Iqbal was one of the greatest poets the world has ever known – in any language, culture, time or place.

Just like Ghalib before him.

And just like Khosroe centuries before both of them.

Just like the other two, Iqbal too wrote not in one language, but in two languages: Urdu and Farsi.

All three of them did: Khosroe, Ghalib and Iqbal.

Here is something Iqbal once wrote – my paraphrase:

“Sometimes,

When I fell to the ground,

To do a Sajdah before God Almighty,

A voice from the earth cried out to me.

It said:

Your heart brimful of the idols you adore.
What will you get out of Namaz?”

END