مجنوں نے شہر چھوڑا تو صحرا بھی چھوڑ دے
تقلید کی روش سے تو بہتر ہے خودکشیرستہ بھی ڈھونڈ، خضر کا سودا بھی چھوڑ دے
English translation
Suicide is better than the way of taqlid; seek your own path, abandon the love of Khizar also.
(Taqlid: Literally it means following the accepted path. In ‘Allamah Iqbal’s terminology it means blind following of traditions. Khizar (A.S.): He is believed to guide the wayfarers who have gone astray.)
Translated by Dr M.A.K. Khalil
About this couplet
This is couplet 3 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 poem۳ / ۱۲