Sir Muhammad Iqbal[a] (9 November 1877 – 21 April 1938) was an Islamic philosopher and poet. His poetry in Urdu is considered to be among the greatest of the 20th century, and his vision of a cultural and political ideal for the Muslims of British India is widely regarded as having animated the impulse for the Pakistan Movement. He is commonly referred to by the honorific Allamah (Persian: علامه, transl. "learned") and widely considered one of the most important and influential Muslim thinkers and Islamic religious philosophers of the 20th century.

Iqbal was born and raised in Sialkot, Punjab, British India and studied at Scotch Mission College in Sialkot and Government College in Lahore. He taught Arabic at the Oriental College, Lahore, from 1899 until 1903, during which time he wrote prolifically. Notable among his Urdu poems from this period are "Parinde Ki Faryad" ("A Bird's Prayer"), an early contemplation on animal rights, and "Tarana-e-Hindi" ("Anthem of the Indians"), a patriotic poem—both composed for children. In 1905, he departed from India to pursue further education in Europe, first in England and later in Germany. In England, he earned a second BA at Trinity College, Cambridge, and subsequently qualified as a barrister at Lincoln's Inn. In Germany, he obtained a PhD in philosophy at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), with his thesis focusing on "The Development of Metaphysics in Persia" in 1908. Upon his return to Lahore in 1908, Iqbal established a law practice but primarily focused on producing scholarly works on politics, economics, history, philosophy, and religion. He is most renowned for his poetic compositions, including "Asrar-e-Khudi", "Rumuz-e-Bekhudi", and "Bang-e-Dara". His literary works in the Persian language garnered him recognition in Iran.

An ardent proponent of the political and spiritual revival of the Muslim world, particularly of the Muslims in the Indian subcontinent, the series of lectures Iqbal delivered to this effect were published as The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam in 1930. He was elected to the Punjab Legislative Council in 1927 and held several positions in the All-India Muslim League. In his Allahabad Address, delivered at the League's annual assembly in 1930, he formulated a political framework for the Muslim-majority regions spanning northwestern India, spurring the League's pursuit of the two-nation theory.

In August 1947, nine years after Iqbal's death, the partition of India gave way to the establishment of Pakistan, a newly independent Islamic state in which Iqbal was honoured as the national poet. He is also known in Pakistani society as Hakim ul-Ummat (lit. 'The Wise Man of the Ummah') and as Mufakkir-e-Pakistan (lit. 'The Thinker of Pakistan'). The anniversary of his birth (Youm-e Weladat-e Muḥammad Iqbal), 9 November, is observed as a public holiday in Pakistan.

Early life and family

Sheikh Noor Muhammad, Iqbal's father
Imam Bibi, Iqbal's mother

Iqbal was born on 9 November 1877 in Sialkot, Punjab Province, British India (now in Pakistan).[1] A Punjabi of Kashmiri ancestry,[2] his family traced their ancestry back to the Sapru clan of Kashmiri Pandits who were from a south Kashmiri village in Kulgam and converted to Islam in the 15th-century.[3][4] Iqbal's mother-tongue was Punjabi,[5] and he conversed mostly in Punjabi and Urdu in his daily life.[6] In the 19th century, when the Sikh Empire was conquering Kashmir, his grandfather's family migrated to Punjab. Iqbal's grandfather was an eighth cousin of Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, an important lawyer and freedom fighter who would eventually become an admirer of Iqbal.[7] Iqbal often mentioned and commemorated his Kashmiri lineage in his writings.[8] According to scholar Annemarie Schimmel, Iqbal often wrote about his being "a son of Kashmiri-Brahmans but (being) acquainted with the wisdom of Rumi and Tabrizi".[9]

Iqbal's father, Sheikh Noor Muhammad (died 1930), was a tailor, not formally educated, but a religious man.[10][11] Iqbal's mother Imam Bibi, a Kashmiri from Sambrial,[12] was described as a polite and humble woman who helped the poor and her neighbours with their problems. She died on 9 November 1914 in Sialkot.[13][14] Iqbal loved his mother, and on her death he expressed his feelings of pathos in an elegy:[10]

Early education

Iqbal was four years old when he was sent to a mosque to receive instruction in reading the Qur'an.[15] He learned the Arabic and Persian languages from his teacher, Syed Mir Hassan, the head of the madrasa and professor of Arabic at Scotch Mission College in Sialkot, where he matriculated in 1893.[16] He stood first in grade one and had started versifying under the pen-name of Iqbal while still in class nine, being published in literary journals as a teenager.[17] He received an intermediate level with the Faculty of Arts diploma in 1895.[15][18][19] The same year he enrolled at Government College, Lahore, where in 1897 he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy, English literature, and Arabic, and won the Khan Bahadurddin F.S. Jalaluddin medal for his performance in Arabic.[18] In 1899, he received his Master of Arts degree from the same college and won first place in philosophy in the University of the Punjab.[15][18][19]

Marriages

Muhammad Iqbal with his son Javed Iqbal in 1930

Iqbal married four times under different circumstances.[20]

  • His first marriage was in 1895 when he was 18 years old. His bride, Karim Bibi, was the daughter of Khan Bahadur Ata Muhammad Khan, a leading civil surgeon and fellow Punjabi-Kashmiri based in Gujrat.[21] Her sister was the mother of director and music composer Khwaja Khurshid Anwar.[22][23] Their families arranged the marriage, and the couple had two children; a daughter, Miraj Begum (1895–1915), and a son, Aftab Iqbal (1899–1979), who became a barrister.[20][24] Aftab's son Azad Iqbal is himself a barrister as well a writer and musician, being a singer-composer in both jazz and ghazal genres.[25] Another son is said to have died after birth in 1901.

