Storyteller Seema Anand explores Muhammad Iqbal’s epic poem Shikwa, one of the most famous and enduring works of Islamic literature. The poem is an extended and heartfelt complaint in lyrical Urdu about all the many ways in which God has let Muslims down. When it was first recited by Iqbal at a public gathering in Lahore in 1911, a fatwa was issued by Islamic scholars who were shocked by its seemingly outrageous impudence. (1 x 28′)
First broadcast March 2011 BBC Radio 4
Contributors: Professor Javed Majeed and Navid Akhtar
Readings by Sagar Arya, Saeed Jaffrey and Pervaiz Alam
Producer Mukti Jain Campion