72nd Death Anniversary of Allama Iqbal 21 April 2010

Brief Life Sketch of Allama Muhammad Iqbal

Iqbal was born on 9th November, 1877 at Sialkot. His father, Nur Muhammad was a deeply religious man with mystic knowledge. Iqbal’s mother Imam Bibi, was also a religious woman.
Iqbal began his education in a Maktab (Religious School). He was, however, fortunate to have a teacher in the person of Moulvi Syed Mir Hassan (1844-1929) who was an excellent teacher and a great scholar of Persian and Arabic. Syed Mir Hassan was quick to recognize Iqbal’s talent. It was under Mir Hasan that Iqbal developed interest in Persian and Arabic languages and literature. It was on Mir Hassan’s advice that Iqbal was sent to the Scotch Mission School at Sialkot. He passed his matriculation in 1893, and joined the Scotch Mission College (now called Murray College) for his intermediate examination.
It was about this time that Iqbal sent some of his verses, mostly lyrics to the well-known Urdu poet Dagh for correction. After correcting some poems, Dagh wrote back to Iqbal that his poem did not need any revision. It may be mentioned that Dagh lived long enough to see young Iqbal acquire countrywide popularity and he often used to refer with pride to the fact that at one time he had corrected Iqbal’s poems. When Iqbal passed intermediate with honour he was awarded a scholarship from the Scotch Mission College. The same year, Iqbal shifted to Lahore and joined the Government College. The subjects Iqbal studied for the bachelor of arts degree included Arabic and English literature and philosophy. He graduated cum-laude and was also awarded a scholarship for further study leading towards a master’s degree in Philosophy. Two years later in 1899, he won a gold medal for the unique distinction of being the only candidate who passed the final comprehensive examination. Iqbal obtained his master’s degree in 1899. He was recognized as a promising young poet in the literary circles of Lahore. By far the most pervasive influence on Iqbal’s intellectual development at Government College came from Sir Thomas Arnold, an accomplished scholar of Islam and modern Philosophy. Unlike most western missionaries, who presented Islam as the religion of the sword, Sir Thomas wrote at Aligarh a monumental study, the Preaching of Islam, emphasizing the peaceful "propagation of the Muslim faith". In Arnold, Iqbal found a loving teacher, who combined in himself a profound knowledge of western philosophy and a deep understanding of Islamic culture and Arabic literature. This happy mélange of the East and West, Arnold helped to develop in Iqbal. Also Arnold became a bridge of friendship between Shibli Numani and Iqbal. In 1904, when Arnold left Lahore for London, Iqbal composed a beautiful poem Nala-i-Firaq (Lament of Separation) indicating the student’s devotion to his teacher and his determination to follow Arnold to England in quest of knowledge.
In May 1899 a few months after Iqbal’s graduation with a master’s degree in Philosophy, he was appointed Macleod - Punjab reader of Arabic at the University Oriental College of Lahore. However, he resigned from the position of reader and taught as assistant professor of English at Islamia College and at the Government College at Lahore.
The first period of Iqbal’s poetic career ended in 1905, when he left for higher studies in Europe. During his three years of residence in Europe, Iqbal composed twenty-four small poems and lyrics. Iqbal studied in both Britain and Germany. In London, he studied at Lincoln’s Inn in order to qualify at the Bar, and at the Trinity College of Cambridge University, he enrolled as an undergraduate student to earn a bachelor of arts degree. This enrollment was unusual since he already had a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of the Punjab, Lahore, and was simultaneously preparing to submit a doctoral dissertation in philosophy to Munich University. The German University not only allowed him to submit his dissertation in English, but also exempted him from a mandatory stay of two terms on the campus before submitting his dissertation, titled: "The Development of Metaphysics in Persia". After his successful defence of the dissertation, Iqbal was awarded Doctorate Degree. This dissertation, which was published the following year in London, was dedicated to T.W. Arnold.
Philosophy being first love, Iqbal probably wanted to benefit from the lectures of the neo-Hegelians, John McTaggart and James Ward, who lectured at Cambridge to the undergraduates. Moreover, the two outstanding orientlists, E.L. Browne and Reynold A. Nicholson, were also at Cambridge lecturing on Persian literature. In view of this, Iqbal’s admission as an undergraduate at Cambridge, though unusual, is understandable. Iqbal’s intellect was sharpened and his mental horizon widened under these eminent scholars who admired him and recognized his philosophic and poetic talent.
In 1915, Iqbal published his major Persian philosophical Poem "Asrar-i-Khudi". Its continuation, Rumuz-i-bekhudi (Mysteries of the selflessness) appeared in 1918. These poems initiated a series that included Payam-i-Mashriq (The message of the East, 1923) a response to Goethe’s West Ostriches Divan; Zubur-i-Ajam (Iranian Psalms, 1927); and Javid Nama (1932) which has been called "an Oriental Divine Comedy". His generally shorter, more lyrical Urdu poems were also published in several collections, notably Bang-e-Dara (The Sound of the Bell, 1924) and Bal-e-Jabril (Gabriel’s wing, 1936). A collection of his English lectures on Islamic philosophy was published titled: The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (1930). At his best, Iqbal is one of the great Urdu poets and a great Indo-Persian Poet as well.
A few critics who clearly ignore the anti-Muslim aspect of European expansion in Asia have claimed that the message of Iqbal was meant, above all, for the Muslim world and that it would not have a universal value. The poet himself has explained very clearly his point of view on this fundamental question. He said:
"The object of my Persian masnavis is not to attempt an advocacy of Islam. My real purpose is to look for a better social order and to present a universally acceptable ideals (of life and action) before the world, but it is impossible for me, in this effort to outlive this ideal, to ignore the social system and values of Islam whose most important objective is to demolish all the artificial and pernicious distinctions of caste, creed, colour and economic status... when I realized that the conception of nationalism based on the differences of race and country was beginning to overshadow the world and that the Muslims also were in danger of giving up the universality of their ideal in favour of a narrow patriotism and false nationalism, I felt it my duty as a Muslim and a well-wisher of humanity to recall them back to their true role in the drama of human evolution. No doubt, I am intensely devoted to Islam but I have selected the Islamic Community as my starting point not because of any national or religious prejudice, because it is the most practicable line of approach".
A poet of deep, reflective wisdom and delicate sensitivity, Iqbal occupies a very distinguished position among the men of letters. His poems, apart from their philosophic content, are full of concentrated emotion. The poems have a drama-like quality that penetrates the unconscious, a haunting quality which characterizes all true Poetry. They are a record of his deepened insight and his experienced visions, a marvel of suggestiveness. Iqbal joined the keen intellect of the philosopher and the transcendental vision of the mystic, the exquisite expression of the artist.
Iqbal’s dream of a society in which true brotherhood would exist, and the social rank of man would not be determined by his caste, his colour or his fortune, but by the kind of life he leads. Iqbal always condemned the nationalism of the West as founded on mere animal ties of blood, instead of on harmony of ideals. Iqbal is a seer and a humanist who has pondered deeply over all the social, political and economic problems facing the East and examined them in the light of his Quranic ideology. A poet without a strong conviction can never conquer his milieu. In this sense, Iqbal was a great conqueror. He had a purpose before him. It was a high purpose. Iqbal had his own way. All his life, Iqbal toiled hard to make others see and feel what he saw and felt. For rising higher than animal level, a person has first to subjugate the animal within him. To overpower ordinary, selfish desires is not an easy undertaking. To make one’s capabilities conform to one’s ideas and ideals is another difficulty to surmount. To live according to the dictates of intellect and faith is to be truly human. It is to become master in one’s own house such a master is a genuine "self".
