Meaning
A bird or fowl in the general sense, the basic Persian word for any winged creature.
How Iqbal uses it
As the generic word for bird, murgh underlies a whole family of poetic compounds and stands for the soul as a winged being made for flight. Iqbal draws on it to image the spirit that should rise rather than remain earthbound in its cage.
See it in the verse
Murgh in Iqbal’s couplets
Har shai musafir har cheez raahi
Kya chand tare kya murgh o maahi
Kya chand tare kya murgh o maahi
Every thing is a traveller, every object a wayfarer — whether the moon and stars, or the birds and the fish.
Restlessness · Action · Unity
Tu huma ka hai shikari abhi ibtida hai teri
Nahin maslahat se khali ye jahan-e-murgh-o-mahi
Nahin maslahat se khali ye jahan-e-murgh-o-mahi
You are a hunter of the huma, your journey has only just begun; this world of birds and fish is not without its hidden purpose.
Aspiration · Youth · Hope