Chapter Guide
In brief
Chapter III shows love as the power that concentrates the Self, gives it endurance, and binds Muslim selfhood to the living example of Muhammad PBUH.
After Chapter II's account of desire, this chapter names love as the force that makes desire luminous and durable. Love gives the Self fire, teaches it to illumine the world, and makes it brave enough for both peace and conflict. The self is strengthened here not by retreating inward, but by attaching itself to a beloved worthy of total devotion.
The hidden beloved is then named directly: Muhammad PBUH is the home of the Muslim heart. Iqbal gathers images of Hira, Medina, Ka'ba, battle, prayer, law, government, mercy, and equality to show why the Prophet PBUH is not only revered memory, but the living centre around which a community finds courage, honour, and unity.
The chapter closes by translating love into disciplined devotion. To love the Prophet PBUH is to receive form, direction, and strength for action; it is also to return from inward retreat ready to break the idols of the lower self. Love becomes the path from personal attachment to vicegerency on earth.
Figures in this chapter
- Shams-i Tabrizi
- Nicholson explains Tabriz as an allusion to Shams-i Tabrizi, Rumi's spiritual director. Iqbal uses the Rumi-Shams relation as an image of love powerful enough to set a world aflame.
- Hatem Tai
- Nicholson notes that the prisoner whose honour the Prophet PBUH protects is the daughter of Hatem of Tai, a pre-Islamic Arab figure proverbial for generosity. Encyclopaedia Iranica
- Mulla Jami
- Jami (1414-1492) was a Persian poet, scholar, and Sufi. Iqbal cites him as a devotional voice praising Muhammad PBUH as the master of creation. Encyclopaedia Iranica
- Bayazid of Bistam
- Nicholson's 'saint of Bistam' is Bayazid, an early Muslim mystic of Iran. Iqbal cites his refusal to eat watermelon as a sign of exacting devotional imitation. Encyclopaedia Iranica
Original chapter heading
Showing that the Self is strengthened by Love.[36]
نقطهٔ نوری که نام او خودی استزیر خاک ما شرار زندگی است
از محبت می شود پاینده ترزنده تر سوزنده تر تابنده تر
از محبت اشتعال جوهرشارتقای ممکنات مضمرش
فطرت او آتش اندوزد ز عشقعالم افروزی بیاموزد ز عشق
عشق را از تیغ و خنجر باک نیستاصل عشق از آب و باد و خاک نیست
در جهان هم صلح و هم پیکار عشقآب حیوان تیغ جوهر دار عشق
از نگاه عشق خارا شق شودعشق حق آخر سراپا حق شود
عاشقی آموز و محبوبی طلبچشم نوحی قلب ایوبی طلب
کیمیا پیدا کن از مشت گلیبوسه زن بر آستان کاملی
شمع خود را همچو رومی بر فروزروم را در آتش تبریز سوز
هست معشوقی نهان اندر دلتچشم اگر داری بیا بنمایمت
عاشقان او ز خوبان خوب ترخوشتر و زیباتر و محبوب تر
دل ز عشق او توانا می شودخاک همدوش ثریا می شود
خاک نجد از فیض او چالاک شدآمد اندر وجد و بر افلاک شد
در دل مسلم مقام مصطفی استآبروی ما ز نام مصطفی است
طور موجی از غبار خانه اشکعبه را بیت الحرم کاشانه اش
کمتر از آنی ز اوقاتش ابدکاسب افزایش از ذاتش ابد
بوریا ممنون خواب راحتشتاج کسری زیر پای امتش
در شبستان حرا خلوت گزیدقوم و آئین و حکومت آفرید