Iqbal was a "self" power with a will and an unfaltering faith, he composed poem after poem to mirror the position and condition in which the Muslims stood at that time. He tried to make them realize their shortcomings and regain their self-confidence as a nation. He had started as a nationalist poet, since the major portion of poetry concerns the Muslims and Islam. But Iqbal was not only a poet but also a philosopher too. The Nation calls him even Hakimul Ummat, which means the philosopher of the nation.
Iqbal represents that moderation which is enjoined by Islam. Almost all of his basic ideas are derived form Islam but he has presented them not only for the Muslims but for the entire world. He maintains that the best solutions of the world problems lie in the Islamic way of life.
Iqbal maintained that every human being has been endowed by nature various kinds of abilities and capabilities. The first duty of a person is to know himself or herself. By knowing oneself he means to know the nature of one’s capabilities.
Life is meant for action. This world is a field for the action. The best of thought is meaningless if it is not translated into action. It is action which makes life good or bad. Iqbal says:
(Action makes life a Paradise or a hell. Man in his origin is concerned neither with light nor life).
Iqbal has compared the relationship between the individual and the society with the relationship that exists between the wave and river:
The individual stands on his relation with his nation. As a solitary figure, he is nothing. The wave is in the river. Beyond the river there is nothing.)
A Philosopher by temperament he was not interested in politics although he had been associated with the Muslim League from his London Years. He was elected a member of the Executive Committee of the London branch of the Muslim League in 1908. However, political circumstances of the last decade of his life forced him to take part in politics. In 1926, he was elected as a member of the Punjab Legislative Council; three years later he was chosen President of the All-India Muslim League which met for its annual session at Allahabad in 1930.
Earlier, a spilt leading to two factions of the All-India Muslim League had occurred in 1927 which forced Iqbal to side with one of these. This rift continued up to February 1930. Thereafter, the Fourteen Points of the Quaid became a charter of unification between the two factions. On 28 February, 1930, Sir Muhammad Shafi and Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah met in Delhi by which the two factions of the All-India Muslim League were merged. Thus the League again became united making Quaid as its President.
At that juncture of Muslim political struggle in India, one group of the Muslim intelligentsia favoured the struggle for the independence of a united India and had bound its fate with the Indian National Congress, whereas the other shared a belief in the necessity of Muslim’s self- determination and supported the All-India Muslim League, who later spread the movement for the creation of Pakistan. On the eve of the Round Table Conference in London when Federal Scheme was being discussed, the All-India Muslim League held its annual session at Allahabad on 29-30 December 1930, with Allama Iqbal presiding the Session. During the course of his Presidential Address, he emphasized that India comprised of different races, religion and languages which militated against the creation of organic national unity. Since persistent and patient efforts to forge communal harmony had proved fruitless and all out to be useless, the best solution of the intractable Hindu-Muslim confrontation lay in the division of the Sub-continent. On this occasion, Allama Iqbal presented the idea of Muslim India within India. He said:
"Punjab, N.W.F.P., Sind and Balochistan should be amalgamated into a single state. Self-government within the British Empire, or without the British Empire, the formation of consolidated North-West Indian Muslim state appears to me to be the final destiny of the Muslims at least of North-West India".
Two years later, Allama Iqbal presided over the meeting of the Executive Board of the Conference on 5 March, 1933. Prior to that, he had proposed the amalgamation of various Muslim organizations into one political body which should have its branches every where in British India. In this meeting of the Executive Board of the India Muslim Conference, the proposed amalgamation was approved.
It was Allama Iqbal who, as Chairman of the India Committee, said in August 1934, in an appeal to the Muslims of the whole sub-continent, that they should observe 14th August, 1934 as ‘Kashmir Day’ and said that the dream of Muslim India would be incomplete without the freedom of the Islamic State of Kashmir.
It may be recalled that when Allama Iqbal proposed the idea of a separate Muslim State, the Muslim politicians and intellectuals failed to measure up to Iqbal’s prescient views and remained bogged down in the stereotypic politics. At that time, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah had withdrawn from politics for the time being. Allama Iqbal was the dreamer of Pakistan and well-wisher of Muslim nation. He was a Muslim Leaguer and great admirer of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. In his opinion the Quaid was the only Muslim in India to whom the community had a right to look for safe guidance through the storm which was coming to North-west India and perhaps to the whole of India.
In March 1938, Iqbal fell ill very seriously. Despite the best medical help and the most careful nursing, the poet-philosopher of Islam died in the early hours of 21st April, 1938.
He was given a funeral which kings might envy and his remains were buried near the gate of the historic Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, late in the evening, in the presence of thousands of mourners.
A few days before his death he had told his brother:
"I am a Muslim and I am not afraid to die."
Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah issued the following statement on the death of Allama Mohammad Iqbal:-
"I am extremely sorry to hear the sad news of the death of Sir Muhammad Iqbal. He was a remarkable poet of worldwide fame and his work will live for ever. His services to his country and the Muslims are so numerous that his record can be compared with that of the greatest Indian that ever lived. He was an ex-President of the All-India Muslim League and a president of the Provincial Muslim League of the Punjab till very recent time when his unforeseen illness compelled him to resign. But he was the staunchest and the most loyal champion of the policy and programme of the All-India Muslim League."
“To me he was a friend, guide and philosopher and during the darkest moments through which the Muslim League had to go he stood like a rock and never flinched one single moment and as a result just only three days ago he must have read or been informed of the complete unity that was achieved in Calcutta of the Muslim leaders of the Punjab, and today I can say with pride that the Muslims of the Punjab are wholeheartedly with the League and have come under the flag of the All-India Muslim League, which must have been a matter of greatest satisfaction to him. In the achievement of this unity Sir Muhammad Iqbal played a most signal part. My sincerest and deepest sympathy go out to his family at this moment in their bereavement in losing him, and it is a terrible loss to India and the Muslims particularly at this juncture."
On the death of Iqbal, Tagore remarked "the death of Iqbal creates a void in literature that, like a mortal wound, will take a very long time to heal. India whose place in the world is too narrow can ill afford to miss a poet whose poetry had such universal value".
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru held the view that Iqbal was a poet, an intellectual and philosopher of a great order. He writes in his Discovery of India that:
"Iqbal opposed, any society that seemed to him without a religious foundation". The vision of Iqbal is not very different from the ideal of democracy as understood in the West. ..."

