Allama Iqbal - a brief life sketch
Thaha Muzammil
Selfhood can demolish the magic of this world
Allama Muhammad Iqbal
Selfhood can demolish the magic of this world;
But our belief in The One is not comprehended by all.
Have a seer’s eye, and light will dawn on thee;
As a river and its waves cannot remain apart.
The light of God and knowledge are not in rivalry,
But so the pulpit believes, afraid of Hallaj’s rope.
Contentment is the shield for the pure and the noble
A shield in slavery, and a shield in power.
In the East the soul looks in vain for light;
In the West the light is a faded cloud of dust.
The fakirs who could shatter the power and pelf of kings
No longer tread this earth, in climes far or near.
The spirit of this age is brimful with negations,
And drained to the fast drop is the power of faith.
Muted is Europe’s lament on its crumbling pageant,
Muted by the delirious beats, the clangour of its music.
A sleepy ripple awaits, to swell into a wave
A wave that will swallow up monsters of the sea.
What is slavery but a loss of the sense of beauty?
What the free call beautiful, is beautiful indeed.
The present belongs to him who explores, in their depths,
The fathomless seas of time, to find the future’s pearl.
The alchemist of the West has turned stone into glass
But my alchemy has transmuted glass into flint
Pharaohs of today have stalked me in vain;
But I fear not; I am blessed with Moses’ wand.
The flame that can set afire a dark, sunless wood,
Will not be throttled by a straw afloat in the wind.
Love is self-awareness; love is self-knowledge;
Love cares not for the palaces and the power of kings.
I will not wonder if I reach even the moon and the stars,
For I have hitched my wagon to the star. of all stars.
First among the wise, last of the Prophets,
Who gave a speck of dust the brightness of the Mount.
He is the first and last in the eyes of love;
He is the Word of God. He is the Word of God.
For a person to be remembered and honoured every year he must be a
genius and extraordinary personality. Dr Muhammad Iqbal of Pakistan was
one such person who touched the pinnacle of fame. Iqbal was one of the
best articulated Muslim reformers that the Islamic world produced in the
20th century and was commonly referred to as Allama “scholar” Iqbal.
Allama Iqbal the Poet Philosopher whohelped liberate
Pakistan |
Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938) was one of the preeminent writers of the
Indo-Pakistan subcontinent. Indeed, the attention he has received from
numerous writers, translators, and critics from Western as well as
Islamic countries testifies to his stature as a world literary figure.
While his primary reputation is that of a poet, Iqbal has not lacked
admirers or his philosophical thought. He has in fact been called “the
most serious Muslim philosophical thinker of modern times.” The
frequently used appellation of “poet-philosopher” is thus well deserved.
Allama Muhammad Iqbal was born on the 9th of November, 1877 in
Sialkot, Punjab, British India (now part of Pakistan) and passed away on
21st April, 1938. Iqbal was a great poet and a philosopher. His writings
were mainly in Persian and Urdu languages.
Iqbal was educated initially by tutors in languages, history, poetry
and religion. His potential as a poet and writer was recognized by one
of his tutors, Syed Mir Haassan, and Iqbal would continue to study under
him at the Scotch Mission College in Sialkot, now known as Murray
College. He became proficient in several languages and the skill of
writing prose and poetry, and graduated in 1892.
Subsequently, Iqbal entered the Government College in Lahore where he
studied philosophy, English literature and Arabic and obtained a
Bachelor of Arts degree. He won a gold medal for topping his examination
in philosophy. While studying for his masters, degree, Iqbal came under
the wing of Sir Thomas Arnold, a scholar of Islam and modern philosophy
at the college. Arnold exposed Iqbal to Western culture and ideas, and
served as a bridge for Iqbal between the ideas of East and West. Iqbal
was appointed to a readership in Arabic at the Oriental College in
Lahore, and he published his first book in Urdu, The Knowledge of
Economics in 1903. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Trinity
College at Cambridge in 1907; and qualified as a barrister at Lincoln’s
Inn in 1908.
Allama Iqbal’s verses on CD |
After studying in Cambridge, Munich and Heidelberg Iqbal started
practising law, and at the same time he concentrated on writing
scholarly works on politics, economics, history, philosophy and
religion.
The poetry and philosophy of Mawlana Jalaluddin 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.”
He is best known for his poetic works.
Asrar-i-Khudi (“The Secrets of the Self”; published in Persian, 1915
was the first philosophical poetry book and Rumuz-e-Bekhudi “Secrets of
Selflessness” also in Persian, published in 1918 for which he was
Knighted.
