Muhammad Iqbal
- Lived
- 1877 - 1938 CE
- Read next
- Meaning of the name Muhammad
Who was Muhammad Iqbal? The Kashmiri philosopher-poet of Punjab whose Persian and Urdu poetry rekindled Muslim intellectual life in the twentieth century and whose Allahabad Address planted the seed of Pakistan.
The Kashmiri philosopher-poet of Punjab whose Persian and Urdu poetry rekindled Muslim intellectual life in the twentieth century and whose Allahabad Address planted the seed of Pakistan.
Life
Muhammad Iqbal was born in Sialkot in 1877 CE into a family of Kashmiri Brahmin converts to Islam. He studied at the Scotch Mission College in Sialkot, then at Government College Lahore under Thomas Arnold, then at Trinity College Cambridge (philosophy), then at Munich (PhD in philosophy on the development of metaphysics in Persia).
His poetry began in Urdu with lyrical, patriotic Indian verse. After his European studies (1905-1908) he shifted to a distinctly Islamic and Persian idiom, writing in both Urdu and Persian.
His major Persian works are Asrar-i-Khudi (Secrets of the Self, 1915), Rumuz-i-Bekhudi (Mysteries of Selflessness, 1917), Payam-i-Mashriq (Message of the East, 1923), and Javid Nama (Book of Eternity, 1932) which retraces Dante's journey through the heavens with Rumi as guide.
His major Urdu works are Bang-i-Dara (The Call of the Marching Bell), Bal-i-Jibril (Gabriel's Wing), and Zarb-i-Kalim (The Strike of the Staff of Moses).
His 1930 Presidential Address to the All-India Muslim League at Allahabad called for a separate Muslim state in northwest India. This is generally considered the intellectual foundation of the Pakistan idea, later carried politically by Jinnah.
He died in Lahore in 1938 CE. His tomb (Mazar-e-Iqbal) stands beside the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, adjacent to the Lahore Fort.
Stories
Each story is drawn from the classical Islamic sources.