Allama Iqbal's Poetry
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The Call of the Caravan Bell

Content

The Himalayas
The Colourful Rose
The Age of Infancy
Mirza Ghalib
The Cloud on the Mountain
A Spider and a Fly
A Mountain and a Squirrel
A Cow and a Goat
The Child’s Invocation
Sympathy
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 Candle
A Longing
The Morning Sun
Pathos of Love
A Withered Rose
The Tombstone of Sayyid
The New Moon
Man and Nature
The Message of Dawn
Love and Death
Virtue and Vice
The Poet
The Heart
The Wave of River
Farewell O World's Congregation!
Young Baby
The Portrait of Anguish
Lament of Separation
The Moon
Bilal
The Story Of Adam
The Indian Anthem
Firefly
Morning Star
The National Anthem For the Indian Children
A New Altar
Dagh
Cloud
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...
Love
Beauty’s Essence
The Message
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 Bud
Moon and Stars
The Union
Sulaima
The Unfaithful Lover
The Unsuccessful Effort
The Song of Grief
The Short-Lived Joy
Man
The Manifestation of Beauty
One Evening
Solitude
The Message of Love
Separation
To Abd Al-Qadir
Sicily
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 Star
Two Planets
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
Patriotism
A Pilgrim on His Way To Madinah
Qat`ah
The Complaint
The Moon
The Night And The Poet
The Assembly of Stars
Strolling in the Celestial World
Advice
Rama
The Motor Car
The Human Race
Address to the Muslim Youth
The Eid Crescent
The Candle and the Poet
Muslim
Before the Prophet’s Throne
The Hospital of Hijaz
The Answer to the Complaint
The Cup-Bearer
Education and Its Consequences
Closeness to Kings
The Poet
The Good News of the Dawn
Prayer
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
A Dialogue
I and You
The Poem Based on a Verse of Abu Talib Kalim
Shibli and Hali
Evolution
Abu Bakr The Truthful
The Present Civilization
In Memory of My Late Mother
The Sun’s Ray
‘Urfi
In Response To a Letter
Nanak
Infidelity and Islam
Bilal
The Muslims and Modern Education
The Princess of Flowers
Based on a Verse of Sa’ib
A Conversation in Paradise
Religion
An Incident of the Battle of Yarmuk
Religion
Remain Attached To the Tree Keep Spring’s Expectation
The Night of the Celestial Ascension of the Prophet
The Flower
Shakespeare
I and You
Imprisonment
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 Rise of Islam

