Allama Muhammad Iqbal, poet-philosopher and dreamer of Pakistan, was born on November 9, 1877, at Sialkot in the Punjab. Iqbal started his education in a mosque where he learnt Arabic and Persian. His thorough grounding in these languages was due to Sayyed Mir Hassan (later Shams-ul-Ulema).

Iqbal graduated in 1897 and obtained his M.A. degree in 1899. At the Government College, Lahore, he came under the influence of Prof. Thomas Arnold who taught him Philosophy. He went to England in 1905. He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge University, in 1907. He was called to the Bar in the Trinity Term 1908. Between 1905 and 1907 he went to Germany for a doctorate in Philosophy. He submitted a thesis at the Munich University on the “Development of Metaphysics in Persia”. His range of interests covered religion, philosophy, art, politics, economics, nationalism, the revival of Muslim life and the universal brotherhood of man. He used poetry as his medium of expression because he was a born poet.

His first book Ilmul Iqtisad was on economics written in Urdu in 1903. His first poetic work was Asrar-i-Khud in 1915 followed by Rumuz-i-Bekhud 1917. Pyam-i-Mashriq appeared in 1929, Zabur-i-Ajatt 1927, Javed Nama in 1932, Pas Cheh Bayed Kard Aqwam-e-Sharq in 1936 and ~rmughan-i-Heiaz in 19~ All these books were in Persian.

His first book of poetry in Urdu language Bang-i-Dara published in 1924. Bal-i.,Jibril came in 19 followed by Zarb-i-Kalim in 1936. Bang-i-Dara consists selected Urdu poems belonging to three preliminary phases of Iqbal’s poetic career. Ba14Jibril is the zenith of Iqbal’s Urdu poetry. It consists of ghazals, poems, quatrains, epigrams etc. Zarb-i-Kalim was described by Iqbal himself as a declaration of war against the present era. The main topics of the book are Islam and the Muslims, education and upbringing, woman, literature and fine arts, politics of the East and the West etc. In Asrar-iKhudi, Iqbal has explained his philosophy of self. He proves by various means that the whole universe obeys the will of the self. Iqbal condemns self-destruction. For him, the aim of life is self-realization and self-knowledge. Here he acquaints us with the stages through which the self has to pass before finally arriving at its point of perfection enabling the knower of the self to become the “Vicegerent of Allah on earth”. In Rumuz-i-Bekhudi, Iqbal proves that Islamic way of life is the best code of conduct for a nation’s viability. Pyam-i-Mashriq is an answer to “West-Ostlicher Divan” by Goethe, the famous German poet. Goethe bemoaned that the West has become too materialistic in outlook and expected that the East would come up with a message of spirituality. A hundred years went by and then Iqbal gave a lesson to the Western countries reminding them of the importance of morality, religion and civilization and underlining the need for cultivating feeling, ardour and dynamism.

Zabur-i-Ajam includes Mathnavi Gulshan-i-R az-i. Jadid and Bandgi Nama. In Gulshan-i-Raz-i-Jadid, he follows the famous Mathnavi Gulshan-i-Raz by Sayyed Mahmood Shabistri. Iqbal first propounds questions and then answers them with the help of modern insight. Bandgi Nama is, in fact, a vigorous campaign against slavery and subjugation. In Zabur-i-Ajam Iqbal’s Persian ghazal reaches its zenith as his Urdu ghazal did in Bal-iJibril. In Javed Nama, Iqbal depicts himself as Zinda Rud (the living stream) guided by Rumi, the master, through various heavens and has the honour of approaching Divinity and coming in contact with the divine illuminations. Several problems of life are discussed and answers are provided to them. His hand falls heavily on the traitors to their nations like Mir Jafar from Bengal and Mir Sadiq from the Deccan. At the end, by addressing his son Javed, he speaks to the young people at large and provides guidance to the “new generation”.

