Meaning
A heavy stone; a massive boulder.
Literally: heavy stone
How Iqbal uses it
The sang-e-garaan, the great weighty stone, figures both the burden that weighs the spirit down and the solid mass that the resolute will must lift or break; Iqbal's heroic self treats even the heaviest stone as a thing to be moved.
See it in the verse
Sang-e-Garaan in Iqbal’s couplets
Ye ek sajda jise tu garaan samajhta hai
Hazaar sajdon se deta hai aadmi ko nijaat
Hazaar sajdon se deta hai aadmi ko nijaat
This one act of devotion, which you find so heavy to make — it frees a person from a thousand servile bowings.
Freedom · Selfhood
Jahan-e-taza ki afkar-e-taza se hai numood
Ki sang-o-khisht se hote nahin jahan paida
Ki sang-o-khisht se hote nahin jahan paida
A new world comes into being from new thoughts — for worlds are not built out of stone and brick.
Action · Aspiration · Awakening
Utha na sheesha-garaan-e-firang ke ehsaan
Safaal-e-Hind se mina-o-jaam paida kar
Safaal-e-Hind se mina-o-jaam paida kar
Do not be indebted to the glassmakers of the foreign land — fashion your goblet and cup from the clay of your own soil.
Selfhood · Freedom · Action
Wahi jahan hai tera jis ko tu kare paida
Ye sang-o-khisht nahin jo teri nigah mein hai
Ye sang-o-khisht nahin jo teri nigah mein hai
Yours alone is the world you yourself create; not this one of stone and brick that lies before your eyes.
Selfhood · Action · Aspiration