Hue kis darja faqeehan-e-haram be-taufeeq
“They will not change themselves, so they reinterpret the Quran instead — how utterly bereft of grace the jurists of the sanctuary have become.”
हुए किस दर्जा फ़क़ीहान-ए-हरम बे-तौफ़ीक़
The couplet in Devanagari — it carries the authenticity of the original, and every Hindi reader can read it.
Iqbal's blistering critique of religious gatekeepers: faced with the need to reform, they bend the scripture to fit their inertia rather than reform themselves. He calls it a loss of taufeeq, the divine enabling grace. The fault is not in the text but in those too unwilling to change.
It is easier to reinterpret the rules than to change yourself, and Iqbal despises the move. Whenever a principle gets quietly rewritten to excuse the people who should have grown, suspect it. Change yourself, not the standard.
Khuda bande se khud pooche, bata teri raza kya hai
Tu shaheen hai, basera kar paharon ki chattanon mein
Dard-mandon se zaeefon se mohabbat karna