Allama Iqbal's Poetry

Allama Iqbal's Poetry

The Call of the Caravan Bell

Content

The Colourful Rose

The Age of Infancy

The Cloud on the Mountain

A Spider and a Fly

A Mountain and a Squirrel

A Cow and a Goat

The Child’s Invocation

A Mother’s Dream

The Bird’s Complaint

The Interrogation of the Dead

Moth and Candle

Reason And Heart

The Painful Wail

The Sun (Translated from Gautier)

The Morning Sun

A Withered Rose

The Tombstone of Sayyid

The Message of Dawn

Virtue and Vice

The Wave of River

Farewell O World's Congregation!

The Portrait of Anguish

Lament of Separation

The Story Of Adam

The Indian Anthem

The National Anthem For the Indian Children

Firefly and Bird

The Child and the Candle

On the Bank of the Ravi

The Traveller’s Request

Do not look at the garden of existence like a stranger

If you had not come I would have had no occasion for...

O Lord! Strange is the piety of the preacher

I should procure such straws for my nest from somewhere

What can I say how I got separated from my garden

Unusual in state, distinct from the whole world they are

One should not see the Spectacle with the material eye

What should I say how much Longing for dejection I have

The one I was searching for on the earth and in heaven

Completion of your Love is what I desire

When that Beniaz opens His Graceful Hand

I bear hardships on myself, I am unconcerned with others

Majnun abandoned habitation, you should abandon wilderness...

Beauty’s Essence

Swami Ram Tirath

Addressed To the Students of Aligarh College

The Morning Star

The Beauty and the Love

On Seeing a Cat in the Lap of Someone

The Unfaithful Lover

The Unsuccessful Effort

The Song of Grief

The Short-Lived Joy

The Manifestation of Beauty

The Message of Love

To Abd Al-Qadir

The life of Man is no more than a breath!

O God! Teach a little Love to my happy Intellect.

The world will know when the flood of conversation will...

Thy splendor is manifest in thunder, in fire, in spark

O worldly congregation! Though your gatherings were...

We circumambulate the wine‑cup like the wine’s ref...

Time has come for openness, Beloved’s Sight will be common

The Islamic Cities

The Royal Cemetery

Morning’s Appearance

Tadmin on a Verse of Anisi Shamlu

The Philosophy of Grief

On a Flower-offering

The Anthem of the Islamic Community

A Pilgrim on His Way To Madinah

The Night And The Poet

The Assembly of Stars

Strolling in the Celestial World

Address to the Muslim Youth

The Eid Crescent

The Candle and the Poet

Before the Prophet’s Throne

The Hospital of Hijaz

The Answer to the Complaint

Education and Its Consequences

Closeness to Kings

The Good News of the Dawn

In Response To the Request For Writing a Poem on 'Eid

Fatima Bint ‘Abdullah

The Dew And The Stars

The Siege of Adrianople

Ghulam Qadir Ruhilah

The Poem Based on a Verse of Abu Talib Kalim

Shibli and Hali

Abu Bakr The Truthful

The Present Civilization

In Memory of My Late Mother

The Sun’s Ray

In Response To a Letter

Infidelity and Islam

The Muslims and Modern Education

The Princess of Flowers

Based on a Verse of Sa’ib

A Conversation in Paradise

An Incident of the Battle of Yarmuk

Remain Attached To the Tree Keep Spring’s Expectation

The Night of the Celestial Ascension of the Prophet

Begging For the Caliphate

Late Shah Din Humayun

Khizr the Guide

The Rise of Islam

O zephyr! Convey my message to the one wrapped in blanket

These songs of turtle doves and nightingales are merely...

O dejected nightingale your lament is immature still

Lift the veil from thy Face and be manifest in the assembly

The spring breeze is flowing again start singing, O Iqbal

For once, O awaited Reality, reveal Thyself in a form...

No wonder if the garden birds remained fond of poetry even...

Though you are bound by cause and effect

In the East principles are changed to religion

The girls are learning English

The Sheikh also is not a supporter of women’s seclusion

O wise man! This is a matter of a few days only

Western education is very encouraging

It does not matter if the preacher is poor

The patient of civilization will not be cured by the goli

Will there be an end to this, how long should we buy

We poor Easterners have been entangled in the West

“The search, the witness and the thing witnessed are the...

We have lost all material resources

As I tried to commit suicide the Miss exclaimed

So naive were they not to appreciate the Arabs’ worth

In India councils are a part of the government

Membership of the Imperial council is not at all difficult

What will be a better proof of affection and fidelity

The Sheikh was giving a sermon on the mode of operation

Let us see how long this business of the East lasts

The cow one day started saying to the camel

Last night the mosquito related to me

This new ‘verse’ was revealed to me from the jail

Life may be lost but truth should not be lost

Capital and labor are in confrontation with each other

That eternal rind has departed from the border of Sham

One day a dispute arose between the farmer and the owner

Throw them out in the alley

The owner of the factory is a useless man

I have heard this was the talk in the factory yesterday

Though the mosque was built overnight by the believers

The Himalayas

O Himalah! O rampart of the realm of India!
Bowing down, the sky kisses your forehead
Your condition does not show any signs of old age
You are young in the midst of day and night’s alternation
The Kaleem of Tur Sina witnessed but one Effulgence
For the discerning eye you are an embodiment of Effulgence.

To the outward eye you are a mere mountain range
In reality you are our sentinel, you are India’s rampart
You are the divan whose opening verse is the sky
You lead Man to the solitudes of his heart’s retreat
Snow has endowed you with the turban of honour
Which scoffs at the crown of the world‑illuminating sun.

Antiquity is but a moment of your bygone age
Dark clouds are encamped in your valleys
Your peaks are matching with the Pleiades in elegance
Though you are standing on earth your abode is sky’s expanse
The stream in your flank is a fast flowing mirror
For which the breeze is working like a kerchief.

The mountain top’s lightning has given a whip
In the hands of cloud for the ambling horse
O Himalah! Are you like a theatre stage
Which nature’s hand has made for its elements?
Ah! How the cloud is swaying in excessive joy
The cloud like an unchained elephant is speeding.

Gentle movement of the morning zephyr is acting like a cradle
Every flower bud is swinging with intoxication of existence
The flower bud’s silence with the petal’s tongue is saying
“I have never experienced the jerk of the florist’s hand
Silence itself is relating the tale of mine
The corner of nature’s solitude is the abode of mine”

The brook is melodiously descending from the high land
Putting the waves of Kawthar and Tasnim to embarrassment
As if showing the mirror to Nature’s beauty
Now evading now rowing against the rock in its way
Play in passing this orchestra of beautiful music
O wayfarer! The heart comprehends your music

When the night’s Layla unfurls her long hair
The sound of water‑falls allures the heart
That silence of the night whose beauty surpasses speech
That state of silent meditation overshadowing the trees
That dusk’s beauty which shivers along the mountain range
Very beautiful looks this rouge on your cheeks.

O Himalah! Do relate to us some stories of the time
When your valleys became abode of Man’s ancestors
Relate something of the life without sophistication
Which had not been stained by the rouge of sophistication
O Imagination! Bring back that period
O Vicissitudes of Time speed backwards

Translated by: M.A.K. Khalil

The Himalayas

Also Available

Iqbal Academy Pakistan