ماند شبها چشم او محروم نومتا به تخت خسروی خوابیده قوم
وقت هیجا تیغ او آهن گدازدیده ی او اشکبار اندر نماز
در دعای نصرت آمین تیغ اوقاطع نسل سلاطین تیغ او
در جهان آئین نو آغاز کردمسند اقوام پیشین در نورد
از کلید دین در دنیا گشادهمچو او بطن ام گیتی نزاد
در نگاه او یکی بالا و پستبا غلام خویش بر یک خوان نشست
در مصافی پیش آن گردون سریردختر سردار طی آمد اسیر
پای در زنجیر و هم بی پرده بودگردن از شرم و حیا خم کرده بود
دخترک را چون نبی بی پرده دیدچادر خود پیش روی او کشید
ما از آن خاتون طی عریان تریمپیش اقوام جهان بی چادریم
روز محشر اعتبار ماست اودر جهان هم پرده دار ماست او
لطف و قهر او سراپا رحمتیآن بیاران این باعدا رحمتی
آن که بر اعدا در رحمت گشادمکه را پیغام «لاتثریب» داد
ما که از قید وطن بیگانه ایمچون نگه نور دو چشمیم و یکیم
از حجاز و چین و ایرانیم ماشبنم یک صبح خندانیم ما
مست چشم ساقی بطحاستیمدر جهان مثل می و میناستیم
امتیازات نسب را پاک سوختآتش او این خس و خاشاک سوخت
چون گل صد برگ ما را بو یکیستاوست جان این نظام و او یکیست
سر مکنون دل او ما بدیمنعرهٔ بی باکانه زد افشا شدیم
شور عشقش در نی خاموش منمی تپد صد نغمه در آغوش من
من چه گویم از تولایش که چیستخشک چوبی در فراق او گریست
هستی مسلم تجلی گاه اوطور ها بالد ز گرد راه او
پیکرم را آفرید آئینه اشصبح من از آفتاب سینه اش
در تپید دمبدم آرام منگرم تر از صبح محشر شام من
ابر آذار است و من بستان اوتاک من نمناک از باران او
چشم در کشت محبت کاشتماز تماشا حاصلی برداشتم
خاک یثرب از دو عالم خوشتر استای خنک شهری که آنجا دلبر است
کشته ی انداز ملا جامیمنظم و نثر او علاج خامیم
شعر لبریز معانی گفته استدر ثنای خواجه گوهر سفته است
«نسخهٔ کونین را دیباچه اوستجمله عالم بندگان و خواجه اوست»
کیفیت ها خیزد از صبهای عشقهست هم تقلید از اسمای عشق
کامل بسطام در تقلید فرداجتناب از خوردن خربوزه کرد
عاشقی؟ محکم شو از تقلید یارتا کمند تو شود یزدان شکار
اندکی اندر حرای دل نشینترک خود کن سوی حق هجرت گزین
محکم از حق شو سوی خود گام زنلات و عزای هوس را سر شکن
لشکری پیدا کن از سلطان عشقجلوه گر شو بر سر فاران عشق
تا خدای کعبه بنوازد تراشرح «انی جاعل» سازد ترا
Persian text from Ganjoor · 56 bayts
Is the life-spark beneath our dust.
By Love it is made more lasting,
More living, more burning, more glowing.
From Love proceeds the radiance of its being
And the development of its unknown possibilities.
Its nature gathers fire from Love,
Love instructs it to illumine the world.
Love fears neither sword nor dagger,
Love is not born of water and air and earth.
Love makes peace and war in the world,
The Fountain of Life is Love’s flashing sword.
The hardest rocks are shivered by Love’s glance:
Love of God at last becomes wholly God.
Learn thou to love, and seek to be loved:
Seek an eye like Noah’s, a heart like Job’s!
Transmute thy handful of earth into gold,
Kiss the threshold of a Perfect Man![37]
Like Rúmí, light thy candle
And burn Rúm in the fire of Tabríz![38]
There is a beloved hidden within thine heart:
I will show him to thee, if thou hast eyes to see.
His lovers are fairer than the fair,
Sweeter and comelier and more beloved.
By love of him the heart is made strong
And earth rubs shoulders with the Pleiades.
