,
“The chain of day and night is the sculptor of all events; the chain of day and night is the root of life and of death.”
The couplet in Devanagari — it carries the authenticity of the original, and every Hindi reader can read it.
سلسلۂ روز و شب اصل حیات و ممات
The couplet as Iqbal wrote it, in Urdu (Nastaliq).
The opening of the Mosque of Cordoba poem. Iqbal looks at the simple succession of days and nights and sees the great workshop of existence — the patient sculptor that shapes every event, and the very source of living and dying. Time is not a backdrop; it is the maker.
The plain passing of your days is not empty — it is the chisel shaping everything you will become. Iqbal asks you to take ordinary time seriously, because it is doing the carving whether you notice or not.
Tu agar mera nahin banta na ban, apna to ban
Jis tarah phool se hoti hai chaman ki zeenat
Nek jo raah ho us rah pe chalana mujh ko