Couplets › Justice
From Bal-e-Jibril, 1935 — 'Lenin (Khuda Ke Huzoor Mein)' · originally composed in Urdu
Tu qadir-o-aadil hai magar tere jahan mein
Hain talkh bahut banda-e-mazdoor ke auqat
Hain talkh bahut banda-e-mazdoor ke auqat
“You are all-powerful and just — and yet, in Your world, the hours of the labouring man are very bitter.”
Romanहिन्दी
तू क़ादिर-ओ-आदिल है मगर तेरे जहाँ में
हैं तल्ख़ बहुत बंदा-ए-मज़दूर के औक़ात
हैं तल्ख़ बहुत बंदा-ए-मज़दूर के औक़ात
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
Spoken by Lenin standing before God, this is Iqbal's protest against an unjust economic order. He grants the divine attributes — power, justice — and then lays the worker's suffering at their feet as a question. Faith here does not silence the cry for justice; it sharpens it.
For You, Today
Iqbal refuses to let belief in a just order excuse injustice on the ground. Holding both reverence and protest at once is the honest posture. Wherever the labourer's hours are bitter, the system owes an answer.
In the same spirit
Ho mera kaam ghareebon ki himayat karna
Dard-mandon se zaeefon se mohabbat karna
Dard-mandon se zaeefon se mohabbat karna
Let my work be to defend the poor — to love the suffering and the weak.
Justice · Humility · Love
Jis khet se dehqan ko muyassar nahin rozi
Us khet ke har khosha-e-gandum ko jala do
Us khet ke har khosha-e-gandum ko jala do
The field that does not yield its farmer even his daily bread — burn every ear of wheat in that field.
Justice · Courage
Na samjhoge to mit jaoge ai Hindostan walon
Tumhari dastan tak bhi na hogi dastanon mein
Tumhari dastan tak bhi na hogi dastanon mein
If you will not understand, you will be erased, O people of Hindustan — not even your story will remain among the stories.
Awakening · Courage