The Glory of Washington is one of the twenty-nine volumes of poetry written by Rhodes Scholar Irshad Ullah-Khan. His books are in the US Library of Congress in Washington DC, USA; and in the Rhodes House Library in Rhodes House at Oxford University, U.K. Irshad Ullah-Khan's poems have been translated into Persian, Arabic, French, Russian, and Ukrainian languages.
The Glory of Washington reflects Author's innate concern for his fellow human being, his compassion for the human condition, his opposition to injustice and senseless war, his desire to serve the common good, his intellectual honesty, his candor. He chooses his words carefully and speaks his mind. He acts on his beliefs and shows the courage of his convictions. As readers of the gems in this slim volume of his work will realize for themselves, Irshad Ullah Khan has a remarkable ability to give voice to the feelings of others rendered mute by poverty, vulnerability, and weakness. He understands the universal longings of the human spirit, the hopes and desires that transcend ethnicity and boundaries of every sort. Born of a lifetime of accomplishment in many spheres, and of active service on many fronts, his poems reflect both a fine sensitivity to humanity's deepest hopes and a solid commitment to progress on its behalf. Like the man himself, they are intensely thoughtful and deeply courageous, demonstrating his conviction that, as he himself once put it so well to me, "we must look after the weak and poor in our society and move away from . . . hardness and intolerance . . ."
In their larger context, these poems address the change in political thought and accommodation required to save the world from nuclear annihilation. They illuminate truths that we all must come to understand. In offering them to the world, Irshad Ullah Khan has made a real contribution to perhaps the most urgent discussion of our day.