Sir Allama Mohammad Iqbal |
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| Full name | Muhammad Iqbal |
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| Born | November 9, 1877 Sialkot, Punjab, British India |
| Died | April 21, 1938 |
| Era | 20 century |
| Region | British India |
| Main interests | Urdu poetry, Persian poetry |
| Notable ideas | Two-Nation Theory, Conception of Pakistan |
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Influenced by
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| Website | allamaiqbal.com |
Sir Muhammad Iqbal (Urdu: محمد اقبال) (November 9, 1877 – April 21, 1938), commonly referred to as Allama Iqbal (علامہ اقبال, Allama literally Scholar), was a poet and philosopher born in Sialkot, then in the Punjab Province of British India, now in Pakistan. Iqbal, who wrote poetry in the Urdu and Persian languages, is considered to be one of the greatest icons in modern era.[1]
After studying in England and Germany, Iqbal established a law practice, but concentrated primarily on writing scholarly works on politics, economics, history, philosophy and religion. He is best known for his poetic works, including Asrar-e-Khudi—which brought a knighthood— Rumuz-e-Bekhudi, and the Bang-e-Dara, with its enduring patriotic song Tarana-e-Hind. In Afghanistan and Iran, where he is known as Iqbāl-e Lāhorī (اقبال لاهوری Iqbal of Lahore), he is highly regarded for his Persian work.
Iqbal was a strong proponent of the political and spiritual revival of Islamic civilization across the world, but specifically in India; a series of famous lectures he delivered to this effect were published as The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam. One of the most prominent leaders of the All-India Muslim League, Iqbal encouraged the creation of a "state in northwestern India for Indian Muslims" in his 1930 presidential address.[2] Iqbal encouraged and worked closely with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and he is known as Muffakir-e-Pakistan ("The Inceptor of Pakistan"), Shair-e-Mashriq ("The Poet of the East"), and Hakeem-ul-Ummat ("The Sage of the Ummah"). He is officially recognised as the "national poet" in Pakistan. The anniversary of his birth (یوم ولادت محمد اقبال – Yōm-e Welādat-e Muḥammad Iqbāl) on November 9 is a holiday in Pakistan.
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Muhammad Iqbal was born on November 9, 1877 in Sialkot, India (now in Pakistan). During the reign of Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan—according to scholar Bruce Lawrence—Iqbal's Kashmiri Pandit ancestors from Kashmir had converted to Islam. According to some sources: "The family had migrated from Kashmir where Iqbal's Brahmin ancestors had converted to Islam." Iqbal often wrote about his being "a son of Kashmiri-Brahmins but (being) acquainted with the wisdom of Rûm and Tabriz."[3]
Iqbal's father, Nur Muhammad, was a tailor,[4] who lacked formal education, but who had great devotion to Islam and Sufism and a "mystically tinged piety."[3] Iqbal's mother was known in the family as a "wise, generous woman who quietly gave financial help to poor and needy women and arbitrated in neighbor's disputes."[5] After his mother's death in 1914, Iqbal wrote an elegy for her:
Who would wait for me anxiously in my native place?
Who would display restlessness if my letter fails to arrive
I will visit thy grave with this complaint:
Who will now think of me in midnight prayers?
All thy life thy love served me with devotion—
When I became fit to serve thee, thou hast departed.[3]
At the age of four, young Iqbal was sent regularly to a mosque, where he learned how to read the Qu'ran in Arabic.[4] The following year, and for many years thereafter, Iqbal became a student of Syed Mir Hassan, who was then the head of the Madrassa in Sialkot, and later to become a widely known Muslim scholar.[5] An advocate of secular European education for the Muslims of British India — in the tradition of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan — Hassan convinced Iqbal's father to send him to Sialkot's Scotch Mission College, where Hassan was professor of Arabic.[5] Two years later, in 1895, Iqbal obtained the Faculty of Arts diploma from the college.[5]
That year Iqbal's family arranged for him to be married to Karim Bibi, the daughter of an affluent Gujrati physician. The couple had two children: a daughter, Mi'raj Begum (born 1895) and a son, Aftab (born 1898). Iqbal's third child, a son, died soon after birth. Husband and wife were unhappy in their marriage and eventually divorced in 1916.
Later the same year, Iqbal entered the Government College in Lahore where he studied philosophy, English literature and Arabic and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree, graduating cum laude. He won a gold medal for placing first in the examination in philosophy. While studying for his masters degree, Iqbal came under the influence of Sir Thomas Arnold, a scholar of Islam and modern philosophy at the college. Arnold exposed the young man 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. In 1905 Iqbal published the patriotic song, Tarana-e-Hind (Song of India).
