Shikwa or Shikayat or Complain is an epic poem by Allama Iqbal that he read in April, 1911 at “Anjuman Himayat Islam” (Gathering in Support of Islam) in – where else – Lahore.
It is a poem in which a Muslim person on earth has a litany of complains that he addresses directly to God. This is a unique poem in which a Muslim has the temerity to talk to the Almighty God and tell him that he is not being fair to the people that did the most to spread his word.
The complain can be compartmentalize into two broad areas. First, he complains about how his ancestors did so much and now, after many years, their children have been forsaken by the same Being for whom they fought wars, made huge sacrifices and lived and died solely to spread the name of one God. His generation of Muslims have been ignored by God. And it is a consequence of God’s ignorance of His beloved people, the man feels, that the Muslims are in such an abject state of recession in all departments.
The second complain, a corollary of the first is that God’s benevolence is now being showered on people who do not deserve it. They do not deserve it because they are not the “chosen” people who did so much for God in the past. They are not worthy of the Almighty’s attention as they are boors (nahin mehfil mein jinhain baat bhi karnay ka sh’oor) among other things.
In the 31 stanzas, Iqbal rights about the glorious past of the Muslims, how they conquered the world with their armies and conquered illiteracy with their inventions and ideas. He writes about the brilliant character of the Muslims of the past. And he mixes the history with the sad situation that the Muslims of today find themselves in.
The interesting thing is that this poem is as true today as it was almost a hundred years ago. Muslims are still lagging behind in every field. They remember their past fondly when the Muslim empire was on the its pinnacle and Europe was engulfed in the dark ages.
Iqbal was in Europe from 1905 till 1908, where he got his PhD from Munich, Germany and his Law degree from Britain. When he returned to his home (people used to do that more often than they do it now), his sensitive heart overflowed at seeing how much the Muslims had deviated from true Islam, whereas the non-Muslims he met in Europe imbibed the teachings of Islam without knowing anything about the religion.
His brilliant mind could formulate the reasons behind Muslims’ backwardness all over the world. He could see how people were more concerned about the ceremonies and outwardly show of Islam rather than the true following, the true lesson of the beautiful religion.
But it is not until Iqbal’s second poem – Jawab-Shikwa (The answer to the complain) – that we learn what the Shair-e-Mashriq (Poet of the East) thinks are some of the reasons for the zawal (downturn) of Muslims. And He tells the complainer that Islam is not the jageer (property) of a particular land or people, it is a religion that knows no boundaries and if the Muslims of South Asia have forgotten its teachings, it will continue to flourish elsewhere in the world as its need is still quite critical (hay abhi mehfil-e-hasti ko zaroorat teri).