Articles - Miscellaneous

"Christ and the Crucifixion" from a Muslim poet's perspective

There was a large and distinguished gathering at the Launch of the Yorkshire and Humber Faiths Forum in Leeds Town Hall on 8th December.

Keynote speakers included Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, and Rev Dr Inderjit Singh Bhogal, Director of the Forum, and Mr John Battle, MP.

Both the Archbishop and Dr Inderjit had suffered serious racial abuse personally and all were convinced that only by listening to each other and developing attitudes of mutual respect and trust could all forms of discrimination and injustice, particularly on the grounds of religious belief and racial identity, be really challenged.

As a committed Christian, John Battle, made a poignant reference to the Iraqi Muslim poet, Badr Shakir al-Sayyab, described as one of the greatest Muslim poets of the twentieth century. He said his life story has been one of exile, unjust imprisonment, ill health but all in the context of a total personal commitment to the cause of the suffering and the oppressed. One of his most remarkable poems is entitled "Christ after the Crucifixion" and is a monologue spoken by Christ as lord of creation and redeemer of the wretched of the earth looking down from the Cross.

After they brought me down. I heard the winds.
In a lengthy wail rustling the palm trees.
And steps fading away. So then my wounds,
and the cross upon which they nailed me all
Afternoon and evening did not kill me.
I listened. The wail was crossing the plain
between me and the city, like a rope pulling
at a ship as it sinks to the sea bed.
The dirge was like a thread of light between
dawn and midnight upon a grieving winter sky.
And the city, nursing its feelings fell asleep.

I was in the beginning and in the beginning was Poverty.
I died that bread may be eaten in my name;
that they plant me in season. How many lives will I live.
For in every furrow of earth I have become a future,
I have become a seed; I have become a race of men.
In every human heart a drop of blood, or a little drop.

And after they nailed me and I cast my eyes
Towards the city, I hardly recognised the plain
the wall the cemetery; As far as the eye could
see it was something like a forest in bloom.
Where even the vision could reach, there was a cross,
A grieving mother. The Lord be sanctified.
There is a city about to give birth.

The role of the Faiths Forum was not missionary or evangelical, there would be no intent to proselytise or seek to convert, but only to serve the Divine together. And to this end, there was a proposal that Sunday 11th June would be nominated as a celebration of the Festival of Faiths. Further details to be notified.

Joyce Sundram

29 March, 2006