An aging Azan, veils more than, it reveals
A spent faith weighs, one and a half millennium
The price of purity, at the cost of, its Achilles heels
Passé promise of peace, at the toll, of a new odium!

Shahadah, Salat, Zakat, Sawm, and Hajj – its five pillars
Stand in awe, outraged, by that dormant seed
Of fear and hate, which Jihad now rears
With the blood, of a paranoid creed!

With a soul severed, into two nemeses
Shia, Sunni, paradoxes, estranged to death
Two brothers, barter bad blood, for a faith’s largesse!
In lieu of Azan, echoes, a squandered shibboleth!

Muhammad, his Quran and Sharia, at the crossroads of history!
Stands passion vanquished, of that time-wearied psalm
When Jihads have eclipsed, its long-gone glory
Cradles moribund Salaam, That Enigma Called ‘Islam’!

© 2017 Vikas Chandra