The Candle

Allama Muhammad Iqbal 1877 (Sialkot, Punjab) – 1938 (Lahore, Punjab)



O Candle! I am also an afflicted person in the world assembly
Constant complaint is my lot in the manner of the rue

Love gave the warmth of internal pathos to you
It made me the florist selling blood-mixed tears

Whether you be the candle of a celebrating assembly or one at the grave
In every condition associated with the tears of sorrow you remain

Your eye views all with equity like the Secret's  Lovers
My eye is the pride of the tumult of discrimination

Your illumination is alike in the Ka'bah and the temple
I am entangled in the temple and the Haram's discrimination

Your black smoke contains the sigh's elegance
Is some heart hidden in the place of your manifestation?

You burn with pathos due to distance from Tajalli's Light
Your pathos the callous ones consider your light

Though you are burning you are unaware of it all
You see but do not encompass the internal pathos

I quiver like mercury with the excitement of vexation
As well I am aware of vexations of the restless heart

This was also the elegance of some Beloved
Which gave me perception of my own pathos

This cognition of mine keeps me restless
Innumerable fire temples are asleep in this spark

Discrimination between high and low is created by this alone!
Fragrance in flower, ecstasy in wine is created by this alone!

Garden, nightingale, flower, fragrance this Cognition is
Root of the struggle of ‘I and you' this Cognition is

At creation's dawn as Beauty became the abode of Love
The sound of "Kun" taught warmth to the spirit of Love

The command came Beauty of Kun's garden to witness
With one eye a thousand dreadful dreams to witness
Do not ask me of the nature of the veil of being
The eve of separation was the dawn of my being

Gone are the days when unaware of imprisonment I was
That my abode the adornment of the tree of Tur was
I am a prisoner but consider the cage to be a garden
This exile's hovel of sorrow I consider the homeland

Memories of the homeland a needless melancholy became
Now the desire for sight, now Longing for search became
O Candle! Look at the excessive illusion of thought
Look at the end of the one worshipped by celestial denizens

Theme of separation I am, the exalted one I am
Design of the Will of the Universe's Lord I am

He desired my display as He designed me
When at the head of Existence' Divan He wrote me

The pearl likes living in a handful of dust
Style may be dull the subject is excellent

Not seeing it rightly is the fault of shortsighted perception
The universe is the show of effulgence of taste for Cognizance

This network of time and space is the scaling ladder of the Universe
It is the necklace of the neck of Eternal BeautyI
have lost the way, Longing for the goal I am
O Candle! Captive of perception's illusion I am

I am the hunter as well as the circle of tyranny's net!
I am the Haram's roof as well as the bird on Haram's roofAm I the Beauty or head to foot the melting love am I?
It is not clear whether the beloved or the Lover am I?

 am afraid the old secret may come up to my lips again
Lest story of suffering on the Cross may come up again.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 26, 2023

2:58 min read
95

Quick analysis:

Scheme AB BX XC XD XD ED FF XG CX XG HX II JJ KK HHLL MMDX NNXX OO AA XX DE XXOO XPP QQ
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 3,044
Words 581
Stanzas 24
Stanza Lengths 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 4, 4, 4, 2, 2, 2, 2, 4, 3, 2

Allama Muhammad Iqbal

Muhammad Iqbal, known as Allama Iqbal, was a poet, philosopher, theorist, and barrister in British India. He is held as the national poet of Pakistan. He has been called the "Spiritual Father of Pakistan" for his contributions to the nation. Iqbal's poems, political contributions, and academic and scholarly research were distinguished. He inspired the Pakistan movement in Subcontinent and is considered a renowned figure of Urdu literature, although he wrote in both Urdu and Persian. Iqbal is admired as a prominent poet by Indians, Pakistanis, Iranians, Afghans, Bangladeshis and other international scholars of literature including the west. Though Iqbal is best known as a poet, he is also an acclaimed "Muslim philosophical thinker of modern times". His first poetry book, The Secrets of the Self, appeared in the Persian language in 1915, and other books of poetry include The Secrets of Selflessness, Message from the East and Persian Psalms. His best known Urdu works are The Call of the Marching Bell, Gabriel's Wing, The Rod of Moses and a part of Gift from Hijaz. Along with his Urdu and Persian poetry, his Urdu and English lectures and letters have been influential in cultural, social, religious and political discourses. In the 1922 New Year Honours, he was made a Knight Bachelor by King George V. While studying law and philosophy in England, Iqbal joined the London branch of the All-India Muslim League. During the League's December 1930 session, he delivered a speech, known as the Allahabad Address, in which he pushed for the creation of a Muslim state in north-west India. more…

All Allama Muhammad Iqbal poems | Allama Muhammad Iqbal Books

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