Lab Pay Aati

The Story Behind Lab Pay Aati

Ali Zafar's reading of Lab Pay Aati Hai Dua takes the Iqbal nazm that Pakistani schoolchildren recite at morning assembly and sings it back to the poet at his own commemoration. He performed it at Sitaroon Say Agay, the Iqbal Day evening hosted by Yousuf Salahuddin, Iqbal's maternal grandson, at Lahore Fort, where a group of schoolchildren joined him and where Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Shafqat Amanat Ali and Hadiqa Kiani also sang Kalam-e-Iqbal.

Zafar produced the track himself. Hassan Badshah arranged and programmed it, Rahil Mirza and Amir Azhar played the guitars with Azhar also on bass, and Baqir Abbas added the strings and flute, while Kanza Munir and Aqsa Ali sang the backing vocals and Akash Pervaiz mixed and mastered. It was released on 10 November 2019, the day after Iqbal Day.

Meaning & Translation

The opening line, lab pe aati hai dua ban ke tamanna meri, means my longing comes to my lips in the shape of a prayer, and that is the whole conceit of the poem: a child speaking to God directly, with nobody standing in between. Iqbal titled it Bachche Ki Dua, a child's prayer, and what the child asks for is startlingly outward looking. Let my life be like a candle, so that I can push the darkness out of the world. Let me love the poor and be gentle with the weak. Nothing in it is requested for the child's own comfort, which is why it has held its place in school assemblies for a century.