The Blanket

The Blanket - A Journal of Protest & Dissent

God’s Command to Angels

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

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.


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.

 

 





 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Index: Current Articles + Latest News and Views + Book Reviews + Letters + Archives

The Blanket - A Journal of Protest & Dissent



 

All censorships exist to prevent any one from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently the first condition of progress is the removal of censorships.
- George Bernard Shaw



Index: Current Articles



22 June 2004

Other Articles From This Issue:

Eyes Right
Anthony McIntyre

"Rumour Mill" - Safeguarding Nationalist Community
Sean Mc Aughey

From Alternative Press to Corporate Mainstream: The Case of the Andersonstown News
Liam O Ruairc

Taming the Celtic Tiger
Fred A. Wilcox

Weapon of Mass Destruction
John Kennedy

The Reagan Bitburg Doctrine
Francis A. Boyle

God's Command to Angels
Allama Iqbal
M. Shahid Alam (trans.)

Plan Puebla Panama And Free Trade - The Corporate Contribution To Low Intensity Warfare
Toni Solo


17 June 2004

A Day That Comes, Also Goes
Tom Luby

One of the Nine
Anthony McIntyre

IRPWA Delegation Targeted By British Army/RUC
Martin Mulholland

'The Confines of Republicanism'
Liam O Ruairc

I Was Only Following Orders
Fred A. Wilcox

Reagan's Legacy
Sean O Lubaigh

The Humanity in Us All
Dorothy Naor

 

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