GupShup Community celebrates the 125th Birthday anniversay of our Great National Poet, Dr. Allama Iqbal and remember Iqbal’s vision of Pakistan.
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Allama Iqbal, a great poet-philosopher and an active political leader was born in 1873, in Sialkot in the Punjab. He descended from a family of Kashmiri Brahmins, who had embraced Islam about three hundred years earlier.
Iqbal’’ first education was in the traditional Mukatab. Later he joined the Sialkot Mission School, from where he passed his matriculation examination. In 1897, he obtained Bachelor of Arts Degree from the Government College, Lahore. Two years later, he secured his Master’'s Degree and was appointed in the Oriental College, Lahore, as a lecturer in History, Philosophy and English. Later he proceeded to Europe for higher studies. Having obtained a degree at Cambridge, he later secured his doctorate at Munich and finally he was able to qualify as a barrister.
In 1908, on returning to India, besides teaching and practicing Law, Iqbal continued to write poetry. He resigned from the Government service in 1911 and took to the propagation of his individual thinking to the Muslims through his poetry.
By 1928, his reputation as a great Muslim philosopher was solidly established and he was invited to deliver lectures at Hyderabad, Aligarh and Madras. These series of lectures were later on published as a book -The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam.
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Allama Iqbal used poetry as his medium of expression
**In 1930, Iqbal was invited to preside over the open session of the Muslim League. In his historic Allahabad Address Iqbal visualized an independent and sovereign state for the Muslims of North-Western India. In 1932, Iqbal came to England as a Muslim delegate to the Third Roundtable Conference. **
In latter years, when the Quaid had left India and was residing in England, Allama Iqbal wrote to him informing his personal views on political problems and state of affairs of the Indian Muslims and also persuading him to come back. These letters are dated from June 1936 to November 1937 and they now form important historic documents concerning our struggle for freedom.
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Allama Iqbal Museum, Lahore
It was on April 21, 1938, that this great Muslim poet-philosopher and champion of the Muslim cause passed away and lies buried next to the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore.
Cam Diary: Where art thou Allama?
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_6-11-2002_pg3_6
Sir Cam
A doubt creeps in: is this the Allama? The name is spelt differently. But it must be: there is only one Iqbal of Trinity College at around this time. Yes, this had to be the Allama. The account of a day long search for Allama Muhammad Iqbal
Being in Cambridge one cannot but feel the presence of Allama Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938), the Islamic poet-philosopher, in the city. But where is he? It’s about time there was a serious search for him in the city. What better time to do so than on the day that he was born: November 9. Here are the details of a full day spent in pursuit of the elusive Allama.
Central library
Commenced hunt immediately, without breakfast (oh, the sacrifices), in the City’s public library in Lion’s Yard. Spend hours perusing ancient copies of the “Cambridge University Reporter” until at long last I came across the entry I was after. On December 21, 1907, under the heading “Advanced Students (By Dissertation)” I find “Muhammad Iqball…Trinity…” A doubt creeps in: is this the Allama? The name is spelt differently. But it must be: there is only one Iqbal of Trinity College at around this time. Yes, this had to be the Allama. Licked my lips in satisfaction, like a hunter seizing its prey and about to take its first bite. Next?
Faculty of Oriental Studies
Briskly walked through Silver Street up to the Faculty of Oriental Studies in tree-lined Sidgwick Avenue. Was very dead in the Faculty’s library. Here was an original copy of the Allama’s thesis “The Development of Metaphysics in Persia: A Contribution to the History of Muslim Philosophy” published in 1908 by Luzac & Co of London. Get all dizzy while attempting to digest the metaphysics. I was missing the breakfast I had skipped; my digestion was coming to a standstill.
The author of the physically tiny, but metaphysically great, book was given as “Shaikh Muhammad Iqbal B.A. (Cantab) M.A. (Pb.) Ph.D. (Munich)”. Shaikh! Another doubt surfaces. Is this the Allama? Had to be; he was BA from Cambridge, MA from Punjab University and PhD from Munich. Now he was a Shaikh as well. The dedication page reads: “DEDICATION TO Professor T.W. ARNOLD M.A. My dear Mr Arnold, This little book is the first fruit of that literary and philosophical training which I have been receiving from you for the last ten years, and as an expression of gratitude I beg to dedicate it to your name. You have always judged me liberally; I hope you will judge these pages in the same spirit. Your affectionate pupil, Iqbal”.
