Segundo prefacio, sobre el Suplemento (1886)

Second Preface, on the Supplement (1886)

The tale of the heart's pain is a story
that gives more pleasure the longer it grows.

The musaddas on the Ebb and Flow of Islam was first printed and published in the year 1296 of the Hijra. Although the publication of this poem has perhaps brought no appreciable benefit to society, the acceptance and fame that it has won across India are truly astonishing. The verse form was wholly unfamiliar, and the subject matter consisted for the most part of reproach and blame. The faults of the nation had been picked out one by one and exposed, and the tongue had been made to do the work of sword and spear. Most of the pious and good men of the nation held religious suspicions about the author. Bigotry was generally a bar to hearing a word of truth. In spite of all this, within this short time the poem has spread to every corner of the country. Seven or eight editions of it have already been published in various districts of India. In some national schools a selection from it is taught to children. In the gatherings held to celebrate the Prophet's birth its stanzas are recited here and there. Many people weep and shed tears involuntarily as they read it. Many of its stanzas are on the lips of our preachers. In some places its themes are acted in national plays. Many musaddas poems have been composed on its pattern and in its metre. In many newspapers reviews have been written on it, both favourable and hostile. In the government schools of the North-Western Provinces it has been admitted into the course of study on account of its general popularity; and there are many other things of the same kind which show that the nation has paid it adequate attention. But there is no occasion in this for the author to take any pride. If there had been no capacity for being moved in the heart of the nation, this poem and a thousand like it would have been useless. So if the author has any pride, it is only in this: that he did not sow seed in salt ground, nor did he try to apply a leech to a stone. He addressed a company that has strayed from the road but is not lost; they have wandered from the path, but they are looking to right and left in search of it. Their accomplishments have been lost, but the capacity remains. Their form has changed, but the substance is still there. Their faculties have grown feeble, but have not perished. Their jewels have been dulled, but polishing can bring them out again. There are virtues among their faults, though hidden; there are sparks in their ashes, though smothered.

This poem, in which a faithful picture of the past and present state of the nation had been drawn, though free of exaggeration compared with the ordinary poems of the East, was not free of omission. In fault-finding and nitpicking the eye of a friend does the same work as the eye of an enemy. Both are equally quick to seize on faults and equally quick to overlook merits: but the enemy does it so that the faults may be shown and the merits concealed, and the friend for fear that pride in the merits may hold back the correction of the faults. The author too, who claims to be a friend, was perhaps compelled by love and heartfelt concern alone to search out the nation's faults, and was excused from spreading out its merits. But this manner, as much as it stirred up shame, was equally discouraging. The fire in the author's heart had flared up and gone out, and its dejection had crept into his words. The poem ended on such heart-breaking verses that all hope was cut off and every effort seemed to have been in vain. Perhaps there could have been no remedy for this fault if the nation's attention had not produced a new impulse in the author's heart and made the nation deserving of a new address. The nation has not changed, it is true, but its looks are changing. So if the time for praise has not yet come, the blame at least ought to be less. The urging of some friends supported these thoughts, and a supplement suited to the present state of things has been attached at the end of the original musaddas. It was not the author's purpose to make the supplement long, but once this subject had been touched it was as hard to avoid length as it is to jump into the sea and not move one's arms and legs.

Here and there changes have been made in the old musaddas. Perhaps readers will not like some of these changes, because the old wording had become familiar; but it was the author's duty, when entertaining his friends, not to set before them anything which seemed distasteful to his own palate. The poem was not worthy of approval before, nor is it now. But God be praised that the pain and the truth were there before and are there still. It is to be hoped that the pain will spread and the truth will spread.

Our Lord, accept this from us; truly You are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing.