surrogate fire

According to historian Mubarak Ali, the Abbasids (750-1258 AD) quashed political dissent using a network of spies among other means. The climate of oppression forced dissenters to develop a subculture of secret codes and identities. This culture of secrecy in turn gave rise to a tendency towards esoteric interpretation of scripture that in time led to a subversion that privileged resignation over resistance: the first Sufic orders were born.

Too long under the covers and the secret mutates;
A tampered empiricism, a secondary telling; not
Doubt but a mutilated strain of truth thirsting,
Thrusting. The scrap of disdain that informed
Fight is now the lulling of soul. Guilt of surrender
Shucks pride, takes flight. As unknowns assume

Their trajectory on a constellation of infinite riddles,
You are left wondering in a maze only the chosen
Are condemned to navigate. The secret thrives in
This maze of loopy contradictions that severs all
Links with the real, cuts out air, reeks of dark. It will
Uproot you lest you unmask it with rapture and skill.