Allama Muhammad

Iqbal
SUBMITTED TO
Prof. Tahreem Sadiq

SUBMITTED BY

M. Salman Shafiq m09BBA034

M. Waleed Khalid m09BBA061

Naeem Jawahar m09BBA067

Jauhar Saeed Khan

m09BBA074

Hailey College Of Banking & Finance

Allama muhammad Iqbal
Early Life
Allama Iqbal was born in Sialkot, Punjab, the eldest of five siblings in a
Kashmiri Sheikh family. Iqbal's father Sheikh Nur Muhammad was a
prosperous tailor, well-known for his strong devotion to Islam, and the
family raised their children with deep religious grounding. His grandfather
Sahaj Ram Sapru was a Kashmiri Pandit from Srinagar who converted to
Islam with his family, adopting the Muslim name of Sheikh Muhammad
Rafique in the process. After conversion, he moved with his family to
Sialkot in the west of Punjab.

Iqbal’s Education
Iqbal was educated initially by tutors in languages and writing, history,
poetry and religion. His potential as a poet and writer was recognized by
one of his tutors, Syed Mir Hassan, and Iqbal would continue to study
under him at the Scotch Mission College in Sialkot. The student became
proficient in several languages and the skill of writing prose and poetry,
and graduated in 1892.

Iqbal entered the Government College in Lahore where he studied

philosophy, English literature and Arabic and obtained a Bachelor of Arts
degree. He won a gold medal for topping his examination in philosophy.
While studying for his master’s degree, Iqbal came under the wing 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 Science of Economics in 1903.

At Sir Thomas's encouragement, Iqbal travelled to and spent many years

studying in Europe. 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.

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Literary Career
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.
Upon his return to India in 1908, Iqbal took up assistant professorship at
the Government College in Lahore, but for financial reasons he
relinquished it within a year to practice law. While maintaining his legal
practice, Iqbal began concentrating on spiritual and religious subjects, and
publishing poetry and literary works.

Anjuman-e-Himayat-e-Islam

He became active in the Anjuman-e-Himayat-e-Islam, a congress of

Muslim intellectuals, writers and poets as well as politicians and in 1919
became the general secretary of the organization. Iqbal's thoughts in his
work primarily focused on the spiritual direction and development of
human society, centered on experiences from his travel and stay in Western
Europe and the Middle East. He was profoundly influenced by Western
philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Henri Bergson and Goethe, and
soon became a strong critic of Western society's separation of religion from
state and what he perceived as its obsession with materialist pursuits.

Works in Persian

Iqbal's poetic works are written mostly in Persian rather than Urdu. Among
his 12,000 verses of poem, about 7,000 verses are in Persian.

i. In 1915, he published his first collection of poetry, the Asrar-e-

Khudi (Secrets of the Self) in Persian. The poem emphasizes on the spirit
and self from a religious, spiritual perspective. Many critics have called
this Iqbal's finest poetic work. Iqbal condemns self-destruction. For him
the aim of life is self-realization and self-knowledge.

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 ii. In his Rumuz-e-Bekhudi (Hints of Selflessness), Iqbal seeks to
prove that 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 realize the "Self" out of society. Also in Persian
and published in 1917.

iii. Iqbal's 1924 publication, the Payam-e-Mashriq (The Message of

the East) is closely connected to the West ostriches Divan by the famous
German poet Goethe. He explains that an individual could never aspire
for higher dimensions unless he learns of the nature of spirituality. 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.

iv. 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
and shows how it effects and concerns the world of action. Bandagi Nama
denounces slavery by attempting to explain the spirit behind the fine arts
of enslaved societies.

v. Iqbal's 1932 work, the Jawed Nama (Book of Jawed) is named

after and in a manner addressed to his son, who is featured in the poems,
and follows the examples of the works of Ibn Arabi and Dante's The
Divine Comedy, through mystical and exaggerated depiction across time.

Works in Urdu

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.

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 Phase I

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 meter and rhyme scheme as Saare Jahan Se Achcha.

Phase II

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. Poems such as
Tulu-e-Islam (Dawn of Islam) and Khizar-e-Rah (Guide of the Path) are
especially acclaimed.

Phase III

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.
Iqbal's final and beautiful 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. The Urdu portion of the
book contains some categorical criticism of the intellectual movements and
social and political revolutions of the modern age.

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Political career
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. Working under
the supervision of Friedrich Hommel, Iqbal published a thesis titled: The
Development of Metaphysics in Persia.

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 Mulana 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. 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

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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. 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.

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 Tulu-e-Islam. In 1935, according to his instructions, Syed Nazeer
Niazi initiated and edited, a journal Tulu-e-Islam named after the famous
poem of Sir Muhammad Iqbal, Tulu-e-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
him 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.

Iqbal and Jinnah

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 was an influential force on convincing
Jinnah to end his self-imposed exile in London, return to India and take

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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."

There were significant differences between the two men, Iqbal believed
that Islam was the source of government and society, Jinnah was a believer
in secular government and had laid out a secular vision for Pakistan where
religion would have "nothing to do with the business of the state." Iqbal
had backed the Khilafath 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 independence of India.
Iqbal's close correspondence with Jinnah is speculated by some historians
as having been responsible for Jinnah's embrace of the idea of Pakistan.
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?"

Iqbal, serving as president of the Punjab Muslim League, criticized 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:

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 "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."

Final Years & Bereavement

In 1933, after returning from a trip to Spain and Afghanistan, Iqbal began
suffering from a mysterious throat illness. 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, an institution where studies in
classical Islam and contemporary social science would be subsidized, and
advocating the demand for an independent Muslim state. Iqbal ceased
practicing law in 1934 and he was granted pension by the Nawab of
Bhopal. After suffering for months from his illness, Iqbal died in Lahore in
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.