Meaning
Compulsion, determinism; the doctrine that human acts are foreordained.
Literally: coercion; compulsion; tyranny
Usage & notes
Jabr means compulsion or coercion, and in theology the doctrine that man is wholly determined. Iqbal fights jabr on both fronts: he denounces the brute coercion of tyrants, and he rejects fatalism, insisting that the awakened self makes its own destiny rather than submitting to a pre-written fate. To plead helplessness, for him, is itself a kind of slavery.
Related words
ARABIC
Ikhtiyar
Free will, choice, discretion; the power to choose one's course.
ARABIC
Zulm
Oppression, injustice, cruelty; the beloved's tyranny or any wrong done.
ARABIC
Taqdeer
Destiny, fate, the decree of what is to come.
PERSIAN
Khudi
Selfhood; the self, the ego — in the philosophical, not the vain, sense.