مرا ساز اگرچہ ستم رسیدئہ زخمہ ہائے عجم رہاوہ شہید ذوق وفا ہوں میں کہ نوا مری عربی رہی

English translation

Though my orchestra remained oppressed by Ajam’s plectrum; I am that martyr in fidelity’s cause whose song ever Arabic remained!
(Allama Iqbal was one of those reformers who tried to remove the effect of non-Islamic thoughts and ideologies (Greek, Zoroastrian, Chinese, Hindu) from Islamic thinking. This verse refers to this and says that in spite of the deep influence of non-Islamic ideologies on Islam he has continued to keep his thinking purely Islamic.)

Translated by Dr M.A.K. Khalil