A00170 - The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and the Reverend Martin Luther King

 At No. 61 on my list of the 100 Greatest Muslims is the scientist and poet Omar Khayyam



In reading the article on Omar Khayyam, I noted with interest this particular passage:

"The quatrain by Omar Khayyam known as "The Moving Finger", in the form of its translation by the English poet Edward Fitzgerald is one of the most popular quatrains in the Anglosphere.[89] It reads:

The Moving Finger writes; and having writ,

Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,

Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.[90][b]

"The title of the novel "The Moving Finger" written by Agatha Christie and published in 1942 was inspired by this quatrain of the translation of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Edward Fitzgerald.[89] Martin Luther King also cites this quatrain of Omar Khayyam in one of his speeches "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence":[89][91]

“We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, ‘Too late.’ There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. Omar Khayyam is right: ‘The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on.’”

"In one of his apologetic speeches about the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal, Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the US, also cites this quatrain.[89][92]"


*****

The passage attributed to Martin Luther King led me to this 


and reminded me again about the absolute greatness of King and his moral rectitude.


It also highlighted the moral rectitude (with regards to Vietnam) of Muhammad Ali 


and Thich Nhat Hanh


The historical linkage of the passage from Omar Khayyam to three of the men who I have come to admire most in my life provided a startling moment of awe for me. It is also simply amazing to see how a piece of poetry written almost a thousand years ago could still impact the course of history up to the present time.

Please have a blessed Sunday.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins
Fairfield, California
July 15, 2023

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