Persian · proper noun · People & Roles

Bu-Ali-Sina

बू-अली-सीना

said boo-a-lee-see-naa

also written: ibn sina, avicenna, abu ali sina

Meaning

The great Persian physician-philosopher Avicenna (d. 1037), author of the Canon of Medicine; in verse the type of rational intellect and worldly wisdom.

How Iqbal uses it

Iqbal sets Razi against the intellect of Bu-Ali to contrast reason with love and ecstasy.

See it in the verse

Bu-Ali-Sina in Iqbal’s couplets

Siina raushan ho to hai soz-e-sukhan ain-e-hayat
Ho na raushan to sukhan marg-e-davam ai saqi

If the heart is lit within, the fire in one's words is life itself; if it is unlit, those words are a lasting death.

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Related words

ARABIC

Razi

Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (d. 1209), famed theologian and commentator on the Quran; emblem of subtle scholastic reasoning.

ARABIC

Aql

Intellect, reason; the calculating, analytical mind.

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