They don’t write like that anymore, do they? “I beg to…” Interesting piece because I always viewed the Allama to be an old man, but here he was an “affectionate pupil”. Realised that in research I must be wary of preconceived ideas, but should have a fresh, open approach. So, henceforth, I shall try to think of the Allama as a fresh-faced pupil looking up to his teacher. Try as I might, however, I could not get the deficiency of breakfast out of my mind. Time for a well-deserved lunch before going to Allama’s college.
Trinity College
Made my way straight to the centuries-old Wren Library, which the Allama must have frequented while he was at Trinity between 1905 and 1907. Felt like being in a monastery. Find 1930 copy of Allama’s six lectures on the “Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam” published in Lahore. Nothing new as I already had a copy of this book. What was exciting, though, was some hand-written notes in the book along with a letter and typescript. The Allama writes in his rightward slanting script: “Presented to His Excellency Sir Montagu Butler, Nagpur, Muhammad Iqbal, Barrister-at-Law, Lahore, 6th May 1930”. In the pin-drop silence of the library, I could almost hear the Allama writing these words. My Iqbal Day was by now getting very heavy, as were my eyelids. Time for some fresh air and a visit to a friend.
Near Newnham College
Dr G.R. Malik, a visiting scholar from India, was thoroughly intrigued by my prowling around during the day. Talking about my search in the libraries he lectured: “As far as our renunciation of the pursuit of knowledge is concerned, the saddest part of it, for Iqbal, was that the Muslim treasure-houses of knowledge, the books, produced by ancient Muslims had become non-existent in the present world of Islam. One could see them in the libraries of Europe. Quoting Iqbal: ‘Those pearls of knowledge/the books of our fathers/How heart-rending that one can see them only in Europe.’ “And thus the good doctor continued to enlighten me till late in the night.
A house by the Cam
Dream about young Allama looking like Oliver Twist with his hand stretched out, not for the soup, but praying for the Ummah: “O Lord, wake up the Muslims…” All day long I had been after the Allama, but he was bugging me now. Tired after the day’s research, I just wanted to nod off, but the Allama was telling me to wake up. I tossed and turned till it was time to face yet another bright new day.—Sir Cam Cambridge, England
**
[QUOTES FROM IQBAL]
(http://www.allamaiqbal.com/poet/quotes/poetquot.html)**
-
“I have seen the movement of the sinews of the sky,
And the blood coursing in the veins of the moon.” -
“Since love first made the breast an instrument
Of fierce lamenting, by its flame my heart
Was molten to a mirror, like a rose
I pluck my breast apart, that I may hang
This mirror in your sight
Gaze you therein.” -
“I am but as the spark that gleams for a moment,
His burning candle consumed me - the moth;
His wine overwhelmed my goblet,
The master of Rum transmuted my earth to gold
And set my ashes aflame.” -
" I, therefore, demand the formation of a consolidated Muslim State in
the best interest of India and Islam." -
“But only a brief moment
is granted to the brave
one breath or two, whose wage is
The long nights of the grave”
Although his main interests were scholarly, Iqbal was not unconcerned with the political situation of the, country and the political fortunes of the Muslim community of India. Already in 1908, while in England, he had been chosen as a member of the executive council of the newly-established British branch of the Indian Muslim League. In 1931 and 1932 he represented the Muslims of India in the Round Table Conferences held in England to discuss the issue of the political future of India. And in a 1930 lecture Iqbal suggested the creation of a separate homeland for the Muslims of India. Iqbal died (1938) before the creation of Pakistan (1947), but it was his teaching that “spiritually … has been the chief force behind the creation of Pakistan.”
Iqbal joined the London branch of the All India Muslim League while he was studying Law and Philosophy in England. It was in London when he had a mystical experience. The ghazal containing those divinations is the only one whose year and month of composition is expressly mentioned. It is March 1907. No other ghazal, before or after it has been given such importance. Some verses of that ghazal are:
**Your civilization will commit suicide with its
own daggers.
A nest built on a frail bough cannot be
durable.
