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

Virtue and Vice

A Mullah (I tell you his tale not a bit
With any ambition of airing my wit)
By ascetic deportment had won high repute,
In his praise neither gentle nor simple were mute.
God’s will, he would say, just as meaning is latent
In words, through pure doctrine alone becomes patent.
His heart a full bowl: wine of piety worked there,
Though some dregs of conceit of omniscience lurked there—
He was wont to recount his own miracles, knowing
How this kept his tally of followers growing.
He had long been residing not far from my street,
So sinner and saint were accustomed to meet:
‘This Iqbal,’ he once asked an acquaintance of mine,
‘Is dove of the tree in the literary line,
but how do religion’s stern monishments seem
To agree with this man who at verse beats Kalim?
He thinks a Hindu not a heathen, I’m told,
A most casuistical notion to hold,
And some taints of the Shias’ heresy sully
His mind—I have heard him extolling their Ali;
He finds room in our worship for music—which must
Be intended to level true faith with the dust!
As with poets so often, no scruple of duty
Deters him from meeting the vendors-of-beauty;
In the morning, devotions—at evening, the fiddle—
I have never been able to fathom this riddle.
Yet dawn, my disciples assure me, is not
More unsoiled than that youth is by blemish or spot;
No Iqbal, but a heterogeneous creature,
His mind crammed with learning, with impulse his nature,
He understands both Virtue and Vice
In divinity, doubtless, as deep as Mansur;
What the fellow is really, I cannot make out—
Is it founding some brand-new Islam he’s about?’
—Thus the great man protracted his chatter,
and in short made a very long tale of the matter.
In our town, all the world hears of every transaction:
I soon got reports from my own little faction,
And when I fell in with His Worship one day
In our talk the same topic came up by the way.
‘If,’ said he, ‘I found fault, pure good-will was the cause,
And my duty to point out religion’s strict laws.’
—‘Not at all,’ I responded, ‘I make no complaint,
As a neighbour of mine you need feel no constraint;
In your presence I am, as my bent head declares,
Metamorphosed at once from gay youth to grey hairs,
And if my true nature eludes your analysis,
Your claim to omniscience need fear no paralysis;
For me also my nature remains still enravelled,
The sea of my thoughts is too deep and untravelled:
I too long to know the Iqbal of reality,
And often shed tears at this wall of duality.
To Iqbal of Iqbal little knowledge is given;
I say this not jesting—not jesting, by Heaven!

Translated by: V.G. Kiernan
Virtue and Vice

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