At Sir Thomas's encouragement, Iqbal travelled to Europe and spent many years studying there. Before leaving for London he visited the Dargah of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya in Delhi and wrote a famous poem to acknowledge the great Sufi and by doing so he confirmed his own lifelong association with Sufism. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Trinity College at Cambridge in 1907, while simultaneously studying law at Lincoln's Inn, from where he qualified as a barrister in 1908. In Europe, he started writing his poetry in Persian as well. Throughout his life, Iqbal would prefer writing in Persian as he believed it allowed him to fully express philosophical concepts, and it gave him a wider audience.[1] It was while in England that he first participated in politics. Following the formation of the All-India Muslim League in 1906, Iqbal was elected to the executive committee of its British chapter in 1908. Together with two other politicians, Syed Hassan Bilgrami and Syed Ameer Ali, Iqbal sat on the subcommittee which drafted the constitution of the League. In 1907, Iqbal travelled to Germany to pursue a doctorate from the Faculty of Philosophy of the Ludwig Maximilian University at Munich. Working under the supervision of Friedrich Hommel, Iqbal published a thesis titled: The Development of Metaphysics in Persia.[6] Iqbal died in Lahore on 21 April 1938.
Upon his return to India in 1908, Iqbal took up an assistant professorship at Government College in Lahore, but for financial reasons he relinquished it within a year to practice 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 practice, 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. In 1919, he became the general secretary of the organisation. Iqbal's thoughts in his work primarily focus on the spiritual direction and development of human society, centred around experiences from his travels and stays in Western Europe and the Middle East. He was profoundly influenced by Western philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Henri Bergson and Goethe. He soon became a strong critic of Western society's separation of religion from state and what he perceived as its obsession with materialist pursuits.
The poetry and philosophy of Mawlana Rumi bore the deepest influence on Iqbal's mind. Deeply grounded in religion since childhood, Iqbal began intensely concentrating on the study of Islam, the culture and history of Islamic civilization 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's works focus on reminding his readers of the past glories of Islamic civilization, and delivering the 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.[7]
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-e-Khudi (Secrets of the Self) in Persian. The poems emphasise the spirit and self from a religious, spiritual perspective. Many critics have called this Iqbal's finest poetic work[8] In Asrar-e-Khudi, Iqbal explains his philosophy of "Khudi," or "Self." Iqbal's use of the term "Khudi" is synonymous with the word "Rooh" mentioned in the Quran. "Rooh" is that divine spark which is present in every human being, and was present in Adam, for which God ordered all of the angels to prostrate in front of Adam. One has to make a great journey of transformation to realize that divine spark which Iqbal calls "Khudi".
A similitude of this journey can be understood by the relationship between fragrance and seed. Every seed has the potential for fragrance within it, but to reach its fragrance the seed must go through all the different changes and stages: First breaking out of its shell. Then breaking the ground to come into the light, developing roots at the same time. Then fighting against the elements to develop leaves and flowers. Finally reaching its pinnacle by attaining the fragrance that was hidden within it. Similarly, in order to reach one's khudi or rooh, one needs to go through the multiple spiritual stages which Iqbal himself went through, and encourages others to travel. Not all seeds reach the level of fragrance; many die along the way – incomplete. In this same way, only a few people can climb this Mount Everest of spirituality; most get consumed along the way by materialism.
The same concept was used by Farid ud Din Attar in his "Mantaq-ul-Tair". 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 a viceregent of God.[7]
In his Rumuz-e-Bekhudi (Hints of Selflessness), Iqbal seeks to prove the 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" outside 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 also recognises 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-e-Rumuz (Hinting Secrets). 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 bemoans the West having become too materialistic in outlook, and expects the East will provide a message of hope to 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 can never aspire to higher dimensions unless he learns of the nature of spirituality.[7] 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.
The 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, showing how it affects 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, while emphasising love, enthusiasm and energy to fulfill the ideal life.[7]
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. It follows the examples of the works of Ibn Arabi and Dante's The Divine Comedy, through mystical and exaggerated depictions 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 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."[7]
His love of the Persian language is evident in his works and poetry. He says in one of his poems:[9]
گرچہ اردو در عذوبت شکر است
garche Urdū dar uzūbat shekkar ast
طرز گفتار دري شيرين تر است
tarz-e goftar-e Dari shirin tar ast
Translation: Even though in sweetness Urdu* is sugar – (but) speech method in Dari (Persian) is sweeter *
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.[7] 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 (Guide of the 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 religious passion.[7]
The Pas Cheh Bayed Kard ai Aqwam-e-Sharq (What are we to do, O Nations of the East?) includes the poem Musafir (Traveler). 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.[7] 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.
