IS POET IQBAL A “HAKEEM-UL-UMMAH” AS BELIEVED

BY ILLITERATE MUSLIMS IN PAKISTAN OR A “PUNJABI

SYMBOL” TO PROVE PUNJAB´S PARTICIPATION IN
MAKING OF PAKISTAN?
By

Syed Jamaluddin
Heidelberg, Germany

(email: [email protected])

It is indisputable that the Holy Quran and the teachings of the Holy Prophet SA and
Ahle-Bait AS are the only source of salvation for true Muslims living either in Pakistan
or any other part of the world. Unfortunately, undivided India gave birth to certain
so-called religious scholars and home-grown philosophers who were primarily
influenced by the unfounded and fake Indian philosophies and yet they reflected
such philosophies in their own intellectual work and preaching. People like Ghulam
Ahmed Qadiani and Dr. Muhammad Iqbal are the two glaring examples.

Ghulam Ahmed Qadiani being a renowned religious scholar in the undivided India
ultimately declared himself as a self-styled prophet of God by calling himself as
“Ummati Nabi”. His followers even today do believe that Hazrat Muhammad SA is the
last prophet of Allah but consider Ghulam Ahmed Qadiani as “Ummati Nabi”.
(Maulana) Qasim Nanotvi, founder of Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband was the first person to
spread the belief that Hazrat Muhammad SA though being last prophet within the
meaning of Quran´s declaration that Hazrat Muhammad SA is KHATIM-UN-NABIEEN,
yet, (Maulana) Qasim Nanotvi accepted the possibility of any subsequent prophet.
The Ahmedia Jamaat has used the same argument in support of their notion that
Ghulam Ahmed Qadiani was an “Ummati Nabi” on the basis of the said unfounded
belief of so-called Maulana Qasim Nanotvi (the founder of Wahabi Islam in undivided
India who founded the most notorious religious school of thought called DEOBAND).
Today, all true Muslims in the world do not consider Ghulam Ahmed Qadiani as even
a Muslim what to talk of his declaration as “Ummati Nabi”. In other words, the said
Ghulam Ahmed Qadiani and his followers / believers are considered as KAFIRS
(infidels). This is indeed very unfortunate that (Maulana) Qasim Nanotvi is not known
to millions of Muslims who is basically responsible to provide an unfounded
justification and reasoning to the Ahmedia Jamaat about the legitimacy of Ghulam
Ahmed as “Ummati Nabi”.

Following the same principle on the basis of which Ghulam Ahmed Qadiani and his
followers & believers are considered as KAFIRS, we must also analyse the personality
of Dr. Muhammad Iqbal who is commonly called as “Hakeem-ul-Ummah” by illiterate
Muslims in Pakistan and elsewhere. It may be said that the mental infrastructure that
existed in Dr. Muhammad Iqbal was structured from the depths of the Indian
thoughts.
Dr. Muhammad Iqbal´s famous declaration that “SARAY JAHAAN SAY ACHA
HINDUSTAN HAMARA” simply reflects that he was not a true Muslim or even a
simple Muslim but an advocate of Indian philosophies during the British era. All
Muslims in the whole world have a common belief that the most holy places in Islam
are Makkah, Madina, Masjid Aqsa and Ziaraat in Iraq and Syria. On the contrary, Dr.
Muhammad Iqbal says otherwise in his words that “India is the best place on earth”.
If such a statement would have come from any street poet or any common patriotic
Indian, we could have digested it. But, the problem here is that a person who is
considered as so-called Hakeem-ul-Ummah is rather going an extra mile to praise the
Indian land so much so that such a person (Dr. Muhammad Iqbal) has not realized
that the best places on earth are Makkah, Madina, Masjid Aqsa and the holy graves
of Al-e-Rasool. Either the level of Islamic knowledge of Dr. Muhammad Iqbal was
very limited at the time of his saying “SARAY JAHAAN SAY ACHA HINDUSTAN
HAMARA” or he did it deliberately to reflect his own faith about India (Hindustan) as
a whole. How can a person of such a reputation like “Hakeem-ul-Ummah” be so
ignorant of the holiness of Makkah and Madina in comparison to India (Hindustan).
This proves that Dr. Muhammad Iqbal is not actually any “Hakeem-ul-Ummah” but
an ordinary poet with some extra skills of poetry which made him famous like Ghalib
and alike.

Moreover, it was during the time when Dr. Muhammad Iqbal was doing the research
for his thesis, that he studied Sanskrit language and literature. He was already well
acquainted with the elements of Indian philosophy. Indian minds like that of
Bhartruhari, Sree Sankara, Badarayana, Lord Buddha, and Vishwamitra had already
attracted Iqbal´s curious and unsettled / puzzled mind. He was deeply moved by the
insights that already existed within the deep folds of the Indian thought schools. It
was this background that possibly inspired Dr. Muhammad Iqbal to create a
controversial stream in Urdu poetry that had the blend of poisonous Indian thoughts
injected into Islamic literature.

In a poem, Iqbal described the so-called tragic ineptitude of India to revere its own
“great men”.

Iqbal writes in Bang –e-Dira:

‘The nation could not care less about Goutama’s message.

It did not know the price of its unique pearl!
Poor wretches! They never heard the voice of truth:
A tree does not know how sweet its fruit is.
What they revealed was the secret of existence,
But India was proud of its fancies;
It was not an assembly hall to be lit up by the lamp of truth;
The rain of mercy fell, but the land was barren.
Alas, for the Shudra, India is a house of sorrow.
This land is blind to the suffering of man.
The Brahmin is still drunk with the wine of pride.
In the assembly halls of foreigners, burns Gautamas’ lamp.
But ages later, the house of idols was lit up again
Azar’s house was lit up by Abraham!
Again from the Punjab the call
Of monotheism arose.
A perfect man roused slumber”.

