Iqbal for All

Meaning

Sociology, the modern science of society (founded by Comte). One of the new Western disciplines Iqbal absorbed and turned to the analysis of the Muslim community's decline and renewal.

See it in the verse

Sociology in Iqbal’s couplets

Zindagi ho meri parwane ki surat ya-rab
Ilm ki shama se ho mujh ko mohabbat ya-rab

Let my life be like the moth's, O Lord; let me love the lamp of knowledge.

Love · Aspiration · Youth

Ye ilm ye hikmat ye tadabbur ye hukoomat
Peete hain lahoo dete hain taleem-e-masawat

This science, this philosophy, this statecraft, this government — they drink men's blood and preach the lesson of equality.

Justice · Awakening

Na ho naumeed, naumeedi zawal-e-ilm-o-irfan hai
Umeed-e-mard-e-momin hai Khuda ke razdanon mein

Do not despair — despair is the downfall of knowledge and insight. The hope of a person of conviction stands among those who know the deepest secrets.

Hope · Youth · Courage

Khudi ho ilm se mohkam to ghairat-e-Jibril
Agar ho ishq se mohkam to soor-e-Israfil

A selfhood made firm by knowledge can rival the angel of revelation; a selfhood made firm by love can rival the trumpet that wakes the world.

Selfhood · Love · Action

Ilm mein bhi suroor hai lekin
Ye wo jannat hai jis mein hoor nahin

There is a certain delight in knowledge too — but it is a paradise without companions.

Self-Knowledge · Love · Humility

Ishq ki tegh-e-jigar-dar uda li kis ne
Ilm ke haath mein khali hai niyam ai saqi

Who has carried off love's brave, heart-piercing sword? Knowledge holds only an empty scabbard now.

Love · Action · Courage

Related words

URDU

Comte

Auguste Comte (1798-1857), French founder of positivism and sociology; representative of the empirical, science-bound thought Iqbal both learned from and faulted for excluding the spiritual.

ARABIC

Tamaddun

Civilization, urban culture; the settled social life of a people.

ARABIC

Ilm-e-Jadid

'Modern knowledge / new science' — the empirical sciences of the contemporary West. Iqbal urged Muslims to acquire it as their own lost inheritance, not to be dazzled or enslaved by it.

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