While dividing his time between law and poetry, Iqbal had remained active in the Muslim League. He supported Indian involvement in World War I, as well as the Khilafat movement and remained in close touch with Muslim political leaders such as Maulana Mohammad Ali and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He was a critic of the mainstream Indian National Congress, which he regarded as dominated by Hindus and was disappointed with the League when during the 1920s, it was absorbed in factional divides between the pro-British group led by Sir Muhammad Shafi and the centrist group led by Jinnah.
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 defeated his opponent by a margin of 3,177 votes.[10] He supported the constitutional proposals presented by Jinnah with the aim of guaranteeing Muslim political rights and influence in a coalition with the Congress, and worked with the Aga Khan and other Muslim leaders to mend the factional divisions and achieve unity in the Muslim League.
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.[10] 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:
"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."[2]
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."[11] 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. However, he would not elucidate or specify if his ideal Islamic state would construe a theocracy, even as he rejected secularism and nationalism. 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. He fell prey to Punjabi dominated Muslims of region. Muslims across Indian subcontinent opposed the idea of two nation theory. Many unnoticed account of Iqbal's frustration toward Congress leadership were also pivotal of visioning the two nation theory. He also wanted to prove that defeat of Muslim ummat can be at least saved in this region by dividing the societies within British India in the name of Islam.
He was also the first patron of the historical, political, religious, cultural journal of Muslims of British India and Pakistan. This journal played an important part in the Pakistan movement. The name of this journal is The Journal Tolu-e-Islam. In 1935, according to his instructions, Syed Nazeer Niazi initiated and edited, a journal Tolu-e-Islam[12] named after the famous poem of Sir Muhammad Iqbal, Tulu'i Islam. He also dedicated the first edition of this journal to Sir Muhammad Iqbal. For a long time Sir Muhammad Iqbal wanted a journal to propagate his ideas and the aims and objective of Muslim league. It was Syed Nazeer Niazi, a close friend of his and a regular visitor to him during his last two years, who started this journal. He also made Urdu translation of The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, by Sir Muhammad Iqbal.
In the first monthly journal of Oct. 1935, an article "Millat Islamia Hind" The Muslim nation of India was published. In this article Syed Nazeer Niazi described the political conditions of British India and the aims and objectives of the Muslim community. He also discussed the basic principles of Islam which were aims and objective of Sir Muhammad Iqbal' concept of an Islamic State.
The early contributors to this journal were eminent Muslim scholars like Maulana Aslam Jairajpuri, Ghulam Ahmed Pervez, Dr. Zakir Hussain Khan, Syed Naseer Ahmed, Raja Hassan Akhtar, Maulvi Ghulam Yezdani, Ragheb Ahsan, Sheikh Suraj ul Haq, Rafee ud din Peer, Prof. fazal ud din Qureshi, Agha Muhammad Safdar, Asad Multani, Dr. Tasadaq Hussain, Prof. Yusuf Saleem Chisti.
Afterward, this journal was continued[13] by Ghulam Ahmed Pervez, who had already contributed many articles in the early editions of this journal. After the emergence of Pakistan, the mission of the journal Tolu-e-Islam was to propagate the implementation of the principle which had inspired the demand for separate Muslim State according to the Quran. This journal is still published by Idara Tolu-e-Islam, Lahore.
