Persian · idiom · Nation, Faith & Society

Sheikh-o-brahman

शेख़-ओ-ब्रह्मन
said SHAIKH-o-BAR-ha-man
also written: shaikh-o-barhaman, sheikh o brahman
Meaning

The Muslim divine and the Hindu priest; the two orthodoxies the free spirit transcends.

Literally: the Muslim cleric and the Hindu priest

Usage & notes

Sheikh-o-brahman pairs the mosque's cleric with the temple's priest as the twin faces of religion-as-formalism — both correct, both quarrelling, both missing the love that the rind has drunk in the tavern. The phrase lets the poet stand above sectarian dispute and side with love over law. Iqbal uses it repeatedly to argue that the wine of divine love dissolves the very boundary the sheikh and the brahman keep fighting over.