Medium: watercolor

Muhammad Iqbal’s Shikwa and Jawad e Shikwa together comprise a fascinating commentary on the themes of declining Islamic power and the variations in Muslim identity. In Shikwa, or “Complaint,” Iqbal writes as a group of Muslims explaining their own religious virtues, lamenting the fall of the Islamic empire, and requesting that God remedy their problems. I found particularly amusing the rather strong language that was used in the Shikwa. Two of my favorite couplets are below:

Now no more for us Thy favors Thy old benevolence
How and wherefore is Thy pristine kindliness departed hence? (18)

All we have is jeers from strangers, public shame, and poverty—
Is disgrace our recompense for laying down our lives for Thee? (19)

The melodramatic language of the Shikwa has an especially satisfying foil in one of the opening scenes of the Jawad e Shikwa, or “Response to the The Complaint.” After an introductory stanza, Iqbal includes a brief conversation between planets wondering aloud how the humans on earth had mustered the gall to sincerely voice complaints to the heavens:

Listening, the ancient Sphere said, “Someone seems to be about;”
Cried the planets, “There is someone, in the upper ether pure;”
“Not so lofty,” called the Moon. “Down on the earth there, not a doubt;”
“No,” the Milky Way retorted. “He is hiding here, for sure.”
Guardian Rizwan, he if any, my complaint distinctly heard;
“He is man, just newly driven out of Eden,” he averred. (38)

All the angels in amazement shouted, “Why, whose voice is it?”
Dwellers in the firmament were baffled by the mystery.
“Shall a mortal man aspire in our high firmament to sit?
Can that little speck of dust take wings, and soar so loftily?
They have clean forgot their manners, those inhabitants of earth;
What effrontery, what rudeness for such things of lowly birth!”

I found this image to be an entertainingly snide response; it was quite effective in communicating the author’s frustration with the tone of the Shikwa, and likely also with the tone of complaints Iqbal had heard in his own life. Dramatically demonstrating the beautiful insignificance of human life by describing planets unable to even confidently discern humans living on earth is quite bold. This boldness inspired me to focus on this image for this week’s blog post. I interpreted the “ancient Sphere” to be the sun. I drew just two planets in order to leave room for the majority of the painting to represent the empty space, in order to highlight the distance. I think part of the appeal of the image that the poem conjured was how unrealistic it was to imagine a conference of space items of drastically different locations and sizes. In order to carry this into the painting, I tried to arrange the four space items in a position that would be reminiscent of a meeting and tried to paint the space objects in a way that would highlight the absurdity of their placement and sizing.

Although this image was interesting and well-placed within Shikwa and Jawad e Shikwa, I found it worthy of further thought because it highlights how views on religion and faith can vary so fundamentally. The politicization of different aspects of Islamic life (i.e. headscarves, apparel, calls to prayer, etc.) arises from discrepancy in views about religious practice. Here we see a great example of why these issues are so incredibly complicated and multilayered: If the relationship between God and humans can vary so drastically (the Shikwa alludes to a very close-watching God that is in major contrast to the image from the Jawad e Shikwa that I depicted in my painting), then naturally ideas about how to best serve or show allegiance to God will vary drastically.

Muhammad Iqbal, Complaint and Answer