Muhammad Iqbal

For other people named Muhammad Iqbal, see Muhammad Iqbal (disambiguation).
"Mohammad Iqbal" redirects here. Not to be confused with Iqbal Mohamed.

Sir
Allama
Muhammad Iqbal
محمد اقبال
Iqbal in 1938
Born(1877-11-09)9 November 1877
Sialkot, Punjab, British India
(now Punjab, Pakistan)
Died21 April 1938(1938-04-21) (aged 60)
Lahore, Punjab, British India
(now Punjab, Pakistan)
Resting placeMazar-e-Iqbal, Lahore
NationalityBritish Indian
Alma mater
Occupations
  • Philosopher
  • author
  • politician
Notable workBang-e-Dara, Tarana-e-Milli, The Secrets of the Self, The Secrets of Selflessness, Message from the East, Persian Psalms, Javid Nama, Sare Jahan se Accha
Children6
InstitutionsJamia Millia Islamia (co-founder)
ThesisThe Development of Metaphysics in Persia (1908)
Doctoral advisorFritz Hommel
Language
Main interests
Notable ideas
Allahabad Address (1930)
Signature

Sir Muhammad Iqbal (Punjabi: [mʊɦəˈməd̪ ɪqbaːl]; 9 November 1877 – 21 April 1938) was a South Asian Islamic philosopher, poet and politician.[1][2][3][4] His poetry is considered to be among the greatest of the 20th century,[5][6][7][8] and his vision of a cultural and political ideal for the Muslims of British-ruled India[9] is widely regarded as having animated the impulse for the Pakistan Movement.[1][10] He is commonly referred to by the honourific Allama (Persian: علامه, transl. "learned")[11][12] and widely considered one of the most important and influential Muslim thinkers and Western religious philosophers of the 20th century.[13][14][15][16]

Born and raised in Sialkot, Punjab, Iqbal completed his BA and MA at the Government College in Lahore. He taught Arabic at the Oriental College in Lahore from 1899 until 1903, during which time he wrote prolifically. Notable among his Urdu poems from this period are "Parinde ki Faryad" (translated as "A Bird's Prayer"), an early contemplation on animal rights, and "Tarana-e-Hindi" (translated as "Anthem of India"), a patriotic poem—both composed for children. In 1905, he departed from India to pursue further education in Europe, first in England and later in Germany. In England, he earned a second BA at Trinity College, Cambridge, and subsequently qualified as a barrister at Lincoln's Inn. In Germany, he obtained a PhD in philosophy at the University of Munich, with his thesis focusing on "The Development of Metaphysics in Persia" in 1908. Upon his return to Lahore in 1908, Iqbal established a law practice but primarily focused on producing scholarly works on politics, economics, history, philosophy, and religion. He is most renowned for his poetic compositions, including "Asrar-e-Khudi," for which he was honored with a British knighthood upon its publication,[17] "Rumuz-e-Bekhudi," and "Bang-e-Dara." His literary works in the Persian language garnered him recognition in Iran, where he is commonly known as Eghbal-e Lahouri (Persian: اقبال لهوری), meaning "Iqbal of Lahore."

An ardent proponent of the political and spiritual revival of the Muslim world, particularly of the Muslims in the Indian subcontinent, the series of lectures Iqbal delivered to this effect were published as The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam in 1930. He was elected to the Punjab Legislative Council in 1927 and held several positions in the All-India Muslim League. In his Allahabad Address, delivered at the League's annual assembly in 1930, he formulated a political framework for the Muslim-majority regions spanning northwestern India, spurring the League's pursuit of the two-nation theory.[9]

In August 1947, nine years after Iqbal's death, the partition of India gave way to the establishment of Pakistan, a newly independent Islamic state in which Iqbal was honoured as the national poet. He is also known in Pakistani society as Hakim ul-Ummat (lit. 'The Wise Man of the Ummah') and as Mufakkir-e-Pakistan (lit. 'The Thinker of Pakistan'). The anniversary of his birth (Yom-e Weladat-e Muḥammad Iqbal), 9 November, is observed as a public holiday in Pakistan.

