Poem No. 12
Ruba’iyat
Faith is like Abraham at the stake: to be
Self-honoring and God=drunk is faith. Hear me,
You whom this age’s way so captivate!
To have no faith is worse than slavery
Music of strange lands with Islam’s fire blends,
On which the nation’s harmony depend;
Empty of concord is the soul of Europe,
Whose civilization to no Makkah bends.
Love’s madness has departed: in
The Muslim’s veins the blood runs thin;
Ranks broken, hearts perplexed, prayers cold,
No feeling deeper than the skin.
(Allama Muhammad Iqbal)
