ‘Kalevela’, the German ‘Nibelungenlied’ the French ‘Song of Roland’, the Spanish
‘Cantar de mio Cid’, the Portuguese ‘Os Lusiadas’, the Armenian ‘Daredevils of Sassoun’,
Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’, the ‘Kyrgyz Manas’, and the Malian ‘Sundiata’. Modern epic
poems include Derek Walcott’s ‘Omeros’, Mircea Catarescu’s ‘The Levant’, Adam
Mickiewicz’s ‘Pan Tadeusz’, William Carlos Williams’ ‘Paterson’, Ezra Pound’s ‘The
Cantos’, Shaukat Wasti’s ‘Firdos-e-Gum Gashta’ and Hafeez Jalandhari’s ‘Shahnama-e-
Islam’.
An epic is a long narrative poem dealing with important but magnific subjects involving
events of cultural significance and heroic actions. Plato termed epic poetry as ‘a cross
between narrative and dramatic literature’. The diction of an epic is elevated as much as
its style and tone.
Ejaz Rahim’s latest epic ‘Beyond Dates and Pomegranates’ seeks to present the life of
the Holy Prophet of Islam (PBUH) with the deepest devotion and commitment. The work,
in the words of Muhammad Zia ud din ‘addresses both the head and the heart of the
reader’, and will inspire ‘all those who believe in universal moral principles and eternal
spiritual values’. In his preface to the book, Ejaz Rahim avows that instead of pure
history, ‘it is cast in the mould of an Epic Poem in which history, philosophy, religion,
science, and poetry are like interlocking lens through which the life and times of the Holy
Prophet of Islam (PBUH) are presented’.
The ‘Prologue’ to the work summarizes its theme, scope and implications. The whole
work is comprised of 32 books. The conditions of Arabia before the advent of Islam are
described in detail in the books preceding an exposition of the beginning of the religion
in the world describing the evolution of early religions such as Mesopotamian, Egyptian,
and Meso-American, followed by the established religions like Judaism, Christianity,
Hinduism, Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism to show that humans have always been
seeking spiritual satisfaction and solace from religion.
To cite Harris Khalique, Ejaz Rahim’s ‘moorings are firmly grounded in the tradition of Ibn al Arabi, Mahmoud Shabistari, Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi and Allama Iqbal, and he clearly expresses his devotion to the compassionate teachings of the Prophet of Islam (PBUH)’ which accounts for the ‘humanistic lens’ that he (Rahim) uses to view the world.
The diction of the epic poem being reviewed here, coupled with its grand rhapsodic style
seems to conform to the Quintilian theory of rhetoric which pre-requires ‘virtuosity’ and
‘efficacy’ of communication as a speaker’s or for that matter, a writer’s moral and
oratorical assets. Ejaz Rahim’s person and his current poem typify the afore-mentioned
constructs of virtuosity and efficacy.
History reveals that in the Arabian universe, a plethora of religions have waxed and
waned from paganism and polytheism to Abrahamic conceptions and various
permutations of Zoroastrian beliefs besides different forms of Christianity and Judaism.
A saying of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) would sum up his personal standing in terms of
lineage: Allah selected Ismail from Ibrahim’s sons, Kinana from amongst Ismail’s
descendants, Quraish from Kinana’s children, Hashim from the scions of Quraish, and
He selected Muhammad (Sall Allahu ‘alay-hi wa-sallam) from amongst Hashim’s progeny.
In the Holy Prophet’s view nothing was more fundamental for instituting equity on earth
than to raise a regime of compassion and justice upon spiritual foundations, not for this
or that nation but for all of humanity and every civilisation worth the name. In the Makkan
lexicon of belief, the concept of One God was a flexible doctrine with flaxen content. But
for the Prophet of Islam (PBUH), Tauheed was a living Reality and ruling Truth governing
the entire physical and spiritual order of things.
In the context of Mairaj un Nabi, the poet avers: In our own times, the borders between physics and metaphysics appear to overlap; in Einstein’s notion of the universe Time and Space are both relative yet mysteriously interlinked. And indeed someone travelling at the speed of light can theoretically cross the universe in no time for at that cruising speed, departure and destination become a single transaction erasing the gap between terrestrial and celestial time as between time and timelessness.
The purpose of Divine Revelation is to remind both individuals and their communities to practise Taqwa or God-consciousness for men and women alike; accountability on Judgment Day for one and all, without exception is as certain as death. Quranic Revelations in Makka focused on the foundational principle of God’s Transcendental Reality as Creator of the Universe while divine injunctions descending during Holy Prophet’s years in Madina were directed to transforming people engrossed in pelf and power-seeking into a God-fearing community committed to establishing a regime of piety, compassion, and equity. Finally the ‘Epilogue’ says that the Holy Prophet’s (pbuh) life is an open invitation to garner knowledge and wisdom as sacred fruits and flowers found in the Creator’s bowers — tokens of perennial celebration and endless gratitude inside the human heart.
And to him we owe an obligation akin to an oath taken — to teach our succeeding progeny ‘The Seerah of the Prophet (pbuh)/ Like a Surah of the Quran’. Famed academic and scholar Dr. Akbar Ahmad rightly lauds Ejaz Rahim for deploying ‘his poetic genius to pay homage to the Holy Prophet of Islam (pbuh), thus earning the gratitude of all those who admire him’.
