Meaning
A design, pattern, engraving, or picture.
Literally: design; imprint; engraving; picture
How Iqbal uses it
Naqsh is a design, imprint, or engraved figure. Iqbal uses it for the marks a self stamps on the world and the patterns a true artist leaves on the age, contrasting lasting naqsh with images that fade. To impress an enduring design on time is, in his thought, the work of a creative life.
See it in the verse
Naqsh in Iqbal’s couplets
Hai magar is naqsh mein rang-e-sabaat-e-dawam
Jis ko kiya ho kisi mard-e-Khuda ne tamam
Jis ko kiya ho kisi mard-e-Khuda ne tamam
Only that work bears the colour of lasting permanence which a man of God has brought to completion.
Aspiration · Selfhood · Action
Aa ghairiyat ke parde ik baar phir utha den
Bichdon ko phir mila den naqsh-e-dui mita den
Bichdon ko phir mila den naqsh-e-dui mita den
Come, let us lift the veils of estrangement once more; reunite the separated, and erase the mark of duality.
Unity · Love · Hope
Silsila-e-roz-o-shab, naqsh-gar-e-haadsat
Silsila-e-roz-o-shab, asl-e-hayat-o-mamat
Silsila-e-roz-o-shab, asl-e-hayat-o-mamat
The chain of day and night is the sculptor of all events; the chain of day and night is the root of life and of death.
Action · Self-Knowledge
Sultani-e-jamhur ka aata hai zamana
Jo naqsh-e-kuhan tum ko nazar aae miTa do
Jo naqsh-e-kuhan tum ko nazar aae miTa do
The age of the people's rule is arriving; whatever old patterns you still see, wipe them away.
Freedom · Awakening · Justice