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Iqbal
was born at Sialkot, India (now in Pakistan),
on 9th November, 1877 of a pious family of small
merchants and was educated at Government College,
Lahore. In Europe from 1905 to 1908, he earned
his degree in philosophy from the University of
Cambridge, qualified as a barrister in London,
and received a doctorate from the University of
Munich. His thesis, The Development of Metaphysics
in Persia, revealed some aspects of Islamic mysticism
formerly unknown in Europe.
On
his return from Europe, he gained his livelihood
by the practice of law, but his fame came from
his Persian- and Urdu-language poetry, which was
written in the classical style for public recitation.
Through poetic symposia and in a milieu in which
memorizing verse was customary, his poetry became
widely known, even among the illiterate. Almost
all the cultured Indian and Pakistani Muslims
of his and later generations have had the habit
of quoting Iqbal.
Before
he visited Europe, his poetry affirmed Indian
nationalism, as in Naya shawala ("The New
Altar"), but time away from India caused
him to shift his perspective. He came to criticize
nationalism for a twofold reason: in Europe it
had led to destructive racism and imperialism,
and in India it was not founded on an adequate
degree of common purpose. In a speech delivered
at Aligarh in 1910, under the title "Islam
as a Social and Political Ideal," he indicated
the new Pan-Islamic direction of his hopes. The
recurrent themes of Iqbal's poetry are a memory
of the vanished glories of Islam, a complaint
about its present decadence, and a call to unity
and reform. Reform can be achieved by strengthening
the individual through three successive stages:
obedience to the law of Islam, self-control, and
acceptance of the idea that everyone is potentially
a vicegerent of God (na`ib, or mu`min). Furthermore,
the life of action is to be preferred to ascetic
resignation.
Three
significant poems from this period, Shikwah ("The
Complaint"), Jawab-e shikwah ("The Answer
to the Complaint"), and Khizr-e rah ("Khizr,
the Guide"), were published later in 1924
in the Urdu collection Bang-e dara ("The
Call of the Bell"). In those works Iqbal
gave intense expression to the anguish of Muslim
powerlessness. Khizr (Arabic: Khidr), the Qur`anic
prophet who asks the most difficult questions,
is pictured bringing from God the baffling problems
of the early 20th century.
Notoriety
came in 1915 with the publication of his long
Persian poem Asrar-e khudi (The Secrets of the
Self). He wrote in Persian because he sought to
address his appeal to the entire Muslim world.
In this work he presents a theory of the self
that is a strong condemnation of the self-negating
quietism (i.e., the belief that perfection and
spiritual peace are attained by passive absorption
in contemplation of God and divine things) of
classical Islamic mysticism; his criticism shocked
many and excited controversy. Iqbal and his admirers
steadily maintained that creative self-affirmation
is a fundamental Muslim virtue; his critics said
he imposed themes from the German philosopher
Friedrich Nietzsche on Islam.
The
dialectical quality of his thinking was expressed
by the next long Persian poem, Rumuz-e bikhudi
(1918; The Mysteries of Selflessness). Written
as a counterpoint to the individualism preached
in the Asrar-ekhudi, this poem called for self-surrender.
.....................
Lo, like a candle wrestling with the night
..................... O'er my own self I pour
my flooding tears
.................. I spent my self, that there
might be more light,
...................... More loveliness, more joy
for other men.
The
Muslim community, as Iqbal conceived it, ought
effectively to teach and to encourage generous
service to the ideals of brotherhood and justice.
The mystery of selflessness was the hidden strength
of Islam. Ultimately, the only satisfactory mode
of active self-realization was the sacrifice of
the self in the service of causes greater than
the self. The paradigm was the life of the Prophet
Muhammad and the devoted service of the first
believers. The second poem completes Iqbal's conception
of the final destiny of the self.
Later,
he published three more Persian volumes. Payam-e
Mashriq (1923; "Message of the East"),
written in response to J.W. von Goethe's West-östlicher
Divan (1819; "Divan of West and East"),
affirmed the universal validity of Islam. In 1927
Zabur-e 'Ajam ("Persian Psalms") appeared,
about which A.J. Arberry, its translator into
English, wrote: "Iqbal displayed here an
altogether extraordinary talent for the most delicate
and delightful of all Persian styles, the ghazal,"
or love poem. Javid-nameh (1932; "The Song
of Eternity") is considered Iqbal's masterpiece.
Its theme, reminiscent of Dante's Divine Comedy,
is the ascent of the poet, guided by the great
13th-century Persian mystic Jalal ad-Din ar-Rumi,
through all the realms of thought and experience
to the final encounter.
Iqbal's
later publications of poetry in Urdu were Bal-e
Jibril (1935; "Gabriel's Wing"), Zarb-e
kalim (1937; "The Blow of Moses"), and
the posthumous Armaghan-e Hijaz (1938; "Gift
of the Hejaz"), which contained verses in
both Urdu and Persian. He is considered the greatest
poet in Urdu of the 20th century.
Philosophical
position and influence
His
philosophical position was articulated in The
Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (1934),
a volume based on six lectures delivered at Madras,
Hyderabad, and Aligarh in 1928-29. He argued that
a rightly focused man should unceasingly generate
vitality through interaction with the purposes
of the living God. The Prophet Muhammad had returned
from his unitary experience of God to let loose
on the earth a new type of manhood and a cultural
world characterized by the abolition of priesthood
and hereditary kingship and by an emphasis on
the study of history and nature. The Muslim community
in the present age ought, through the exercise
of ijtihad--the principle of legal advancement--to
devise new social and political institutions.
He also advocated a theory of ijma'--consensus.
Iqbal tended to be progressive in adumbrating
general principles of change but conservative
in initiating actual change.
During
the time that he was delivering these lectures,
Iqbal began working with the Muslim League. At
the annual session of the league at Allahabad,
in 1930, he gave the presidential address, in
which he made a famous statement that the Muslims
of northwestern India should demand status as
a separate state.
Iqbal's
grave in Lahore
After
a long period of ill health, Iqbal died in April
1938 and was buried in front of the great Badshahi
Mosque in Lahore. Two years later, the Muslim
League voted for the idea of Pakistan. That the
poet had influenced the making of that decision,
which became a reality in 1947, is undisputed.
He has been acclaimed as the father of Pakistan,
and every year Iqbal Day is celebrated by Pakistanis.
Aspects
of his thought are explored in K.G. Saiyidain,
Iqbal's Educational Philosophy, 6th ed. rev. (1965),
a standard analysis of the relevance of Iqbal's
ideas about education written by a distinguished
Indian educationist; Annemarie Schimmel, Gabriel's
Wing, 2nd ed. (1989), a thorough analysis of Iqbal's
religious symbolism, including a comprehensive
bibliography in English; Syed Abdul Vahid, Iqbal:
His Art and Thought, new ed. (1959), a standard
introduction; Hafeez Malik (ed.), Iqbal, Poet-Philosopher
of Pakistan (1971), representative Pakistani views;
and S.M.H. Burney (S.M.H. Barni), Iqbal, Poet-Patriot
of India (1987), focusing on nationalism and secularism
in his poetry. |
