I Am Your Brother, Adam

[NaSra]

I am Your Brother, Adam


Written by <i>ArShad</i>


I am Malaysian Pakistani and Somali and Arab:


I am Turk and Irani and native of the Maldives:


My home is in Paris, Berlin, London;


in Mexico City, Port-of-Spain, Durban;


in Karachi, Zagazig or Kuala Lumpur,


I am as at home sailing in a lateen


rigged baggala along the red-rock Oman


shores bound for Socotra's island as I


am crossing the Khyber Pass in a camel


caravan...or driving a Mercedes taxi


in Istanbul.


Na'am, aiwa, acha, kha,


I am your brother, Adam.


You will know me in the mosques when


I stand shoulder to shoulder with you


and wish you peace when prayer is done:


and you may see me in Isfahan talking with


a miniature painter or in Dera Ismail Khan


listening to a young and vocal teacher of


Urdu or in Medan listening to a old man


chanting the Quran or in Sacramento listening


to a college boy who has all the problems


of the universe solved.


You will know me becuase I am your brother


and in a real and forceful sense I am


a part of you, dependent on you as you are


dependent on me...as rocks in a city wall...


round as the ancient wall of Baghdad.


I am Egyption and Tunisian and Syrian:


I am Berber and Kurd; Fulani and Nausherwani


and Pawenda;


I am Maliki, Hanafi, Hanbali, and Shafii:


all these I am, for I am your brother


standing besides you in the mosque waiting


for the iqama...white-garbed in the plain


of Arafat...fasting with you in Ramadan.


I am at home in the black tents of the bedu


and the tall buildings of Hadhramaut...;


I am always lingering at the Great Mosque


to circle the Kaaba and to kiss the hajr


al-aswad and drink from the well of Zamzam;


and I am standing, too, in the Haraam ash-sharif


in Jerusalem and in Karbala...and all of them,


each of them, has meaning on meaning for me.


Na'am ya habibi, ya azizi, ya akhi,


I am your brother Adam.


You will know me when you see me


becuase I wll be fingering my beads


and you will know well what this means...


subhanAllah...


You will know me and I will know you


for we are real brothers; and I am of


one place as I am of another...as much a


part of one as the other; the lover


of all lands where I can listen to the


call of the muezzin coming over the night,


or hear the beat of a single Muslim heart.