The soil of Najd was quickened by his grace
And fell into a rapture and rose to the skies.[39]
In the Muslim’s heart is the home of Muhammad PBUH,
All our glory is from the name of Muhammad PBUH.
Sinai is but an eddy of the dust of his house,
The sanctuary of the Ka’ba is his dwelling-place.
Eternity is less than a moment of his time,
Eternity receives increase from his essence.
He slept on a mat of rushes,
But the crown of Chosroes was under his people’s feet.
He chose the nightly solitude of Mount Hirá,
And he founded a state and laws and government.
He passed many a night with sleepless eyes
In order that the Muslims might sleep on the throne of Persia.
In the hour of battle, iron was melted by his sword;
In the hour of prayer, tears fell like rain from his eye.
When he was called to aid, his sword answered “Amen”
And extirpated the race of kings.
He instituted new laws in the world,
He brought the empires of antiquity to an end.
With the key of religion he opened the door of this world:
The womb of the world never bore his like.
In his sight high and low were one,
He sat with his slave at one table.
The daughter of the chieftain of Tai was taken prisoner in battle[40]
And brought into that exalted presence;
Her feet in chains, unveiled,
And her neck bowed with shame.
When the Prophet PBUH saw that the poor girl had no veil,
He covered her face with his own veil.
We are more naked than that lady of Tai,
We are unveiled before the nations of the world.
In him is our trust on the Day of Judgement,
And in this world too he is our protector.
Both his favour and his wrath are entirely a mercy:
That is a mercy to his friends and this to his foes.
He opened the gates of mercy to his enemies,
He gave to Mecca the message, “No blame shall be laid upon you.”
We who know not the bonds of country
Resemble sight, which is one though it be the light of two eyes.
We belong to the Hijáz and China and Persia,
Yet we are the dew of one smiling dawn.
We are all under the spell of the eye of the cupbearer from Mecca,
We are united as wine and cup.
He burnt clean away distinctions of lineage,
His fire consumed this trash and rubble.
We are like a rose with many petals but with one perfume:
He is the soul of this society, and he is one.
We were the secret concealed in his heart:
He spake out fearlessly, and we were revealed.
The song of love for him fills my silent reed,
A hundred notes throb in my bosom.
How shall I tell what devotion he inspires?
A block of dry wood wept at parting from him.[41]
The Muslim’s being is where he manifests his glory:
Many a Sinai springs from the dust on his path.
My image was created by his mirror,
My dawn rises from the sun of his breast.
My repose is a perpetual fever,
My evening hotter than the morning of Judgement Day:[42]
He is the April cloud and I his garden,
My vine is bedewed with his rain.
I sowed mine eye in the field of Love
And reaped a harvest of delight.
“The soil of Medina is sweeter than both worlds:
Oh, happy the town where dwells the Beloved!”[43]
I am lost in admiration of the style of Mullá Jámí:
His verse and prose are a remedy for my immaturity.
He has written poetry overflowing with beautiful ideas
And has threaded pearls in praise of the Master—
“Muhammad PBUH is the preface to the book of the universe:
All the world are slaves and he is the Master.”
From the wine of Love spring many qualities:
Amongst the attributes of Love is blind devotion.
The saint of Bistám, who in devotion was unique,
Abstained from eating a water-melon.[44]
Be a lover constant in devotion to thy beloved,
That thou mayst cast thy noose and capture God.
Sojourn for a while on the Hirá of the heart,[45]
Abandon self and flee to God.
Strengthened by God, return to thy self
And break the heads of the Lát and Uzzá of sensuality.[46]
By the might of Love evoke an army,
Reveal thyself on the Fárán of Love,[47]
That the Lord of the Ka’ba may show thee favour
FOOTNOTES:
[36] For the sense which Iqbal attaches to the word “love,” see the Introduction, section 3. The Education of the Ego.
[37] A prophet or saint.
[38] See note 26 on l. 95. Tabríz is an allusion to Shams-i Tabríz, the spiritual director of Jalálu’ddín Rúmí.
