Читать книгу The Holy Qur-an: Text, Translation and Commentary - Abdullah Yusuf Ali - Страница 14

C. 7.—And so this light of eternal Unity

Has shone in all ages and among all nations,

Through chosen Apostles of God, who came

As men to dwell among men,

To share their joys and sorrows,

To suffer for them and with them,—

Aye, and to suffer more than falls

To ordinary mortal lot,-

That so their message and their life

Might fufil the eternal

And unchanging purpose of the Most High,-—

To lead man to his noblest destiny.

C. 8.—Ever this eternal light of Unity,

This mystic light of God's own Will,

Has shone and shines with undiminished splendour.

The names of many Messengers are inscribed

In the records of many nations and many tongues,

And many were the forms in which their message was delivered,

According to the needs of the times and the understanding of the people;

And manifold were the lives of the Messengers,

And manifold also was the response of their people;

But they all witnessed to the One Truth:

Of God's unity, might, grace and love.

C. 9.—As the records of man are imperfect,

And the memory of man unstable:

The names of many of these messengers

Are known in one place and not in another,

Or among one people and not among others;

And some of their names may have perished utterly;

But their message stands one and indivisible,

Even though it may have been forgotten,

Or twisted by ignorance, error, superstition or perversity;

Or misunderstood in the blinding light

Or time or tortuous Circumstance.

C. 10.—Many were the faiths in the composite world

Of Western Asia, Northern Africa, and Europe,

And many were the fragments of ancient wisdom,

Saved, transformed, renewed or mingled;

And many new streams of wisdom were poured through the crucibles

Of noble minds,—prophets, poets, preachers,

Philosophers, and thinking men of action;

And many were the conflicts, and many

The noble attempts reaching out towards Unity,

And many were the subtle influences

Interchanged with the other worlds

Of further and Eastern Asia,-

Aye, and perchance with the scattered Isles

Of the Pacific and the world between

The Atlantic and the Pacific.