Intikhab-e-Kalam: Shibli Naumani

This is a representative selection of Shibli Nomani’s Urdu poetry. Shibli started writing poetry in his childhood. He was a prolific writer of both prose and poetry in Urdu. His poetry, both in Persian and Urdu, was of a very high order and served as an important medium through which Shibli expressed his political thoughts. In Islamic societies, Poetry has always been a powerful means of expressing political sentiments, and it continues to be a strong emotive force in modern South Asia.

Shibli’s poems were often scathing criticisms of the All India Muslim League, employing sharp and exquisite irony by contrasting familiar League slogans with their supine behaviour. The study of these poems offers a vivid picture of the early days of the Muslim League. Keeping in view its policies, no one could predict that this organization would one day manage to create a separate homeland for Indian Muslims.