Protesta e Risposta alla protesta di Muḥammad Iqbāl Traduzione dell’urdu con introduzione e note

Abstract

Šikva and Ǧavab-i Šikvā are among the most significant poems of Muḥammad Iqbāl’s first Urdu collection, tha Bāng-i Darā: they were read at Lahore from the platform of the Anǧuman-i Ḥimāyat-i Islām in 1909 and 1913. They got immediate success among the modernists because of the message conveyed by the poet, while the orthodoxes objected as it was unconceivable to protest against God. Both the poems were written on specific occasions: the first to shake his co-religionists from their laziness and decline, the second when Bulgaria invaded Turkey. In spite of the fact that the central theme is the decay of Islam from its former greatness (a well-known topic), the dialogue between the poet as spokesman for all the Muslims in the world and God was at that time a new and daring approach to the problem. In his introduction references are made to other relevant works by Iqbāl on the subject. The translation is faithful to the Urdu text: whenever difficulties in the interpretation arise, an explanation has been given in the notes.