The Flight: Iqbal and Bach

Wrote a blog in October 2009 about one of my all time favorite book “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” by Richard Bach, at that moment  and earlier I really missed that this work was so much resonating with Iqbal’s poetry, just check this:

 "When Jonathan Seagull joined the Flock on the beach, it was full night. He was dizzy and terribly tired. Yet in delight he flew a loop to landing, with a snap roll just before touchdown. When they hear of it, he thought, of the Breakthrough, they’ll be wild with joy. How much more there is now to living! Instead of our drab slogging forth and back to the fishing boats, there’s a reason to life! We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill. We can be free! We can learn to fly!

and precision flying is a step toward expressing our real nature."

See how this resonates with Iqbal's poetry:

ہر اک مقام سے آگے مقام ہے تیرا
حیات ذوقِ سفر کے سوا کچھ اور نہیں

تہی زندگی سے نہیں یہ فضائیں
 یہاں سینکڑوں آسماں اور بھی ہیں

قناعت نہ کر عالمِ رنگ و بوپر
 چمن اور بھی آشیاں اور بھی ہیں
تو شاہیں ھے پرواز ھے کام تیرا
  ترے سامنے آسماں اور بھی ہیں