Ideologically separated from Congress Muslim leaders, Iqbal had also been disillusioned with the politicians of the Muslim League owing to the factional conflict that plagued the League in the 1920s. Discontent with factional leaders like Sir Muhammad Shafi and Sir Fazl-ur-Rahman, Iqbal came 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 along with Moulana Abdur Raheem Dard (Resident missionary of the Ahmadiyya movement in London) were influential forces in 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 the League and maintaining party unity before the British and the Congress:
"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."[14]
The two men were quite similar though they had viewed things differently at some time — Iqbal believed that Islam was the source of government and society and Jinnah worked hard to get Muslims a part in government and state and had laid out an Islamic vision for Pakistan upholding the Islamic value of freedom of religion saying religion would have "nothing to do with the business of the state."[15] Iqbal had backed the Khilafat struggle; Jinnah had dismissed it as "religious frenzy." And while Iqbal espoused the idea of Muslim-majority provinces in 1930, Jinnah would continue to hold talks with the Congress through the decade and only officially embraced the goal of Pakistan in 1940. Some historians postulate that Jinnah always remained hopeful for an agreement with the Congress and never fully desired the partition of India.[16] Iqbal's close correspondence with Jinnah is speculated by some historians as having been responsible for Jinnah's embrace of the idea of Pakistan.[17] Iqbal elucidated to Jinnah his vision of a separate Muslim state in a letter sent on June 21, 1937:
"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."[10]
Iqbal, serving as president of the Punjab Muslim League, criticised Jinnah's political actions, including a political agreement with Punjabi leader Sir Sikandar Hyat Khan, whom Iqbal saw as a representative of feudal classes and not committed to Islam as the core political philosophy. Nevertheless, 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. 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 defense of our national existence.... 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."[14]
In 1933, after returning from a trip to Spain and Afghanistan, Iqbal began suffering from a mysterious throat illness.[18] He spent his final years helping Chaudhry Niaz Ali Khan establish the Dar ul Islam Trust Institute at the latter's Jamalpur estate near Pathankot,[19][20] an institution where studies in classical Islam and contemporary social science would be subsidised, and advocating the demand for an independent Muslim state.[21] Iqbal ceased practising law in 1934 and he was granted pension by the Nawab of Bhopal. In his final years he frequently visited the Dargah of famous Sufi Hazrat Ali Hujwiri in Lahore for spiritual guidance. After suffering for months from his illness, Iqbal died in Lahore on 21 April 1938. His tomb is located in Hazuri Bagh, the enclosed garden between the entrance of the Badshahi Mosque and the Lahore Fort, and official guards are maintained there by the Government of Pakistan.
Iqbal is commemorated widely in Pakistan, where he is regarded as the ideological founder of the state. His Tarana-e-Hind is a song that is widely used in India as a patriotic song speaking of communal harmony. His birthday is annually commemorated in Pakistan as Iqbal Day, a national holiday. Iqbal is the namesake of many public institutions, including the Allama Iqbal Campus Punjab University in Lahore, the Allama Iqbal Medical College in Lahore, Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad, Allama Iqbal Open University, the Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore, and Gulshan-e-Iqbal Town in Karachi. Government and public organizations have sponsored the establishment of colleges and schools dedicated to Iqbal, and have established the Iqbal Academy to research, teach and preserve the works, literature and philosophy of Iqbal. Allama Iqbal Stamps Society established for the promotion of Iqbaliyat in philately and in other hobbies. His son Javid Iqbal has served as a justice on the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Javaid Manzil was the last residence of Allama Iqbal.[22]
If we are resolved to describe Islam as a system of superior values, we are obliged, first of all, to acknowledge that we are not the true representatives of Islam.—Muhammad Iqbal[23]
Sayings like above influenced Muslims of British India to ponder on their situation under British rule. Allama Iqbal's poetry has also been translated into several European languages where his works were famous during the early part of the 20th century. Iqbal’s Asrar-i-Khudi and Javed Nama were translated into English by R A Nicholson and A J Arberry respectively.[24]
According to Dr Soti Shivendra Chandra and Dr. Amit Sharma – Dr. Iqbal opposed the inactive and unquestioning education which meekly accepts ‘what is’ and does not strive for ‘what-might be’. He had an up to date and progressive brainpower welcoming to innovative thoughts and morals from all over the world, though it is steeped deeply in the social, cultural and spiritual notions for which he draws encouragement from Islamic teachings. He was a fervent supporter of man’s liberty and self-esteem, of justice in social, national and international relationships and an opponent of insincerity, psychosomatic sluggishness, obscurantism and the gospel of the effortless life, which destabilize man’s potentialities. Dr. Iqbal held that education should rejuvenate inventive tendencies of the students. Education should guarantee utmost development of the students. He pleaded that education should be valuable for the students and should be related to their lives and society. He maintained that knowledge is not to be attained through mind only. The heart must also participate in its accomplishment. He further stated that the education, so earned through the co-ordination of mind and heart, would be genuine and useful. He pointed out that education should promote in the youth and men and women develop sedulously in themselves, certain basic traits and attributes of mind and character; aptitude, bravery, broadmindedness, objectivity, love of their fellow men and women, sense of rectitude and commitment to the higher values of spirit.
