— from the nazm “Tasveer-e-Dard”, Allama Iqbal (1877–1938)
About this quote
देवनागरी
वतन की फ़िक्र कर नादाँ मुसीबत आने वाली है
तेरी बर्बादियों के मशवरे हैं आसमानों में
اردو
وطن کی فکر کر ناداں! مصیبت آنے والی ہے
تری بربادیوں کے مشورے ہیں آسمانوں میں
English
Think of your country, you fool — trouble is coming. In the heavens they are already in conference about your ruin.
What it means
From Tasveer-e-Dard, an early poem written while Iqbal still hoped for a united India. The second line is the memorable one: catastrophe is not an accident, it is being planned, and you are the last to hear.
What it teaches you
The useful content here is a claim about information, not about fate: by the time ruin arrives it has already been discussed, and the person it will fall on is the last to be told. That converts into a habit. Treat the small early signals — a meeting you were not called to, a rule quietly changed, a figure that stopped being published — as the conference rather than waiting for the catastrophe that confirms it. The address is also pointed: naadan is not an insult for stupidity but for absorption, the person too busy with a private grievance to look up. Ask what you are currently absorbed in, and whether the thing that will actually cost you is being arranged elsewhere while you attend to it.
अर्थ और सीख
‘तस्वीर-ए-दर्द’ का शेर, उस दौर का जब इक़बाल मुत्तहिदा हिन्दुस्तान की बात कर रहे थे। तबाही इत्तेफ़ाक़ नहीं — उसका मशवरा हो चुका है।
इक़बाल यह नहीं कह रहे कि मुसीबत अचानक आती है — वह पहले से तय हो रही होती है और ख़बर सबसे आख़िर में उसी को मिलती है जिस पर गिरेगी। इसलिए छोटे-छोटे शुरुआती इशारों को ही चेतावनी मानिए, और यह देखिए कि कहीं आप अपनी छोटी उलझनों में लगे हैं जबकि असली फ़ैसला कहीं और हो रहा है।
Where it comes from
Verified against the collected work of Allama Iqbal (1877–1938) on Urdu Wikisource, in the poem beginning وطن کی فکر کر ناداں! مصیبت آنے والی ہے (source). Devanagari transliteration and English rendering are our own.