The caravan of feeble ants will take the rose
petal for a boat
And inspite of all blasts of waves, it shall cross
the river.
I will take out may worn-out caravan in the
pitch darkness of night.
My sighs will emit sparks and my breath will
produce flames. **
For Iqbal it was a divinely inspired insight. He disclosed this to his listeners in December 1931, when he was invited to Cambridge to address the students. Iqbal was in London, participating in the Second Round Table Conference in 1931. At Cambridge, he referred to what he had proclaimed in 1906:
**I would like to offer a few pieces of advice to the youngmen who are at present studying at Cambridge … I advise you to guard against atheism and materialism. The biggest blunder made by Europe was the separation of Church and State. This deprived their culture of moral soul and diverted it to the atheistic materialism. I had twenty-five years ago seen through the drawbacks of this civilization and therefore had made some prophecies. They had been delivered by my tongue although I did not quite understand them. This happened in 1907… After six or seven years, my prophecies came true, word by word. The European war of 1914 was an outcome of the aforesaid mistakes made by the European nations in the separation of the Church and the State. **
Building upon Sir Sayyid Ahmed’s two-nation theory, absorbing the teaching of Shibli, Ameer Ali, Hasrat Mohani and other great Indian 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 Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali 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”**
…continued…
*Iqbal and Politics *
These thoughts crystallised at Allahabad Session (December, 1930) of the All India Muslim League, when Iqbal in the Presidential Address, forwarded the idea of a Muslim State in India:
*I would like to see the Punjab, North-West Frontier Provinces, 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 the final destiny of the Muslims, at least of the North-West India. *
The seed sown, the idea began to evolve and take root. It soon assumed the shape of Muslim state or states in the western and eastern Muslim majority zones as is obvious from the following lines of Iqbal's letter, of June 21, 1937, to the Quaid-i Azam, only ten months before the former's 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. *
There are some critics of Allama Iqbal who assume that after delivering the Allahbad Address he had slept over the idea of a Muslim State. Nothing is farther from the truth. The idea remained always alive in his mind. It had naturally to mature and hence, had to take time. He was sure that the Muslims of sub-continent were going to achieve an independent homeland for themselves. 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 he stressed his view regarding nationalism in India and commented on the plight of the Muslims under the circumstances prevailing in the sub-continent. Having attended the Second Round Table Conference in September, 1931 in London, he was keenly aware of the deep-seated Hindu and Sikh prejudice and unaccommodating attitude. He had observed the mind of the British Government. Hence he reiterated his apprehensions and suggested safeguards in respect of the Indian Muslims:
*In so far then as the fundamentals of our policy are concerned, I have got nothing fresh to offer. Regarding these I have already expressed my views in my address to the All India Muslim League. In the present address I propose, among other things, to help you, in the first place, in arriving at a correct view of the situation as it emerged from a rather hesitating behavior of our delegation the final stages of the Round-Table Conference. In the second place, I shall try, according to my lights to show how far it is desirable to construct a fresh policy now that the Premier's announcement at the last London Conference has again necessitated a careful survey of the whole situation. *
It must be kept in mind that since Maulana Muhammad Ali had died in Jan. 1931 and Quaid-i Azam had stayed behind in London, the responsibility of providing a proper lead to the Indian Muslims had fallen on him alone. He had to assume the role of a jealous guardian of his nation till Quaid-i Azam returned to the sub-continent in 1935.
...continued....
The League and the Muslim Conference had become the play-thing of petty leaders, who would not resign office, even after a vote of non-confidence! And, of course, they had no organization in the provinces and no influence with the masses
During the Third Round-Table Conference, Iqbal was invited by the London National League where he addressed an audience which included among others, foreign diplomats, members of the House of Commons, Members of the House of Lords and Muslim members of the R.T.C. delegation. In that gathering he dilated upon the situation of the Indian Muslims. He explained why he wanted the communal settlement first and then the constitutional reforms. He stressed the need for provincial autonomy because autonomy gave the Muslim majority provinces some power to safeguard their rights, cultural traditions and religion. Under the central Government the Muslims were bound to lose their cultural and religious entity at the hands of the overwhelming Hindu majority. He referred to what he had said at Allahabad in 1930 and reiterated his belief that before long people were bound to come round to his viewpoint based on cogent reason.
