Persian · noun · Time, Fate & the Cosmos
Mehtab
महताब
said meh-TAAB
also written: mahtab, mahtaab, moonlight, moon
Meaning
The moon; moonlight.
Literally: moon, moonlight
Usage & notes
The mehtab is the moon and its light — the cool, borrowed radiance of the night sky, classically the beloved's luminous face and the soft lamp of lovers' meetings, beautiful precisely because it shines with reflected, not self-made, light. Iqbal honours the moon's beauty but is alert to its borrowedness: against the sun's own fire and the firefly's small self-kindled spark, moonlight can stand for splendour that is not one's own — a quiet caution within the imagery of khudi.