Cosmic Melancholy

I read this post at Everyone Forever back in September, but couldn't watch the video due to a dying computer. It was worth the wait. Here's a loving reproduction of the post:

The pagan Arabs of the pre-Islamic period were a proud and boastful people who were characterized by epic tales, heart-rending poetry, and eloquent prose. Indeed, their literary excellence before the Prophet Muhammad, is still reputed to be of the highest calibre, the quintessence of poetry, chivalry and a most intoxicating ambiance, even at times glaringly arrogant and self-worshipping.

However, in the year 610AD, the fortieth year of a certain Muhammad ibn Abdullah, the Arabs had found a contest to their genius. This 'man from a mountain' claimed to be in receipt of a magnanimous recital, a message that he was not even willing to take any credit for.

The Arabs found their pride, their literary genius to be in serious question. The sheer experience of the recital, its ontology, style, experience, cosmic melancholy, odd structure, meaning and message, shattered them into willing submission.

The ontological encounter with the recital to the Arabs surely confirmed to them, by them, that surely no man could be the author of such an experience.

The odd structure, the melancholy, the penetrative acoustics remain to the present day and have been reverberating Worldwide, around houses and mosques during this current month of fasting and patience; Ramadan.

04:10 / 27.09.2008
Arfan Rai Chiswick