In his dialogue with Dr. Ambedkar Allama 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.
Allama Iqbal's statement explaining the attitude of Muslim delegates to the Round-Table Conference issued in December, 1933 was a rejoinder to Jawahar Lal Nehru's statement. Nehru had said that the attitude of the Muslim delegation was based on "reactionarism." Iqbal concluded his rejoinder with:
*In conclusion I must put a straight question to punadi Jawhar Lal, 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 kind of nationalism which works out only to its own benefit? This position can admit of only two alternatives. Either the Indian majority community 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 electorates and the communal problem in its present form. *
Allama Iqbal's apprehensions were borne out by the Hindu Congress ministries established in Hindu majority province under the Act of 1935. Muslims in those provinces were given dastardly treatment. This deplorable phenomenon added to Allama Iqbal's misgivings regarding the future of Indian Muslims in case India remained united. In his letters to the Quaid-i Azam written in 1936 and in 1937 he referred to an independent Muslim State comprising North-Western and Eastern Muslim majority zones. Now it was not only the North-Western zones alluded to in the Allahabad Address.
There are some within Pakistan and without, who insist that Allama Iqbal never meant a sovereign Muslim country outside India. Rather he desired a Muslim State within the Indian Union. A State within a State. This is absolutely wrong. What he meant was understood very vividly by his Muslim compatriots as well as the non-Muslims. Why Nehru and others had then tried to show that the idea of Muslim nationalism had no basis at all. Nehru stated:
*This idea of a Muslim nation is the figment of a few imaginations only, and, but for the publicity given to it by the Press few people would have heard of it. And even if many people believed in it, it would still vanish at the touch of reality. *
...continued....
Iqbal and the Quaid-i Azam
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 to Allama Iqbal's letters addressed to him, admitted that he had agreed with Allama Iqbal regarding a State for Indian Muslims before the latters death in April, 1938. The Quaid stated:
*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 expression in due course in the united will of Muslim India as adumbrated in the Lahore Resolution of the All-India Muslim League popularly known as the *"Pakistan Resolution" passed on 23rd March, 1940. **
Furthermore, it was Allama Iqbal who called upon Quaid-i Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah to lead the Muslims of India to their cherished goal. He preferred the Quaid to other more experienced Muslim leaders such as Sir Aga Khan, Maulana Hasrat Mohani, Nawab Muhammad Isma il Khan, Maulana Shaukat Ali, Nawab Hamid Ullah Khan of Bhopal, Sir Ali Imam, Maulvi Tameez ud-Din Khan, Maulana Abul Kalam, Allama al-Mashriqi and others. But Allama Iqbal had his own reasons. He had found his "Khizr-i Rah", the veiled guide in Quaid-i Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah who was destined to lead the Indian branch of the Muslim Ummah to their goal of freedom. Allama Iqbal stated:
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 right to look up for safe guidance through the storm which is coming to North-West India, and perhaps to the whole of India.
Similar sentiments were expressed by him about three months before his death. Sayyid Nazir Niazi in his book Iqbal Ke Huzur, has stated that the future of the Indian Muslims was being discussed and a tenor of pessimism was visible from what his friends said. At this Allama Iqbal observed:
*There is only one way out. Muslim 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. *
He continued:
*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. *
Matlub ul-Hasan Sayyid stated that after the Lahore Resolution was passed on March 23, 1940, the Quaid-i Azam said to him:
*Iqbal is no more amongst us, but had he been alive he would have been happy to know that we did exactly what he wanted us to do. *
But the matter does not end here. Allama Iqbal in his letter of March 29, 1937 to the Quaid-i Azam had said:
*While we are ready to cooperate with other progressive parties in the country, we must not ignore the fact that the whole future of Islam as a moral and political force in Asia rests very largely on a complete organization of Indian Muslims. *
According to Allama Iqbal the future of Islam as a moral and political force not only in India but in the whole of Asia rested on the organization of the Muslims of India led by the Quaid-i Azam.
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 and offered determined resistance to both the Hindu and the English designs for a united Hindu-dominated India. Through their united efforts under the able guidance of Quaid-I Azam Muslims succeeded in dividing India into Pakistan and Bharat and achieving their independent homeland. As observed above, in Allama Iqbal's view, the organization of Indian Muslims which achieved Pakistan would also have to defend other Muslim societies in Asia. The carvan of the resurgence of Islam has to start and come out of this Valley, far off from the centre of the ummah. Let us see how and when, Pakistan prepares itself to shoulder this august responsibility. It is Allama Iqbal's prevision.
