Iqbal for All

Meaning

'The present age / modern times' — the contemporary era of science, machinery and unbelief that Iqbal addressed and arraigned, most sharply in Zarb-e-Kaleem.

See it in the verse

Asr-e-Hazir in Iqbal’s couplets

Sitaron se aage jahan aur bhi hain
Abhi ishq ke imtihan aur bhi hain

Beyond the stars there are worlds yet — there are still more trials of love to come.

Aspiration · Love · Restlessness

Guzar ja aql se aage ki ye noor
Charagh-e-raah hai, manzil nahin hai

Move on past the intellect — for this light is a lamp for the road, not the destination itself.

Self-Knowledge · Aspiration · Love

Mah o sitara se aage maqam hai jis ka
Wo musht-e-khak abhi aawargan-e-rah mein hai

The handful of dust whose true station lies beyond moon and stars is still wandering, lost, on the road.

Aspiration · Selfhood · Awakening

Har ek maqam se aage maqam hai tera
Hayat zauq-e-safar ke siwa kuchh aur nahin

Beyond every station lies a station that is yours; life is nothing but the joy of the journey.

Restlessness · Aspiration · Action

Pani pani kar gai mujh ko qalandar ki ye baat
Tu jhuka jab ghair ke aage na man tera na tan

The wandering sage's words washed over me with shame: the moment you bow before another, neither your mind nor your body is your own.

Selfhood · Courage · Freedom

Related words

PERSIAN

Tahzeeb-e-Hazir

'Modern / present-day civilization' — the contemporary Western order. Iqbal's standing critique: brilliant in science and machinery, hollow at the centre, having lost God and the soul.

ARABIC

Maddiyat

Materialism; the doctrine that matter is all. Iqbal held it the root malady of modern Western civilization — vast in power over things, blind to spirit and the self.

PERSIAN

Zarb-e-Kaleem

'The Rod of Moses', Iqbal's 1936 Urdu collection subtitled 'a declaration of war against the present age', his most direct poetic assault on modern Western civilization, capitalism and irreligion.

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