Couplets › Unity
From Bang-e-Dra, 1924 · originally composed in Urdu
hai aur hain
Kya mein ki yahi hain
Kya mein ki yahi hain
“Somewhere it is sectarianism, somewhere it is caste — are these the things by which a people are supposed to flourish in the world?”
Romanहिन्दीاردو
है और ज़ातें हैं
क्या ज़माने में पनपने की यही बातें हैं
क्या ज़माने में पनपने की यही बातें हैं
The couplet in Devanagari — it carries the authenticity of the original, and every Hindi reader can read it.
فرقہ بندی ہے کہیں اور کہیں ذاتیں ہیں
کیا زمانے میں پنپنے کی یہی باتیں ہیں
کیا زمانے میں پنپنے کی یہی باتیں ہیں
The couplet as Iqbal wrote it, in Urdu (Nastaliq).
♪ Hear the coupletA recitation in a synthesized voice.
The Interpretation
Iqbal names two engines of division — sect and caste — and asks a plain question of them. A community that spends its energy splitting itself into ever-smaller camps cannot rise. He treats unity not as sentiment but as the precondition for survival.
For You, Today
Any group — a nation, a company, a movement — that turns its sharpest energy inward against its own factions has none left for the world. Iqbal's question still lands: is this how we expect to grow?
In the same spirit
Ho mera kaam ghareebon ki himayat karna
Dard-mandon se zaeefon se mohabbat karna
Dard-mandon se zaeefon se mohabbat karna
Let my work be to defend the poor — to love the suffering and the weak.
Justice · Humility · Love
Mazhab nahin sikhata aapas mein bair rakhna
Hindi hain hum, watan hai Hindostan hamara
Hindi hain hum, watan hai Hindostan hamara
Religion does not teach us to hold enmity among ourselves. We are of Hind, and Hindustan is our homeland.
Unity · Love
Jis khet se dehqan ko muyassar nahin rozi
Us khet ke har khosha-e-gandum ko jala do
Us khet ke har khosha-e-gandum ko jala do
The field that does not yield its farmer even his daily bread — burn every ear of wheat in that field.
Justice · Courage