Iqbal and Karim Bibi separated somewhere between 1910 and 1913. Despite this, he continued to financially support her till his death.[26]

  • Iqbal's second marriage took place on 26 August 1910 with the niece[who?] of Hakim Noor-ud-Din.[27]
  • Iqbal's third marriage was with Mukhtar Begum, and it was held in December 1914, shortly after the death of Iqbal's mother the previous November.[28][18] They had a son, but both the mother and son died shortly after birth in 1924.[20]
  • Later, Iqbal married Sardar Begum, and they became the parents of a son, Javed Iqbal (1924–2015), who became Senior Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and a daughter, Muneera Bano (born 1930).[20][26] One of Muneera's sons is the philanthropist-cum-socialite Yousuf Salahuddin.[26]

Higher education in Europe

Iqbal was influenced by the teachings of Sir Thomas Arnold, his philosophy teacher at Government College Lahore, to pursue higher education in the West.[29] In 1905, he travelled to England for that purpose, as Sir Thomas Arnold had advised him to specifically study neo-Hegelian philosophy and law at Cambridge.[30] While already acquainted with Friedrich Nietzsche and Henri Bergson, Iqbal would discover Rumi slightly before his departure to England, and he would teach the Masnavi-e-Ma'navi to his friend Swami Rama Tirtha, who in return would teach him Sanskrit.[31] Iqbal was awarded a scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 1906 he graduated Bachelor of Arts there. In the same year, he was called to the bar as a barrister (or advocate) from Lincoln's Inn. In 1907, Iqbal moved to Germany to complete his doctoral studies under the supervision of Friedrich Hommel, and on 4 November 1907 he graduated as a Doctor of Philosophy from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) with a doctoral thesis entitled The Development of Metaphysics in Persia. This was published in London in 1908.[15][32][33][34] Among his fellow students in Munich was Hans-Hasso von Veltheim, who later happened to visit Iqbal the day before Iqbal died.[35]

Plaque at Portugal Place, Cambridge, commemorating Iqbal's residence there during his time at Trinity College

In 1907, he had a close friendship with the writer Atiya Fyzee in both Britain and Germany. Atiya would later publish their correspondence.[36] While Iqbal was in Heidelberg in 1907, his German professor Emma Wegenast taught him about Goethe's Faust, Heine and Nietzsche.[37] He mastered German in three months.[38] A street in Heidelberg has been named in his memory, "Iqbal Ufer". During his study in Europe, Iqbal began to write poetry in Persian. He preferred to write in this language because doing so made it easier[why?] to express his thoughts.[citation needed] He would write continuously in Persian throughout his life.[15]

Academic career

Photograph taken during Iqbal's youth in 1899

Iqbal began his career as a reader of Arabic after completing his Master of Arts degree in 1899, at Oriental College and shortly afterward was selected as a junior professor of philosophy at Government College Lahore, where he had also been a student in the past. He worked there until he left for England in 1905. In 1907 he went to Germany for PhD In 1908, he returned from Germany and joined the same college again as a professor of philosophy and English literature.[39] In the same period Iqbal began practising law at the Chief Court of Lahore, but he soon quit law practice and devoted himself to literary works, becoming an active member of Anjuman-e-Himayat-e-Islam.[18] In 1919, he became the general secretary of the same organization. Iqbal's thoughts in his work primarily focus on the spiritual direction and development of human society, centered around experiences from his travels and stays in Western Europe and the Middle East. He was profoundly influenced by Western philosophers such as Nietzsche, Bergson, and Goethe. He also closely worked with Ibrahim Hisham during his stay at the Aligarh Muslim University.[10][37]

The poetry and philosophy of Rumi strongly influenced Iqbal. Deeply grounded in religion since childhood, Iqbal began concentrating intensely on the study of Islam, the culture and history of Islamic civilization and its political future, while embracing Rumi as "his guide".[10] Iqbal's works focus on reminding his readers of the past glories of Islamic civilization and delivering the message of a pure, spiritual focus on Islam as a source for socio-political liberation and greatness. Iqbal denounced political divisions within and amongst Muslim nations, and frequently alluded to and spoke in terms of the global Muslim community or the Ummah.[40][10]

Iqbal's poetry was translated into many European languages in the early part of the 20th century.[41] Iqbal's Asrar-i-Khudi and Javed Nama were translated into English by R. A. Nicholson and A. J. Arberry, respectively.[41][42] Upon the publication of Asrar-i-Khudi, Iqbal was honoured with a British knighthood.[43]

Iqbal as a barrister-at-law

Iqbal was not only a prolific writer but also a known advocate. He appeared before the Lahore High Court in both civil and criminal matters. There are more than 100 reported judgements to his name.[44][45][46][47][48][49]

Final years and death

The tomb of Muhammad Iqbal at the entrance of the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore

In 1933, after returning from a trip to Spain and Afghanistan, Iqbal suffered from a mysterious throat illness.[50] He spent his final years helping Chaudhry Niaz Ali Khan to establish the Dar ul Islam Trust Institute at a Jamalpur, Pakistan estate near Pathankot,[51][52] where there were plans to subsidize studies in classical Islam and contemporary social science. He also advocated for an independent Muslim state. Iqbal ceased practising law in 1934 and was granted a pension by the Nawab of Bhopal. In his final years, he frequently visited the Dargah of famous Sufi Ali Hujwiri in Lahore for spiritual guidance. After suffering for months from his illness, Iqbal died in Lahore on 21 April 1938.[40][15] It is maintained that he died listening to a kafi of Bulleh Shah.[53][54] 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 provided by the Government of Pakistan.