  1. ^ a b Lelyveld, David (2004), "Muhammad Iqbal", in Martin, Richard C. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World: A-L, Macmillan, p. 356, ISBN 978-0-02-865604-5, Muhammad Iqbal, South Asian poet and ideological innovator, wrote poetry in Urdu and Persian and discursive prose, primarily in English, of particular significance in the formulation of a national ethos for Pakistan.
  2. ^ Iqbal, Sir Muhammad; Zakaria, Rafiq (1981), Shikwa and Jawab-i-shikwa (in English and Urdu), translated by Singh, Khushwant, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-561324-7, "Iqbal it is true, is essentially a poet of Islam" (from the foreword by Rafiq Zakaria, p. 9)
  3. ^ Kiernan, V.G. (2013). Poems from Iqbal: Renderings in English Verse with Comparative Urdu Text. Oxford University Press and Iqbal Academy Pakistan. pp. xi–xiii. ISBN 978-0-19-906616-2. Quote: "In Persian, ... he published six volumes of mainly long poems between 1915 and 1936, ... more or less complete works on philosophical themes" (p. xiii)"
  4. ^ Sevea, Iqbal Singh (2012), The Political Philosophy of Muhammad Iqbal: Islam and Nationalism in Late Colonial India, Cambridge University Press, pp. 14–, ISBN 978-1-107-00886-1, Iqbal was elected to the Punjab Legislative Council in 1927 and held various posts both in the All-India Muslim League and the Punjab Provincial Muslim League.
  5. ^ Kiernan, V.G. (2013). Poems from Iqbal: Renderings in English Verse with Comparative Urdu Text. Oxford University Press and Iqbal Academy Pakistan. pp. xi–xiii. ISBN 978-0-19-906616-2. Quote: "In Urdu, Iqbal is allowed to have been far the greatest poet of this century, and by most critics to be the only equal of Ghalib (1797–1869). ... the Urdu poems, addressed to a real and familiar audience close at hand, have the merit of being direct, spontaneous utterances on tangible subjects. (p. xiii)"
  6. ^ McDonough, Sheila D (5 November 2020), Muhammad Iqbal, Encyclopedia Britannica, retrieved 7 February 2021, He is considered the greatest poet in Urdu of the 20th century
  7. ^ Anjum, Zafar (13 October 2014), Iqbal: The Life of a Poet, Philosopher and Politician, Random House, pp. 16–, ISBN 978-81-8400-656-8, Responding to this call, he published a collection of Urdu poems, Bal-e-Jibril (The Wings of Gabriel) in 1935 and Zarb-e Kalim (The Stroke of the Rod of Moses) in 1936. Through this, Iqbal achieved the status of the greatest Urdu poet in the twentieth century.
  8. ^ Robinson, Francis (1996), The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Islamic World, Cambridge University Press, pp. 283–, ISBN 978-0-521-66993-1, In India, the ghazal and mathnawi forms were adapted in Urdu to express new social and ideological concerns, beginning in the work of the poet Altaf Husayn Hali (1837–1914) and continuing in the poetry of Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938). In the poetry of Iqbal, which he wrote in Persian, to speak to a wider Muslim audience, as well as Urdu, a memory of the past achievements of Islam is combined with a plea for reform. He is considered the greatest Urdu poet of the twentieth century.
  9. ^ a b Sevea, Iqbal Singh (2012), The Political Philosophy of Muhammad Iqbal: Islam and Nationalism in Late Colonial India, Cambridge University Press, pp. 14–, ISBN 978-1-107-00886-1, In 1930, he presided over the meeting of the All-India Muslim League in Allahabad. It was here that he delivered his famous address in which he outlined his vision of a cultural and political framework that would ensure the fullest development of the Muslims of India.
  10. ^ Embree, Ainslie Thomas; Hay, Stephen N.; Bary, William Theodore De (1988), Sources of Indian Tradition: Modern India and Pakistan, Columbia University Press, ISBN 978-0-231-06414-9, Sir Syed Ahmed had brought rationalism and the desire for knowledge and progress to the Indian Muslims; Muhammad Iqbal brought them inspiration and philosophy. Next to the Quran, there is no single influence upon the consciousness of the Pakistani intelligentsia so powerful as Iqbal's poetry. In his own time, it kindled the enthusiasm of Muslim intellectuals for the values of Islam and rallied the Muslim community once again to the banner of their faith. For this reason, Iqbal is looked upon today as the spiritual founder of Pakistan.
  11. ^ Platts, John T. (John Thompson) (1884), A dictionary of Urdu, classical Hindi, and English, London: W. H. Allen & Co., retrieved 6 February 2021
  12. ^ "Allama Iqbal: Pakistan's national poet & the man who gave India 'Saare Jahan se Achha'". ThePrint. 9 October 2018. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  13. ^ Craig, Edward. Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2000. p. 404.
  14. ^ Ahmad Ali, Dr. Saeed (2023). "Realms of spiritual thought: Iqbal's concept of selfhood 'Khudi' encompassing youth's ideology".
  15. ^ Ahmad Parray, Tauseef (2023). Islam and Democracy in the 21st Century. Oxford University Press.
  16. ^ Azad, Hasan (2014). "Reconstructing the Muslim Self: Muhammad Iqbal, Khudi, and the Modern Self". Islamophobia Studies Journal. 2 (2): 14–28. doi:10.13169/islastudj.2.2.0014. JSTOR 10.13169/islastudj.2.2.0014.
  17. ^ "No. 32782". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 December 1922. p. 2.