Naara-e-Gabriel, means Gabriel's dire yell, and dire yell indeed it is. It is a poetical work in Urdu, resembling sonorous thunder, yet is not poetry for the sake of poetry. It is an advice. It is a warning and it is a trumpet. It is a message that touches the strings of the art and smites the conscience. It is a war cry against the dire consequences of the immoral, ungodly and materialistic culture of this modern civilization, and is an exhortation to the Islamic Ummah, the indolent Ummah to stand up to the occasion dutifully and save the humanity and themselves from the impending hazards by affecting the necessary reforms. It has heart-touching prayers. It is the most excellent and splendid proof of genius. The verse is superb, sublime. Measure, rhyme, rhythm is perfect. Verse moves with ease and elegance. Diction throughout is pure, simple. It is the voice of a sincere heart, which seeks a heart that is sincere. There is power as well as pathos. The exhortation is vehement. The work may be classed as one of the noblest productions of human mind.
There are more than twelve poems in all. But there are three main poems. First of these is Naara-e-Gabriel. It contains one hundred and fifty verses on the pattern of Iqbal's famous poem Shikwa. The study of the poem reveals that it is the third and final ring of an historical link. At a time, late Hali had sung the dirge Musaddas of the Islamic Ummah, then at a time later in history Iqbal had voiced his complaint (Shikwa). Now at an appropriate time Gabriel has made the dire yell. The next of the three poems is Ghulbang-e-Sadarat. It contains one hundred and thirty-five verses and is the declaration of a manifesto of a President of a country in Islamic Ummah. The Third of the three poems is the economic system of Islam in twenty seven verses, plus seven verses in another short poem. The editing and printing could not be regarded as flawless and worthy of such a work.
When I read the work, two thoughts never left my mind to the end. The first was how a man without the requisite training and exercise could have managed to suddenly produce so perfect a work of poetry. The second thought was about the surprising resemblance which the work bore to the work of great Iqbal, both in style and thought. For instance read the following:-
“That is, "in the dark age the quality of fidelity has vanished. The wealth of Sainthood and generosity too has left, amiability and modesty have disappeared. The remedy for the ailment of man has also gone. Men have turned materialism workshops suffering from the worldly fever."
Iqbal's style generally and in truth is regarded as inimitable. It is in no one's power to obtain or maintain that lofty standard. Dr. Javed Iqbal, the son of Allamah Iqbal also has pointed out the identity existing between the work of Iqbal and Gabriel. He has given out the work of Gabriel as the echo of Iqbal. Still more remarkable is the fact that the history of literature in any language fails to cite a parallel case of complete identity of style and thought existing between the works of two minds. So like a miracle this case of Gabriel stands unique in the history of literature.
In order to satisfy my curiosity I went to see Allamah Gabriel. In the following is given the gist of what Gabriel said:-
Allamah Iqbal maintains a position unique in the realm of poetry. Yet basically he is not a poet. The epithet of philosopher also is no befitting name for him, for it neither adds to his honor, nor it describes him fully. He rather has to be linked with the line of Mujaddid Alph Sanni. Read Iqbal's poem that contains the verses:-
That is:-
"This age is in search of its Ibraham."
And:-
"I have been commanded to cry the nation the call for the prayer."
So he is the caller to prayer (Muazzin) in the ensuring age of Abraham. The poem under discussion is the complete manifesto of the coming age of Abraham. Thus you can give him a name what you like in this light. Allamah Iqbal died in 1938 in Lahore. It was a coincidence that on that very day I was in Sialkot, his birth town. In 1942 in my 25th Year I was assigned my mission in Iraq, in Mussayyib. I was at that time ignoramus, and the mission assigned to me was to struggle against the impending danger of atomic hell that was to appear soon in the world. In 1945 the appearance of atomic bomb ushered in a new era. I had to address the world initially in English on the dint of scientific argument against the atomic hell. The Quran provided me with the basis of a complete scientific argument corroborated by the modern atomic science. The Islamic Ummah as the addressee of Iqbal, was to be expected naturally to play the part as Religious duty. The elite have discerned the resemblance between my poetical work and that of Iqbal, but what generally is not known, is the fact that both of us have burned in the same oven during our lives, in passion, in misery, in affliction for the same purpose, and the same cause.
