To Javed My Son

 — on receiving his first hand-written letter in London

by Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938)

Create your own place in the world of love
New time new morning new evening

Listen to the divine within you
Like a hawk searching for live prey

Learn the language of a rose — Inshallah —
For its silence veils Nature’s secret

Shun glazed pottery made in the West
Mold your own cup using India’s clay

Harvest my ghazals like grapes
Ferment them to make sacred wine

Renounce the material
Be like me — a Sufi

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Transcreated from the original Urdu by Rafiq Kathwari.