75th Death Anniversary of Dr. Allama Muhammad Iqbal.(2013-5)

75^Th Death Anniversary of Allama Muhammad Iqbal Commemorative Postage Stamp April 21, 2013:- Allama Sir Muhammad Iqbal was a poet, philosopher, lawyer and politician born in Sialkot on 9^th November 1877. His poetry in urdu, Arabic and Persian is considered to be among the greatest of the modern era and his vision of an independent state for the Muslims of British India was to inspire the creation of Pakistan. He is commonly referred to as Allama Iqbaly. One of the most prominent leaders of the All India Muslim League, Iqbal encouraged the creation of a “state in northwestern India for Indian Muslims” in his 1930 presidential address. Iqbal encouraged and worked closely with Muhammad Ali Jinnah and he is known as Muffakir-e-Pakistan (“The Thinker of Pakistan”), Shair-e-Mashriq (“The Poet of the East”), and Hakeem-ul-Ummat (“The Sage of Ummah”). He is officially recognized as the “national poet” in Pakistan.

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 this tutors, Syed Mir Hassan, and Iqbal would continue to study under him at the Scotch Mission College in Sialkot. He studied at Murray College Sialkot.

Iqbal entered the Government College Lahore where he studied philosophy, English literature and Arabic and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree. He won the gold medal for topping his examination in Philosophy. While studying in his Masters’ Degree Progrem, 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 the 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, Lahore. He published his first book in Urdu “The Knowledge of Econimocs” in 1903 and the patriotic song, Tarana-e-Hind (Song of India) in 1905.

He obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Trinity College at Cambridge in 1907, while simultanewusly studying law at Lincoln’s Inn, from where he qualified as a barrister at Law in 1908. Togetherr with two other politicians, Syed Hassan Bilgrami and Syed Ameer Ali, Iqbal sat on the subcommittee which drafted the Constitution of the Muslim League. In 1907, Iqbal traveled to Germany to pursue his Doctorate from the Faculty of Philosophy of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat at Munich. Working under the supervision of Friedrich Hommel, Iqbal published a thesis titled: “The Development of Metaphysics in Persia”.

Upon his return to India in 1908, Iqbal took up Assistant Professorship at the Government College Lahore, but for financial reasons he relinquished it within a year to practice law. Iqbal’s poetic works are written mostly in Persian.

Among his 12,000 verses of poems, about 7,000 verses are in Persian. In 1915, he published his first collection of poetry, the Asrar-e-Khudi (Secrets of the Self) in Persian.

Iqbal’s 1924 publication, the Payam-e-Mashriq (The Message of the East) is closely connected to the West-Ostlicher Diwan by the famous German poet Goethe. 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.

The Zabur-e-Ajam (Persian Psalms), published in 1927, includes the poems Gulshan-e-Raz-e-Jadeed (Garden of New Sectets) and Bandagi Nama (Book of Slavery).

Iqabal’s 1932 work, the Javed Nama 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.

Iqbal’s first work published in Urdu, the Bang-e-Dara in 1924, was a collection of poetry written by him in three distinct phases of his life. Published in 1935, the Bal-e-Jibril 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 of religious passion.

Iqbal’s final work was the Armughan-e-Hijaz published posthumously in 1938. The first part contains quatrains in Persian, and the second part contains some poems and epigrams in Urdu.

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. Sir Muhammad Iqbal was elected President of the Muslim League in 1930 at its session in Allahabad, in the United Provinces (UP) as well as for the session in Lahore in 1932. In his presidential address on December 29, 1930, Iqbal outlined a vision of an independent state for Muslim-majority provinces in northwestern India.

He thus became the first politician to articulate that Muslims are a distinct nation and thus deserve political independence from other regions and communities of India.

Iqbal was of the view that only Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a political leader, capable of preserving Muslim unity and fulfilling the League’s objectives on Muslim political empowerment. Iqbal was an influential force on convincing Jinnah to end his self-imposed exile in London, return to India and take charge of the League with a new agenda – the establishment of Pakistan.

Speaking about the political future of Muslims in India, Iqbal said: “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”.

Iqbal is commemorated widely in Pakistan, where he is regarded as the ideological founder of the state. His birthday November, 9 is annually commemorated in Pakistan as Iqbal Day and is a national holiday.

In 1933, after returning from a trip to Spain and Afghanistan, Iqbal’s health deteriorated. He spent his final years working to establish the Idara Dar-ul-Islam. Iqbal ceased practicing law in 1934 and he was granted pension by the Nawab of Bhopal. After suffering for months from a series of protracted illnesses, Iqbal died in Lahore on 21st April 1938. His tomb is located in the space between the entrance of the Badshahi Mosque and the Lahore Fort, Lahore.

To commemorate 75^th Death Anniversary of Allama Muhammad Iqbal Pakistan Post is issuing a commemorative postage stamp of Rs. 15/- denomination on April 21, 2013.