mein hai ki ka
“Only that traveller finds the trace of the intended destination whose lamp, in the dark night, is the eye of a leopard.”
में है चीते की का
The couplet in Devanagari — it carries the authenticity of the original, and every Hindi reader can read it.
اندھیری شب میں ہے چیتے کی آنکھ جس کا چراغ
The couplet as Iqbal wrote it, in Urdu (Nastaliq).
Iqbal pairs purpose with a particular kind of seeing. In darkness, ordinary lamps fail; what guides you is an inward sharpness, fierce and alert like a leopard's eye. The destination is reached not by waiting for the night to lift, but by becoming the kind of seer who can move through it.
When the way ahead is unclear, you cannot wait for conditions to brighten — you have to develop the inner alertness that finds the path in the dark. Cultivate the leopard's eye: focus, instinct, and the nerve to keep moving.
Khuda bande se khud pooche, bata teri raza kya hai
Abhi ishq ke imtihan aur bhi hain
Tu shaheen hai, basera kar paharon ki chattanon mein