To many people Iqbal is the poet who wrote Saare Jahan Se Accha. But his most intense work is captured in the two series of poems he wrote in 1909 and 1913, respectively.

The first, Shikwa (Taking Issue), is ostensibly a rant to god from a Muslim who is both frustrated and angered by circumstances and by the behaviour of his brethren. Not surprisingly, these poems came in for criticism from Muslims and Hindus alike.

The second, Jawaab-e-Shikwa (Allah's Answer) purports to be god’s answer to these complaints, combining remonstration and hope. Read together, they are almost a manifesto for Muslim people, who, Iqbal felt, were a nation without a country of their own.

On the surface, the verses are as redolent with the devices of classic Urdu poetry as the works of, say, a Mir or a Ghalib. But the tone is neither romantic nor languorous. These are deeply political statements.

This edition presents the original Urdu text in Roman script, alongside the elegant English translations, which strip away ornamentation and rhyming to restore the anger in the poetry.

Originally published in Urdu. Translated by Mustansir Dalvi, 2012