Yet, we as nation have gradually unlearned the message of extending and sharing whatever good fortune that we have with others.

Iqbal’s heart-warming poem about a lost nightingale helped through the dark by a tiny firefly has been known to Pakistanis for decades. This verse from Pahar Aur Gulehri explains exactly that urging readers to respect others for whoever they are: big or small, strong or weak and poor or rich. Every individual in this world has a special place in the scheme of things and each is unique due to his or her individual characteristics. In today’s Pakistan, lawlessness, flashiness and materialism have become commonplace and many of those having sufficient means to live life luxuriously have started considering the less fortunate children of a lesser God.

This is one of the most important lesson Pakistani’s of present day and age need to learn. Iqbal’s verses urged his people to do exactly the same decades ago. John F Kennedy once famously said, “ask what you can do for your country”. Almost every Pakistani school-going child has recited the verses countless times, yet the true message in the prayer has been failed to find its way in our ways. A child prays to become to his country what a flower is to a garden. On Service To The CountryĪlmost every human being on earth feels proud of his or her country, but how many people in this world make their countries proud? That’s exactly what this verse from Iqbal’s famous verse from Bachay Ki Dua aspires young minds to be.

So it’s time we give this beautiful poem a read and be thankful for the beautiful country that we are blessed with. We Pakistanis take our freedom for granted, as is reflected in the way we lay waste to both our natural landscape and manmade infrastructure. The message is as important today as it was back then, as most Pakistanis have forgotten the luxury that is a free country. At the time this work was penned down, Iqbal was clearly trying to make Muslims of the sub-continent realise the importance of freedom and that no amount of luxuries in captivity could replace life in a free country. The poem relates how a bird in captivity yearns for its days of freedom. Taken from his poem Parinday Ki Faryad, the verse describes the agony and heartbreak of losing freedom with unmatched brevity.

Biography of allama iqbal in urdu pdf