Literary Career

Upon his return to India in 1908, Iqbal took up assistant professorship at the Government College in Lahore, but for financial reasons he relinquished it within a year to practise law. During this period, Iqbal's personal life was in turmoil. He divorced Karim Bibi in 1916, but provided financial support to her and their children for the rest of his life.
While maintaining his legal practise, Iqbal began concentrating on spiritual and religious subjects, and publishing poetry and literary works. He became active in the Anjuman-e-Himayat-e-Islam, a congress of Muslim intellectuals, writers and poets as well as politicians, and in 1919 became the general secretary of the organisation. Iqbal's thoughts in his work primarily focused on the spiritual direction and development of human society, centred around experiences from his travel and stay in Western Europe and the Middle East. He was profoundly influenced by Western philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Henri Bergson and Goethe, and soon became a strong critic of Western society's separation of religion from state and what he perceived as its obsession with materialist pursuits.
1908, in LondonThe poetry and philosophy of Mawlana Rumi bore the deepest influence on Iqbal's mind. Deeply grounded in religion since childhood, Iqbal would begin intensely concentrating on the study of Islam, the culture and history of Islamic civilization and its political future, and embrace Rumi as "his guide." Iqbal would feature Rumi in the role of a guide in many of his poems, and his works focused on reminding his readers of the past glories of Islamic civilization, and delivering a message of a pure, spiritual focus on Islam as a source for socio-political liberation and greatness. Iqbal denounced political divisions within and amongst Muslim nations, and frequently alluded to and spoke in terms of the global Muslim community, or the Ummah.

