مجنوں نے شہر چھوڑا تو صحرا بھی چھوڑ دے
واعظ ثبوت لائے جو مے کے جواز میںاقبال کو یہ ضد ہے کہ پینا بھی چھوڑ دے
English translation
As the preacher brought proof in support of wine, Iqbal insists that he should abandon drinking also.
(It is not clear whether the proof is meant for the virtues of abstention from drinking or that of drinking. In either case the verse shows strong doubts in the mind of Allamah Iqbal about the sincerity of the half-baked Ulama.)
Translated by Dr M.A.K. Khalil
About this couplet
This is couplet 12 of 12 in “مجنوں نے شہر چھوڑا تو صحرا بھی چھوڑ دے” (Junoon ne sheher chhoda to sehra bhi chhod de) in the section The Ghazals 1, from Allama Muhammad Iqbal's Urdu book Bang-e-Dara (بانگِ درا), published in 1924.
Read it in the poem۱۲ / ۱۲