Answer to the Complaint

When passion streaming from the heart turns human lips to lyres,
Some magic wings man’s music then, his song with soul inspires; 

Man’s words are sacred then, they soar, The ears of heaven they seek,
From dust those mortal accents rise, Immortals hear them speak;

So wild and wayward was my Love, such tumult raised its sighs,
Before its daring swiftly fell the ramparts of the skies. 

The skies exclaimed in wonderment, “Some one is hiding here,”
The wheeling Planets paused to say, “Seek on the highest sphere.” 

The silver Moon said, “You are wrong, Some mortal it must be,”
The Milky Way too joined converse, “Here in our midst is he.’’ 

Rizwan alone, my plaintive voice began to recognise,
He knew me for a human who had lost his Paradise. 

And even the Angels could not tell what was that voice so strange,
Whose secret seemed to lie beyond Celestial wisdom’s range. 

They said, “Can Man now roving come and reach these regions high?
That tiny speck of mortal clay, has it now learnt to fly?

How little do these beings of earth the laws of conduct know;
How coarse and insolent they are, these men who live below. 

- First three stanzas of "Jawab-e-Shikwa" (Answer to the Complaint) by Muhammad Allama Iqbal