Great Poets of Two Countries - ALLAMA MUHAMMAD IQBAL & JALAL-AL-DIN MOULANA RUMI - Under Pak-Iran Agreement. (1997-4)

Allama Muhammad Iqbal is one of most outstanding poets, writers, intellectuals and thinkers of modern times.
Iqbal was born at Sialkot on November 9,1877. He held a brilliant academic record. After receiving his early education from Murray College, Sialkot, he did his Masters in Philosophy from Government College, Lahore and joined there as a lecturer. He left for Europe in 1905 and stayed there for three years. Iqbal studied Philosophy and Law at the Trinity College, Cambridge, Lincoln\'s Inn, London and the Munich University. He was awarded a Ph.D. by the Munich University on his renowned thesis \"Mabaadut Tibbiyat\'.
He returned home in 1908 and rejoined service in the Government College, Lahore. He resigned after sometime and started practicing Law. He was elected Member of the Punjab Legislative Assembly in 1926 for three years. In 1930 Iqbal was elected President of the Muslim League session held at Allahabad. In 1931 and 1932 he attended the Round Table Conferences which met in London to frame a constitution for India and took active part in its various committees. He was the first to give a concrete shape to the Muslim aspirations in India for \'a separate homeland, and defined its geographical boundaries, as clearly and. unambiguously as it could be possible, far back in the year 1930. In his Presidential Address at the Annual Session of the All India Muslim League at Allahabad (1930) he boldly asserted the Muslim demand for the creation of a Muslim India within India, and said \"I would like to see the Punjab, the North-West Frontier Province, Sindh and Baluchistan amalgamated into a single State\".
It was Iqbal\'s ferent appeal which persuaded the Quaid-e-Azam in 1934 to return from England and lead the Muslims of the Indo-Pakistan Sub-continent in their struggle for constitutional rights and it was in his letters to the Quaid-e-Aam that he elaborated his scheme in its political as well as cultural context. He succeeded in convincing the Quaid-e-Azam that Pakistan was the only solution to the political problems of the Muslims of India, and it was on the foundations laid by Iqbal that the Muslim League\'s historic Pakistan Resolution of 1940 was based.
Thus, Iqbal gave the blue-print for Pakistan. But the role he played in promoting an intellectual revolution among Muslims of the lndo-Pakistan Sub-continent is even more important.
He was a profound thinker who believed in dynamism, and throughout his poetry and prose he placed the greatest emphasis on \'action\', interpreting it as movement\'. Some of his epoch making poems are \'Shikwa\', \'Jawab-e-Shikwa\', \'Shama aur Shair\', \'Asrar-o-Ramooz\'. I-us genius is manifest in literary masterpieces like \'Payam-e-Mashriq\'. \'Bange Dira\', \'Zabur-e-Ajam\', \'Bal-e-Jibril\', \'Zarb-e-Kalim\', \'Pas Che-Bayad Kard Aee Aqwam-e-Sharq\' and Armughan-e-Hijaz\'. Of all his masterpieces \'Javid Nama\' could truly be regarded as Iqbal\'s Magnum opus. He believed, on the one hand, in the emancipation and freedom of the Muslims of the Indo-Pakistan Sub-continent and on the other, he argued for the unity of Muslim nations all-over the world. Iqbal\'s political philosophy is not atomistic but organic in that it implied the formation of an association of the Muslim countries to betten their own lot and be the upholder of peace and justice throughout the World. His verses in Urdu and Persian and his monumental treatises have been translated into almost all the important languages of the world and found wide recognition in Iran, Turkey, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Italy, USSR, etc. He died on April 21, 1938 at Lahore and was laid to rest near Badshahi Mosque.
An academy named after him has been established by the Government of Pakistan to Promote and disseminate the messages and teachings of Allama Iqbal.
JALAL-AL-DIN MOULANA RUMI
Jalal-Al- Din Maulana Rumi was born in 1184(604 Lunar Year) and passed away in 1252 (672 Lunar Year), His father, Baha\'al-Din Sultan al-Ulama\' Mohammad Bin Hossein, one of the great sages of 12th century (6th Lunar Year) was his first tutor,
At the death of his father, Moulvi became the disciple of Sheikh Borhan al-Din Mohaghigh Tarmmazi and followed the disciplines of spiritual path (Tariqah). At the death of Tarmazi, Moulvi who as then agnostic, became the spiritual master of his time. He began to teach a large number of disciples. It is said that in each of his class more than four hundreds of disciples were presented.
In 1222(714 Lunar Year) at the age of 38 he met a sufi enamoured of spiritual love, named, Shams al-Din of Tabrez. This meeting was the most important event in his spiritual life. Influenced by Shams, Moulvi discontinued to be a preacher and isolated himself from the people. He led the life of a recluse and lived only with Shams.
Then sudden great change appeared both in his moral characteristics and in his opinions and beliefs.
This behaviour finally resulted in growing a sense of enmity amongst his disciples towards shams of Tabrez and they began to annoy him which finally made him leave Konia. Although he came back to Konia again, but the troubles made by the Molavis\'s disciples was considered a great danger to his life. Therefore, he again left Konia and this time for ever. After sudden disappearance of Shams (or his mysterious death), Maulana, for being separated from his sweetheart, with a heart brimful of sorrow, began to compose tragic poems and weep painfully in his reclusion.
The collection of his poems, in memory of his master, was called Divan-i-Shamsi Tabrez. The other best Known work of Moulvi are Mathnawi, Quatrains, Fihi ma fihi, Makatib (collection of his letters) and Majalis Saba\'i (sevenfold sittings)
Among his well Known disciples we can mention Salah al-Din Zarkub and Hesam al- Din Chalbi. The latter was the one who encouraged Moulvi in composing Mathnawi.
To commemorate Pakistan-Iran Agreement Pakistan Post Office is issuing a set of two stamps of Rs. 3/- (each) denomination on April 21, 1997.