Pas Cheh Bayad Kard ai Aqwam-i-Sharq includes Mathnavi Musa fir. Here Iqbal makes Rumi, the master, utter this glad tidings. “East awakes from its heavy sleep”. In this the reader finds the most inspiring details of and commentary on voluntary poverty and free man, followed by an exposition of the mysteries of Islamic laws and Sufic perceptions. He laments the dissension among the Indian as well as Muslim nations. Mathnavi Musa fir is a memento of a journey to Afghanistan. Armughan-i-Hejaz consists of two parts. The first contains quatrains in Persian, the second contains soome poems and epigrams in Urdu. The Persian quatra convey the impression as though the poet is travelli through Hejaz in his imagination. The Urdu portion the book contains some categorical criticism of t intellectual movements and social and political revo tions of the modem age.

Iqbal wrote two books in English language, t first being The Development of Metaphysics in Persia which continuity of Persian thought has been discussE Su/ism has been dealt with in detail. In Iqbal’s vie Sufism awakens the slumbering soul to a higher ideal life. The second book is titled The Reconstruction Religious Thought in Islam. It is a collection of Iqbal’s lectures which he delivered at Madras and Hyderaba Some of the main subjects of these lectures are: Kno ledge and Religious Experience; the Philosophical Test Religious Experience; the Conception of God and t Meaning of Prayer; the Human Ego and Predestinati~ and Free Will; the Spirit of Muslim Culture and ti Principle of Movement in Islam (Ijtihad).

He served for a few years as a professor of phil sophy and oriental learning at the Government Colle~ Lahore, and the Punjab University Oriental College. I delivered dozens of speeches in his life. He practised the Lahore High Court Bar except for about last fo years of his life. He met the visitors freely. Anybo could come to him to listen to what he said. In spite all this he could spare time for poetry so rich in meanii and so artistic in its exposition. In fact, his poetry ma~ philosophy sing.

As for his politics, he joiped the London bran~ of the All-India Muslim League while he was in Lond studying law and philosophy.

Iqbal felt be bad received a divine message which he had to put in reality. Under the guidance of this message he decided to give a lead to the Muslim Ummah and bring it out of the dark dungeon of slavery to the vistas of independence. He repeated this theme in many poems afterwards, for example, S7iam-o-Sehr, Jawab-iShikwa, Khizr-i-Rah, TuIu-e-Islam etc. He never wavered. He never lost heart. His first and foremost concern, naturally, were the Indian Muslims. He was certain that the dawn of the Islamic resurgence was about to appear and the Muslims of the South Asia subcontinent were destined to play a prominent role in it.

Building upon Sir Syed’s two-nation theory, absorbing the teachings of Shibli. Ameer Au and other great Indo-Muslim thinkers and politicians, listening to Hindu and British voices, and watching the fermenting Indian scene closely for approximately 60 years, he knew and ultimately convinced his people and their leaders, particularly Jinnah that:

“We both are exiles in this land Both longing for our dear home’s sight.”

That dear home is Pakistan, on which he harpened like a flute-player, but whose birth he did not witness.

It was Allama Iqbal who, in his presidential address at Allahabad session of the All-India Muslim League, put forward the idea of a Muslim State in the North-Western Muslim majority regions of India. It was in December, 1930. He said:

“I would like to see the Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan into a single state. Self-government within the British empire or without the British empire. The formation of the consolidated north-west Indian Muslim state appears to be final destiny of the Muslims, at least of the north-’v~ India.”

In the beginning, as was but natural, this i~ was vague. That state could be a big autonomous Mus~ province within Indian federation. It could be out india but within the British Commonwealth. And so It went on evolving unit it assumed the shape of Musi

Allama Muhammad lqbal jn ecstasy.

state or states in the western and eastern Muslim majority zones as is obvious from the following lines, occurring in Iqbal’s letter of June 21, 1937, to the Quaid-i-Azam only ten months before his death.

“A separate federation of Muslim provinces, reformed on the lines I have suggested above, is the only course by which we can secure a peaceful India and save Muslims from the domination of non-Muslims. Why should not the Muslims of north-west India and Bengal be considered as nations entitled to self-determination just as other nations in India and outside India are”.

