Iqbal for All

By Iqbal Safipuri

dil pe zakhm khate hain jaan se guzarte hain
jurm sirf itna hai un ko pyar karte hain

“We take the wounds upon our heart, we give our very life away — and our only crime is this: that we love them.”

Romanहिन्दीIqbal Safipuri

दिल पे ज़ख़्म खाते हैं जान से गुज़रते हैं
जुर्म सिर्फ़ इतना है उनको प्यार करते हैं

The verse in Devanagari — it carries the authenticity of the original, and every Hindi reader can read it.

The Interpretation

The matla states the whole bargain of devotion in two lines. The first names the cost without flinching — wounds taken willingly, life surrendered. The second supplies the charge for which all of it is the punishment, and the word 'crime' is the wound's edge: the lover is arraigned not for any wrong but for loving, and accepts the sentence anyway. It is the classic Sufi-romantic move, where love and martyrdom become the same act.

For You, Today

Some devotions exact a real price and offer no defence — you simply decide the loving is worth what it costs you. Know which of yours are like that, and stop expecting them to be fair.

By Iqbal Safipuri — a distinct poet, no relation to Allama Iqbal, whose shared takhallus 'Iqbal' leads many to misattribute this verse. Best known from Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's qawwali; Sufinama sources it to Safipuri's collection Shaakh-e-Gul. It sits on this shelf both for its own beauty and because correcting the Iqbal mix-up is exactly what this shelf is for.

Themes:Love & LossDevotion

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