تمہید

یوسف ما را اگر گرگے بردبہ کہ مردی ناکسی او را خرد

English translation

It is better that our Joseph be taken away by a wolf than be bought by an unworthy person.
(The brothers of Yusuf (A.S.) falsely claimed that he had been devoured by a wolf. The folklore has it that when Yusuf was being offered for sale in the Egyptian market by the Midianites, a woman came forward to buy him in exchange for a piece of yarn.)

Translated by Jamil Naqvi

Urdu translation

ہمارے یوسف کو اگر بھیڑیا لے جائے تو یہ اس سے کہیں بہتر ہے کہ کوئی ایسا شخص اسے خریدے جو انسانیت سے عاری ہو۔

About this couplet

This is couplet 22 of 34 in “⁨تمہید⁩” (Preamble), from Allama Muhammad Iqbal's Persian book Pas Chih Bayad Kard (⁨پس چہ بائد کرد اے اقوامِ شرق⁩), published in 1936.

Read it in the poem

۲۲ / ۳۴