kufr hai ;Gair az vufuur-e shauq rahbar ;Dhuu;N;Dhnaa
raah-e .sa;hraa-e ;haram me;N hai jaras naaquus-o-bas
1) it is unbelief, to search for a guide {other than / without} an abundance of ardor
2) in the road of the sacred/forbidden desert, the bell is a conch-shell, and-- enough!
;Gair : 'Other... — prep., adv., and neg. prefix, Without, besides, except, save, but; — other than'. (Platts p.774)
vufuur : 'Multitude, plenty, abundance'. (Platts p.1197)
;haram : 'Forbidden; sacred; — s.m. The sacred territory of Mecca; the temple of Mecca, or the court of the temple; a sanctuary'. (Platts p.476)
naaquus : 'A kind of wooden gong; a thin oblong piece of wood, suspended by two strings and struck with a flexible rod (used by the Eastern Christians to summon the congregation to divine service, church bells not being allowed in Muhammadan countries); — a kind of shell blown by Hindūs in divine worship'. (Platts p.1115)
bas : 'Enough, sufficient, plenty; very much, too much, a great many; very; — adv. And so; in short, in a word; — intj. Enough! that will do! hold! stay!'. (Platts p.154)
Well, he says that to make the journey to the Ka'bah through the sound of a bell is to hear the sound of a conch-shell and run to an idol-temple. Is the guidance of ardor a small thing, that the guidance of bell and guide would be obtained? The gist is, do work in the way of the Lord through faith; to beat a drum so as to let people know, is unbelief.
For the lover to keep with him any other guide besides intensity of ardor, is infidelness in the road to the sacred place. When he makes a journey of pilgrimage to the sacred place, if there would be a caravan, and with it there would be a bell, then it will guide the pilgrim. This is debilitating to ardor. The bell will become the mark of unbelief, the way the conch-shell is the mark of an idol-temple.
SETS == SYMMETRY
RELIGIONS: {60,2}
ROAD: {10,12}
For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}. See also the overview index.
The naaquus was originally something entirely different (see the definition above), but has been repurposed to mean the conch shell that is often blown as a part of Hindu worship. For more on this kind of redefinition, see {60,8}. For another naaquus verse, see {39,5x}.
The versatility of ;Gair az generates two possible readings for the first line. For unbelief can be to search for a guide either 'other than' an abundance of ardor (ardor is the only real guide), or 'without [having]' an abundance of ardor (ardor should preside over the search for a guide).
In either case, the second line is the charm. I'm surprised that the commentators make such heavy weather of it. A bell is traditionally used by a caravan, to alert the travelers when the time for departure is approaching. (Mir has a number of verses that use this image.) A conch-shell is blown as a part of Vaishnavite worship ceremonies, and thus calls one toward an 'idol-temple'. The 'symmetry' effect means that we can read either 'the bell is a conch-shell' (the caravan bell invites us toward an idol-temple), or 'the conch-shell is a bell' (the call to idol-worship organizes our caravan on the road).
No matter which way we read it, the point is that a truly ardent, radically determined seeker will look for traces of the divine wherever he finds them, and will not be constrained by any concern for religious orthodoxy; the only real unbelief is the lack of sufficient ardor. To see how the truly ardent seeker's passion transcends any particular religious destination, consider the beautiful, haunting {93,3x}.
Asi:
Except for an abundance of ardor, to make anyone your road-shower and guide is a sin, and unbelief. In the road of the sacred desert, you ought to consider only/emphatically a bell to be a conch-shell, because through a bell the abundance of ardor is evident. Thus only/emphatically this is the guide; there's no need for a conch-shell.
== Asi, p. 134