Today's Beautiful Gem: "Time" by Muhammad Iqbal from `The Secrets of Life'

"The cause of time is not the revolution of the sun:
Time is everlasting, but the sun does not last forever.
Time is joy and sorrow, festival and fast;
Time is the secret of moonlight and sunlight.
Thou hast extended time, like space,
And distinguished yesterday from tomorrow.
Thou hast fled, like a scent, from thine own garden;
Thou hast made thy prison with thine own hand.
Our time which has neither beginning nor end,
Blossoms from the flower bed of our mind.
To know its root quickens the living with new life:
Its being is more splendid than dawn.
Life is of time, and time is of life."

Note: In Urdu, Iqbal (1873-1938) ranks next only to Ghalib in
charm, depth, and richness of ideas. He is the national poet
of Pakistan. He, as president of the AIML in 1930, put forward
the idea for a separate Northwestern state in the Indian
subcontinent. He is sometimes looked upon as the spiritual
founder of our sister nation.

Om Santih! Peace! - J. K. Mohana Rao

<:><:><:><:><:><:><:><:><:><:><:><:>124<:><:><:><:><:><:><:><:><:><:><:><:>