THE HEART

Introduction:
The meaning and attributes of Dil in the terminology of ‘All«mah Iqb«l have been explained in Chapter 3, paragraph "The Controversy of ‘Aql and Dil " which may be seen. The elegant status of Man and the concept of Khudâ' has also been explained in the same chapter in paragraph ''The status of mankind in the Universe and the Concept of Khudâ " which may also be seen to understand the procedure for developing Khudâ. It has been explained there that Man has only the potential for reaching the high position of the Vicegerent of God on earth and needs very hard work for attaining it. This effort includes an ardent Love of God and the Holy Prophet S.A.W. Such Love would lead Man to the state of complete submission of his own will to the Will of God, to lead a life of complete devotion to God; complete self discipline and a state of the mind in which he would consider no sacrifice too great in the struggle for His Cause. For greater details attention is invited to ‘All«mah Iqb«l's two books titled Asr«r-i-Khudâ and Rumëz-i-Bekhudâ. The net result of the loss of Khudâ has led the present day Man away from submission to God and towards submission to ó«ghët. This has resulted in greed, jealousy, arrogance and prejudice, which are Man's cardinal sins and the root of all sins, individual as well as social, national and international.

As the re-establishment and propagation of Islamic values and the struggle for the reconstruction of Islamic society, which would struggle for and establish the super-national Islamic State, was the raison d'etre of ‘All«mah Iqb«l's poetry this thought abounds in his works, including the present poem. It is not sufficient to claim the Love of God verbally. This Love has to be demonstrated and proven by sacrifices in His Cause. ‘All«mah Iqb«l emphasizes the need for participating in the ‘âb«dah in the broad sense of the term and not just personal piety and hair splitting of the intricacies of the Sharâ‘ah. He has forcefully emphasized throughout his works the need for the Love of God to be the motivation of all human efforts in order to make them effective as well as acceptable to God:

(172)       All wisdom of Angelic World, all knowledge of Celestial World
                If it cures not the maladies of the Islamic World is all but naught

(173)       The midnight remembrance, meditations, the spiritual joys of yours
                If they guard not your Khudâ they are all but naught

(Appendix III, No. 32)

The present poem gives some indication of what the true Love of God means. It shows that the highest dangers and the greatest losses in His Cause are imminent for those struggling therein and that, though they may lead to material losses and even loss of life, the result is the reward of eternal bliss, which only those can appreciate and enjoy whom God has endowed with such light (The Holy Qur'«n 2:153-57).

Translation:
Tales of gallows and crucifixion are mere child's play for the Heart¹
The request of Arinâ ² is only the title of the story of the Heart

O Lord! How powerful the full cup of that wine would be?
The Way to eternity is each single line on the measuring cup of the Heart

O Lord! Was it the cloud of mercy or the thunderbolt of Love
When the life's crop got burned down, sprouted the seed of the Heart

You would have got the Beauty's bountiful treasure
O Farh«d³ ! You never dug into the ruins of the Heart

Now it looks like the ‘ ‘Arsh ’, now like the Ka'bah
O God! Whose lodging is the abode of my Heart

It has its own junën⁴ and I have my own sawd« ⁴
The Heart loves someone else and I love the Heart

You do not comprehend this, O simple hearted ascetic!
Envy of a thousand prostrations is one slip of the Heart

It changes the heap of earth into elixir
Such is the power of the ashes of the Heart

It gains freedom after being caught in the net of Love
On being thunder-struck greens up the tree of the Heart

Explanatory Notes:

1. The first line alludes to the sacrifices of life made by the true Lovers of God. The specific references to Husain Bin ManÅër £all«j ^(a), S.Ism«‘âl A.S.^(b), S. ‘¥s« A.S ^(c) and S. Im«m £usain A.S. ^(d) all of whom gladly offered their lives in the Love and the Cause of God:

(174)       Strange, simple, as well as colored is the £aram's story
                £usain is its climax and the beginning is Ism«âl

(Appendix III, No. 29)

2. This alludes to the several verses of the Holy Qur’«n in which the desire of S. Mës« A.S. to see God has been mentioned, especially 7:143, in which this word occurs.

3. Farh«d He is the hero and lover of Shârân in the Persian epic of love titled Khusro Wa Shârân by Hakâm Abu Muhammad Ily«s Jam«l al-Dân (d. ca. 1213). Farh«d, in compliance with the requirements of Shârân had dug the mountain and brought out a canal of milk through it to prove his love for and dedication to her. This example is proverbially used in Urdu and Persian for trying to attain an impossible goal. Even after doing all this he did not get Shârân and killed himself in disappointment. In this line ‘All«mah Iqb«l means that if Farh«d had pursued the Love of God in going through his travail he would found God and would not have been disappointed as he was in the love of Shirân.

4. Junën and Sawd« They are both Arabic words and mean insanity. They are used in Urdu and Persian for the extreme love in which the lover loses his logic and behaves like a lunatic. A suitable English word is not available.
(a) ManÅër £all«j- See Appendix I, No. 5.
(b) S. Ism«‘âl A.S.- He was the son of S. Ibr«hâm A.S. When God commanded S. Ibr«hâm A.S. in a dream to sacrifice his son Ism«âl A.S. the latter readily agreed to it. (The Holy Qur’«n 37: 99-111).
(c) S. ‘Is« A.S.- See Appendix I, No. 44.
(d) S. Im«m £usain A.S.- See Appendix I, No. 39.