Daily Times

as I sat

at maghrib prayer

at dusk in June

in the small village mosque –

darkening shadows draped around

like dark sheets

and the heat of the brick floor

still rising like waves to my face –

I saw

in the corner of my eye

a flash of colour

yellow, green and silver

a snake – the deadly village viper

it stood stock-still by the prayer mat

still as the world around me

and – as unreal

and in that eternity

we were suspended in

a perfect harmony of calm and poise:

man and animal;

we were one in the house of God –

it waited for me

to turn my head in salaam

and when I looked –

it had gone.

The writer is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC