God’s Command to Angels

:: God’s Command to Angels ::Allama Iqbal (d. 1938)Translated by: M. Shahid AlamMarshall the meek of my world. Arise, set them free.Seize the towers of the rich. Rock the tyrannies.Lift the slaves: ignite them. Instill a faith that rocks.Teach the feeble sparrow to fight the taloned hawk.Power belongs to the people; their kingdom has come.Destroy the totems of tyranny; their history is done.Why do the toiling peasants reap death and misery?Capture the granite castles. Seize the granaries.Why do they disconnect the worshippers from me?I do not need priests to parse my words for me.I have no use for gilded walls and ornamented frieze.Build me a tabernacle with mud, thatch and leaves. This age of smokes and mirrors: is this modernity?Move the poet: make him rage. Hitch him to Eternity.