Meaning
The weeping eye; the eye wet and brimming with tears.
Literally: moist eye
How Iqbal uses it
The lover's tear-soaked gaze, sleepless through the long night; the deeda-e-tar is among the most enduring emblems of grief in the ghazal.
See it in the verse
Deeda-e-tar in Iqbal’s couplets
Tu bacha bacha ke na rakh ise tera aaina hai wo aaina
ke shikasta ho to aziz-tar hai nigah-e-aaina-saaz mein
ke shikasta ho to aziz-tar hai nigah-e-aaina-saaz mein
Do not keep your mirror anxiously protected — yours is the kind of mirror that, even when shattered, is dearer in the eyes of its maker.
Courage · Selfhood · Adversity
Zahir ki aankh se na tamasha kare koi
Ho dekhna to dida-e-dil va kare koi
Ho dekhna to dida-e-dil va kare koi
Let no one watch the spectacle with the outward eye alone; if you would truly see, open the eye of the heart.
Self-Knowledge · Awakening