[39] Najd, the Highlands of Arabia, is celebrated in love-romance. I need only mention Lailá and Majnún.
[40] Her father, Hátim of Tai, is proverbial in the East for his hospitality.
[41] The story of the pulpit that wept when Muhammad PBUH descended from it occurs, I think, in the Masnaví.
[42] When, according to Muslim belief, the sun will rise in the west.
[43] A quotation from the Masnaví. The Prophet PBUH was buried at Medina.
[44] Báyazíd of Bistám died in a.d. 875. He refused to eat a water-melon, saying he had no assurance that the Prophet PBUH had ever tasted that fruit.
[45] Muhammad PBUH used to retire to a cave on Mount Hirá, near Mecca, for the purpose of solitary meditation and other ascetic observances.
[46] Lát and Uzzá were goddesses worshipped by the heathen Arabs.
[47] Fárán, name of a mountain in the neighbourhood of Mecca.
[48] Al-Quran, ch. 2, v. 28. In these words, which were addressed to the angels, God foretold the creation of Adam.
نقطهٔ نوری که نام او خودی استزیر خاک ما شرار زندگی است
از محبت می شود پاینده ترزنده تر سوزنده تر تابنده تر
By Love it is made more lasting,
More living, more burning, more glowing.
از محبت اشتعال جوهرشارتقای ممکنات مضمرش
From Love proceeds the radiance of its being
And the development of its unknown possibilities.
فطرت او آتش اندوزد ز عشقعالم افروزی بیاموزد ز عشق
Its nature gathers fire from Love,
Love instructs it to illumine the world.
عشق را از تیغ و خنجر باک نیستاصل عشق از آب و باد و خاک نیست
Love fears neither sword nor dagger,
Love is not born of water and air and earth.
در جهان هم صلح و هم پیکار عشقآب حیوان تیغ جوهر دار عشق
Love makes peace and war in the world,
The Fountain of Life is Love’s flashing sword.
از نگاه عشق خارا شق شودعشق حق آخر سراپا حق شود
The hardest rocks are shivered by Love’s glance:
Love of God at last becomes wholly God.
عاشقی آموز و محبوبی طلبچشم نوحی قلب ایوبی طلب
Learn thou to love, and seek to be loved:
Seek an eye like Noah’s, a heart like Job’s!
کیمیا پیدا کن از مشت گلیبوسه زن بر آستان کاملی
Transmute thy handful of earth into gold,
Kiss the threshold of a Perfect Man![37]
شمع خود را همچو رومی بر فروزروم را در آتش تبریز سوز
Like Rúmí, light thy candle
And burn Rúm in the fire of Tabríz![38]
هست معشوقی نهان اندر دلتچشم اگر داری بیا بنمایمت
There is a beloved hidden within thine heart:
I will show him to thee, if thou hast eyes to see.
عاشقان او ز خوبان خوب ترخوشتر و زیباتر و محبوب تر
His lovers are fairer than the fair,
Sweeter and comelier and more beloved.
دل ز عشق او توانا می شودخاک همدوش ثریا می شود
By love of him the heart is made strong
And earth rubs shoulders with the Pleiades.
خاک نجد از فیض او چالاک شدآمد اندر وجد و بر افلاک شد
The soil of Najd was quickened by his grace
And fell into a rapture and rose to the skies.[39]
در دل مسلم مقام مصطفی استآبروی ما ز نام مصطفی است
In the Muslim’s heart is the home of Muhammad PBUH,
All our glory is from the name of Muhammad PBUH.
طور موجی از غبار خانه اشکعبه را بیت الحرم کاشانه اش
Sinai is but an eddy of the dust of his house,
The sanctuary of the Ka’ba is his dwelling-place.
کمتر از آنی ز اوقاتش ابدکاسب افزایش از ذاتش ابد
Eternity is less than a moment of his time,
Eternity receives increase from his essence.
بوریا ممنون خواب راحتشتاج کسری زیر پای امتش
He slept on a mat of rushes,
But the crown of Chosroes was under his people’s feet.
