Agar ho se to
“A selfhood made firm by knowledge can rival the angel of revelation; a selfhood made firm by love can rival the trumpet that wakes the world.”
अगर हो से तो
The couplet in Devanagari — it carries the authenticity of the original, and every Hindi reader can read it.
اگر ہو عشق سے محکم تو صور اسرافیل
The couplet as Iqbal wrote it, in Urdu (Nastaliq).
Iqbal weighs two ways of strengthening the self. Knowledge makes it formidable, the equal of an angel. But love makes it world-shaking — the equal of the trumpet whose sound stirs all of creation. Both are needed; love is named the greater force.
Knowledge will make you capable; Iqbal does not deny that. But he reserves the higher power for love — the thing that actually moves people and changes the world. Build both, and do not neglect the second.
Khuda bande se khud pooche, bata teri raza kya hai
Abhi ishq ke imtihan aur bhi hain
Tu agar mera nahin banta na ban, apna to ban