PAS CHI BĀYAD KARD
AY AQWĀM-I SHARQ? (1936)

Introduction
This is the last of his Persian mathnawīs. Soon after 1934, Iqbal’s health began to decline seriously. This he bore with great fortitude.

The title is a question: “what then is to be done, oh people of the East?” He notes that the East is the world of great religions and civilizations whereas the West has become materialistic and anti spiritual. The latter threatens the East by being destructive, not just exploitative.

Iqbal’s pragmatic advise to the people of the East is that they have to unite and have faith in themselves. Knowledge and strength are useless unless combined, as knowledge without strength is tantamount to mere cunning and magic, while strength without knowledge is ignorance and madness. Iqbal urges the peoples of the East to shake off their inferiority complex and assert themselves, deriving strength from the fact that their ancestors were once the best in civilization, wisdom and knowledge.
 

MUSĀFIR (1934)

At the invitation of King Nādir Shāh, and accompanied by Sayyid Sulaymān Nadwī and Sir Ross Masood (Ras Mus‘ūd), Iqbal visited Kabul in 1933. His mission was to advise the afghan Government on a program of educational reform. Kabul and other places of historical significance like Ghazni and Qandahar left impressions which he expresses in this short mathnawī. The title translates The Traveller.

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