Meaning
Compassionate fellow-feeling, the heart's tenderness that shares and feels another's pain.
Literally: state of being possessed of pain
How Iqbal uses it
Dard-mandi is the having of a heart that aches with and for others, sympathy born of one's own capacity for pain. Iqbal treats this feeling heart as a mark of true humanity, the dard-mand soul that suffers alongside its fellows.
See it in the verse
Dard-mandi in Iqbal’s couplets
Tamanna dard-e-dil ki ho to kar khidmat faqeeron ki
Nahin milta ye gauhar baadshahon ke khazeenon mein
Nahin milta ye gauhar baadshahon ke khazeenon mein
If you long for a heart that truly feels, then serve the poor and the humble; this jewel is not found in the treasuries of kings.
Humility · Love · Self-Knowledge
Mata-e-be-baha hai dard-o-soz-e-arzumandi
Maqam-e-bandagi de kar na lun shan-e-khudawandi
Maqam-e-bandagi de kar na lun shan-e-khudawandi
The ache and fire of longing is a priceless treasure; I would not trade the striving of a seeker even for the splendour of a master.
Aspiration · Restlessness · Self-Knowledge