Oisin Sheathes His Sword, the better to fight

Oisin and Niamh

Oisin dwelt in the land of men. He ran with the hounds, and the deer fell; great was their slaughter. Merry was the feasting of the Fian and their Fionn. Wild and exultant the revelry. Yet, sometimes, in their cups, was comrade transformed into foe over the champion’s portion of meat, and head flew from shoulders.
Such was their life, between the merriment of the feast, the excitement of the chase and the fear and thrill of combat, war and death. Yet they had not been formed, this body of men, from mere folly; rather the lords and learned men of the Gael had farsightedly seen the very terrible threat from Roman legions poised on their borders and had formed the Fianna to face them. They had seen a great centralised empire sustained by ruthless military might, driven by the engine of usury to devour ever more lands and peoples. No freedom loving people would submit to that, without a fight. Thus the bodies of the Fianna had formed, the best of the youth of the Gael flocking to join under their banner

Brave these Fian and Fionn MacCumail, their chief, and Oisin the warrior-poet. In their lives too, dalliance with glorious women; in them too marriage and children.
Till Niamh came from the land of Tir na n-Og, the Land of Eternal Youth, beneath the Western Ocean.

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Abdassamad Clarke is from Ulster and was formally educated at Edinburgh University in Mathematics and Physics. He accepted Islam at the hands of Shaykh Dr. Abdalqadir as-Sufi in 1973, and, at his suggestion, studied Arabic and tajwid and other Islamic sciences in Cairo for a period. In the 80s he was secretary to the imam of the Dublin Mosque, and in the early 90s one of the imams khatib of the Norwich Mosque, and again from 2002-2016. He has translated, edited and typeset a number of classical texts. He currently resides with his wife in Denmark and occasionally teaches there. 14 May, 2023 0:03

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1 Comment

  1. Salaams

    Oisin fell into deep thought as he struggled in his old poet’s heart for how this story must be allowed to tell itself to reach these other hearts…It is of Earth. There is tenderness, there is playfulness of children. There is the encounter with the majesty and beauty of the Divine and with the ethereal other of Tir na n-Og. There too is teaching, the Book that encompasses all extremes and opposites as does the Way itself, both Law and Revelation of the Unseen. There is in it the restoration of market places and the freedom of people to go and sell there without rents, taxes or any control. There is the abolition of states and taxes.

    excellent writing!

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