mujhe se nahin se ke
“Just once, set down the burden of ego from your body — try calling me not with your tongue but with your soul.”
मुझे ज़बाँ से नहीं से के देख
The verse in Devanagari — it carries the authenticity of the original, and every Hindi reader can read it.
Ego is rendered as physical weight pressed onto the body, something that can be set down if only for a moment. The second line draws the real distinction — between being summoned by the tongue and being summoned by the soul — and asks for the deeper call. The couplet's tenderness lies in how it makes surrender sound like relief rather than defeat.
If you want a true response from someone, drop the posturing first — people answer the soul that calls them, not the performance.
The heart of this site stays with Iqbal: explore his couplets → Or browse the whole Other Voices shelf →