Works in Persian

Iqbal's poetic works are written mostly in Persian rather than Urdu. Among his 12,000 verses of poem, almost more than 7,000 verses are in Persian. In 1915, he published his first collection of poetry, the Asrar-e-Khudi (Secrets of the Self) in Persian. The poems delve into concepts of ego and emphasise the spirit and self from a religious, spiritual perspective. Many critics have called this Iqbal's finest poetic work. In Asrar-e-Khudi, Iqbal has explained his philosophy of "Khudi," or "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. He charts 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.
In his Rumuz-e-Bekhudi (Hints of Selflessness), Iqbal seeks to prove that Islamic way of life is the best code of conduct for a nation's viability. A person must keep his individual characteristics intact but once this is achieved he should sacrifice his personal ambitions for the needs of the nation. Man cannot realise the "Self" out of society. Also in Persian and published in 1917, this group of poems has as its main themes the ideal community, Islamic ethical and social principles and the relationship between the individual and society. Although he is true throughout to Islam, Iqbal recognises also the positive analogous aspects of other religions. The Rumuz-e-Bekhudi complements the emphasis on the self in the Asrar-e-Khudi and the two collections are often put in the same volume under the title Asrar-o-Rumuz (Hinting Secrets), and it is addressed to the world's Muslims. Iqbal sees the individual and his community as reflections of each other. The individual needs to be strengthened before he can be integrated into the community, whose development in turn depends on the preservation of the communal ego. It is through contact with others that an ego learns to accept the limitations of its own freedom and the meaning of love. Muslim communities must ensure order in life and must therefore preserve their communal tradition. It is in this context that Iqbal sees the vital role of women, who as mothers are directly responsible for inculcating values in their children.
Iqbal's 1924 publication, the Payam-e-Mashriq (The Message of the East) is closely connected to the West-östlicher Diwan by the famous German poet Goethe. Goethe bemoaned that the West had become too materialistic in outlook and expected that the East would provide a message of hope that would resuscitate spiritual values. Iqbal styles his work as a reminder to the West of the importance of morality, religion and civilization by underlining the need for cultivating feeling, ardour and dynamism. He explains that an individual could never aspire for higher dimensions unless he learns of the nature of spirituality. In his first visit to Afghanistan, he presented his book "Payam-e Mashreq" to King Amanullah Khan in which he admired the liberal movements of Afghanistan against the British Empire. In 1933, he was officially invited to Afghanistan to join the meetings regarding the establishment of Kabul University.
1929, with his son Javid IqbalThe Zabur-e-Ajam (Persian Psalms), published in 1927, includes the poems Gulshan-e-Raz-e-Jadeed (Garden of New Secrets) and Bandagi Nama (Book of Slavery). In Gulshan-e-Raz-e-Jadeed, Iqbal first poses questions, then answers them with the help of ancient and modern insight and shows how it effects and concerns the world of action. Bandagi Nama denounces slavery by attempting to explain the spirit behind the fine arts of enslaved societies. Here as in other books, Iqbal insists on remembering the past, doing well in the present and preparing for the future, emphasising love, enthusiasm and energy to fill the ideal life. Iqbal's 1932 work, the Javed Nama (Book of Javed) is named after and in a manner addressed to his son, who is featured in the poems, and follows the examples of the works of Ibn Arabi and Dante's The Divine Comedy, through mystical and exaggerated depiction across time. Iqbal depicts himself as Zinda Rud ("A stream full of life") guided by Rumi, "the master," through various heavens and spheres, and has the honour of approaching divinity and coming in contact with divine illuminations. In a passage re-living a historical period, Iqbal condemns the Muslim traitors who were instrumental in the defeat and death of Nawab Siraj-ud-Daula of Bengal and Tipu Sultan of Mysore respectively by betraying them for the benefit of the British colonists, and thus delivering their country to the shackles of slavery. At the end, by addressing his son Javid, he speaks to the young people at large, and provides guidance to the "new generation."
The Pas Cheh Bayed Kard ai Aqwam-e-Sharq (What are we to do, O Nations of the East?) includes the poem Musafir (Traveller). Again, Iqbal depicts Rumi as a character and an exposition of the mysteries of Islamic laws and Sufi perceptions is given. Iqbal laments the dissension and disunity among the Indian Muslims as well as Muslim nations. Musafir is an account of one of Iqbal's journeys to Afghanistan, in which the Pashtun people are counseled to learn the "secret of Islam" and to "build up the self" within themselves. Iqbal's final work was the Armughan-e-Hijaz (The Gift of Hijaz), published posthumously in 1938. The first part contains quatrains in Persian, and the second part contains some poems and epigrams in Urdu. The Persian quatrains convey the impression as though the poet is travelling through the Hijaz in his imagination. Profundity of ideas and intensity of passion are the salient features of these short poems. The Urdu portion of the book contains some categorical criticism of the intellectual movements and social and political revolutions of the modern age

Works in Urdu

Iqbal's first work published in Urdu, the Bang-e-Dara (The Call of the Marching Bell) of 1924, was a collection of poetry written by him in three distinct phases of his life.[6] The poems he wrote up to 1905, the year Iqbal left for England imbibe patriotism and imagery of landscape, and includes the Tarana-e-Hind (The Song of India), popularly known as Saare Jahan Se Achcha and another poem Tarana-e-Milli (Anthem of the (muslim) Community), which was composed in the same metre and rhyme scheme as Saare Jahan Se Achcha. The second set of poems date from between 1905 and 1908 when Iqbal studied in Europe and dwell upon the nature of European society, which he emphasized had lost spiritual and religious values. This inspired Iqbal to write poems on the historical and cultural heritage of Islamic culture and Muslim people, not from an Indian but a global perspective. Iqbal urges the global community of Muslims, addressed as the Ummah to define personal, social and political existence by the values and teachings of Islam. Poems such as Tulu'i Islam (Dawn of Islam) and Khizr-e-Rah (The Guided Path) are especially acclaimed.
Iqbal preferred to work mainly in Persian for a predominant period of his career, but after 1930, his works were mainly in Urdu. The works of this period were often specifically directed at the Muslim masses of India, with an even stronger emphasis on Islam, and Muslim spiritual and political reawakening. Published in 1935, the Bal-e-Jibril (Wings of Gabriel) is considered by many critics as the finest of Iqbal's Urdu poetry, and was inspired by his visit to Spain, where he visited the monuments and legacy of the kingdom of the Moors. It consists of ghazals, poems, quatrains, epigrams and carries a strong sense of religious passion.

