Urdu · noun · Nature & the Garden
Bijli
बिजली
said BIJ-lee
also written: bijlee, bijuri, lightning
Meaning
Lightning; an electric flash.
Literally: lightning
Usage & notes
Bijli is lightning in the Hindavi register — the sudden bright flash that splits the monsoon sky, classically the stroke that falls upon the harvest and the nest, and the dazzling, dangerous beauty that ruins what it touches, twin to the Persian barq. It is beauty and destruction in one instant. Iqbal uses the bolt both for the overwhelming flash that strikes and for the force the believer should carry within rather than merely fear, the lightning one becomes instead of the harvest it consumes.