The principal of the government higher primary school located in Faridpur in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly district has reportedly been arrested after right-wing groups complained to the police about the popular Urdu poem by the school children.
The principal was initially suspended by the education department.
Trouble erupted after a video started circulating on the internet where a group of students can be seen singing the popular Urdu language prayer ‘lab pe aati hai dua banke tamanna meri’ in the morning assembly. The clip shows the part where the children are heard singing the lines ‘mere allah burai se bachaana mujhko’.
Some members of the local unit of VHP accused school principal Nahid Siddiqui and Shiksha Mitra (teacher) Waziruddin of hurting the religious sentiments of the people in the Hindu-dominated area by reciting “madrassa-type prayers” in the school. They also alleged that the accused were also trying to convert the students.
The poem- Lab Pe Aati Hai Dua – also known as Bachche ki Dua, was composed by Muhammad Iqbal in 1902. Iqbal was a writer, philosopher, scholar and politician. His Urdu poetry was famous and is considered among the greatest of the twentieth century.
Iqbal’s Bachche ki Dua:
Lap pe aati hai dua ban ke tamanna meri
My heart’s desire comes to my lips as a prayer
Zindgi shama ki surat ho Khudaya meri
God, make my life as one of a candle, a guiding light,
Door duniya ka mere dam se andhera hojaye
My presence would destroy the darkness of this world,
Har jagah mere chamakne se ujala hojaye
And my burning light would illuminate all space
Ho mere dum se yohe mere watan ki zeenat
My actions would be for my country, beautiful and admired
Jistara phool se hoti hai chaman ki zeenat
Just as a flower adds to the beauty of a garden
Zindigi ho meri parwaane ki soorat ya rab
My life would be like that of a moth that loves light and flies into it,
Ilm ki shama se ho mujko mohabat ya rab
O Lord! Such would be my love for Knowledge, O Lord!
Ho mera kaam ghareebon ki himayat karna
I would work not but to help the poor
Dardmandon se, Zaeefon se muhabbat karna
And to fill the lives of the lost and old with love
Mere Allah! Buraee se bachana mujhko
O God, save me from the evil and wrong
Naik jo raah ho us rah pe chalana mujhko
And keep me on the path that is straight and righteous.
