SHIBL¥  AND  £ÿL¥

Introduction
For Mawl«n« Khw«jah Alè«f £usain £«lâ and Mawl«n« Shiblâ N‘um«nâ see Appendix I, Nos. 36 and 72 respectively.  They were the two Islamic intellectuals of the Indian sub-continent who were contemporaries of  ‘All«mah Iqb«l  and covered the same fields  as the ‘All«mah did, of which the rise and fall of the Muslim world and society was most important. In the dark year of 1914 when the World War I started, with bad omen for the Muslim world, ‘All«mah Iqb«l’s  grief on the death of both these luminaries of the Islamic world was a great shock. This poem reflects  that shock , the climax of which is reached in the last verse which is taken from Mawlan«  Shiblâ  N‘um«nâ.

Translation
One day Iqb«l said to the Muslim
“Your existence is unique in the universe

The tunes of your old songs are the basis of new knowledge
Civilization is the dust of your old  caravans

Even the zephyr’s current is like stone to it
Very delicate is the mirror of Man’s honor

The men  of action ¹ by discovering the causes of phenomena
Find the cure for the azure-colored sky’s cruelties

Ask them who are the old secret keepers of the garden
How the autumn became engaged in fight with your garden”

The Muslim  became restless with my conversation
The sad sigh became betrayer of the inner sorrow

He said “Just look at the autumn’s condition
The leaves of the tree of life have become  pale

Those  garden’s secret keepers became silent
Whose tune of pathos  was the means of mellowness

The garden’s  inhabitants were still mourning Shiblâ
When  H«lâ  also became a traveler towards Paradise

                “Still he is a fool who is asking  the gardener
                What did nightingale say, what did rose hear, what did zephyr do ?”

Explanatory Notes
1. The men of action do not believe in he superstition of the control of celestial bodies on human fate and they do so by searching for physical causes to explain strange happenings and phenomena.