Lab Pe Aati Hai Dua

{{Short description|Urdu poem by Allama Muhammad Iqbal}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}}

"Lab Pe Aati Hai Dua" ({{langx|ur|{{nq|لب پہ آتی ہے دعا}}}}; also known as "Bachche Ki Dua"), is a duʿā or prayer, in Urdu verse authored by Muhammad Iqbal in 1902.{{cite book|author=Muḥammad Ikrām Cug̲h̲tāʾī|title=Iqbal, new dimensions: a collection of unpublished and rare Iqbalian studies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xMNjAAAAMAAJ|year=2003|publisher=Sang-e-Meel Publications|isbn=978-969-35-1433-9|page=172}} The dua is recited in morning school assemblies almost universally in Pakistan,{{citation|last=Wankwani|first=Ramesh Kumar|title=Iqbal's Dream|date=21 January 2021|url=https://pak-poetry.com/lab-pe-aati-hai-dua-banke-tamanna-meri/|volume=|pages=|publisher=Pak Poetry 24|access-date=25 January 2021}}{{citation|author=Agencies|title=Joint event to be held on Shakespeare and Iqbal in UK|date=3 November 2016|url=https://dailytimes.com.pk/48277/joint-event-to-be-held-on-shakespeare-and-iqbal-in-uk-on-nov-9/|access-date=8 July 2020}} and in Urdu-medium schools in India.{{cite book|author=M. Athar Tahir|title=Punjab portraits|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZTVuAAAAMAAJ|year=1992|publisher=Sang-e-Meel Publications|isbn=978-969-35-0189-6|page=252}}{{citation|last=Rashid|first=Waseem|title=Naib Hain Hum: Interview with Waleed Iqbal (Urdu)|publisher=Chauthi Dunya|date=8 June 2015}}

The song has long been sung in the private The Doon School in Dehradun, India, in a secular morning assembly ritual.{{cite book|last=Srivastava|first=Sanjay|title=Constructing Post-Colonial India: National Character and the Doon School|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S66GAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA103|date=27 September 2005|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-68358-1|page=103}} The Imam of the Jama Masjid, Delhi, Muhibullah Nadwi, recited it as a boy in an English-medium primary school in India in the 1940s.{{cite book|last1=Salam|first1=Ziya Us|last2=Parvaiz|first2=Mohammad Aslam|title=Madrasas in the Age of Islamophobia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f-u9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT23|date=12 February 2020|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=978-93-5328-930-0|pages=23–}} Even earlier, the prayer was broadcast by All India Radio, Lucknow, a few months after Iqbal's death in 1938.{{cite book|author=All India Radio |title=THE INDIAN LISTENER: Vol. III. No. 20. Lucknow, 8:15 PM (7th OCTOBER 1938)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h-PgDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA1464|date=7 October 1938|publisher=All India Radio |pages=1464–|id=GGKEY:G20PN7BERB5}} The prayer has also been interpreted by an all-women's American bluegrass music band, Della Mae, which toured Islamabad and Lahore in Pakistan in 2012.{{citation|publisher=Dawn|title=Lab pay aati hai dua… strikes a chord|date=14 Nov 2012|url=https://www.dawn.com/news/763955|access-date=8 July 2020}}

In October 2019, a headmaster of a government-run primary school in Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh, India, was suspended by the district education authorities following complaints by two Hindu nationalist organizations (Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal) that the song, which was being recited in the school's morning assembly, was{{Sic|}} a "madrasa prayer."{{citation|last=Kumar|first=Sanjay|url=https://tribune.com.pk/article/89633/how-an-iqbal-poem-got-a-muslim-teacher-suspended-in-india|title=How an Iqbal poem got a Muslim headmaster suspended in India|publisher=The Express Tribune|date = 22 October 2019|access-date=8 July 2020}} Ali was later reinstated but transferred to another school.{{citation|author=IANS|date=20 October 2019|title=Suspended UP headmaster reinstated with a warning|publisher=Outlook India|url=https://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/suspended-up-headmaster-reinstated-with-a-warning/1644338|access-date=8 July 2020}}