by Muhammad Iqbal · 1920
Poetry · Classics
A philosophical poem first published in Persian in 1915 by the poet Muhammad Iqbal, arguing that the strengthening of the individual self is the aim of life. This is R. A. Nicholson's English translation of the Asrar-i Khudi, with his introduction and notes.
Showing that the system of the universe originates in the Self and that the continuation of the life of all individuals depends on strengthening the Self.
The form of existence is an effect of the Self, Whatsoever thou seest is a secret of the Self. When the Self awoke to consciousness, It revealed the universe of Thought. 190 A hundred worlds are hidden in its essence: Self-affirmation brings Not-self to light. By the Self the seed of hostility is sown in the world: It imagines itself to be other than itself. It makes from itself the forms of others 195 In order to multiply the pleasure of strife. It is slaying by the strength of its arm That it may become conscious of its own strength. Its self-deceptions are the essence of Life; Like the rose, it lives by bathing itself in blood. 200 For the sake of a single rose it destroys a hundred rose-gardens And makes a hundred lamentations in quest of a single melody. For one sky it produces a hundred new moons, And for one word a hundred discourses. The excuse for this wastefulness and cruelty 205 Is the shaping and perfecting of spiritual beauty. The loveliness of Shírín justifies the anguish of Farhád,[32] The fragrant navel justifies a hundred musk-deer.
