To the Youth of Islam

By Allama Muhammad Iqbal

O Muslim youth! Have you ever used your prudence
What was that sky of which you are a fallen star?

That nation has nurtured you its lap of love
Whose feet had trampled the crown of Darius head

Civilizations’s formulator, creator of rules of world government Was that desert of Arabia, that is the cradle of camel drivers

“Al Faqru fakhra’s” state even in glory of authority existed
“Why would the beautiful face need beautifying and cosmetics”

Even in poverty those men of God were so high-minded
That the rich could not avoid charity for beggar’s fear

In short what should I tell you what those wanderers in wilderness were They were world conquerors, world rulers, world administrators, and world adorners

If I wish to present their picture in words I can
But that scene is beyond the comprehension of your imagination

You cannot have any relationship with your ancestors
You are talk, they were action, you are stars, they were plants

We have wasted the heritage obtained from our ancestors
The sky has thrown us down from the Thurayyah to the earth

Why should we cry for suzerainty, as it was temporary
There is no escape from the world’s established principles

But those pearls of wisdom, those book of our ancestors
By seeing them In Europe the heart is rent asunder

“O Ghani! Witness the dark day of the saint of Kina’n
Because the light of his eyes brightens Zulaikhah’s eyes