Thanks for sharing PT:)
There wasnt, there isnt and there will be noone like him:k:
Snaps
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A snap after his Masters. (1899)
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*London. (1908) *
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London. (1931).
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Allama with his son, Javed Iqbal(1929).
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Iqbal arriving at the historic session of the All India Muslim League in
Allahabad, where he delivered his famous presidential address outlining the plan for an independent homeland for Indian Muslims. Sitting next to him in the car is the late Haji Abdullah Haroon. (1930)
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Group Photo (1930)
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A view of the conference in Jerusalem. Iqbal is seen sitting
on the extreme right in the first row. (1931)
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At a party during the 2nd Round Table Conference in London (1931).
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At a reception given by the National League, London. (1932)
125th Birth Anniversary of Allama Iqbal Today
KARACHI: As elsewhere, the 125th birth anniversary of Allama Muhammad Iqbal will be observed in the metropolis on Saturday in a befitting manner.
The Iqbal Day has been declared a public holiday and all government offices and educational institutions will remain closed on November 9. A number of organisations have chalked out programmes in order to mark the occasion.
PANEL DISCUSSION: To mark the Day, a panel discussion will be held at the Media Facilitation Centre of the Press Information Department. It will be presided over by the Federal Information and Media Development Minister, Nisar A Memon. Sajjad Mir, Prof Sharif-ul-Mujahid, Prof Hasnain Kazmi, Gen (retd) Omar and Prof Dr Manzooruddin Ahmed will speak at the programme.
EXHIBITION: The National Museum of Pakistan has also arranged an exhibition to celebrate the birth anniversary of Iqbal on Nov 9. Selected photographs of Iqbal and his letters are put on display at the museum for general public.
The exhibition depicts various events of great philosopher’s life through photographs. These include Iqbal in Mosque of Cordoba, Spain, portrait of Allama Iqbal, portrait of his grand father, portrait of Shams-ul-Ulma Moulvi Syed Mir Hassan, portrait of Mukhtar Begum, wife of Allama Iqbal.
Photographs of foreign educational institutions where the great philosopher got higher education were also on display. Another feature of the exhibition is a selected collection of Allama Iqbal’s letters written to Maulana Grami on July 1, 1917; Chaudhary Ghulam Rasool; Dr Mehr Sahib on January 30, 1934; Mehr Salik on April 22, 1930 and Fauq Sahib on December 23, 1910. The Persian poems by Iqbal in his own handwriting are also exhibited.
SPECIAL MEETING: A special meeting has also been arranged by Khadimin-e-Millat Pakistan at its premises on Nov 9. Rehana Khatoon will preside over the meeting while Engineer Sagheeruddin will be the chief guest.
May Allah(sw) reward his soul with highest level of jannah
thanks PT aint that amazing today if we look aroud we barely see anyone walking along the same path which once was grace by unique personalities like DR himslef.
When I was a little kid I remember reading "person like Dr Iqbal only comes along once in a centurey" and it that point it never made any sense to me and I always wondered what it meant but today I feel they were right.
May Allah(SWT) Reward Iqbal Jannah. Ameen.
Thanks for bringing this thread up, PT :)
These are great, great for my timeline. All the info I knew all too well but the pix are great, Thank you tiger and if you know of anymore where I can get some please let me know, I need all sorts of different pix of him, his life and work.
Thanks again dude
wa salam
p.s
Iqbal was good looking :)
Just thought I'd add this in if you guys can help, are there any pix of Iqbal when he met with Mussolini or when he got knighted in England? Pix like that.
Thanks again
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Majestic: *
Just thought I'd add this in if you guys can help, are there any pix of Iqbal when he met with Mussolini or when he got knighted in England? Pix like that.
Thanks again
[/QUOTE]
Majestic,
Could you please shed some light on Mussolini?
This is Mr. DJ speaking!
Contribution of Dr. Allama Iqbal for Pakistan will never be forgotten.
Sad to see less replies on Iqbal Day :(