It is in the Quran that every people, generation and nation has had the messengers
of God, in different ages, to lend them spiritual guidance. The advocates of Indian
philosophies believe that India also had them and consider RAMA as one of such
prophets sent to India. They also believe that India has had many saints, and other
blessed persons who delivered spiritual solace. These Indians claim that Lord Buddha
and Sree Krishna are among them.

Dr. Muhammad Iqbal has written the following in praise of RAM:

Labreiz Hai Sharaabe haqeeqat se Jaame hind

Sab falsafi Hain Khitai Maghrib ke Raame Hind
Hai Raam Ke wajood Pe Hindostaan ko Naaz
Ahle Nazar Samjhatein hain Unko Imaame Hind

A rough translation is as follows:

The cup of India is full to its brim with the wine of truth
The thinkers of west actually reflect the philosophy of Rama
India is proud that Rama existed, thinkers and philosophers consider Rama as the
religious leader of entire India

In this view, Iqbal views were shared by other Wahabi scholars of that time like
(Maulana) Hasrath Mohani, who was considered as a reputed authority on the Holy
Quran and the sayings of the Holy Prophet SA.

It was Iqbal’s confirmed conviction that Sree Krishna was the one of the messengers
of God. He traced the visible miseries of India, to the fact that the messages of
Krishna were being totally ignored. His beliefs went further to include even Sree Ram
also. He envisioned Sree Ram as the ‘Spiritual Leader of the Indian Peninsula’. In his
poem ‘The Call of the Caravan bell’, he wrote of Ram as the ‘Philosopher of the
Easterners’.

Dr. Muhammad Iqbal endeavoured ceaselessly to remove the misconceptions the

Indians had about religion. Ali Sardar Jafri writes: “According to Iqbal’s beliefs, which
has the authority of the Quran to support it, every religion, race and nation has
received messengers of God i.e. prophets, in different ages to guide them. Gauthama
Budha was one of them. Other contemporaries of Iqbal, like Maulana Hasrath
Mohani, shared this belief and paid tribute Krishna as a prophet……… He was
convinced that the fall of the Hindus was due to the fact that the teachings of
Krishna were forgotten”.

Iqbal himself had great respect for Ram. He describes him as the spiritual leader of
India (Imamal Hind). This poem was written after 1908, by which time Iqbal had
renounced nationalism as a political creed (Indian Express daily. Sept 6, 1981). He
delved deep into the wisdoms of the east and also of the west, and arrived at a new
philosophy, which contained the strengths of both the spiritual and the physical. His
new philosophy focused on love, and the inspiring loveliness in submitting oneself to
others. His philosophy envisaged religion as an entity that stood for love. In the
absence of love, life turns equal to death. What he strove to convey is contained in
his words: “Religion is to burn oneself completely in the quest, its commencement is
in respect, and its culmination is in love”. The question is here is that “who gave
such an authority to Dr. Muhammad Iqbal to make his own independent judgment
and give verdict about Islam´s reality and its foundation? Is this “love” as advocated
by Iqbal the only foundation of Islam. What exactly Iqbal wanted to convey to his
admirers both in the East and the West? That he (Iqbal) was trying to bring both
East and West closer by “re-defining” Islamic principles and fundamentals?

Iqbal was basically a propagandist of the philosophy of so-called “love”. So far, I

don’t know which “love” he has been advocating all his life. It is, however, a
testimony to his perfect ability that he could invigorate his thoughts with poetic
attractiveness. It is only natural that pure poetry embedded with the essential
pleasantness of luxurious love, flowed out of his lips, and pen. A person who is in
great love and affection for Indian “Gods” can never be a “Hakeem-ul-Ummah” for
Muslims. If Ghulam Ahmed Qadiani can never be regarded as “Ummati Nabi”,
similarly, an Indian patriot like Dr. Muhammad Iqbal can never be regarded as
“Hakeem-ul-Ummah” for true Muslims. Both have manipulated the true teachings of
Islam with the help of their intellectual skills and knowledge about Islam. Knowing
Islam is not sufficient but knowing Islam according to the guidelines of the Holy
Prophet Muhammad SA and the Ahle-Bait AS is the only way to success in this world
and hereafter.

In my opinion, Dr. Muhammad Iqbal has been used as a “symbol of Punjab” by the
intelligence agencies in Pakistan to prove the participation of a Punjabi in the making
of Pakistan. Regardless of the fact that Pakistan was basically formed as a
consequence of British conspiracy to divide Muslims of the sub-continent, the Punjabi
establishment wanted a symbolic personality to be given equal respect as a National
Hero in the making of Pakistan along with Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Dr. Muhammad
Iqbal being a Sialkot-born Punjabi was the best choice for this purpose. Even Indian
writers of today are surprised to hear that Pakistan owns IQBAL as their poet. The
article of an Indian writer called Zafar Anjum (attached for reference) will show the
reader of this article some light that Indians also consider Iqbal as their own in a
different perspective, that is, more as their spiritual leader who believes in “Indian
Gods”. How come this so-called “Hakeem-ul-Ummah” is also considered as a spiritual
leader of the Hindus. The reason is very simple. Dr. Muhammad Iqbal was primarily
an Indian and remained an Indian until he died. Thanks to Punjabi establishment in
Pakistan which made Dr. Muhammad Iqbal a “Hakeem-ul-Ummah” in similar fashion
like the British establishment that had made Ghulam Ahmed Qadiani a “Ummati
Nabi”.

THE END