Urdu Dictionary

Arabic · noun · Nature & the Garden

Kalb

कल्ब

said QALB

also written: qalb, qalab, dil

Meaning

A dog; the Arabic word, also the star Sirius (Kalb al-Akbar).

Literally: the heart (spiritual)

How Iqbal uses it

The heart — not the physical organ but the spiritual centre of perception, the seat of faith, love and the knowledge of God, the faculty by which the unseen is grasped. Sufi psychology makes the polished qalb the mirror of the Divine. Iqbal exalts the heart's intuitive vision and love above the calculating intellect, treating it as the organ through which the self touches reality and is drawn toward God.

See it in the verse

Kalb in Iqbal’s couplets

Khuda agar dil-e-fitrat-shanaas de tujh ko
Sukoot-e-laala-o-gul se kalaam paida kar

If God gives you a heart that can read Nature, then draw speech out of the silence of the tulip and the rose.

Self-Knowledge · Aspiration · Awakening

Main jo sar-ba-sajda hua kabhi to zameen se aane lagi sada
Tera dil to hai sanam-aashna tujhe kya milega namaz mein

Whenever I bowed my head in prostration, a voice rose from the earth: your heart is in love with idols — what will you gain from prayer?

Self-Knowledge · Humility

Jis se jigar-e-laala mein thandak ho wo shabnam
Daryaon ke dil jis se dahel jaayein wo toofan

To the tulip's heart he is the dew that cools it; to mighty rivers he is the storm that makes their hearts tremble.

Courage · Justice · Selfhood

Dil se jo baat nikalti hai asar rakhti hai
Par nahin taaqat-e-parvaaz magar rakhti hai

What comes from the heart carries power; it has no wings, and yet it has the strength to fly.

Love · Awakening · Self-Knowledge

Gesu-e-tabdar ko aur bhi tabdar kar
Hosh-o-khirad shikar kar qalb-o-nazar shikar kar

Make the radiant tresses more radiant still — capture sense and reason, hunt down the heart and the eye.

Love · Aspiration · Restlessness

Suni padi hui hai muddat se dil ki basti
Aa ik naya shiwala is des mein bana den

The dwelling of the heart has lain desolate for ages — come, let us build a new temple in this land.

Unity · Hope · Love

Related words

Sag

A dog; often used in humble self-deprecation as 'sag-e-dar', the dog at the beloved's door.

Dil

Heart — the seat of love, vision and the living self.

Ishq

Love — passionate, all-consuming love, whether for the divine or the human.

Kashf

Unveiling; the mystic disclosure of hidden realities to the purified heart.

Aql

Intellect, reason; the calculating, analytical mind.

← Back to the dictionary