اے حرم قرطبہ! عشق سے تيرا وجود
Oh Harem of Qurtaba, you owe your existence to Love
عشق سراپا دوام ، جس ميں نہيں رفت و بود
For Love is eternal, never waning, never fading
Writing on the feathers of history ruffling the air. Breezing through the corridors of time. Iqbal’s words echo the obsession of every Muslim-being with her past. What once was his can now only be captured by time. The beauty of those motifs etched into the timeless walls of Masjid-e-Qurtaba. In all its splendour. Waiting as if, in the dungeons of time, for its lost lover.
The mighty marble that fills the columns of Hypostyle Hall, stands as a testament to the grandeur of times. Standing firm on a ground that once was a place of prostration. For the free. For the divine. The light of hope, peeking through the rooftops and windows, searching for an owner.
Forced into the chains of Mezquita-Cathedral, Masjid-e-Qurtaba fights fiercely against the currents of time. The divine words of Al-Musawwir (المصور) overwhelming the Mihrab. The place where free men (مرد حر) once worshipped. Testifying without fear. Unmoving, facing relentlessly towards the Qiblah. Today, a mere prostration is denied.
The mosque gently slopes down into the grandness of Al-Wadi-Al-Kabir (الوادی الکبیر), the great river. So great that Iqbal borrowed from it the nostalgia of her past to envision the future:
آب روان کبیر تیرے کنارے کوئی
Oh Grand River! Someone by your sideدیکھ رہا ہے کسی اور زمانے کا خواب
Dreams about an era
There is no doubt then, that the once Western frontier of Islam aches like a thorn in the heart of every Believer.
It is said that human expression is of three kinds. One for the futile sake of expressing, another for expressing the temporary presence of one’s own existence. And yet another that adds to the discourse, selflessly as it should, of time itself. It is no surprise then, that we chose the latter, to echo our message through Masjid-e-Qurtaba. Never to be lost. Divinely pre-ordained.
Like his predecessor, the words of a poet that date back almost a century stand as a testament to the unrelenting message of hope and zeal that was given to the world more than ten centuries ago in the city of Qurtaba.
ہے مگر اس نقش میں رنگِ ثباتِ دوام
But this figure (Masjid Qurtaba) carries the stamp of performanceجس کو کِیا ہو کسی مردِ خدا نے تمام
Which mush have been Completed by a man of God
Contrary to Washington Irving’s remarks, that “the Moslem empire Spain was but a brilliant exotic that took no permanent root in the soil it embellished”, Iqbal’s words still echo through the walls of Masjid-e-Qurtaba, scouting vigilantly for the Muslim-being that once was, is, and will be the messenger of light (نور). The eternity of truth lies in its persistence despite all attempts to extinguish. All other remarks, including Irving’s, are unable to withstand the tides of time.
Muslims of Al-Andalus have left us with a mosaic that afford every Muslim-being a timeless insight into Islam’s relationship with the Western frontiers of the past, present and future.
Take the best, leave the rest
Our Muslim forefathers that ruled the Iberian Peninsula did not shy away from the architectural vocabulary of Hispano-Romans and Visigoths. From Columns and Corinthian capitals, everything was employed in the transformation of the existing structures to a product that bore the stamp of Islam.
It is no surprise then that such a divinely blessed force did not die by the Christain accord. Rather, the Civil War of Al-Andalus (فتنة الأندلس) forced the grandeur of the Caliphate of Qurtaba into competing petty successors. The Taifa Kingdoms were a product of our own making. The writing was on the wall. It was a matter of time, of destiny. Otherwise, as Iqbal rightfully proclaims, we are destined to last until there is no more.
مِٹ نہیں سکتا کبھی مردِ مسلماں کہ ہے
The Muslim being can never be erasedاس کی اذانوں سے فاش سرِّ کلیمؑ و خلیلؑ
For in its call to prayer lies the evidence of existence of Musa and Ibrahim (A.S.)
