Meaning
Heart — the seat of love, vision and the living self.
How Iqbal uses it
Where the universe is folded up — “the nest of Khudi is in your heart, as the sky lives in the pupil of an eye.” A word that comes from the heart carries power; love is the first teacher of heart and vision; and the heart, kept too closely leashed to reason, should sometimes be left alone.
See it in the verse
Dil in Iqbal’s couplets
Aql-o-dil-o-nigah ka murshid-e-awwaleen hai ishq
Ishq na ho to shar-o-deen butkada-e-tasavvurat
Ishq na ho to shar-o-deen butkada-e-tasavvurat
Love is the first teacher of intellect, heart and sight. Without love, even law and faith become only a temple of empty ideas.
Love · Self-Knowledge
Dil se jo baat nikalti hai asar rakhti hai
Par nahin, taqat-e-parvaaz magar rakhti hai
Par nahin, taqat-e-parvaaz magar rakhti hai
Words that come straight from the heart carry power — they have no wings, and yet they have the strength of flight.
Love · Humility · Action
Achchha hai dil ke saath rahe pasban-e-aql
Lekin kabhi kabhi ise tanha bhi chhod de
Lekin kabhi kabhi ise tanha bhi chhod de
It is good that reason stands guard alongside the heart — but now and then, leave the heart on its own.
Love · Self-Knowledge · Courage
Shorish se bhagta hun dil DhunDta hai mera
Aisa sukut jis par taqrir bhi fida ho
Aisa sukut jis par taqrir bhi fida ho
I flee from the noise; my heart is searching for a silence so deep that even speech would gladly surrender to it.
Self-Knowledge · Restlessness · Awakening
Related words
PERSIAN
Jigar
The liver — in Urdu verse, the seat of courage, endurance and deep feeling.
PERSIAN
Seena
The breast, the chest — where breath and inner fire dwell.
ARABIC
Qalb
Heart (the Arabic word; often the spiritual heart).
ARABIC
Ishq
Love — passionate, all-consuming love, whether for the divine or the human.