Revival of Islamic Polity

Iqbal's second book in English, the Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, is a collection of his six lectures which he delivered at Madras, Hyderabad and Aligarh; first published as a collection in Lahore, in 1930. These lectures dwell on the role of Islam as a religion as well as a political and legal philosophy in the modern age. In these lectures Iqbal firmly rejects the political attitudes and conduct of Muslim politicians, whom he saw as morally-misguided, attached to power and without any standing with Muslim masses. Iqbal expressed fears that not only would secularism weaken the spiritual foundations of Islam and Muslim society, but that India's Hindu-majority population would crowd out Muslim heritage, culture and political influence. In his travels to Egypt, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey, he promoted ideas of greater Islamic political co-operation and unity, calling for the shedding of nationalist differences. He also speculated on different political arrangements to guarantee Muslim political power; in a dialogue with Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Iqbal expressed his desire to see Indian provinces as autonomous units under the direct control of the British government and with no central Indian government. He envisaged autonomous Muslim provinces in India. Under one Indian union he feared for Muslims, who would suffer in many respects especially with regard to their existentially separate entity as Muslims. Sir Muhammad Iqbal was elected president of the Muslim League in 1930 at its session in Allahabad, in the United Provinces as well as for the session in Lahore in 1932. In his presidential address on December 29, 1930, Iqbal outlined a vision of an independent state for Muslim-majority provinces in northwestern India:
Iqbal with Choudhary Rahmat Ali and other Muslim activists."I would like to see the Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan amalgamated into a single state. Self-government within the British Empire, or without the British Empire, the formation of a consolidated Northwest Indian Muslim state appears to me to be the final destiny of the Muslims, at least of Northwest India."
In his speech, Iqbal emphasised that unlike Christianity, Islam came with "legal concepts" with "civic significance," with its "religious ideals" considered as inseparable from social order: "therefore, the construction of a policy on national lines, if it means a displacement of the Islamic principle of solidarity, is simply unthinkable to a Muslim." Iqbal thus stressed not only the need for the political unity of Muslim communities, but the undesirability of blending the Muslim population into a wider society not based on Islamic principles. He thus became the first politician to articulate what would become known as the Two-Nation Theory — that Muslims are a distinct nation and thus deserve political independence from other regions and communities of India. The latter part of Iqbal's life was concentrated on political activity. He would travel across Europe and West Asia to garner political and financial support for the League, and he reiterated his ideas in his 1932 address, and during the Third Round-Table Conference, he opposed the Congress and proposals for transfer of power without considerable autonomy or independence for Muslim provinces. He would serve as president of the Punjab Muslim League, and would deliver speeches and publish articles in an attempt to rally Muslims across India as a single political entity. Iqbal consistently criticised feudal classes in Punjab as well as Muslim politicians averse to the League.

External Links

• Iqbal Academy Pakistan
• Allama Iqbal Digital Library
• Some of his best Urdu poems from Columbia University site
• Allam Iqbal Works
• Works of Iqbal in smilepk site
• Search Kalame Iqbal with difficult words
• SWorks of Muhammad Iqbal

Special Thx for nazariapak.info/iqbal/brief.asp


 

Dr.Allama Muhammad Iqbal Manzil (1877to1938)

Iqbal Manzil

The Birth Place of Dr Sir Allama Muhammad Iqbal

Dr Sir Allama Muhammad Iqbal and Sialkot are synonymous to each other as Sialkot was the place where this great poet, philosopher and dreamer of Pakistan was born. And Iqbal Manzil is the place right in the heart of Sialkot city where this great man was born. The place was bought by Sheikh Muhammad Rafiauq, Iqbal's grand father, in February 1861. At tyhat time the house consisted of only three rooms, which have now been converted into a museum. In December 1892, sheikh Noor Muhammad, Iqbal's father, bought the adjacent house which now forms part of the Iqbal Manzil complex. It was here that Iqbal was born on 9th of November 1877.

The stairs to the first floor (Photo courtesy: Jalalspages )

After the death of his father, Iqbal's elder brother, Atta Mohammad became the owner of the house. However, after the death of Atta Mohammed, his two sons took up residences in Karachi and Lahore. The Government of Pakistan bought Iqbal Manzil for its restoration in 1971 and handed it over to the Archaeology Department, who aptly accorded it the status of a cultural heritage. After some renovation, Iqbal Manzil was converted into a library-cum-museum. The museum was inaugurated in 1977.The museum consists of a guided tour of some rooms of the mansion, and displays some furniture and other objects used by Allama Iqbal.

Left to Right: The room where Iqbal was born - Centre: The cart where newly born Iqbal slept - Right: The original main door of Iqbal Manzil

The house is more or less in the same shape as it was some two centuries ago and in somewhat poor condition of maintenance and lack of neglect. The walls house numerous memorable and rare photos of the great poet.

