Meaning
Labour, toil, or hard effort.
Literally: labour; toil; effort
How Iqbal uses it
Mehnat is labour and toil, the effort of hand and brain. Iqbal honours mehnat as ennobling and creative, the means by which man works upon the world and grows, and he condemns the system that lets others reap where the labourer has sown. Honest toil, in his ethic, is close kin to worship.