har charagar mujhe to lutera dikhai de
“Whom should one trust and whom not — every supposed healer looks like a robber to me.”
हर चारागर मुझे तो लुटेरा दिखाई दे
The verse in Devanagari — it carries the authenticity of the original, and every Hindi reader can read it.
The couplet poses the impossible question of trust — whom to believe, whom to refuse — and answers it with a bleak image: every healer looks like a robber. The wordplay between charagar (one who heals) and lutera (one who plunders) collapses the distance between care and exploitation, voicing a wound that no longer expects rescue.
When everyone offering help looks like a threat, the injury may be your own depleted trust — tend that before you judge every hand reaching toward you.
The heart of this site stays with Iqbal: explore his couplets → Or browse the whole Other Voices shelf →