Arabic · noun · Nature & the Garden
Qatra
क़तरा
said qat-ra
also written: qatrah, drop, boond, qatre
Meaning
A drop, a single bead of water; figuratively the small and individual against the vast.
Literally: drop (of water)
How Iqbal uses it
The qatra is the single drop — the dew-bead or raindrop classically set against the ocean (bahr/darya) in the central Sufi image: the drop that loses itself in the sea, the part dissolving into the whole, annihilation in the infinite. Iqbal famously turns this convention on its head: rather than the drop vanishing into the ocean, he asks the drop to keep its self and contain the ocean — 'maqam apni khudi ka' — making the qatra an emblem of selfhood that need not dissolve to be vast.
See it in the verse
Qatra in Iqbal’s couplets
Wo behar hai aadmi ke jis ka
Har qatra hai behar-e-baikrana
Har qatra hai behar-e-baikrana
Man is an ocean whose every drop is itself a boundless sea.
Self-Knowledge · Selfhood · Aspiration
Moti samajh ke shan-e-kareemi ne chun liye
Qatre jo the mire araq-e-infial ke
Qatre jo the mire araq-e-infial ke
Mistaking them for pearls, a generous grace gathered up the drops that were only my sweat of shame.
Humility · Hope