Left to Right: Middle School Certificate - Iqbal - Iqbal and his son (Javed Iqbal) - Group photo Government College Lahore

The upper story has bed room, library conference room and sitting room.

Left to Right: Bed room - Dinning Room - Wall Clock - Hot Plate

The house is looked after by Mr S Riaz Hussain Naqvi, who is the curator since 1986. I visited Sialkot at very late hour of the night and a friend of mine requested Mr Navi to open the museum for us and Mr Naqvi very graciously obliged us and took more than an hour to conduct the visit with all relevant details. Mr Navi since taking charge has been intimately involved in the restoration and rebuilding of this crumbling historic building. But despite his sincere efforts, the building is in poor state of maintenance. Cracks appeared several years ago in almost all the walls of the building. The Sialkot district government has repaired the cracked walls of 147-year-old Iqbal Manzil. Now the walls have been repaired and whitewashed, and the second storey of the three-storeyed building has been carpeted. A room of Iqbal Manzil houses a more than 4,000 old books, among them 2,000 are on Iqbaliyat. It is planned to build a large library by collecting books, both on and by Iqbal, from all over the world where research could being conducted on the poet and his works. This library has already facilitated 5 students to attain their PhD degree on the works of Iqbal.

Left to Right: The Curator - Library containing Iqbal's personal collection - Wooden Box - Ceiling Fan




Thx www.pakistanpaedia.com/landmarks/iqbalmanzil/iqbal_manzil.htm

 

Dr.Allama Muhammad Iqbal (1877to1938)

Dr.Allama Muhammad Iqbal (Thinker of Pakistan and National Poet)

Introduction

Allama Muhammad Iqbal was a famous Muslim poet from the colonial era, a philosopher and thinker of Kashmiri origin. He is one of most outstanding poets, writers, intellectuals and thinkers of modem times. A major Urdu and Persian writer, is a major force behind the creation of Pakistan. He is revered in Pakistan as Muffakir-e-Pakistan (The Thinker of Pakistan) or Shair-i-Mashriq (The Poet of the East).

Dr. Allama Muhammad Iqbal Early Life and Education

Allama Iqbal was born on November 9, 1877 in Sialkot. He held a brilliant academic record. He did his Masters in Philosophy from Government College, Lahore and joined there as a lecturer. He left for Europe in 1905 and studied Philosophy and Law at the Trinity College, Cambridge, Lincolin's Inn, London and the Munich University. He was awarded a 'Ph.D' by the Munich University. He returned home in 1908 and rejoined service in the Government College, Lahore. He resigned after sometime and started practicing Law.

Political Career

He was elected Member of the Punjab Legislative Assembly in 1926 for three years. In 1930 Iqbal was elected President of the Muslim League session held at Allahabad. In 1931 he attended the Round Table Conference which met in London to frame a constitution for India and took active Part in its various committees. He was the first to give a concrete shape to the Muslim aspirations in India for 'a separate homeland'.

Along with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, he is considered as one of the preeminent founding fathers of Pakistan, arguably having convinced Jinnah to return from England and lead the movement demanding a separate homeland for South Asia's Muslims when Britain granted independence to the region.

Demand for a separate Nation

Several leaders and thinkers, having insight into the Hindu-Muslim proposed separation of Muslim India. However, the most lucid exposition of the inner feeling of the Muslim community was given by Allama Muhammad Iqbal.

In his Presidential Address at the Annual Session of the All India Muslim League at Allahbad (1930) he boldly asserted the Muslim demand for the creation of a Muslim state within India, and said

"I would like to see the Punjab, the North-West Frontier Province, Sindh and Baluchistan amalgamated into a single State".

It was Iqbal's fervent appeal which persuaded the Quaid-e-Azam in 1934 to return from England and lead the Muslims of the Indo-Pakistan Sub-continent in their struggle for constitutional rights and it was in his letters to the Quaid-e-Azam that he elaborated his scheme in its political as well as cultural context. He succeeded in convincing the Quaid-e-Azam that Pakistan was the only solution to the Political problems of the Muslims of India, and it was on the foundations laid by Iqbal that the Muslim Leageue's historic Pakistan Resolution of 1940. Very few even among the Muslim welcomed the idea at the time. It was to take a decade for the Muslims to embrace the demand for a separate Muslim state.

He believed, on the one hand, in the emancipation and freedom of the Muslims of the Indo-Pakistan Sub-continent and on the other, he argued for the unity of Muslim nations all-over the world. Iqbal's political philosophy is not atomistic but organic in that it implied the formation of an associaiton of the Muslim countries to betten their own lot and be the upholder of peace and justice throughout the World.

His verses in Urdu and Persian and his monumental treatises have been translated into almost all the important languages of the world and found wide recognition in Iran, Turkey, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Italy, USSR and many other countries.

Allama Iqbal died on April 21, 1938 in Lahore at the age of 60. His tomb is inside Badshahi Mosque in Lahore. An academy named after him has been established by the Government of Pakistan to promote and disseminate the messages and teachings of Allama Iqbal.
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Pakistan Resolution in retrospect(23rd March 1940)

By Prof Sharif al Mujahid





Pakistan owes her emergence to four outstanding leaders – Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-98), Maulana Mohammad Ali (1878-1931), Mohammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948), and Allama Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938). These leaders provided intellectual and political leadership to Indian Muslims during the ninety years (1858-1947) of the British imperial dominance.

