Iqbal the Man and the Poet

Great literature is timeless and has always something in it that attracts scholarly attention in every era reinforcing its contemporary relevance and significance. Iqbal’s poetry- which is not merely ‘spontaneous overflow of powerful emotions’- is always a joy to read and relish. In fact, poets and philosophers of Iqbal’s stature can never be monopolized as a Muslim literary figure, partisan politician or intellectual father of the Pakistan Movement. It is unfortunate that after the Partition we have neglected him as he is not our poet and the scholars as well as people across the border have portrayed him as he was born and commissioned by God to champion a partisan Muslim cause.

There is no denying the fact that Iqbal was a devout and proud Muslim. But the Islam he depicted in his poetry as well as prose was one that championed rationalism, universal brotherhood, human equality, justice, peace and development. We also accept that his politics, by and large, was Muslim-centric but it never smacked of rabid communalism. As a Muslim League leader he had more quarrels and differences with the Unionist Party, the party of Muslim, Hindu and Sikh land lords in Punjab, than the nationalist Congress. We also see him advocating in the pre-Partition Punjab Assembly the causes of the poor, the farmers and the women regardless of their religious identities. We must remember that even when he was vociferously acclaimed as a Muslim poet and philosopher there were Hindus and Sikhs scattered all across the country from Lahore to Madras, Mysore and Bangalore who insisted on Iqbal being as much their poet as that of Muslims. Indeed timeless personalities should not be allowed to become a victim of parochialism and partisan scholarship.

Iqbal was born in Sialkot, now in Pakistan. He grew up in a traditional-religious family environment. As a child he received both religious and modern education simultaneously which had a lasting impact on his personality. Sayyid Mir Hasan, a devout Muslim teacher, played a vital role in Iqbal’s primary and secondary education. He broadened Iqbal’s mental and intellectual horizon and specially sharpened his linguistic skills. Iqbal, then, went to Lahore where he received special attention from the celebrated scholar and teacher of Islamic philosophy, Sir Thomas Arnold. The author of The Preaching of Islam, Sir Arnold, like Sayyid Mir Hasan, had a deep impact on Iqbal’s life, personality and career. Iqbal had started writing poems while in school at Sialkot. His poetic genius blossomed greatly when he came to Lahore for higher education. His early poems are about nature, religio-moral values, universal human ideals and love of the country.

When Thomas Arnold left for England, Iqbal felt a desire to academically benefit from the great universities of Europe. Ultimately, he visited Europe, received a bachelor degree from Cambridge and studied law at Lincoln Inn. He obtained Ph.D from Munich University by writing a dissertation on Metaphysics in Iran.

After returning from Europe, Iqbal began practicing law in a Lahore court for his livelihood. However, he never took his legal profession seriously and focused more on his literary pursuits. He also got involved in provincial and national politics. He is said to have conceived the idea of Pakistan but a close scrutiny reveals that he, in fact, favoured some sort of autonomy for Muslim majority provinces within the British India; an independent Muslim state was not on his mind when he delivered his famous presidential address at the annual session of the Muslim League at Allahabad. The address had wrongly been hijacked by the partisans of Pakistan Movement in order to cash on his popularity among the Muslims.

Iqbal has rightly been acclaimed as one of the greatest poets of the world. He had the rare ability to express complex philosophical thoughts in poetic language which people easily understood and relished.

Besides explaining his famous philosophy of Khudi (self), Iqbal celebrates universal Islamic values and ideals such as equality, justice, peace and human brotherhood in his poetry.

As an Islamic scholar, Iqbal believed in Ijtihad, intellectual reasoning in religious framework to apply Islam in modern time, something the Ulema of his time abhorred. The lectures he delivered on some aspects of Islam in Madras, Mysore and Bangalore were attended by large member of Hindu scholars, intellectuals and philosophers. The Hindu philosophers of Bangalore were so much impressed by his erudite lectures that they criticized Muslims for calling him an Islamic poet and instead declared him the poet-philosopher of Hindus, Muslims and all other communities.

Iqbal’s effort to regenerate the Muslim community was not aimed against other communities. In fact, he stood for universal human brotherhood and once explained his position to a group of Hindu students saying that his concern for his community was merely human one such as attending to one’s ailing mother. Even in his long political career Iqbal never spoke or acted against Hindus or other non-Muslims, though he championed Kashmiri and Muslim causes all his life. It may be noted here that his ‘Kashmiri cause’ meant to help those who were persecuted by the then Kashmiri rulers. His Kashmiri cause should not be mixed up with the cause and mission of today’s Kashmiri separatists and militants. In fact, Iqbal always believed in peaceful struggle for attaining one’s rights and was once condemned/criticized by some Muslim youth as being a mere preacher.

Poets and philosophers are also human beings as they lead life the very way common people do. They love and marry women, raise children and head families. Iqbal, too, was a father and husband and faced the problems that all fathers and husbands do. His married life was a mixed bag of sorrow and happiness. In Lahore he was a traditional Muslim and his wives observed Hijab, but in Europe he enjoyed the company of beautiful women. In Europe he also discovered that he had a good deal of sex appeal for the opposite sex. He was a lovely talker or conversationalist and used to charm his audience, both men and women, with his wit and humour. In sum, Iqbal was a full-fledged man and his personality and career mirror the age he lived in.

There is a need to study Iqbal’s life and career afresh. We must focus on Iqbal’s family background, his childhood, his primary, secondary and college education, his visit of Europe for higher education, his practice of law, his politics, poetry and philosophy. Understandably it will seek to create the time Iqbal lived in and will also portray the men and women who hailed from every walk of life and with whom he had worked or interacted. Almost all the big personalities of the first half of the 20^th century including Gandhi, Jinnah, Nehru and others will come into picture as Iqbal had one or another kind of relationship with all of them. Such a study is, thus, expected to create the literary, cultural and political India as it existed during the first half of the 20^th century.

A lot has been written on Iqbal covering every aspect of his life and career. Iqbal himself has left a huge academic- intellectual legacy, both in the form of poetry and prose–including his letters– which would form the main basis of this study. The biographies of Iqbal written by his close companions, friends and associates, and especially the one written by his own son, Justice Javed Iqbal, will serve as the main sources of information about Iqbal, the man and the poet (Iqbal: Shakhs Aur Shaaer).

It is important that such a study is conducted by an established author who is fluent in Urdu and English, and if possible, in Persian also. Iqbal deserves to be owned and understood by all Indians and such a study of his works as well as his life and career will help in attaining this goal.

Great people are often idolized or at least their larger –than– life images are portrayed and presented uncritically. In some cases, like Gandhi and Jinnah, they are idolized on one hand and demonized on the other. Iqbal is fortunate that he has not been demonized in India, though idolized in Pakistan. It is true that Iqbal has fortunately been not demonized in India but surely he has been neglected/ ignored in official and semi-official circles, if not disowned. Indeed it will be our loss if we do not discover and present the real Iqbal before the Indian audience. Iqbal was, and is, a poet of humanity and his most celebrated message of khudi (self regeneration and consciousness) is for the whole mankind, and not for Muslims alone. Therefore such a study about Iqbal is the need of the hour.

It is expected that large number of people in the country know Iqbal and will heartily welcome such a study about him. Iqbal’s Tarana-e-Hindi, his poems celebrating the beauty and greatness of India, his philosophy of self, his satire, wit and his inspiring ghazals will surely capture the imagination of Indian audience. Iqbal is indeed a great poet and deserves to be celebrated by all of us.
[August, 2012]