Response to “The Complaint”
I decided to make a pencil sketch based on a powerful set of related images in the midst of Iqbal’s poem “Shikwa” (“The Complaint”). These images all refer to personified hearts, who are responsive to the political and social state of Islam and of contemporary Muslims. The passage I work from is as follows:
“Break, hard hearts, to hear the carol
of this nightingale forlorn;
Wake, dull hearts, to heed the clamour
and the clangour of this bell;
Rise, dead hearts, by this new com-
pact of fidelity reborn;
Thirst, dry hearts, for the old vintage
whose sweet tang you knew so well” (Iqbal 33).
The sketch is divided up into four squares, and proceeds as a comic strip might, left to right, top to bottom. In the first scene I drew several broken hearts, and a nightingale singing mournfully (as the tears and music notes convey). The nightingale, of course, is a Sufi symbol often used in ghazals to symbolize the lover of God, singing with joy at the beauty of the rose, which symbolizes the beloved. The nightingale is perched on a barren tree atop a grassy hill, to signify the fact that although this place is capable of nurturing beautiful vegetation, it is not blooming at its potential. This idea in the poem is paradigmatic of the Muslim people’s longing for the power and beauty of paradise , and God’s clear presence to be with them on earth. Yet the poem laments that this is not their current situation.
The second scene is of hearts waking up to the sound of a tolling bell. I curve the hearts in an upward arc, each with a facial expression indicating increasing alertness. The idea expressed is that Muslims are called to become more aware of the change in their situation and the need to respond through prayer, reflection, and action (as this poem models and urges).
The third scene depicts hearts arising like spirits from a grave, and a scroll with plume and ink float in the upper right hand corner of this box to symbolize the “new compact” Iqbal solicits. Deadness, in Iqbal’s estimation, comes from inaction, whereas faithfulness to God requires a living, active faith. Finally, the fourth scene is of hearts gathering around a wind glass, thirsting for a drink with open mouths. The bottle and wine glass symbolize what Iqbal calls “the old vintage…you knew so well,” which indicates the Sufi notion of God’s intoxicating appeal and effect on a lover of God.