A RED-INDIAN PRAYER
O’ Great Spirit [God],
Whose voice I hear in the winds,
And whose breath gives life to all the world,
hear me! I am small and weak,
I need your strength and wisdom.
Let me walk in beauty, and make my eyes
ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have
made and my ears sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise so that I may understand the
things you have taught my people.
Let me learn the lessons you have hidden
in every leaf and rock.
I seek strength, not to be greater than my
brother, but to fight my greatest
enemy–myself.
Make me always ready to come to you with
clean hands and straight eyes.
So when life fades, as the fading sunset,
my spirit may come to you
without shame.
(By an unknown poet)
Mirza
Excellent prayers feels like a muslim is praying what was red indians religion ?….
A Red-Indian, attending Rumi poetry reading at a library in Kingston, gave me a book-mark with this Prayer-poem. I was taken aback, as I felt it was by one of Muslim mystical poet from Ibn Arabi to Bulleh Shah. This also tempted me to think that there is a unique common spirit within all religions and that children of Adam have basically the same thought of Divinity what was taught to Adam. It is all because of the geographical environments that human beings living in different regions, created or adopted a visible diversity in religions as we see today. The Red-Indians believe in spirits and they view Great-Spirit as God. Interestingly, their basic beliefs are similar to the Mongols who ravaged the world. The Mongols, believing in spirits, are one of those races who converted to Islam because of the teachings of the mystic saints.
Mirza
I agree with comments by Mr. Mirza and Mr.Salman. It feels Islamic prayer. The following verses:
“I seek strength, not to be greater than my
brother, but to fight my greatest
enemy–myself.”
The poet is talking about ” Jihad-e-Akbar”, a fight against your own ego and temptations and then has a beautiful add on- I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother.
He is afraid that if he had more strength than his fellow human beings, he may get the temptation to abuse it against his fellow human beings.
It is true, and we can see how powerful individuals and nations behave.
Fayyaz