Prayers of Muhammad Iqbal

We have collected some of the best prayers of Muhammad Iqbal to use in request to God. May these prayers for safety bring you comfort and peace of mind. May these prayers for strength encourage your spirit and strengthen your faith.

Sir Muhammad Iqbal (9 November 1877 – 21 April 1938), widely known as Allama Iqbal, was a poet, philosopher and politician, as well as an academic, barrister and scholar in British India who is widely regarded as having inspired the Pakistan Movement. He is called the “Spiritual Father of Pakistan.” He is considered one of the most important figures in Urdu literature, with literary work in both Urdu and Persian.

Lab Pe Aati Hai Dua

Lab Pe Aati Hai Dua” (لب پہ آتی ہے دعا‎), also known as “Bachche Ki Dua“, is an Urdu language dua, or prayer, in verse form authored by Muhammad Iqbal in 1902. The poem has been set to music and sung in morning school assembly almost universally in Pakistan, and in Urdu-medium schools in India.

The Imam of the Jama Masjid, Delhi, Muhibullah Nadwi, sang it as a boy in an English-medium primary school in India in the 1940s. Even earlier, the du’a was broadcast by All India Radio, Lucknow, a few months after Iqbal’s death in 1938.

The song has long been sung in the private The Doon School in Dehradun, India, in a secular morning assembly ritual. The song has also been interpreted by an all-women’s American bluegrass music band, Della Mae, sponsored by the US State Department, which toured Islamabad and Lahore in Pakistan in 2012.

In October 2019, Furqan Ali, the headmaster of a government-run primary school in Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh, India, was suspended by the district education authorities following complaints by two Hindu nationalist organizations Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal that the song, which was being recited in the school’s morning assembly, was a “madrasa prayer.” Ali was later reinstated but transferred to another school.

Lyrics

Urdu lyrics Roman Urdu Transliteration English Translation
لب پہ آتی ہے دعا بن کے تمنا ميری
زندگی شمع کی صورت ہو خدايا ميری
Lab pe aati hai dua ban ke tamanna meri
Zindagi shamma ki surat ho Khudaya meri
My longing comes to my lips as supplication of mine.
Oh God! May like the beauty of the candle be the life of mine.
دُور دنيا کا مرے دم سے اندھيرا ہو جائے
ہر جگہ ميرے چمکنے سے اُجالا ہو جائے
Door dunya ka mere dam se andhera ho jaye
Har jagha mere chamakne se ujala ho jaye
May the world’s darkness disappear through the life of mine
May every place light up with the sparkling light of mine
ہو مرے دم سے يونہی ميرے وطن کی زينت
جس طرح پھول سے ہوتی ہے چمن کی زينت
Ho mere dam se yunhi mere watan ki zeenat
Jis tarha phool se hoti hai chaman ki zeenat
May my homeland through me attain elegance
As the garden through flowers attains elegance
زندگی ہو مری پروانے کی صورت يا رب
علم کی شمع سے ہو مجھ کو محبت يا رب
Zindagi ho meri parwane ki surat ya Rabb
Ilm ki shamma se ho mujh ko mohabbat ya Rabb
May my life like that of the moth be oh Lord
May I love the lamp of knowledge oh Lord
ہو مرا کام غريبوں کی حمايت کرنا
دردمندوں سے ضعيفوں سے محبت کرنا
Ho mera kaam gharibon ki himayat karna
Dardmando se za’eefon se mohabbat karna
May supportive of the poor my life’s way be
May loving the old, the suffering my way be
مرے اللہ! برائی سے بچانا مُجھ کو
نيک جو راہ ہو اسی رہ پہ چلانا مجھ کو
Mere allah burai se bachana mujhko
Naik jo rah ho, ussi reh pe chalana mujhko
My God! Protect me from the evil ways
Show me the path leading to the good ways
Muhammad Iqbal

Muhammad Iqbal

A Child’s Prayer

it is a poem from the point of view of a child making du’a to Allah ﷻ‎:

لب پہ آتی ہے دعا بن کے تمنا میری
زندگی شمع کی صورت ہو خدایا میری

My inner longing manifests on my lips as a prayer.
O Lord! May my life glow like the flame of a candle.

