.

      

      SPLITTING THE

      MOON

      SPLITTING THE

      MOON

      A COLLECTION OF ISLAMIC POETRY

      JOEL HAYWARD

      First published in England by Kube Publishing Ltd,

      Markfield Conference Centre

      Ratby Lane, Markfield,

      Leicestershire LE67 9SY

      United Kingdom

      Tel: [phone]

      Fax: [phone]

      Website: www.kubepublishing.com Email: [email protected]

      © Joel Hayward, 2012

      All rights reserved

      The right of Joel Hayward to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

      A Cataloguing-in-Publication data record is available from the British Library.

      ISBN 978-1-84774-034-2 paperback 978-1-84774-100-4

      Cover Design: Inspiral Design Typesetting: Nasir Cadir

       Dedication

      I wrote these poems as an offering of profound thanks to my Creator with a hope that insha’Allah the poems will also bring pleasure to other readers and repay the unfailing patience and love I have received from my wonderful and beloved family.

      Deus est regit qui omnia

       Contents

Preface

Beyond

The Voyage of a Scholar

Arab Spring

Your Book

All in All

Florida Pastor

Prayer in Peterborough

Thank You

That City That Day

       The Six at Thawr

       Wounded at Uhud

       Transfixed

       The Calling of Moses

       True Wealth

       Today’s World

       You Know My Life

       Ironies

       I think of the Prophet

       Not for Himself

       Chosen One

       114 Surahs

       Splitting the Moon

       Knees of the Revert

       The Islamic Bookshop in Leicester

       Lord of the Worlds

       Iman

       What You Do

       Master and Servant

       Her Journal

       Faizan-e-Madina Mosque

       The Certainty of Not Knowing

       The Office

       Empty One

       All in Their Eyes

       From a Hadith

       Ahl al-Kitab

       Day of Judgement

       A Wind Blew

       Libya

       Battle of Misrata

       Life as Childhood

       Man Named Razi

       Soon

       You Kept Me

       Life in Gulps

       Darling in Misrata

       Birds of the Battlefield

       Nature

       His Face

       Today

       More Life as Childhood

       For What?

       Every Morning

       Suicide Bomber

       Osama bin Laden

       Bin Laden: An End?

       God’s Blessings

       The Journey Back

       Praying as a Revert

       Yesterday

       Holy Qur’an

       Too Often

       The Moment … in Jakarta

       Lamentations

       No Despair in Lamentations

       The Cleft

       Will I Write a Poem about Her and Sin?

       Regret in Cashmere

       In Different Rooms

       The World is an Asian Intersection

       Ambrosia

       Such Power

       Everything

       At the Office on Thursday

       Everywhere

       Born with a Burden

       Muslim Youth Workshop

       Unfathomable Depths

       Life is Such

       The Fifth That Day

       The No. 30 in Tavistock Square

       Muslim Warrior

       Mortal Dread

       We Talk

       Love as I Write