Arabic · noun · Iqbal's Emblems

Sharaar

शरार
said sha-RAR
also written: Sharaara, sharar-e, sharaar
Meaning

A spark; the least flash of fire, emblem of a fleeting life or a kindling passion.

Literally: spark

How Iqbal uses it

Sharar is a spark — the flying ember of love's fire, the brief flash that leaps from the blaze in the lover's heart. The ghazal loves its image of fleeting brilliance: a life, a glance, a moment of passion bright and gone in an instant. Iqbal uses the spark to figure the restless, self-consuming intensity he prizes — better a short life lived as a flying spark than a long one as cold ash.