Meaning
A storm-wave; the surging wave of a tempest.
How Iqbal uses it
The towering storm-wave that would swallow the boat is, in Iqbal's reversal, the very thing the bold spirit courts; he famously bids the wave grow fiercer, for the strong swimmer is made by the storm, not the still water.
See it in the verse
Mauj-e-Tofaan in Iqbal’s couplets
Zindagi insaan ki ik dam ke siva kuch bhi nahin
Dam hawa ki mauj hai ram ke siva kuch bhi nahin
Dam hawa ki mauj hai ram ke siva kuch bhi nahin
A human life is nothing more than a single breath — and that breath is a wave of air, nothing but a fleeting movement.
Humility · Awakening · Action
Nigah paida kar ai ghafil tajalli ain-e-fitrat hai
Ki apni mauj se begana rah sakta nahin dariya
Ki apni mauj se begana rah sakta nahin dariya
Cultivate vision, O heedless one, for radiance is the very nature of things; a river cannot stay a stranger to its own wave.
Awakening · Self-Knowledge · Selfhood