The anxiety of Allamah Iqbal's heart about the Islamic ummah is no secret. Nor in any way is unknown, the degraded, indolent and pitiable state of the present Islamic Ummah among the common wealth of nations. And the urgently of the necessity of playing their part as Muslims in the universal struggle against atomic hell. The anxiety of Allamah Iqbal perhaps did not leave him after his death. It was the year 1962, my forty-fifth year, and I was engrossed in my crushing literary ordeal, that one winter night after my day long routine academic labor, I lay in my bed struggling to have some sleep, but unusually the sleep would not come. Then all of a sudden, when I lay in a supine posture, face up , and wide awake, I mentally perceived a human figure like a live picture a few feet high and above to the right of my head. I did neither turn my head, nor did I see with my eyes. The figure was of a man of bright yellow color and appeared like a Kashmiri pot-maker. I felt a sense of inspiration in me and then line after line of Urdu poetry began to appear in my mind. Six lines in all came and then profuse perspiration in spite of winter cold began, and thereafter I was lost in sleep. Next morning I noted down the lines, and lo! It was a complete stanza on the pattern of Iqbal's Shikwa. The first line read:-
"The spirit of Iqbal I am, have come in the guise of Gabriel."
Thereafter I carried the stanza further till the poem of Naara-e-Gabriel came to an end. Thereafter for seven years, that is up to 1969 I did compose poetry, besides my own particular routine study. About two thousand verses were the product of the process. A peculiar circumstance in this respect deserves mention, namely that whenever I was engaged in the process of composing poetry, often I perceived the presence of Allamah Iqbal. A few feet behind me, dressed in white Muslim, in an appearance nimble like a spirit, he continually went into the motion with his hands as if weaving the cloth tossing the shuttle to the left and to the right. He seemed as if making exertion. I fully aware of his presence felt a peculiar sort of sensation indescribable in words.
Allamah Iqbal has a verse of a very mysterious kind, and I do not know how the numerous and capable commentators of Iqbal have interpreted it. It is as follows:-
“That is, I have in my throat a song that can stir Gabriel. I have studiously kept it for the laamakaan. (That is to be sung to stir Gabriel after my death).”
The commentators of Iqbal might either have contended themselves with it’s simple toward meanings and might have ignored its mysterious purport altogether. But for me it has particular meanings. And for me its significance is considerable. But its meanings and its portentous significance dawned upon me long after I had finished my poetical work. It neither had occurred to me when I began to compose poetry, nor ever during the entire process. But now I clearly see what the Allamah Iqbal had meant by a song that could stir Gabriel in laa-makaan after his death. Gabriel has been stirred. Will then the Islamic Ummah be stirred by the Naara-e-Gabriel. Could there be imagined a tragedy greater than if the Islamic Ummah would remain indifferent and unconcerned. During his life Iqbal had stirred the Quaid-e-Azam through a letter and has succeeded in inducing him to accept the leadership of Indian Muslims to the consequent appearance of Pakistan. After his death Iqbal stirred Gabriel to stir the Islamic ummah and he succeeded. May now the Islamic Ummah be stirred to stand up to the occasion to save this world from the painful and ignominious end.
If they think it wonderful, then wonderful indeed this experience is, though in this age of materialism, an age Devoid of spiritual values, it might appear as a miracle unbelievable. Yet have they not read what Iqbal has said:-
“That is: If the heart be alive and awake, then gradually, man is endued with another vigilant eye. All depends upon circumstances and occasions. The seeker (of truth) has every moment a different time and different place.”