III-V

You had fallen then from a godly place,
To courts of mean men you sought a close face.
Thou art a hawk, to self you cannot get,
Until you are caught in thy self’s own net.1

2nd Version (if Fatadi is verb transitive)

Thou dropped me first from the godly place,
Later to the lowered you showed Thy face.
Thou art a Hawk Great for us you then care,
When you are trapped in thy own Snare.2


1.         In the concluding quatrain Iqbal is again touching the heights of his thought. it was difficult to understand what Iqbal means by saying

“Until you are caught in your own snare.”

By this he means to say that one cannot he a complete Muslim until the total obedience of God becomes his second nature. In that phase he moulds himself into the pattern of obedience. When he acts on the commandments of God he feels as if it is his own bent of mind, or as if it is a matter of daily routine to him, and no one has thrust upon him that duty.

It makes a complete change in meanings if Fatadi is used as verb transitive (v.t.).

2.         The first version is however more nearer to truth, as this chapter is addressed to mankind. Since God is houseless, He cannot be contained in any place, neither on earth nor on the Heavens. But He comes in the heart of a Momin, in the heart of a faithful being. When the God responds to the Love calls of a Momin, He comes into his heart. Since The God chose the heart of a Momin for a place to Him, He is caught Himself in that snare. Since the God made this snare by His Own Hands and He likes to be caught in that snare, under extreme pangs of love of a Momin, it will be more appropriate to read line 3 and 4 (of 2nd version) as given belows

Thou art a Hawk Great for us you cared then,
When you were caught in thy own snare and den.

Here ‘den’ means secret resort. God forbid, it. does not mean the ‘den’ in a bad sense (like opium den, thieves den etc.) but here it also covers its colloquial sense viz. “A room in which a person works and studies without being disturbed”. For God, heart of a Momtn is no doubt His love’s retreat; His Love’s den for a tete-a-tete meeting with His slave and beloved too.