Surprisingly though, all of them were thorough-bred nationalists at one time or another. But, betimes, they got disillusioned and shied away willy-nilly from their Hindu compatriots, either because of Hindu ethnocentrism in the late 19th century or Congress's rather exclusive, unitary nationalism in the 1920s and 1930s. That makes Pakistan, in part, a product of these Hindu, myopic approaches, asymmetrical with the prime dictates of the ground realities in a multi-nation and multi-cultured subcontinent. In part it was, of course, a product of the Muslims' quest for an equitable share in power, a quest designed primarily to organise their society on the basis of their pristine value structure.

Interestingly, three of these four leaders – Sir Syed, Iqbal and Jinnah – had initially started out as full blooded nationalists, but were obliged to end up, finally, at threshold of Muslim "separatism". And that, of course, after a good deal of traumatised reappraisals. So did Maulana Mohammad Ali, who joined mainstream nationalist politics midway through his career. But he was the foremost "nationalist" leader along with Gandhi during the Khilafat and Non-Cooperation Movement (1920-22), and he also presided over the subsequent Cocanada Congress session (1923), a unique honour for a Muslim, an honour that was inexplicably denied to Jinnah, though he occupied the top echelon of Congress leadership for several years and was considered the embodied symbol of Hindu-Muslim unity. Yet, within seven years, Mohammad Ali would vehemently denounce Gandhi's much-trumpeted Civil Disobedience Movement, launched in April 1930. In his presidential address to the All India Muslim Conference at Bombay on April 23, 1930, he declared, "We refuse to join Mr Gandhi, because his movement is not a movement for the complete independence of India but for making the seventy millions of Indian Musalmans dependents of the Hindu Mahasabha". And he was cheered by over 20,000 Muslims that had gathered on the occasion (Times of India, April 24, 1930).

Jinnah's postures and predilections during his long political life (1904-48) were a microcosm of Muslim India's during the period.
For some seventeen years (1904-20), he had stood on the Congress's platform, pleading the Congress cause and envisioning a truly nationalist destiny for India. For another sixteen years (1921-37), though out of Congress for good, he was still working for a nationalist destiny; he was still striving for a Hindu-Muslim settlement and he was still collaborating with the Congress and its leadership. In pursuit of his mission, he devised several constitutional formulae, but all to no avail.

At the Congress-sponsored All Parties National Convention at Calcutta in December 1928, called to consider and ratify the Nehru Report (1928) as the blueprint of India's future constitution, Jinnah had put forward the six minimum Muslim demands for acceptance. But all of them were outvoted one by one. In vain did Jinnah argue: "... what we want is that the Hindus and Muslims should march together until our object is obtained... I want you ... to rise to that statesmanship which Sir Tej Bahadur describes. Minorities cannot give anything to the majority... If they are small points, why not concede? It is up to the majority and majority alone can give."

In aggregate terms, the most acrimonious and acerbic controversy in Indian politics in the late 1920s (since the Nehru Report) and all through the 1930s had hinged around the basic issue of Hindu "Unitarianism" vs Muslim Federalism. The difference in the approaches was sharply reflected in the formation of ministries in the Hindu and Muslim majority provinces in mid 1937. While the Muslim provinces went for coalition governments, the Hindu provinces under the Congress's aegis opted for exclusive, one party government.

Till early 1937, however, Jinnah was still his "nationalist" self; preaching his credo eloquently; trying to unite Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs.

But, alas, Jinnah came to be caught on the wrong wicket. For one thing, at about this time, Pandit Nehru, the Congress Rashtrapathi (1936-38), began expounding his controversial "two-forces" formula, which counted Muslims out of India's politic body as a religio-political entity. He fired his first salvo in that direction on September 18, 1936, saying that ". . . the real contest is between two forces - the Congress representing the will for freedom of the nation and the British Government in India and its supporters who oppose this urge and try to suppress it. Intermediate groups, whatever virtue they may possess, fade out or line up with one of the principal forces. The issue for India is that of independence. He who is for it must be with the Congress and if he talks in terms of communalism he is not keen on independence."

To this formula Nehru returned, on January 10, 1937. Shorn of its sophistry and anti-imperialist tone, this represented a challenge to Muslim individuality in Indian politics, an individuality which they had nurtured and claimed since the times of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. It also represented not only a challenge to the continued existence of the Muslim League (AIML), but also a moment of truth for Jinnah who had led that body continuously since 1919, except for his three years of self-exile (1931-34) in England.

Yet Jinnah's response was surprisingly conciliatory, if only because he still hoped for a rapprochement with the Congress. In his speech at Calcutta's Muhammad Ali Park, on January 4, 1937, he said "I refuse to line up with the Congress. I refuse to accept this proposition. There is a third party in this country and that is Muslim India.... We are not going to be camp followers of any party". (Italics for emphasis) Despite this timely rebuttal, he held out the olive branch, saying, "We are willing as equal partners to come to a settlement with our sister communities in the interest of India." And Jinnah reaffirmed this stance repeatedly for the next six months.

The deep divergence that characterised the Hindu-Muslim, Congress-League, thinking in 1937 stemmed from the basic dichotomy between Hindu "Unitarianism", a la the Nehru Report, and Muslim federalism, a la Jinnah's Fourteen Points (1929). In essence, it centered on the issue that whether India was uni-national or bi-national, whether it was uni-cultured or bi-cultured. In denying the "intermediate groups" the right to existence and in denying "all third parties' in the historical sense, Nehru was not only denying the AIML the right to exist or its due importance; more important: he was denying the Muslims the right to organize themselves politically on a platform of their own or on a platform other than that of the Congress. In other words, he was denying them their distinct individuality in India's body politic as a religio-political entity.

