Paris Mosque
Ke Haq Se Ye Haram-e-Maghrabi Hai Begana
What should my eyes, but an architect’s Nimbleness,
See in this shrine of the West? It knows nothing of God.
Tan-e-Haram Mein Chupa Di Hai Rooh-e-Butkhana
Mosque?—the Frankish illusionists
Have smuggled into the carcass of a shrine, an idol‐hall’s soul!
Damishq Hath Se Jin Ke Huwa Hai Weerana
And who built this palace of idols?
The same robbers whose hands have turned Damascus into a desert.
Allama Iqbal was a self-contradicting dreamer!
ReplyDeleteHe wrote first SAAREY JAHAAN SE ACHHA HINDOSTAN HAMAARA! After eleven months he wrote "CHEEN O ARAB HAMAARA HINDOSTAN HAMAARA! MUSLIM HAIN HAM WATAN HAI SAARA JAHAAN HAMAARA!
He died in 1938 at British Punjab city of Sialkot. Thank God he did not live to see the disaster of creating Pakistan. He was totally against the idea of nationalism and any Islamic nationalism. A poem called 'Watan" reads:
IS DAUR MEIN MAI AUR HAI JAAM AUR HAI JAM AUR.....................TEHZEEB KE AAZAR NE TARASHWAAYE SANAM AUR
IN TAAZA KHUDAAON MEIN BADA SAB SE WATAN HAI! JO PAIRAHAN ISKA HAI WOH MAZHAB KA KAFAN HAI
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
YEH BUT KEH TARAASHEEDA E TEHZEEB E NAWI HAI! GHAARATGAR E KAASHAANA E DEEN E NABAWI HAI
BAAZU TIRA TAWHEED KI QUWWAT SE QAWI HAI! ISLAAM TIRA DES HAI TU MUSTAFAWI HAI
NAZZAARA E DEREENA ZAMAANE KO DIKHA DE! AE MUSTAFAWI KHAAK MEIN IS BUT KO MILA DE!
Yes, he was pained in his heart as a Muslim to be ruled by a Christian British Empire. Christians and Jews are proclaimed enemies of Islam and Islam forbids friendship for Muslims (if they are 100% practicing Muslims that follow the Koran to its letters) with followers of these two faiths. He had seen a mosque beautifully built and of prominence there but had written:
MIRI NIGAAH KAMAAL E HUNAR KO KYA DEKHEY? KEH HAQ SE YEH HARAM E MAGHRABI HAI BEGAANA!
HARAM NAHEEN HAI FIRANGI KARISHMA BAAZON NE! TAN E HARAM PE CHHUPA DI HAI ROOH E BUTKHAANA!
(What have my eyes to behold the majestic art of its structure? This mosque of the west is bereft of truth! (Thank God I see the word Haq here conveying the meaning of truth otherwise Haq also is one of the names of Allah appearing in the Koran and if this line was to be interpreted as "This mosque is bereft of Allah! It does not represent Allah!" the Allama would have been declared a Murtad (an apostate) and killed at Europe long before his return to India. Imagine what could have happened to him in today's Pakistan! He would have been dragged and killed in the open. But there is more to come:
"This is no mosque! The European magicians have hidden an idol worshipper's temple in the facade of a mosque!"
A Muslim, whenever passing by or beholding a mosque follows the prophet's tradition and utters Allahu Akbar to honor and consecrate that house of Allah and if possible enters it to perform a twice prostrated prayer to Allah in reverence to that house of Allah. Allama Iqbal the devout Muslim beholding a mosque constructed by the Christian French refuses de-facto to call it a mosque! In his eyes that is a temple of idols concealed in the form of a mosque. Yet the same Allama Iqbal weeps his heart out while visiting the deserted and dilapidated mosque of Cordova in Spain that has remained a memorial to the bygone Spanish Umayyad Caliphate which was demolished along with its last Caliph and all Muslim inhabitants of the Iberian peninsula that could not escape the swords of the Christain Crusade led by France's Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne who had banished Islam for good from Spain. Allama Iqbal writes "O you the mosque of Cordova! You are the everlasting monument of love!" The Allama had prayed in that mosque that for centuries had seen no Islamic worship. and written "HISPANIA TU KHOON E MUSALMAAN KA AMEEN HAI! MAANIND E HARAM PAAK HAI TU MERI NAZAR MEIN! POSHEEDA TIRI KHAAK MEIN SAJJDON KE NISHAAN HAIN! KHAAMOSH AZAANEIN HAIN TIRI BAAD E SAHAR MEIN!" (O Spain, you are the safe-keeper of the blood of the Muslims! You are as venerable to me as the Kaaba itself! Hidden are the signs of Islamic prostration in your earth! Silent Islamic prayer calls are present in your morning breeze!)
What a marked turnaround from the mosque of Paris!