This reflection of Iqbal’s The Complaint and The Answer depicts the limbo between heaven and earthly desires. On the bottom left side of the drawing is a young boy praying praises of Allah in Arabic. The praises and phrases of prayer are enveloped in a comforting path of design that shows the ascension of good deeds. Beside the words of prayer is a black and white track, resembling a railroad track, that symbolizes how even though there is both good and bad in the world, it is up to us to make the right decisions and follow the track of good—or sirat-al-mustaqim. As the path gets closer to the final destination, it becomes smaller and smaller, showing how the closer one becomes to God, the less earthly distractions there are.

In Iqbal’s poems, the Muslims are complaining that they are following the right path, but are not reaping the benefits of being devout adherents to the faith of Islam. On the other end, God explains that the Muslims have become too absorbed in earthly desires and focus more on monetary wealth than spiritual wealth. In order to represent this antithesis in ideologies, I drew different temptations and earthly desires on the bottom, and presented bliss in the form of clouds and serenity on the top. Different sins and temptations illustrated include lust, pride, greed, wealth, gluttony, racism, deception, blame, shame, lies, doubt, and envy. The sins and temptations seem to be very prevalent in the drawing and diffuse throughout the image. However, the sins seem to stop at the words of God, showing how focusing on God instead of Satan can lead to personal enlightenment. Most importantly, the drawing highlights how praising God, restraining from temptations, and being a good human being can lead to happiness and eternal contentment.