Dr Iqbal preferred writing in Persian as he believed it allowed him
to fully express philosophical concepts, and it gave him a wider
audience. Among his 12,000 verses of poem, about 7,000 verses are in
Persian. In Iran and Afghanistan he is highly regarded for his Persian
works.
Allama Iqbal International Airport |
Dr Iqbal, in one of his poems, says:
Even though in sweetness Urdu is sugar – (but) My Persian is sweeter
than Urdu
Allama 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. 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 (Guide of the Path) are especially
acclaimed.
In India, Allama Iqbal is widely regarded for the patriotic song,
“Saare Jahan Se Achcha”.
This song has remained popular in India for over a century. Mahatma
Gandhi is said to have sung it number of times when he was imprisoned at
Yerawada Jail in Pune in the 1930.
Allama Iqbal’s Tomb |
The poem was set to music in the 1950s by sitar maestro Ravi Shankar
and sung by Lata Mangeshkar which became an unofficial national anthem
in India and was also turned into the official quick march of the Indian
Armed Forces. Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian cosmonaut, employed the
first line of the song “saare jahan se accha hindostan hamara” in 1984
to describe to then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi how India appeared from
outer space. Current Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, also quoted
the poem at his first press conference after assuming power.
It was while in England Iqbal first participated in politics.
Following the formation of the All India Muslim League in 1906, he was
elected to the executive committee of its British chapter in 1908. While
dividing his time between law and poetry, Iqbal had remained active in
the Muslim League and became one of the most prominent leaders of the
league.
He supported Indian involvement in World War 1, as well as the
Khilafat movement and remained in close touch with Muslim political
leaders such as Maulana Mohammad Ali and Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Iqbal was a strong proponent of the political and spiritual revival
of Islamic Civilization and encouraged the creation of a “state in
northwestern India for Muslims” in 1930. He denounced political
divisions within and amongst Muslim nations, and frequently alluded to
and spoke in terms of the global Muslim community.
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.
In November 1926, with the encouragement of friends and supporters,
Iqbal contested for a seat in the Punjab Legislative Assembly from the
Muslim district of Lahore, and comfortably won the seat. He supported
the constitutional proposals presented by Muhammad Ali Jinnah with the
aim of guaranteeing Muslim political rights and influence in a coalition
with the Congress.
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.
Iqbal’s 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.
Dr Iqbal 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. In his presidential address on December 29, 1930, Iqbal
outlined a vision of an independent state for Muslim-majority provinces
in northwestern India. He thus became the first politician to articulate
what would become known as the Two-Nation Theory.
Evaluating the contribution of Iqbal to the creation of Pakistan and
modernization of Islam writes Sailen Debnath, “The concept of Islamic
nationalism was theorized by Mohammad Iqbal. A philosopher and poet,
Iqbal blended Islamic philosophy with the classical and modern
philosophy of the West.
He brought Islam at the door of modernism even retaining its purity
and worked out an ideological paradigm of pan-Islamism and Islamic
nationalism in India. ...Thus his theory brought together the majority
of the Muslims from Bengal to the North Western frontier provinces, and
this made the Indian Muslims to feel their identity with ... Islam...and
this in course of time paved the path to the creation of Pakistan”.)
Discontent with factional leaders like Sir Muhammad Shafi and Sir
Fazl-ur-Rahman, Iqbal to believe that only Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a
political leader capable of preserving this unity and fulfilling the
League’s objectives on Muslim political empowerment.
Building a strong, personal correspondence with Jinnah, Iqbal was an
influential force on convincing Jinnah to end his self-imposed exile in
London, return to India and take charge of the League. Iqbal firmly
believed that Jinnah was the only leader capable of drawing Indian
Muslims to League and maintaining party unity.
Iqbal worked constantly to encourage Muslim leaders and masses to
support Jinnah and the League. Speaking about the political future of
Muslims in India, Iqbal said:
”There is only one way out. Muslims should strengthen Jinnah’s hands.
They should join the Muslim League..... The united front can be formed
under the leadership of the Muslim League. And the Muslim League can
succeed only on account of Jinnah. Now none but Jinnah is capable of
leading the Muslims.”
The “Guide of the Era” Iqbal had envisaged in 1926, was found in the
person of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. The “Guide” organized the Muslims of
India under the banner of the Muslim League. Through their united
efforts under the able guidance of Quaid-I Azam Muslims succeeded in
achieving their independent homeland-Pakistan. |