aisi soorat se nahin lena ujaala ham ko
“The one who gives us light and then keeps reminding us of the favour — light on those terms is light we would rather not take.”
ऐसी सूरत से नहीं लेना उजाला हम को
The verse in Devanagari — it carries the authenticity of the original, and every Hindi reader can read it.
A precise act of self-respect. The gift is real — light, help, a hand up — but it arrives with a string: the giver will not let you forget it. The couplet refuses that bargain outright. Better a darkness you owe no one for than a brightness held permanently over your head. It draws the exact line between a gift and the quiet purchase of a person.
Help that is forever held over you is not a gift; it is a loan with interest. You are allowed to refuse the kind of help that costs your dignity to keep.
The heart of this site stays with Iqbal: explore his couplets → Or browse the whole Other Voices shelf →