To this convention you must re-state as clearly and as strongly as possible, the political objective of Indian Muslims as a distinct political unit in the country. It is absolutely necessary to tell the world both inside and outside India that the economic problem is not the only problem in the country. From the Muslim point of view the cultural problem is of much greater consequence to most Indian Muslims. At any rate it is not less important than the economic problem.

Heart – “It is absolutely certain that God does exist.”Head – “But, my dear boy! Existence is one of my categories, and you have no right to use it.”Heart – “So much the better, my Aristotle!”

Shah Alamgir, that high and mighty king, Pride and renown of Gurgan Timur’s line,In whom Islam attained a loftier fameAnd wider honour graced the Prophet’s Law,He the last arrow to our quiver leftIn the affray of Faith with Unbelief ;When that the impious seed of heresy,By Akbar nourished, sprang and sprouted fresh In Dara’s soul, the candle of the heart Was dimmed in every breast, no more secureAgainst corruption our CommunityContinued ; then God chose from IndiaThat humble-minded warrior, Alamgir,Religion to revive, faith to renew.The lightning of his sword set all ablazeThe harvest of impiety ; faith’s torchOnce more its radiance o’er our counsels shed.

Overflowing with the wine of Truth is the cup of IndiaAll philosophers of the Western world have acknowledged IndiaIt is the result of the elegant thinking of IndiansThat higher than the sky is the position of IndiaThis country has had many people of angelic dispositionOn whose account world renowned is the name of IndiaIndia is proud of the existence of RamaSpiritual people consider him prelate of IndiaThis alone is the miracle of this light of righteousnessThat brighter than world’s morning is the evening of IndiaHe was expert in sword craft, was unique in braveryWas matchless in piety and in the enthusiasm of love.

Our India is the best of all countries in the world.

China and Arabia are ours, India is ours,Muslims we are, the whole world is ours...

O water of the river Ganges, thou rememberst the dayWhen our torrent flooded thy valleys...

The history of the preceding Muslim dynasties had taught Aurangzeb that the strength of Islam did not depend ... so much on the goodwill of the people of this land as on the strength of the ruling race.

Why must I forever lose, forever forgo profit that is my due,Sunk in the gloom of evenings past, no plans for the morrow pursue.Why must I all attentive be to the nightingale's lament?Friend, am I as dumb as a flower? Must I remain silent?My theme makes me bold, makes my tongue more eloquent.Dust be in my mouth, against Allah I make complaint.

Would we have played with our lives for nothing but worldly gain? If our people had run after earth's goods and gold,Need they have smashed idols, and not idols sold?

You tell us who were they who pulled down the gates of Khyber?Who were they that reduced the city that was the pride of Caesar?Fake gods that men had made, who did break and shatter?Who routed infidel armies and destroyed them with bloody slaughter?Who put out and made cold the 'sacred' flame in Iran?Who retold the story of the one God, Yazdan?

And even the Angels could not tell what was that voice so strange, Whose secret seemed to lie beyond Celestial wisdom’s range.

Every land which belongs to God is our land.

Nations are born in the hearts of poets; they prosper and die in the hands of politicians.

Human intellect is natures attempt at self criticism.

The immediacy of mystic experience simply means that we know God just as we know other objects. God is not a mathematical entity or a system of concepts mutually related to one another and having no reference to experience.

Ends and purposes, whether they exist as conscious or subconscious tendencies, form the warp and woof of our conscious experience.

"Muhammad of Arabia ascended the highest Heaven and returned. I swear by God that if I had reached that point, I should never have returned.” These are the words of a great Muslim saint, ‘Abd al-Quddūs of Gangoh. In the whole range of Sufi literature it will be probably difficult to find words which, in a single sentence, disclose such an acute perception of the psychological difference between the prophetic and the mystic types of consciousness. The mystic does not wish to return from the repose of “unitary experience”; and even when he does return, as he must, his return does not mean much for mankind at large.

It cannot be denied that Islam, regarded as an ethical ideal plus a certain kind of polity – by which expression I mean a social structure regulated by a legal system and animated by a specific ethical ideal – has been the chief formative factor in the life-history of the Muslims of India. It has furnished those basic emotions and loyalties which gradually unify scattered individuals and groups, and finally transform them into a well-defined people, possessing a moral consciousness of their own.

The principle that each group is entitled to its free development on its own lines is not inspired by any feeling of narrow communalism. There are communalisms and communalisms. A community which is inspired by feelings of ill-will towards other communities is low and ignoble. I entertain the highest respect for the customs, laws, religious and social institutions of other communities. Nay, it is my duty, according to the teaching of the Quran, even to defend their places of worship, if need be. Yet I love the communal group which is the source of my life and behaviour; and which has formed me what I am by giving me its religion, its literature, its thought, its culture, and thereby recreating its whole past as a living operative factor, in my present consciousness. Even the authors of the recognise the value of this higher aspect of communalism.

"I would like to see the Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan amalgamated into a single State. Self-government within the British Empire, or without the British Empire, the formation of a consolidated North-West Indian Muslim State appears to me to be the final destiny of the Muslims, at least of North-West India.

I have already indicated to you the meaning of the word religion, as applied to Islam. The truth is that Islam is not a Church. It is a State conceived as a contractual organism long before Rousseau ever thought of such a thing, and animated by an ethical ideal which regards man not as an earth-rooted creature, defined by this or that portion of the earth, but as a spiritual being understood in terms of a social mechanism, and possessing rights and duties as a living factor in that mechanism.

Muslims are we, the country is ours, China and Arabia is ours, India is ours. Under the shadow of swords we have grown up. The crescent scabbard is our national emblem.

The tyranny of imperialism struts abroad, covering its face under the masks of Democracy, Nationalism, Communism, Fascism and heaven knows what else besides. Under these masks, in every corner of the earth, the spirit of freedom and the dignity of man are being trampled underfoot in a way to which not even the darkest period of human history presents a parallel. The so-called statesmen to whom government and leadership of men was entrusted have proved demons of bloodshed, tyranny and oppression. ... After subjugating and establishing their dominion over weaker peoples, they have robbed them of their possessions, of their religions, their morals, of their cultural traditions and their literatures.

My forefathers were Brahmins. They spent their lives in search of God. I am spending my life in search of Man.

Democracy is a system where people are counted but not weighed.

Let the lament of this lonely bulbul pierce the hearts of all,Arouse the hearts of the sleeping, with this my clarion call.Transfused with fresh blood, a new compact of faith we'll sign.Let our hearts thirst again for a sip of the vintage wine.What if the pitcher be Persian, from Hejaz is the wine I serve.What if the song be Indian, it is Hejazi in its verve.