Allama Dr. Muhammad Iqbal was a poet, Scholar and politician., whose poetry is in Urdu and Persian. He is considered to be among the greatest of the modern era and whose vision of an independent state for the Muslims of British India was to inspire the creation of Pakistan. He is commonly referred to as Allama Iqbal, mean Scholar. He is also known as Muffakir-e-Pakistan (“The Thinker of Pakistan”), Shair-e-Mashriq (“The Poet of the East”), and Hakeem-ul-Ummat (“The Sage of Ummah”). He is officially recognised as the “national poet” in Pakistan.
Early life & Family
Iqbal was born on 9 November 1877 in an ethnic Kashmiri family in Sialkot within the Punjab Province of British India (now in Pakistan). His family was Kashmiri Pandit that converted to Islam. His father, Sheikh Noor Muhammad (died 1930), was a tailor, not formally educated, but a religious man. His mother Imam Bibi, from a Punjabi family long settled in Sambrial (a town of Sialkot District), was described as a polite and humble woman who helped the poor and her neighbours with their problems. She died on 9 November 1914 in Sialkot.
Education
Iqbal was four years old when he was sent to a mosque to receive instruction in reading the Qur’an. He learned the Arabic language from his teacher, Syed Mir Hassan, the head of the madrasa and professor of Arabic at Scotch Mission College in Sialkot, where he matriculated in 1893. He received an Intermediate level with the Faculty of Arts diploma in 1895. The same year he enrolled at Government College University, where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts in philosophy, English literature and Arabic in 1897, and won the Khan Bahadurddin F.S. Jalaluddin medal as he performed well in Arabic. In 1899, he received his Master of Arts degree from the same college and won first place in the University of the Punjab.
Iqbal was influenced by the teachings of Sir Thomas Arnold, his philosophy teacher at Government College Lahore, to pursue higher education in the West. In 1905, he travelled to England for higher education. Iqbal qualified for a scholarship from Trinity College, University of Cambridge, and obtained a Bachelor of Arts in 1906. In the same year he was called to the bar as a barrister at Lincoln’s Inn. In 1907, Iqbal moved to Germany to pursue his doctoral studies, and earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in 1908. Working under the guidance of Friedrich Hommel, Iqbal’s doctoral thesis was entitled The Development of Metaphysics in Persia.
Academic Career
Iqbal began his career as a reader of Arabic after completing his Master of Arts degree in 1899, at Oriental College and shortly afterward was selected as a junior professor of philosophy at Government College Lahore. He worked there until he left for England in 1905. In 1907 he went to Germany for PhD. In 1908, he returned from Germany and joined the same college again as a professor of philosophy and English literature. He has also been [racticing law but soon he quit law practice and devoted himself to literary works, becoming an active member of Anjuman-e-Himayat-e-Islam. In 1919, he became the general secretary of the same organisation. Iqbal’s thoughts in his work primarily focus on the spiritual direction and development of human society, centered around experiences from his travels and stays in Western Europe and the Middle East.
The poetry and philosophy of Rumi strongly influenced Iqbal. Deeply grounded in religion since childhood, Iqbal began concentrating intensely on the study of Islam, the culture and history of Islamic civilisation and its political future, while embracing Rumi as “his guide”. Iqbal would feature Rumi in the role of guide in many of his poems.
Iqbal, Jinnah and the concept of Pakistan
In 1908, he was closely associated with Mian Muhammad Shafi, when the All-India Muslim League was expanded to the provincial level, and Shafi received a significant role in the structural organisation of the Punjab Muslim League, Iqbal was made one of the first three joint secretaries along with Shaikh Abdul Aziz and Maulvi Mahbub Alam.
in 1908, and he was closely associated with Mian Muhammad Shafi. When the All-India Muslim League was expanded to the provincial level, and Shafi received a significant role in the structural organisation of the Punjab Muslim League, Iqbal was made one of the first three joint secretaries along with Shaikh Abdul Aziz and Maulvi Mahbub Alam. /p>
“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.”
Literary Work
Persian
Iqbal’s poetic works are written primarily in Persian rather than Urdu. Among his 12,000 verses of poetry, about 7,000 verses are in Persian In 1915, he published his first collection of poetry, the Asrar-i-Khudi (Secrets of the Self) in Persian. The poems emphasise the spirit and self from a religious perspective. The Payam-e-Mashriq (The Message of the East was published in 1924, The Zabur-e-Ajam (Persian Psalms), was published in 1927, includes the poems “Gulshan-e-Raz-e-Jadeed” (“Garden of New Secrets”) and the Zabur-e-Ajam (Persian Psalms), published in 1927, includes the poems “Gulshan-e-Raz-e-Jadeed” (“Garden of New Secrets”), Iqbal’s 1932 work, the Javed Nama (Book of Javed), is named after and in a manner addressed to his son,
Urdu
Iqbal’s Bang-e-Dara (The Call of the Marching Bell), his first collection of Urdu poetry, was published in 1924. The poems he wrote up to 1905 the year he left for England reflect patriotism and the imagery of nature, including the “Tarana-e-Hindi” (“The Song of India”) and “Tarana-e-Milli” (“The Song of the Community”). The second set of poems date from 1905 to 1908, when Iqbal studied in Europe, and dwell upon the nature of European society, which he emphasised had lost spiritual and religious values. This inspired Iqbal to write poems on the historical and cultural heritage of Islam and the Muslim community, with a global perspective. in 1935, Bal-e-Jibril was published, Zarb-i-Kalim (or The Rod of Moses) is another philosophical poetry book of Allama Iqbal in Urdu, it was published in 1936 and Iqbal’s final work was Armughan-e-Hijaz (The Gift of Hijaz), published posthumously in 1938.
English
Iqbal wrote two books, The Development of Metaphysics in Persia (1908) and The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (1930), and many letters in the English language.
Punjabi
Iqbal also wrote some poems in Punjabi, such as “Piyaara Jedi” and “Baba Bakri Wala”, which he penned in 1929 on the occasion of his son Javid’s birthday. A collection of his Punjabi poetry was put on display at the Iqbal Manzil in Sialkot.
Final years and death
Iqbal suffered from a mysterious throat illness after returning from Spain and Afghanistan in 1933. Iqbal ceased practising law in 1934 and was granted a pension by the Nawab of Bhopal. After suffering for months from his illness, Iqbal died in Lahore on 21 April 1938.