SUFI POETRY IN SOMALI

[THE COUNC IL: J

46. 0 Pride and Greed, we have heard your arguments

41. At times stubbornness leads one to a precipice

4~. It casts you into a deep ravine

202.

43. It points to you a distant shape on the horizon with
    its hand


44. It leads you to disaster and calamity


45. Satan, the accursed, misleads people


46. He even misguides a soul who turned at first to the
    right [path]


47. Under the shadow of Paradise, he has assaul ted I:1AWA~
    and ADAM
    4.8. Since then, whoever follows him, he leads to Hell

4~. But he leaves alone the man who seeks protection under

the throne of God.

Line .3.

Textual Notes

The flashing of lightning in the nomadic Somali

environment is a sign of approaching rain. If it

does not rain in the area where set tl emen tsare

located, they may move towards the p lace over which

the flashes of lightning have been seen. Thus

lightning beckons and attracts people to come

wherever it flashe~.

Lines 40-42. The imaginary dispute between Pride and Greed

ends with the condemnation of the arguments

submitted by both litigants, an event which could

happen in realitj.