Faiz: Your feet bleed, Faiz, something surely will bloom as you water the desert simply by walking through it.

Ahmad Faraz: ... All those with outspoken mouths have become torn bodies. Those with unbowed heads have been led to the gallows and the rope.

All the Sufis and saints, every Sheikh and Imam hope to find favour at the court of the rulers. The dignitaries of the law courts wait to take oaths like beggars squatting at the side of the road. ... Look at the principles of those unworldly loyalists who are with you look around! So the condition of saving your life is to place your pen and slate in the killing fields. If not you will be the only target of the archers this time. Therefore surrender your integrity. Seeing the treaty I spoke to the messenger. He does not know what history teaches. When the night martyrs the sun the morning sculpts a new one. ... My pen does not commend that protector who is proud of besieging his own city. My pen is not the bowl of the simple fool who renders praise-poems to the usurpers.

My pen is not the tool of the housebreaker who makes a hole in the roof of his own home. My pen is not the friend of the midnight thief who scales the walls of lamp less houses.

My pen is not the prayer beads of the missionary who always keeps account of his worshipful deeds. My pen is not the scale of the judge who places a double veil over his face.

My pen is the pious gift of my people. My pen is the court of my conscience. ...