There Is No God But
- There Is No God But
in the “Name of the Merciful” let night begin.I must light lamps without her at every shrine?God then is only the final assassin.
The prayers end. Emptiness waits to take her in.With laments found lost on my lips, I resignmyself to His every Name. Let night begin
without any light, for as they carry the coffinfrom the mosque to the earth, no stars shineto reveal Him as only the final assassin.
The Mourners, at the dug earth’s every margin,fill emptiness with their hands. Their eyes meet mine.“In the Name of the Merciful” I let night begin.
In the dark the marble of each tomb grows skin.I tear it off. I make a holocaust. I underlineGod is the only, the only assassin
as flames put themselves out, at once, on her shrine(they have arrived like moths from temples and mosques).With no Name of His then must this night begin
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Agha Shahid Ali (1949–2001) authored many collections of poetry and criticism, and was recognized posthumously with the collection The Veiled Suite: Collected Poems (W. W. Norton, 2009).