در شبستان حرا خلوت گزیدقوم و آئین و حکومت آفرید
He chose the nightly solitude of Mount Hirá,
And he founded a state and laws and government.
ماند شبها چشم او محروم نومتا به تخت خسروی خوابیده قوم
He passed many a night with sleepless eyes
In order that the Muslims might sleep on the throne of Persia.
وقت هیجا تیغ او آهن گدازدیده ی او اشکبار اندر نماز
In the hour of battle, iron was melted by his sword;
In the hour of prayer, tears fell like rain from his eye.
در دعای نصرت آمین تیغ اوقاطع نسل سلاطین تیغ او
When he was called to aid, his sword answered “Amen”
And extirpated the race of kings.
در جهان آئین نو آغاز کردمسند اقوام پیشین در نورد
He instituted new laws in the world,
He brought the empires of antiquity to an end.
از کلید دین در دنیا گشادهمچو او بطن ام گیتی نزاد
With the key of religion he opened the door of this world:
The womb of the world never bore his like.
در نگاه او یکی بالا و پستبا غلام خویش بر یک خوان نشست
In his sight high and low were one,
He sat with his slave at one table.
در مصافی پیش آن گردون سریردختر سردار طی آمد اسیر
The daughter of the chieftain of Tai was taken prisoner in battle[40]
And brought into that exalted presence;
پای در زنجیر و هم بی پرده بودگردن از شرم و حیا خم کرده بود
Her feet in chains, unveiled,
And her neck bowed with shame.
دخترک را چون نبی بی پرده دیدچادر خود پیش روی او کشید
When the Prophet PBUH saw that the poor girl had no veil,
He covered her face with his own veil.
ما از آن خاتون طی عریان تریمپیش اقوام جهان بی چادریم
We are more naked than that lady of Tai,
We are unveiled before the nations of the world.
روز محشر اعتبار ماست اودر جهان هم پرده دار ماست او
In him is our trust on the Day of Judgement,
And in this world too he is our protector.
لطف و قهر او سراپا رحمتیآن بیاران این باعدا رحمتی
Both his favour and his wrath are entirely a mercy:
That is a mercy to his friends and this to his foes.
آن که بر اعدا در رحمت گشادمکه را پیغام «لاتثریب» داد
He opened the gates of mercy to his enemies,
He gave to Mecca the message, “No blame shall be laid upon you.”
ما که از قید وطن بیگانه ایمچون نگه نور دو چشمیم و یکیم
We who know not the bonds of country
Resemble sight, which is one though it be the light of two eyes.
از حجاز و چین و ایرانیم ماشبنم یک صبح خندانیم ما
We belong to the Hijáz and China and Persia,
Yet we are the dew of one smiling dawn.
مست چشم ساقی بطحاستیمدر جهان مثل می و میناستیم
We are all under the spell of the eye of the cupbearer from Mecca,
We are united as wine and cup.
امتیازات نسب را پاک سوختآتش او این خس و خاشاک سوخت
He burnt clean away distinctions of lineage,
His fire consumed this trash and rubble.
چون گل صد برگ ما را بو یکیستاوست جان این نظام و او یکیست
We are like a rose with many petals but with one perfume:
He is the soul of this society, and he is one.
سر مکنون دل او ما بدیمنعرهٔ بی باکانه زد افشا شدیم
We were the secret concealed in his heart:
He spake out fearlessly, and we were revealed.
شور عشقش در نی خاموش منمی تپد صد نغمه در آغوش من
The song of love for him fills my silent reed,
A hundred notes throb in my bosom.
من چه گویم از تولایش که چیستخشک چوبی در فراق او گریست
How shall I tell what devotion he inspires?
A block of dry wood wept at parting from him.[41]
هستی مسلم تجلی گاه اوطور ها بالد ز گرد راه او
The Muslim’s being is where he manifests his glory:
Many a Sinai springs from the dust on his path.
