apne iradon ka imtihan baqi hai
abhi to napi hai mutthi bhar zamin
aage sara aasman baqi hai
“The real flight of life is still to come; the test of your resolve is still to come. So far you have measured out only a fistful of earth — ahead of you, the whole sky is still to come.”
अपने इरादों का इम्तिहान बाक़ी है
अभी तो नापी है मुट्ठी भर ज़मीन
आगे सारा आसमान बाक़ी है
The verse in Devanagari — it carries the authenticity of the original, and every Hindi reader can read it.
A short, plain-spoken verse of forward motion. Its strength is the closing image: whatever you have covered so far is 'a fistful of earth' set against an open sky — not a belittling of the past, but a refusal to let it harden into a ceiling.
On a day when what you have done feels like all there is, this verse answers: it is a fistful of ground, and the sky is the part you have not yet flown. Resolve is tested ahead of you, not behind.
The heart of this site stays with Iqbal: explore his couplets → Or browse the whole Other Voices shelf →