THE TRAVELER'S REQUEST
AT THE TOMB OF HAZRAT MA£BúB ILÿH¥ OF DELHI

Introduction
Khwajah Niz«m-Dân Maébëb Il«hâ is one of the sëfâs and saints whom ‘All«mah Iqb«l held in great reverence. See Appendix I, No. 63 for his biography. ‘All«mah Iqb«l was a frequent visitor of the saint's tomb. This poem is a spontaneous expression of his feelings when he visited the tomb in 1905 just before leaving for Europe for higher studies. He requests the saint for supplication to God to grant him all the virtues of a Mum’in and a safe return home to remain under the loving care of his parents. This should be the ambition and desire of every Mum’in.

Translation

What angels recite is your exalted name
Your threshold is exalted, your munificence is gerneral

The stars are stable by the attraction of your Love
Your system is like the system of the sun

The pilgrimage to your tomb is life for the heart
Your status is higher than those of Masih ¹ and Khidar ²

The Beloved’s Nature is veiled in your Love
High is your dignity, exalted is your veneration

                If my heart has a stain the stain is of your love
                But if cheerful I am, I am the rose of your spring

Leaving the garden I have come out like the rose of your fragrance
I am determined to go through the test of perseverance

I have started with zeal from the homeland’s tavern
The pleasure of the wine of knowledge is speeding me up

I am gazing at the mercy’s cloud, I am the wilderness tree
With the Mercy of God I am not in need of the gardener

May I be living elegantly in the world like the sun
May I be bestowed with that ladder by your blessings

May I be so far ahead of the fellow travelers
That I may be regarded as the destination by the caravan

May my pen not hurt anybody’s feelings
May I have complaint against none under the sun

Whose effect may penetrate the hearts like a comb
May I receive such a clamor from your threshold

The nest I had made by picking up bits and pieces
May I see the same nest in the garden again

May I come back to put my forehead at my parents’ feet³
Whose efforts made me the confidante of love

That candle of the audience of the Holy Prophet’s descendants⁴
Whose threshold I will always consider like the £aram

Whose breath opened the flower bud of my longing
By whose benevolence I became sagacious

Pray to the terrestrial and the celestial world’s Lord
That I may again become happy with paying homage to him

That second Yusuf ⁵ to me, that candle of Love’s assembly
Whose brotherly love has given soul’s tranquillity to me

Who in his love, destroying the book of “you and I”
Has brought me up to my youth in the environment of happiness

May he remain happy in the world like rose
Whom I have always held dearer than my life

                Blooming, my heart’s bud may become a flower!
                May this traveler’s request be accepted!

Explanatory Notes
1. Masâh- Another name of S.‘¥s« A.S. for whom see Appendix I , No. 44.

2. Khw«jah Khiîr A.S.- See Appendix I, No. 52.

3. This verse refers to his parents.

4. This and the next two verses refer to his teacher S. Mâr £asan, for whom see Appendix I , No. 55.

5. Yësuf - Reference to S. Yësuf A.S. for whom see Appendix I, No 80. A person who is regarded to possess extraordinary beauty or who is loved immensely is called the “Second Yësuf”. This rather enigmatic expression refers in all probability to Iqb«l’s elder brother Sh. ‘Aè« Muéammad.