Peak of Eloquence Nahjul Balagha By Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib - English Translation - Sermon 164

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Describing the Wonderful Creation of the Peacock, the Wonderful Creation of Birds

Allah has provided wonderful creations including the living, the lifeless, the stationary and the moving. He has established such clear proofs for His delicate creative power and great might that minds bend down to Him in acknowledgment thereof and in submission to Him and arguments about His oneness strike our ears. He has created birds of various shapes which live in the burrows of the earth, in the openings of high passes and on mountain peaks.

They have different kinds of wings and various characteristics. They are controlled by the rein of (Allah’s) authority. They flutter with their wings in the expanse of the vast firmament and the open atmosphere. He brought them into existence from non -existence in strange external shapes and composed them with joints and bones covered with flesh. He prevented some of them from flying easily in the sky because of their heavy bodies and allowed them to use their wings only close to the ground. He has set them in different colors by His delicate might and exquisite creative power.

Among them are those which are tinted with one hue and there is no other hue except the one in which they have been dyed. There are others which are tinted with one color and they have a neck ring of a different color than that with which they are tinted.

About the Peacock

The most amazing among them in its creation is the peacock which Allah has created in the most symmetrical dimensions and arranged its hues in the best arrangement with wings the ends of which are inter-weaved together and with a long tail. When it approaches its female, it spreads out its folded tail and raises it up so as to cast a shade over its head, as if it were the sail of a boat being pulled by the sailor. It feels proud of its colors and sways with its movements. It copulates like the cocks. It leaps (on the female) for cohabitation like lustful energetic men at the time of fighting.

I am telling you all this from observation, unlike he who narrates on the basis of a weak authority. For example, it is the belief of some

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people that it cohabits with the female by a tear which flows from its eyes. When it stops on the edges of the eyelids, the female swallows it and lays its eggs thereby, not through cohabitation by a male other than by means of this flowing tear. Even if they say this, it will be no more amazing than (what they say about) the mutual feeding of the crows (prior to cohabitation). You will imagine its feathers to be like sticks made of silver and the wonderful circles and sun-shaped feathers growing there to be of pure gold and pieces of green emerald. If you likened them to anything growing on land, you will say that it is a bouquet of flowers collected during every spring. If you likened them to clothes, they will be like printed apparels or amazing variegated clothes of Yemen. If you likened them to ornaments, then they will be like gems of different color with studded silver.

The peacock walks with vanity and pride, throwing open its tail and wings, laughing, admiring the handsomeness of its outfit and the hues of its necklace of gems. But when it casts its glance at its legs, it cries loudly with a voice which indicates its call for help, displaying its true grief because its legs are thin like the legs of Indo -Persian cross -bred cocks. At the end of its shin, there is a thin thorn, and on the crown of its head, there is a bunch of green variegated feathers. Its neck begins in the shape of a goblet and it stretches up to its belly like the hair-dye of Yemen in color or like silk cloth put on a polished mirror which looks as if it has been covered with a black veil. Other than that, on account of its excessive luster and extreme brightness, it appears that a lush green color has been mixed with it. Along the openings of its ears there is a line of shining bright daisy color like the thin end of a pen. Whiteness shines on the black background. There is hardly a hue from which it has not taken a bit and improved it further by regular polish, luster, silken brightness and brilliance. It is, therefore, like scattered blossoms which have not been seasoned by the rains of spring or the summer sun.

It also sheds its plumage and puts off its outfit. They all fall away and grow again. They fall away from the feather stems like the falling of leaves from twigs, then they begin to join together and grow till they return to the state that existed before their falling away. The new hues do not change from the previous ones, nor does any color occur anywhere other than in its own place. If you carefully look at one hair from the hairs of its feather stems, it will look like a red rose, then like emerald green, then like golden yellow.