(Adapted from his Fihi Ma Fihi )
M. Shahid Alam
Man seeks to know God, not because he is knowable;
not reasonably, but by reasoning he knows him.
When man accepted the trust, it was reason
he acquired, to say yes to his Creator.
Man is a moth, God a candle. When his wings
wrap around the candle’s flame,
why should they not burn –
and he perish in its fire?
A moth that shuns the candle’s flame
is not a moth. A candle that does not
draw the moth, that will not
burn it to ashes – is not a candle.
Man is not man if he denies God,
if he eviscerates his urge to know him.
A god that man can know is not
God, he is man’s alter ago.
— M. Shahid Alam is professor of economics at Northeastern University, Boston.
