Meaning
A branch or bough of a tree, the limb that bears leaf and blossom.
How Iqbal uses it
The shaakh is the perch of the singing bird and the bearer of fruit and flower, a small stage of the garden's life. It can figure the support on which beauty rests or the bough that bends and breaks in autumn's wind.
See it in the verse
Shaakh in Iqbal’s couplets
Main shakh-e-tak hun meri ghazal hai mera samar
Mere samar se mai-e-lala-fam paida kar
Mere samar se mai-e-lala-fam paida kar
I am a branch of the vine, my song is my fruit; from that fruit press out the tulip-red wine.
Action · Aspiration · Youth
Tumhari tahzib apne khanjar se aap hi khud-kushi karegi
Jo shakh-e-nazuk pe aashiyana banega na-paedar hoga
Jo shakh-e-nazuk pe aashiyana banega na-paedar hoga
Your civilisation will take its own life with its own dagger; a nest built on a fragile branch will never last.
Adversity · Self-Knowledge · Justice