Persian · noun · Time, Fate & the Cosmos

Syaahi

सियाही

said si-yaa-hi

also written: Siyahi

Meaning

Blackness, darkness; also ink.

Literally: blackness

How Iqbal uses it

The double sense of darkness and ink lets Iqbal join the night of the world to the pen that writes against it, blackness turned into the means of light.

See it in the verse

Syaahi in Iqbal’s couplets

Teri zindagi isi se teri aabru isi se
Jo rahi khudi to shahi na rahi to ru-siyahi

Your life depends on this, your honour depends on this: if selfhood remains you reign like a king, if it is lost only disgrace remains.

Selfhood · Courage · Self-Knowledge

Related words

PERSIAN

Taariki

Darkness, obscurity, gloom.

ARABIC

Zulmat

Darkness, gloom; figuratively ignorance and spiritual blindness.

ARABIC

Qalam

Pen; the cosmic Pen that wrote the divine decree upon the Tablet.

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