He maintained that the Western system of education had vitiated the Indian system of education, so he resolutely urged just like Swami Sivananda, for an overhauling of Indian education system. He held that our educational system, on the whole, is still mainly based on borrowed or rented thoughts, on the intellectual resources of a foreign culture, on the unquestioning and cramping use of a foreign language – in a word, on “asking”. Iqbal believed in Humanism so he wanted multi–faceted development of individuals. He trusted that only education could ensure that development in man. He stated that the nature and the God also want to promote the maximum development of the individuals. He maintained that the education must provide to the students an opportunity to develop their selves and to obtain excellence. All the educational institutions should try to escort and guide the students to their maximum manifestations.
Dr. Iqbal, just like Dr Zakir Hussain, in his educational doctrines, reflected a sweet co-ordination between individual and society, science and humanities, freedom and authority, spiritualism and technology, achievement and conviction, traditional and modern standpoints. He also advocated maximum autonomy to the students in his educational doctrines. He conceptualized that through intellectual freedom one could get real knowledge and through moral freedom one could distinguish between right and wrong. Education has to be sensitive and oriented to this dynamic character of man’s inner life, in addition to being receptive to the amendments going on in his environment. He believed in an education, which is scrupulously permeated, and vitalized by the spirit and the ideals stimulating this cultural and social order. A dynamic and creative education directed to the releasing and fostering of the creative spirit in man and equipping him with the longing and competence to conquer new realms of art and science, knowledge and power. He also favoured democratization of educational opportunities.
Spiritual Education:- He was wrapped into spiritualism and he derived his inspiration from Islam. He, just similar to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, had great regards and attachment with the Indian culture and customs. He was an optimist, a reformist and was very progressive and modern in his approach. He had great faith in the potentialities of man. Just like Dr. A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, Dr. Iqbal advocated harmonious blend of spiritualism and progressivism in education. He conceptualized that spiritual education is very important for overall development of the students. He maintained that spiritualism and creative activities should be harmonized in the field of education in order to provide the right type of atmosphere for students’ development.
Education of Cultural Heritage and Aesthetic Element:- Dr. Iqbal regarded the cultural heritage and aesthetic element very important in any scheme of education. The aesthetic elements make one make sensitive to various environmental factors and the cultural elements nurture an individual for further growth. Because of this basic belief, Dr. Iqbal was in opposition to blind imitation of western culture. He maintained that through blind imitation one could never understand one’s own religion, literature, philosophy and culture. Therefore, he believed that incorporation of ancient Indian culture was very necessary in any scheme of education for India. If education is not permeated in every country, by humane outlook, transcending race, nation, colour, caste and country, there can be no salvation for mankind. In the development of individual and proper organization of education, the past culture of a country plays a very important part- and obvious truth, which was forgotten of, ignored both by the British and by many Indians brought up under the English system of education.
Aims of Education: - Iqbal maintained that the supreme purpose of nature and consequently of education is the development of every person’s individuality or Khudi (selfhood). He would like to see the education of youth so patterned that they will be well-versed in their own way of life, the finest of their cultural values and also receptive to the from the outside. He would apply the same principle to various groups and communities within the nation and guarantee to them the liberty necessary to discover sources of brainwave in their own special cultural patterns. The spirit of leniency and understanding is essential both for the development of a harmonious national pattern of living and for ensuring peace and understanding in the world. He stated that the teaching of the Quran, which believes in the possibility of improvement in the behaviour of man and his control over natural forces, is neither optimism nor pessimism. It is ‘meliorism’ which recognizes a growing Universe and is animated by the hope of man’s eventual victory over evil. He held that a wide-ranging and well integrated education is always concerned about attaining the right equilibrium between different claims, which may be good in their proper place but nay well thwart our ultimate purposes through over-emphasis – the material and the spiritual, the intellect and the intuition, activity and contemplation. It is not a matter of rigid choice between different incompatible possibilities but of ensuring that, just as man is infinitely complex and his interests are infinitely varied, his education is devised imaginatively so that, in an atmosphere of freedom, it may find an outlet for his manifold talents, yearnings and aspirations.
In a nutshell, main aims of education, according to his educational philosophy, are as under:
• To develop students’ individuality or Khudi (selfhood) and self-esteem. • To rejuvenate inventive tendencies in the students. • To ensure multi-faceted and utmost development of the students. • To develop basic traits and attributes of mind and character. • To guide the students to their maximum manifestations. • To direct the students to the realizing and fostering of creative spirit. • To develop behaviour and adjustment capacity in the students. • To develop aptitude, bravery, broadmindedness and objectivity in the students.