پیکرم را آفرید آئینه اشصبح من از آفتاب سینه اش
My image was created by his mirror,
My dawn rises from the sun of his breast.
در تپید دمبدم آرام منگرم تر از صبح محشر شام من
My repose is a perpetual fever,
My evening hotter than the morning of Judgement Day:[42]
ابر آذار است و من بستان اوتاک من نمناک از باران او
He is the April cloud and I his garden,
My vine is bedewed with his rain.
چشم در کشت محبت کاشتماز تماشا حاصلی برداشتم
I sowed mine eye in the field of Love
And reaped a harvest of delight.
خاک یثرب از دو عالم خوشتر استای خنک شهری که آنجا دلبر است
“The soil of Medina is sweeter than both worlds:
Oh, happy the town where dwells the Beloved!”[43]
کشته ی انداز ملا جامیمنظم و نثر او علاج خامیم
I am lost in admiration of the style of Mullá Jámí:
His verse and prose are a remedy for my immaturity.
شعر لبریز معانی گفته استدر ثنای خواجه گوهر سفته است
He has written poetry overflowing with beautiful ideas
And has threaded pearls in praise of the Master—
«نسخهٔ کونین را دیباچه اوستجمله عالم بندگان و خواجه اوست»
“Muhammad PBUH is the preface to the book of the universe:
All the world are slaves and he is the Master.”
کیفیت ها خیزد از صبهای عشقهست هم تقلید از اسمای عشق
From the wine of Love spring many qualities:
Amongst the attributes of Love is blind devotion.
کامل بسطام در تقلید فرداجتناب از خوردن خربوزه کرد
The saint of Bistám, who in devotion was unique,
Abstained from eating a water-melon.[44]
عاشقی؟ محکم شو از تقلید یارتا کمند تو شود یزدان شکار
Be a lover constant in devotion to thy beloved,
That thou mayst cast thy noose and capture God.
اندکی اندر حرای دل نشینترک خود کن سوی حق هجرت گزین
Sojourn for a while on the Hirá of the heart,[45]
Abandon self and flee to God.
محکم از حق شو سوی خود گام زنلات و عزای هوس را سر شکن
Strengthened by God, return to thy self
And break the heads of the Lát and Uzzá of sensuality.[46]
لشکری پیدا کن از سلطان عشقجلوه گر شو بر سر فاران عشق
By the might of Love evoke an army,
Reveal thyself on the Fárán of Love,[47]
تا خدای کعبه بنوازد تراشرح «انی جاعل» سازد ترا
That the Lord of the Ka’ba may show thee favour
FOOTNOTES:
[36] For the sense which Iqbal attaches to the word “love,” see the Introduction, section 3. The Education of the Ego.
[37] A prophet or saint.
[38] See note 26 on l. 95. Tabríz is an allusion to Shams-i Tabríz, the spiritual director of Jalálu’ddín Rúmí.
[39] Najd, the Highlands of Arabia, is celebrated in love-romance. I need only mention Lailá and Majnún.
[40] Her father, Hátim of Tai, is proverbial in the East for his hospitality.
[41] The story of the pulpit that wept when Muhammad PBUH descended from it occurs, I think, in the Masnaví.
[42] When, according to Muslim belief, the sun will rise in the west.
[43] A quotation from the Masnaví. The Prophet PBUH was buried at Medina.
[44] Báyazíd of Bistám died in a.d. 875. He refused to eat a water-melon, saying he had no assurance that the Prophet PBUH had ever tasted that fruit.
[45] Muhammad PBUH used to retire to a cave on Mount Hirá, near Mecca, for the purpose of solitary meditation and other ascetic observances.
[46] Lát and Uzzá were goddesses worshipped by the heathen Arabs.
[47] Fárán, name of a mountain in the neighbourhood of Mecca.
[48] Al-Quran, ch. 2, v. 28. In these words, which were addressed to the angels, God foretold the creation of Adam.
Persian text from Ganjoor · 56 bayts