What They Do Not Teach

I’ve studied in the madrasahs.

I know what they teach, there.

Admirable stuff, some of it:

I like the theology, I love the rhetoric.

History can be useful, poetry is ecstatic,

although I can take or leave the jurisprudence.

And no imam is worth his weight in hummus

if he doesn’t know the Qu’ran well enough

to produce a competent fatwa.

But it makes me sad to think of all of the

things absolutely necessary for the health of the soul

that they will never hear within those walls.

They do not teach you how to listen

for the mooning cry of the Beloved

heard only late at night when the heart is silent.

They do not teach you how to return Allah’s advances

or how to do the dance of courtship

that draws lovers together in their hearts.

They do not teach you how to roll passionately

in the arms of the Beloved

intermingling body and spirit until two are one.

And as far as Najat is concerned,

these things they do not teach

are all you really need to know about religion.