Fatimah bint Abdullah (Iqbal's Fatimah bint Abdullah)

                                                           Fatimah bint Abdullah

                                                      (Iqbal’s Fatimah bint Abdullah)

                                                                                                                             

                             Fatimah! Thou art the cause of honour for the nation of Muhammed,

                             Every speck of the dust of thy person is innocent,

                             O the hourie of the desert! This felicity was in thy fate,

                             Offering water to the Ghazis was in thy fate,

                             This Jihad in the way of Allah without the sword and the shield,

                             What a courage generating is thy passion for struggle!

                             This bud too was there in the garden of autumn struck desert,

                             Lord! Such a spark too was there in our ashes,

                             In our desert many antelopes are still hidden,

                             Lightnings are asleep in the rain exhausted clouds too,

                             Fatimah! Though on thy sad demise tears are falling from eyes,

                             Song of happiness too is hidden in our sorrowful lamentation,

                             Writhing of thy person is how delightful!

                             Every speck of thy person is replete with burning to live,

                             In thy silent grave abides an uproar,

                             A new nation is being reared in its embrace,

                             Though I am uninformed of the broadness of the purpose,

                             I foresee eternity rising from her grave,

                             There is appearance of the fresh stars in the expanse of the sky,

                             Their waves of light is imperceptible to human eyes,

                             Which have just risen from the region of darkness,

                             Whose lustre is not acquainted with the restraint of dusk and dawn,

                             Whose lustre radiates beams of  old and new traditions too,

                             And has the reflection of thy star blessed with fortune too.

                                        (Suggestions invited for making the above more exact.)

Fatimah bint Abdullah, a sad song written to mourn the death of an Arab girl of 14, killed in the battle while serving water to the injured, when Italy invaded Libya in September 1911. May her soul rest in peace! Aameen.