The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: Quatrain LIII

Quatrain LIII introduces a new theme, that of predestination, or so it can be interpreted. See what you think of this:


First Edition: Quatrain LIII

With Earth's first Clay They did the Last Man's knead,
And then of the Last Harvest sow'd the Seed:
Yea, the first Morning of Creation wrote
What the Last Dawn of Reckoning shall read.



Second Edition: LXXIX
With Earth's first Clay They did the Last Man knead,
And there of the Last Harvest sow'd the Seed:
And the first Morning of Creation wrote
What the Last Dawn of Reckoning shall read.



Fifth Edition: LXXIII
With Earth's first Clay They did the Last Man knead,
And there of the Last Harvest sow'd the Seed:
And the first Morning of Creation wrote
What the Last Dawn of Reckoning shall read.



There are several changes from the First to the Second Edition. Apparently FitzGerald was satisfied with the changes, for the Fifth is identical to the Second. In the first line, the poet writes of kneading the Last Man's clay, whereas in the later edtions, it becomes the Last Man who is kneaded. The change seems to subtly suggest that Man is not separate from the Clay but is the Clay itself. The second change occurs in the second line where the "then" becomes "there," a change of time to place. The last change is the substitution of the more prosaic "And" for the poetic and Biblical sounding "Yea."

Overall, the quatrain states that the ending is written or was written on the first day of Creation. The reference to the "Last Dawn of Reckoning" suggests the Judgement Day, and what will be read of humanity's behavior was actually written on "the first Morning of Creation."

This corresponds closely to the Calvinist doctrine of "unconditional election: "which asserts that God has chosen from eternity those whom he will bring to himself not based on foreseen virtue, merit, or faith in those people; rather, it is unconditionally grounded in God's mercy alone. God has chosen from eternity to extend mercy to those He has chosen and to withhold mercy from those not chosen. Those chosen receive salvation through Christ alone. Those not chosen receive the just wrath that is warranted for their sins against God.

In other words, we are all sinful and unable to gain redemption on our own, and God chooses those whom He would save, and this choice is NOT based on the "virtue, merit, or faith in those people." I have seen a few lines in the Qur'an which seem to say something similar, but it is not spelled out as clearly as it is in the doctrine of the Christian Calvinist sect.

I think this is even a bleaker view of our position in the universe than was brought out in earlier quatrains which said that we were puppets or chess pieces controlled by the Master Player who engaged in games for His own entertainment. It is a very mechanistic view of the universe which was shared by philosophers and scientists of the time. It was only with the beginning of the 20th century when the theories of Einstein and Heisenberg argued for a relativistic and and uncertain universe that some measure of freedom was once again supported, but not universally accepted.

The question is still this: do we have free will and are able to some extent anyway to make choices freely or are we predetermined to make the "choices" that we only seem to make freely?