Jinnah, as opposed to this, felt that India was multi-national and multi-cultured; that Muslims had the right to maintain their separate entity; that Muslim India represented the "third party" in India's body politic; that they should refuse to be "camp followers of any party" and that, above all, Muslims should organise themselves politically to make the third party claim a fait accompli. As a corollary to this claim, he demanded equality of status for Muslims. Of course, he repeatedly offered to coalesce with the Congress in the struggle for freedom, but only if the Muslims were "assured of their political freedom".

Thus, he told a meeting at the residence of Syed Ali Zaheer, presided over by the pro-Congress Syed Wazir Hasan, on May 9, 1937, "While we shall not knock at the Government House, we shall not also bow before Anand Bhawan", the Congress headquarters at Allahabad. Six weeks earlier, in late March 1937, he had told the AIML Council in categorical terms why he considered the Muslims' merger with the Hindus, and the AIML's with the Congress, almost impossible. It was impossible for Muslims to merge with Hindus because "their language, culture and civilization are quite different", he argued. National self-government, he said, was his creed; but Muslims "must unite as a nation and then live or die as a nation" (italics for emphasis).

The Muslims were considered a minority at this stage of India's political evolution. But "minorities", argued Jinnah in the Indian Legislative Assembly on February 7, 1935, while speaking on the Report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Indian Constitutional Reforms, "means a combination of things. It may be that a minority has a different religion from the other citizens of a country. Their language may be different, their race may be different, their culture may be different, and the combination of all these various elements – religion, culture, race, language, arts, music, and so forth – makes the minority a separate entity in the State, and the separate entity as an entity wants safeguards. Surely, therefore, we must face this question as a political problem; we must solve it and not evade it…"

Thus, what was at issue in the Congress-League, Nehru-Jinnah, controversy was, above all, the status of Muslims in Indian politics. Their status, in turn, depended upon whether India was uni-national or bi-national. The Congress's political conduct in 1937, remarked Penderel Moon in his Divide and Quit, meant that "there would be no room on the throne of India, save for Congress and Congress stooges". The developing Congress's policy, thus, gave Muslims a foretaste of what the Hindu un-remitted centralism and homogenic ambitions meant. Under the sort of nationalist dispensation envisaged by the Congress, Muslims would surely be relegated to a back seat. Their values would be at a discount, their cultural identity in jeopardy. Above all, they would have no hope of shaping their spiritual, social, and cultural life according to their own ethos. All this meant culturicide, pure and simple. The Congress's conduct and rule were thus, in gross violation of 'minority' rights, civil society, and of adequate, if not good, governance – issues which, under the prevalent Westphalian Model (1648), with its overriding credo of the sovereignty of 'nations' and the 'sanctity' of borders, had not acquired the measure of importance and criticality which they have had since the demise of the Soviet Union (1991), the prime anti-Human Rights paradigm in the twentieth century. All this obviously posed a new and serious challenge to Muslims as a religio-cultural entity.

In immediate terms, it was this situation, at once despairing and agonising, that turned Muslim thinking towards Pakistan. If the Islamic way of life could not be preserved in an all-India set up, it should be saved wherever it was possible. Pakistan, or more accurately the demand for it, was thus a last-ditch attempt: an attempt to centralise, to quote Iqbal, "the life of Islam as a cultural force" in a specified territory, so that "the most living portion of the Muslims of India" could develop to the fullest in that territory, their "spiritual, cultural, economic and social life according to their own genius", to quote Jinnah, – a development which was practically impossible under the sort of dispensation envisaged by the Hindu-dominated Congress. Such, in short, were the urges and motivations that, in immediate terms, led to the formulation of the demand for Pakistan.

At another level, with the grim prospect of having been denied a place on the throne of India, what alternative did the Muslims have except for forging a throne for themselves in their majority provinces? And Pakistan simply meant only that much - and nothing more. Hence, in 1940, Muslims had no choice but to go to the Pakistan platform – unless they were prepared to be decimated as a religio-political entity in India's body politic.

– (The writer was Founder-Director of the Quaid-i-Azam Academy (1976-89), and authored Jinnah: Studies in Interpretation (1981), the only work to qualify for the President's Award for Best Books on Quaid-i-Azam.)

Thx for jang.com.pk/thenews/spedition/23march2007

A Poem on Prophet Muhammad (s.a.a.w.) by Allama Iqbal (Islam)

He slept on a mat of rushes,
But the crown of Chosroes lay beneath the feet of his followers;
He chose the nightly solitude of Mount Hira,
And founded a nation, law and government;
He passed his nights with sleepless eyes,
That his Millet might sleep on Chosroes throne
In the hour of battle, iron was melted by the flash of his sword.
At prayer time, tears fell like drops of rain from his eyes.
In his prayer for Divine help, his Amen' was a sword,
Which extirpated the lineage of kings.
He inaugurated a new Order in the world,
He brought the empires old to an end:
In his sight the high and the low were one,
He sat with the slave at table one;
He burnt clear the distinctions of birth and clan.
His fire consumed all this trash and bran.
Thx for muhammad.net