The reception was on the invitation of Lord Martin Rees and Professor Amartya Sen, who were also amongst the speakers on the occasion.
Others speakers were Julie Stephens, Urdu Language Fellow at the American Institute of Indian Studies, and Professor Dushka Saiyid, Allama Iqbal Fellow at Wolfson College. Julie Stephens and Shafqat Hussain Shah, PhD Candidate in the Department of Material Science and Metallurgy, read from Iqbal's poems in Urdu and English translation.
» Remarks from Julie Stephens at the reception: MS Word | PDF
» Mohammed Iqbal's poem Gabriel and Satan :
Gabriel and Satan
Gabriel:
Dear old friend! How is the world of color and smell?
Satan:
Passion and Concord and Pain and Loss and Searching and Desire
Gabriel:
There is talk of you every moment in Heaven
Would it not be possible to mend the torn hem of your honor?
Satan:
Alas, Gabriel. You are unaware of this secret
After my wine glass broke, I have become intoxicated
Now my existence here is impossible
How quiet is this world without palace or street
The one whose despair is the internal fire of the universe,
Is it appropriate to say of him, that he is disappointed or not?
Gabriel
From your rebellion, we lost our places of esteem
Where is the honor of the angels now in the eye of God?
Satan
My daring has increased the fervor of man, who was merely a handful of dust
My mischief is the warp and woof of the material of intelligence and wisdom
You only see the battle between good and evil from the shore
Who is experiencing the beating of the storm, me or you?
Even the prophets Khizr and Elias are powerless,
As my storm spreads from ocean to ocean, river to river, stream to stream
If you have a private audience with God, ask him:
Whose blood has added color to the story of Adam?
I prick the heart of God like a thorn
You only cry, “Allah hu, Allah hu, Allah hu.”
