Urdu Dictionary
Arabic · noun · Iqbal's Emblems

Qafas

क़फ़स
said qa-fas
Meaning

The cage in which the captured bird is confined, cut off from its garden and sky.

How Iqbal uses it

The cage is among Iqbal's most potent images of bondage, standing for slavery, colonial subjection, and the soul imprisoned far from its true home. The caged bird's longing for the nest and the open air becomes the cry of a people yearning for freedom.

See it in the verse

Qafas in Iqbal’s couplets

Nahin is khuli faza mein koi gosha-e-faraghat
Ye jahan ajab jahan hai na qafas na aashiyana
In this open expanse there is no corner of idle rest; this is a strange world, neither a cage nor a nest.
Action · Freedom · Restlessness
Related words
PERSIAN

Daam

The snare or net spread by the fowler to catch birds.

SANSKRIT

Jaal

A net or web, the mesh in which prey is entangled.

ARABIC

Sayyaad

The hunter or fowler who lays snares to trap the birds of the garden.

PERSIAN

Aashiyan

A bird's nest, the small home woven of straw to which the bird returns.

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