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

Part Three

(From 1908)
The Islamic Cities

The region of Delhi is adored by my grieved heart
In every speck of it the ancestors’ blood is asleep
Why should not the land of this desolate garden be holy?
This region is the shrine of the grandeur of Islam
Kings of the Khair al-Umam are asleep in this land
Dependent on whose rule remained the world order
Memory of assembly’s warmth still renders the heart restless
The splendor has been burnt but memory of the splendor is still secure

Though Jahanabad also is a shrine for the Muslim
Baghdad as well is deserving of this magnificence
This is the garden the source of whose pride was
The wild tulip which was called the culture of Hijaz
Why should not the dust of this habitation be equivalent to Iram
Which witnessed the footsteps of the Prophet’s successors
The garden whose flower buds were the garden’s wealth is this
The grave yard of those who made Rome tremble is this

The land of Cordoba also is the light of the Muslim’s eye
Which shined in Europe’s darkness like the candle of Tur
Extinguishing of this lamp dispersed the assembly of Millat-i-Baida
And lighted the lamp of the present day’s materialistic civilization
This holy region is the grave of that civilization
With which the life blood still exists in the veins of Europe’s vines

The tract of Constantinople, that is the Caesar’s city
The perpetual banner of the grandeur of the Ummah’s Mahdi
Like the Haram’s dust this region is also holy
It is the shrine of descendants of Shah-i-Lawlak
Its breeze is holy like the fragrance of rose
A voice is calling from the tomb of Ayyub Ansari
“O Muslim! this city is the heart of the Nation of Islam!
This city is the reward for millenniums of blood sacrifices!”

But you are that land, O the resting place of Mustafa
Even to the Ka‘bah whose sight is better than Hajj-i-Akbar
In the world’s ring you are shining like a gem
Your land was the birth place of our grandeur
That Magnificent Emperor got rest in your midst
Under whose protection the world nations got security
Whose successors became rulers of world’s empires
Became successors of Caesar, inheritors of Jam’s throne
If the Muslim nationalism is restricted to place
Neither India nor Persia nor Syria is its base
Ah Yathrib! You are the Muslim’s homeland and his shelter
You are the focal point of the rays of his inner feelings
As long as you exist, we will also flourish in the world
You are the morning of this garden we are the dew’s pearls

Translated by: M.A.K. Khalil

The Islamic Cities

Also Available

Iqbal Academy Pakistan