kare ki teri rahe
“No sense of shame is left in the eye of the age; may God keep your youth unstained.”
करे कि तिरी रहे
The couplet in Devanagari — it carries the authenticity of the original, and every Hindi reader can read it.
خدا کرے کہ جوانی تری رہے بے داغ
The couplet as Iqbal wrote it, in Urdu (Nastaliq).
Iqbal speaks as an elder watching the times coarsen, and his response is not a lecture but a blessing for the young. He acknowledges that the surrounding world has lost its restraint, then wishes that a young person might still keep their character clean within it. The couplet treats integrity in youth as something precious and worth guarding deliberately.
When the culture around you is careless, that is not permission to be careless too. Guarding your own integrity is a deliberate act; let an honest character be the thing the times cannot stain.
Tu agar mera nahin banta na ban, apna to ban
Sitaron pe jo dalte hain kamand
Har jagah mere chamakne se ujala ho jaye