Urdu Dictionary
Persian · noun · Poetry, Speech & Art

Sukhan

सुख़न
said su-KHAN
also written: Sukhan-wari
Meaning

Speech, discourse, and especially poetry; the poet's crafted word.

Literally: speech; word; poetry

How Iqbal uses it

Sukhan is speech and, by extension, the art of poetry, the crafted word. For Iqbal sukhan is no idle ornament but a force that can wake a sleeping people, kindle conviction, and shape a nation's soul. He held that the poet who serves only beauty wastes a power meant to serve life and truth.

See it in the verse

Sukhan in Iqbal’s couplets

Nigah buland, sukhan dilnawaz, jaan pur-soz
Yahi hai rakht-e-safar mir-e-karvan ke liye
A lofty gaze, speech that wins the heart, a soul that burns with feeling — this alone is the travelling kit a caravan's leader needs.
Leadership · Aspiration
Nazar nahin to mere halqa-e-sukhan mein na baith
Ki nukta-ha-e-khudi hain misal-e-tegh-e-asil
If you have no vision, do not sit in my circle of speech — for the subtleties of selfhood are like a sword of true steel.
Selfhood · Self-Knowledge · Courage
Siina raushan ho to hai soz-e-sukhan ain-e-hayat
Ho na raushan to sukhan marg-e-davam ai saqi
If the heart is lit within, the fire in one's words is life itself; if it is unlit, those words are a lasting death.
Self-Knowledge · Action · Love
Related words
ARABIC

Lafz

A word, the utterance; the outward vessel of meaning in poetry.

ARABIC

Shaa'ir

A poet; one who perceives and composes verse.

PERSIAN

Nawa

Sound, melody, song, or the impassioned cry of a bird or poet.

ARABIC

Kalaam

Speech, discourse; also scholastic theology, the rational defence of doctrine.

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