دور دنیا کا مرے دم سے اندھیرا ہو جائے
ہر جگہ میرے چمکنے سے اجالا ہو جائے

Let my breath disperse the dark that holds the world in thrall.
Let my radiance result in brightness everywhere.

ہو مرے دم سے یونہی میرے وطن کی زینت
جس طرح پھول سے ہوتی ہے چمن کی زینت

With each breath, may I bring beauty to my land.
Like the blossoms that bring beauty to the meadow.

زندگی ہو مری پروانے کی صورت یا رب
علم کی شمع سے ہو مجھ کو محبت یا رب

O Lord! May my life be like the moth.
O Lord! May I always have a love for the flame of knowledge.

ہو مرا کام غریبوں کی حمایت کرنا
درد مندوں سے ضعیفوں سے محبت کرنا

May my exertions and my life’s work, the support of the poor be.
To the elderly and the afflicted, may I always loving be.

مرے اللہ! برائی سے بچانا مجھ کو
نیک جو راہ ہو اس رہ پہ چلانا مجھ کو

Allah! Preserve me from all the evil in the world.
Lead me down that path that is the path of righteousness.

A Prayer

by Allama Muhammad Iqbal

My invocations are sincere and true,
They form my ablutions and prayers due.

One glance of guide such joy and warmth can grant,
On marge of stream can bloom the tulip plant.

One has no comrade on Love’s journey long
Save fervent zeal, and passion great and strong.

O God, at gates of rich I do not bow,
You are my dwelling place and nesting bough.

Your Love in my breast burns like Doomsday morn,
The cry, He is God, on my lips is born.

Your Love, makes me God, fret with pain and pine,
You are the only quest and aim of mine.

Without You town appears devoid of life,
When present, same town appears astir with strife.

For wine of gnosis I request and ask,
To get some dregs I break the cup and glass.

The mystics’ gourds and commons’ pitchers wait
For liquor of your Grace and Bounty great.

Against Your godhead I have a genuine plaint,
For You the Spaceless, while for me restraint.

Both verse and wisdom indicate the way
Which longing face to face can not convey.

[Translated by Syed Akbar Ali Shah]

The mystic’s soul is like the morning breeze:
It freshens and renews life’s inner meaning;
An illumined soul can be a shepherd’s, who
Could hear the Voice of God at God’s
command.

[Translated by Naim Siddiqui]
Not: This poem has been written in the Mosque of Cordoba.

 

Dua by Muhammad Iqbal

Dua by Muhammad Iqbal

Dua

Lord, fill the Muslim’s heart with a desire so fervent
That it will set his heart aflame and stir his soul.
Light up again every speck of dust in the Valley of Faran.
Make us long again for beautiful sights, and create in us the urge to make demands.
Give piercing vision to those deprived of sight,
and show to others what I have seen.
Lead the stray gazelle back to the Sanctuary.
It has grown used to the city ‐ Give it back the vastness of the desert.
Stir up again the ruins of the heart with a commotion like judgment Day.
Let this empty litter once again seat a sweetheart ‐ a Layla!
In the darkness of this age give to every troubled heart
Scars of love that would shame the moon.
Let the goals be as high as the Pleiades.
Give us the calm and poise of the shore, But the freedom of the sea.
Let love be selfless and truth fearless;
Let our breasts be flooded with light‐Make our hearts clear as crystal.
Enable us to foresee the calamity that is coming;
In the midst of today’s upheaval give us a vision of tomorrow.
I am a nightingale making my lament, I am from a garden which has been ravaged.
I wish that my prayer would have effect—Give to a beggar, bounteous Lord!

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