Couplets  ›  Love
Originally composed in Urdu
Ishq bhi ho hijab mein husn bhi ho hijab mein
Ya to khud aashkar ho ya mujhe aashkar kar

Love is veiled and beauty too is veiled; either reveal yourself, or make me one who can be revealed.

Romanहिन्दी
इश्क़ भी हो हिजाब में हुस्न भी हो हिजाब में
या तो ख़ुद आश्कार हो या मुझे आश्कार कर

The couplet in Devanagari — it carries the authenticity of the original, and every Hindi reader can read it.

♪ Hear the coupletA recitation in a synthesized voice.
The Interpretation

Iqbal frames a lover's impatience with everything that stays hidden. Both the longing and the thing longed for are concealed, and he demands an end to the concealment. The couplet offers two routes out of the veil: the beloved unveils itself, or the seeker is transformed into someone clear enough to be met; either way, the veil must go.

For You, Today

When what you most want stays just out of reach, do not only wait for it to appear. Ask the other question Iqbal asks: become clearer, more open, more ready, so that you yourself are no longer hidden from it.

Themes:LoveSelf-KnowledgeRestlessness
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