''Zabur-i-Ajam'' (, ''Persian Psalms'') is a philosophical poetry book, written in

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, of

Allama Iqbal Muhammad Iqbal (9 November 187721 April 1938) was a South Asian Islamic philosopher, poet and politician. Quote: "In Persian, ... he published six volumes of mainly long poems between 1915 and 1936, ... more or less complete works on philoso ...

, the great poet-philosopher of the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

. It was published in

1927 Events January * January 1 – The British Broadcasting ''Company'' becomes the BBC, British Broadcasting ''Corporation'', when its Royal Charter of incorporation takes effect. John Reith, 1st Baron Reith, John Reith becomes the first ...

Introduction

''Zabur-i Ajam'' includes the

mathnavi Mathnawi ( ), also spelled masnavi, mesnevi or masnawi, is a kind of poem written in rhyming couplets, or more specifically "a poem based on independent, internally rhyming lines". Most mathnawi poems follow a meter of eleven, or occasionally ten ...

'' Gulshan-i Raz-i Jadid'' and ''Bandagi Nama''. There are four sections. The first two are sequences of ghazals in the classical form and the other two are single long poems. Iqbal forcefully expresses his inner convictions and urges the reader to advance himself to achieve progress and prosperity by discovering and strengthening the self. The first of the two longer poems is the ''Gulshan-i Raz-i Jadid'' (, "New Garden of Mysteries"). It alludes to the ''

Gulshan-i Raz ''Gulshan-i Raz'' (also spelled ''Gulshan-e Raz'' and ''Golshan-e Raz''; (, "Rose Garden of Secrets") is a collection of poems written in the 14th century by Mahmud Shabistari, Sheikh Mahmoud Shabestari. It is considered to be one of the greates ...

'', the treatise on Sufism written in Persian verse by Sa'd ad-Din Mahmud Shabistari. Here Iqbal poses and answers nine questions on philosophical problems such as the nature of discursive thought, of the self, and of the relation between the eternal and the temporal. The subject of the second poem, the ''Bandagi Nama'' (, "Book of Servitude") is the loss of freedom, particularly spiritual freedom, of an individual or society, and its consequent evils. It is divided into several sections and touches on the music and other arts of enslaved people, their religious tenets and the art of reconstructing free men. In Zabur-i Ajam, Iqbal's Persian ghazal is at its best as his Urdu ghazal is in '' Bal-i Jibril''. Here as in other books, Iqbal insists on remembering the past, doing well in the present and preparing for the future. His lesson is that one should be dynamic, full of zest for action and full of love and life. Implicitly, he proves that there is no form of poetry which can equal the ghazal in vigour and liveliness.

External links

Read Online at Iqbal Academy site
1927 books Poems in Persian Islamic philosophical poetry books Poetry by Muhammad Iqbal Poetry collections {{Islam-book-stub

Introduction

See also

External links