On 21st March, 1932, Allama Iqbal delivered the presidential address at Lahore at the annual session of the All-India Muslim Conference. In that address, too, Allama Iqbal laid stress on his viewpoint in respect of nationalism in India and the situation of the Muslims under the circumstances prevailing in the subcontinent. He had attended the Second Round Table Conference in September, 1931 in London. He was, therefore, now in a position to say things even more expressly and positively than he had said in 1930. At the Round Table Conference he had seen the attitude of the Hindu, Sikh and the Muslim delegates. He had observed the mind of the British Government as well. Hence he repeated his apprehensions and suggested safeguards in respect of the Indian Muslims.

During the Third Round Table Conference, Allama Iqbal was invited by the London National League where he addressed an audience which included foreign diplomats, members of the House of Commons, members of the House of Lords, Muslim members of Round Table Conference delegations and several other dignitaries. In that gathering, too, he described the situation of the Indian Muslims. He explained why he wanted communal settlement first and then the constitutional reforms. Allama Iqbal laid stress on provincial autonomy because autonomy gave the Muslim majority provinces some power to safeguard their rights, cultural tradition and religion. Under one Central Government. the Muslims were bound to lose their cultural and religious entity by submerging in the overwhelming Hindu majority. In his speech here, he again referred to what he had said at Allahabad in 1930. He reiterated his belief that before long people were bound to come round to his viewpoint based on cogent reason.

Then we come to Allama Iqbal’s statement issued in December, 1933, explaining the attitude of Muslim delegates to the Round Table Conference. This was in fact a rejoinder to what Jawaharlal Nehru had said about the attitude of the Muslim delegation characterising it as “reactionarism”. The last paragraph contains the gist of what the Muslims stood for then, and Allama Iqbal’s endorsement to the effect:

“In conclusion I must put a straight question to Pandit Jawaharlal. How is India’s problem to be solved if the majority community will neither concede the minimum safeguards necessary for the protection of a minority of 80 million people, nor accept the award of a third party but continue to talk of a nationalism which works out only to its own benefit? This position can admit of only two alternatives. Either the Indian majority will have to accept for itself the permanent position of an agent of British imperialism in the East, or the country will have to be redistributed on a basis of religious, historical and cultural affinities, so as to do away with the question of electorate and the communal problem in its present form”.

And then who could understand Allama Iqbal better than the Quaid-i-Azam himself, who was his awaited “Guide of the Era”. The Quaid.i.Azam, in the introduction of Allama Iqbal’s letters (published in 1944) addressed to him, admitted that he had agreed with Allama Iqbal regarding a state for Indian Muslims before the latter’s death in April, 1938. The words of the Quaid-i-Azam are as under:

“His views were substantially in consonance with my own and had finally led me to the same conclusions as a result of careful examination and study of the constitutional problems facing India and found expresA painting by Chughtai with caption “The Green Field” inspired by a couplet of Allama Iqbal.

sion in due course in the united will of Muslim Indh adumbrated in the Lahore Resolution of the All-In Muslim League, popularly known as the Pakistan Resc tion, passed on 23 March, 1940”.

It was Allama Iqbal who called upon Quai Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah to lead the Muslims South Asia subcontinent to their cherished goal. He L found his Khizr-i-Rah, the veiled guide, in Quaid-i-Az~

A page from an illustrated book “Muraqqa-e-Chughtai”, on Ala lqbal’s poetry.

Mohainmad All Jinnah who was destined to lead the Indian branch of Muslim Ummah to their goal of freedom. Allama Iqbal’s words in this regard are as follows:

“I know you are a busy man but I do hope you won’t mind my writing to you often, as you are the only Muslim in India today to whom the community has a right to look up to for safe guidance through the storm which is coming to north-west India and perhaps. to whole of India.”

Similarly sentiments were expressed by Allaina Iqbal, about three months before his death, regarding Quaid-i-Azam Mohainmad All Jinnah: “There is only one way out. Muslims should strengthen Jinnah’s hands. They should join the Muslim League. Indian question, as is now being solved, can be countered by our united front against both the Hindus and the English. Without it our demands are not going to be accepted. People say our demands smack of communalism. This is sheer propaganda. These demands relate to the defence of our national existence”.

Allama labal had believed in the emergence of the “Guide of the Era” and had declared accordingly in about 1926. He found that Guide in the person of Mohammad Ali Jinnah as elucidated above. The Muslims achieved their independent homeland.