The Anthem
Duʿā — A Prayer
The poem is read at the opening of every sitting. Iqbal is not asking here for knowledge — he is asking for longing.
Allama Muhammad Iqbal · Bāng-e-Darā, from the collected Urdu poetry
O Lord, give the Muslim heart that living longing which warms the heart and sets the soul trembling.
Make every grain of the valley of Fārān shine once more; give again the hunger to behold, and the appetite to demand.
Give a seeing eye again to the one denied the sight; and what I have seen, show it to others too.
Lead the strayed deer back toward the Sanctuary; and to the one grown used to this city, give the width of the desert again.
Raise in the desolate heart the tumult of the Resurrection again; and to this empty litter, give back its Laylā.
In the darkness of this age, give every troubled heart that scar of love which would put the moon to shame.
Lift our purposes until they stand shoulder to shoulder with the Pleiades; give us the shore’s self-possession and the river’s freedom.
Let love be without self-interest and truth be without fear; put light in our breasts, and make the heart clear as glass.
Grant us to feel the first signs of the calamity; in today’s uproar, give us thought for tomorrow.
I am the lamenting nightingale of a ruined garden; I am a beggar asking that my words take effect — give, O Giver, to one in need.
Translated from the Urdu original. Where the wording is contested, the Urdu governs.