Curriculum: - Dr. Iqbal, like former President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, advocated that in the curriculum of education, due place must be provided to the Indian culture so that the students may be familiar completely with the varying aspects of Indian culture. He maintained that the educational curriculum was both contracted and hardly utilitarian and made little endeavor to initiate the children and youth into the culture of their nation or community. Dr Iqbal, like Swami Sivananda, believed that a spiritual foundation is imperative in the knowledge of modern technology. Instead, directly as well as indirectly, it inculcated the idea that the object of education was to enable the students to seek petty jobs and offices and not to awaken intellectual vigour or a sense of social responsibility and moral sensitiveness. He maintained that it is true that we have some stupendous creative minds, which passed through this very system of education, but compared to the total educated population, their number is very small, which shows that education has neither effectively unfolded the individuals nor adequately served the community. Besides other common subjects, he advocated History and science in the curriculum. He held that Science should naturally occupy a prominent place in the curriculum. He also emphasized on History, he stated –
If it forgets the story of its past,
It lapses into non-existence.
Co-curricular Activities: - Dr. Sir Mohammad Iqbal emphasized on co-curricular activities in his educational doctrines. He believed in activities based or active education. He had great regards and faith in work and stated that inactive person is a coward. Only work can make one immortal in this world. He regards activity as the real zest of life. He believed that the literary persons, artists, poets and actors etc must contribute to the regeneration of prestige of India. He maintained that co-curricular activities are essential for all round development of the students
Teaching Methodology: - Dr. Iqbal, approximating Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, advocated experimentation and activities in educational process and held that the knowledge obtained through experiences and experiments becomes permanent. He held that man must be able to choose his methods and materials freely and learn through direct, first-hand experience, which is not hedged in by many peripheral restraints. He stated that methods of self-activity and learning by doing: method which confront the students with new situations and problems, compelling them to work purposefully with the resources of their environment, to fit means to ends, to rely on their own groping but intelligent efforts, to learn to overcome their difficulties in their own. He stated that a majority of educators have at all times tried and still try to work out fail-safe techniques of learning, and to protect children from acquiring knowledge through trial and error and the discipline of active personal experience. They want to nourish them with ready-made information, instead of letting them tackle with the unsophisticated raw material of activities and pluck out of it the jewel, knowledge. Accept learning by doing, he advocated Project Method, experimental method: problem-solving methods in his educational philosophy. He maintained that if education is to be a preparation for life, it must be achieved through active participation in life…
Teacher: - Dr Iqbal provided a significant place to the teacher in his educational doctrines. He had great respect for teachers. He conceptualized that teacher is very important element in the process of education. He, like Swami Vivekananda and Swami Sivananda, believed that teacher should be a friend, guide & guardian of students. Teacher should be ideal, deep knowledge holder, good communicator and a complete personality. He truly stated:
What is the school-master?
An architect of the souls of men!
Students: - Dr. Sir Moh. Iqbal maintained that students must be very much loyal to attain the education because it is unlimited. He suggested the students to prepare for the difficulties and pains in the process of attaining the aim of life than to think about the happiness after its achievement. He stated that the educated individual should be able to understand, appreciate, assimilate as well as critically assess the existing culture and within the range of his capacities, facilitate in its renovation. Dr Iqbal was against the blind imitation of Western culture and fashion and gave this message to the students:
O lively and fashionable youth! Arts and Sciences,
Need a keen intellect not Western clothes; What is needed in this quest is Vision, Not this or that particular head-dress! If you have a subtle intellect and an incisive mind, They would suffice’ to guarantee success.
Being a prominent poet, he composed various educative compositions to guide and to inspire the students. He stated:
When one steadily burns the midnight oil, One is admitted to the domain of knowledge and wisdom! The world of meaning which has no frontiers Cannot be conquered without a persistent crusade !
Discipline: - Dr. Iqbal was ardent champion of maximum freedom to the student for their maximum development and pointed out – freedom is an essential condition for the healthy development of individuality… He held that freedom is the very breath of vital living;
Nslaved, life is reduced to a small rivulet,
Free, it is life the boundless ocean!
Dr. Iqbal favoured self-discipline and opposed any punishment to the students for their multi-faceted development of the students through education, in his educational doctrines just like various other educational thinkers.[25]
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