— Divan-e-Ghalib, from the ghazal "bazeecha-e-atfaal hai duniya"
About this quote
देवनागरी
ईमान मुझे रोके है जो खींचे है मुझे कुफ़्र
काबा मेरे पीछे है कलीसा मेरे आगे
English
Faith holds me back while unbelief pulls me on — the Kaaba behind me, the church before me.
What it means
A man suspended between belief and doubt, tradition and temptation — refusing to pretend the tug-of-war is settled. The honesty of the unresolved is the couplet’s faith.
Read the body position before the theology. Peechhe means his back is already turned to the Kaaba and his face is already toward the kalisa — the posture has been taken before any decision is announced, which is why the first line’s two verbs, roke hai and khinche hai, are both ongoing and neither ever resolves. There is no main action in the couplet at all, only two pulls in the present tense. It is often taken as a step toward conversion or a comparison of two religions; in the ghazal’s vocabulary these are more often the two poles of what is one’s own and what is forbidden, and the line’s subject is the man standing between them, not the buildings.
What it teaches you
When you are pulled two ways, state the pull on the losing side in full before you choose — its real attraction, not a strawman of it. A decision made by pretending the other side had no pull is the one that comes back at two in the morning and has to be made again. And check where you are actually facing, not what you say you believe; feet report more honestly than convictions do.
अर्थ और सीख
ईमान पीछे खींचता है, शक आगे — काबा पीछे, कलीसा सामने। आस्था और संदेह के बीच खड़े हर इंसान का शेर।
जब दो तरफ़ खिंचाव हो, तो हारने वाली तरफ़ की कशिश भी पूरी ईमानदारी से मान लीजिए — “उधर कुछ नहीं था” कहकर लिया गया फ़ैसला लौटकर आता है। और यह भी देखिए कि आपका रुख़ किस तरफ़ है, ज़ुबान किस तरफ़।
Where it comes from
An authentic couplet from the Divan-e-Ghalib, the collected Urdu ghazals of Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib (1797–1869), from the ghazal beginning “bazeecha-e-atfaal hai duniya”. Transliteration and English rendering are our own.
