Scoop has an Ethical Paywall
Work smarter with a Pro licence Learn More
Top Scoops

Book Reviews | Gordon Campbell | Scoop News | Wellington Scoop | Community Scoop | Search

 

Allama Iqbal: God’s Command To Angels

Iqbal was a poet-philosopher born in what is now Pakistan. His poetical works in Urdu and Persian easily earn him the title to the greatest poet in each of these languages in the twentieth century. His lectures, Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, contain the profoundest attempt in modern times to reinterpret Islam and the Islamic experience in the light of modern science and philosophy.

God’s Command To Angels


Allama Iqbal (d. 1938)
Translated by: M. Shahid Alam

Marshall the meek of my world. Arise, set them free.
Seize the towers of the rich. Rock the tyrannies.

Lift the slaves: ignite them. Instill a faith that rocks.
Teach the feeble sparrow to fight the taloned hawk.

Power belongs to the people; their kingdom has come.
Destroy the totems of tyranny; their history is done.

Why do the toiling peasants reap death and misery?
Capture the granite castles. Seize the granaries.

Why do they disconnect the worshippers from me?
I do not need priests to parse my words for me.

I have no use for gilded walls and ornamented frieze.
Build me a tabernacle with mud, thatch and leaves.

This age of smokes and mirrors: is this modernity?
Move the poet: make him rage. Hitch him to Eternity.

************

© M. Shahid Alam


Advertisement - scroll to continue reading

Are you getting our free newsletter?

Subscribe to Scoop’s 'The Catch Up' our free weekly newsletter sent to your inbox every Monday with stories from across our network.

© Scoop Media

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading
 
 
 
Top Scoops Headlines

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Join Our Free Newsletter

Subscribe to Scoop’s 'The Catch Up' our free weekly newsletter sent to your inbox every Monday with stories from across our network.