Meaning
Night.
Literally: night
How Iqbal uses it
Shab is the night — the long dark of separation, ignorance and trial, but also the time of vigil, prayer and secret nearness ('shab-e-firaq,' the night of parting; 'shab-zinda-dari,' keeping the night alive in worship). It is at once the dark to be endured and the depth where the soul wakes. Iqbal turns the night into the testing-ground of the self: the believer's night-long sighs and vigils are what ripen the dawn; darkness is not only bondage but the womb of the coming morning.
See it in the verse
Shab in Iqbal’s couplets
Isi roz-o-shab mein ulajh kar na rah ja
Ki tere zaman-o-makan aur bhi hain
Ki tere zaman-o-makan aur bhi hain
Do not stay tangled in only these days and nights — there are other times and other places that are yours.
Aspiration · Hope · Restlessness
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
Milega manzil-e-maqsud ka usi ko suragh
Andheri shab mein hai cheete ki aankh jis ka charagh
Andheri shab mein hai cheete ki aankh jis ka charagh
Only that traveller finds the trace of the intended destination whose lamp, in the dark night, is the eye of a leopard.
Courage · Aspiration · Self-Knowledge
Mujhe aah-o-fughan-e-nim-shab ka phir payam aaya
Tham ai rah-rau ki shayad phir koi mushkil maqam aaya
Tham ai rah-rau ki shayad phir koi mushkil maqam aaya
The cry of the midnight again brought me its message: pause, traveller, for perhaps another hard pass has arrived.
Adversity · Courage · Awakening
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