The dimness of the stars is evidence of the bright morning.
The sun has risen over the horizon; the time of deep slumber has passed.
The blood of life runs in the veins of the dead East:
Avicenna and Farabi cannot understand this secret.
The storm in the West made Muslims Muslims.
Pearls are produced in abundance from the very buffetings of the sea.
The true believers are once more to receive from the court of God
The glory of the Turkamans, the intellect of the Indians and the eloquence of the Arabs.
If there is still some trace of sleep left in the buds, my nightingale,
Then make your songs more plaintive, for you found their desire to hear your melody too little.
Whether your agitation be in the courtyard of the garden, in the nest, in the leafy branches—
This quicksilver-destiny cannot be separated from mercury.
Why should that pure-seeing eye look at the glitter of armour on the horse
When it sees the valour of the holy warrior?
Make the lamp of desire bright in the heart of the tulip!
Make every particle of the garden a martyr to search!
The effect of the spring-rain is born in the tears of the Muslims.
Pearls will be born again in the sea of the Friend of God.
This book of the Radiant Community is receiving a new binding;
The Hashimite branch is once more ready to bring forth new leaves and fruit.
The Turk of Shiraz has ravished the heart of Tabriz and Kabul;
The morning breeze makes the scent of the rose its companion on the road.
If a mountain of grief collapsed upon the Ottomans, then why lament?
For the dawn arises from the blood of a hundred thousand stars.
More difficult than the conquest of the world is the task of seeing the world;
When the heart is reduced to blood, only then does the eye of the heart receive its sight.
For a thousand years the narcissus has been lamenting its blindness;
With great difficulty the one with true vision is born in the garden.
Burst into song, oh nightingale! so that from your melody
The spirit of the royal falcon may arise in the delicate body of the dove!
The secret of life is hidden in your breast—then tell it;
Tell the Muslims the account of the burning and re-making of life.
You are the ever-powerful hand and the tongue of the eternal God;
Give birth to certainty, of negligent one, for your are laid low by doubt.
The goal of the Muslim lies beyond the blue sky;
You are the caravan, which the stars follow as dust on the road.
Space is transient; its inhabitants are transitory, but the beginning of time is yours; its end is yours.
You are the final message of God; you are eternal.
The blood of your heart is the henna which decorates the tulip-bride.
You belong to Abraham; you are the builder of the world.
Your nature is the trustee of all the possibilities of life;
You are like the touchstone of the hidden essence of the world.
The One who left this world of water and clay for eternal life—
The one whom the prophethood took with it—you are that gift.
This principle rises from the story of the Radiant Community—
You are the guardian of the nations of the land of Asia.
Read again the lesson of truth, of justice and valour!
You will be asked to do the work of taking on responsibility for the world.
This is the destiny of nature; this is the secret of Islam—
World-wide brotherhood, an abundance of love!
Break the idols of colour and blood and become lost in the community.
Let neither Turanians, Iranians nor Afghan remain.
How long will you keep company in the branches with the birds of the garden;
In your arms is the flight of the royal hawk of Quhistan.
In the abode of doubts of existence is the certainty of the Muslim hero;
In the darkness of the desert night is the candle of the monks.
What was it that erased the tyranny of Caesar and Cyrus?
The power of Hyder, the asceticism of Bu Dharr, the truth of Salman!
How magnificently the heroes of the community have blazed the trail,
And those who have been prisoners for centuries peer at them through a crack in the door.
The stability of life in the world comes from the strength of faith,
For the Turanians have emerged firmer than even the Germans.
When certainty is born in these embers of ashes,
Then it gives birth to the wings of Gabriel.
In slavery, neither swords or plans are effective,
But when the taste for certainty is created, then the chains are cut.
Can anyone even guess at the strength of his arm?
By the glance of the man who is a true believer even destiny is changed.
Empire, sainthood, the knowledge of things which holds the world in its sway—
What are they all? Only commentaries on one small point of faith.
But it is difficult to create the insight of Abraham;
Desire insidiously paints pictures in our breasts.
The distinction of servant and lord has put mankind into turmoil;
Beware, oh powerful ones; the penalties of nature are harsh.
There is one reality for everything, be it of earth or fire;
The blood of the sun will drip, of we split the heart of an atom.
Firm certainty, eternal action, the love that conquers the world—
These are the swords of men in the holy war of life.
What else does man need but a lofty spirit and pure character,
A warm heart, a pure-sighted eye and a restless soul?
Those who rushed forward with the splendour of the eagle emerged plucked of their wings and plumage;
The stars of evening sank in the blood of the sunset but rose again.
Those who swam under the sea were buried by the ocean,
But those who suffered the buffeting of the wave arose, and became pearls.
Those who prided themselves on their alchemy are the dust of the wayside;
Those who kept their forehead upon the dust emerged as the makers of elixir.
Our slow-running messenger brought the tidings of life;
Those to whom the lightning gave news emerged unknowing.
The Shrine was disgraced by the lack of foresight of the old keeper of the shrine;
But how our Tartar heroes emerged as young men of vision!
Those who soar aloft and light the sky say this to the earth,
‘These earth-bound creatures emerged more lively, more stable and more shining.’
In the world, the people of faith live like the sun;
Here they sink, there they arise, there they sink, here they arise!
The certainty of individuals is the capital for building the community;
This is the power which draws the portrait of the fate of the community.
You are the secret of creation, see yourself in your eyes;
Share the secret of your own self, become the spokesman of God.
Greed has split mankind into little pieces;
Become the statement of brotherhood, become the language of love.
Here are Indians, there people of Khurasan, here Afghans, there Turanians—
You, who despise the shore, rise up and make yourself boundless.
Your wings and your plumage are soiled with the dust of colour and race;
You, my bird of the holy shrine, shake your wings before you start to fly.
Immerse yourself in your self, my forgetful one, this is the secret of life;
Come out from the fetters of evening and morning, become immortal.
On the battle-field of life adopt the nature of steel;
In the bed-chamber of love become as soft as silk and painted brocade.
Pass like a river in full spate through the mountains and the deserts;
If the garden should come your way, then become a melodiously singing stream.
There is no limit to your knowledge and love;
In the instrument of nature there is no sweeter song than you.
Even now, mankind if the miserable prey to imperialism;
How distressing that man is hunted by man!
The glitter of modern civilization dazzles the sight;
But this clever craftsmanship is a mosaic of false jewels.
That science, in which the scholars of the West took pride,
Is the sword of warfare held in the bloody grip of greed.
That civilization of the world, which is founded on capitalism,
Can never be become strong by spellbinding schemes.
By action life may become both paradise and hell;
This creature of dust in its nature is neither of light nor of fire.
Teach the nightingale to send forth its clamour;
Open the knot of the bud, for you are the spring breeze for this garden.
Once more the spark of love has arisen from the heart of Asia;
The earth is the coursing-ground for the stain-cloaked Tartars.
Arise! A buyer has come to our hapless life;
After an age, the time has come for our caravan’s departure.
Come, Saki! The song of the bird of the garden has come from the branches;
The spring has come; the beloved has come; the beloved has come; peace has come!
The spring cloud has pitched its tent in the valley and the desert;
The sound of the waterfall has come from the summit of the mountains.
I implore you; renew the law of the past!
For the army of singers has come drove upon drove.
Turn away from the ascetics and fearlessly drink wine from the jar;
After an age the song of the nightingale has rung out from this old branch.
Bring the account of the Master of Badr and Hunain to those who yearn;
Its hidden mystic powers have been revealed to the eye.
Again the branch of Khalil has been watered by the sap of our blood;
In the marketplace of love our cash has proved to be perfect.
I scatter the pearls of tulips upon the dust of the martyrs,
For their blood has proved to be effective for the saplings of the community.
Come, so that we may strew roses and pour a measure of wine in the cup!
Let us split open the roof of the heavens and think upon new ways.

Translated by: D.J. Matthews
The Rise of Islam

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