Iqbal and His Political Thought PDF

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Ikbal, also known as Sir Muhammad Iqbal, was a Pakistani poet and philosopher who was best known for his work advocating for the establishment of a Muslim state in British-ruled India, an aspiration that was eventually realised in the country of Pakistan. Ikbal was born on November 9, 1877, in Sialk...

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Iqbal and His Political Thought

Ikbal, also known as Sir Muhammad Iqbal, was a Pakistani poet and philosopher who was best known for his work advocating for the establishment of a Muslim state in British-ruled India, an aspiration that was eventually realised in the country of Pakistan. Ikbal was born on November 9, 1877, in Sialkot, Punjab, India and died on April 21, 1938, in Lahore, Punjab. In 1922, he was made a knight. After graduating from Lahore's Government College, Iqbal began his career as an artist and poet. He was born in Sialkot (now Pakistan), the son of a religious family of small merchants. From 1905 to 1908, he lived in Europe, where he earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Cambridge, a law degree from the University of London, and a doctorate from the University of Munich. His dissertation, The Development of Metaphysics in Persia, shed light on previously unknown aspects of Islamic mysticism.

His poetry, written in the classical style for public recitation after returning from Europe, brought him fame and fortune. He made a living as a lawyer after returning from Europe, but his real calling was poetry. By participating in literary events and a culture where memorising verse was the norm, his poetry became widely recognised.

Naya Shawala (The New Altar) is an example of his poetry expressing Indian nationalism prior to his travels to Europe, but his perspective changed when he

was away from India. To him, nationalism was a problem because it had led to destructive racism and imperialism in Europe, while in India it lacked a strong sense of common purpose. He saw nationalism as both of these things. To further his pan-Islamic ambitions, Abdullah made an Aligarh speech entitled "Islam as a Social and Political Ideal" in 1910. Iqbal's poetry is full of references to Islam's past glory, its current decline, and the need for unity and reform. Changing one's behaviour requires three steps: first, following Islamic law, then developing one's own self-control and finally, acknowledging that everyone is in some way a vicegerent of God (nib, or mumin). The life of action, rather than the life of ascetic resignation, is preferable to that.

Bng-e dar ("The Call of the Bell") published three significant poems from this period, Shikwah ("The Complaint"), Jawab-e shikwah ("The Answer to the Complaint"), and Khizr-e rah ("Khizr, The Guide"). He expressed the angst of Muslim powerlessness in those works. When it comes to the most difficult questions, the Qur'an's prophet Khizr (Arabic: Khizr) is depicted as receiving them from God.

What thing is the State? or why Must labour and capital so bloodily disagree? Asia’s time-honoured cloak grows ragged and wears out… For whom this new ordeal, or by whose hand prepared?

(V.G. Kiernan, English translation)

In 1915, his long Persian poem Asr-e khd gained notoriety (The Secrets of the Self). He used Persian as his primary language in order to reach out to Muslims all over the world. Classical Islamic mysticism's self-negating quietism (the belief that spiritual perfection and peace can be achieved through passive absorption in the contemplation of God and divine things) is strongly criticised in this work. His critique shocked many and sparked debate. Critics claimed that Iqbal was imposing ideas from German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche on Islam, which he denied. Iqbal and his supporters insisted that creative self-affirmation is a fundamental Muslim virtue. The next long Persian poem, Rumz-e bkhd, expressed the dialectical nature of his thinking (1918; The Mysteries of Selflessness). Written as a counterpoint to Asrare khd's individualism, this poem urged self-sacrifice.

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. (Eng. trans. by A.J. Arberry)

According to Iqbal, the Muslim community should effectively teach and encourage generous service to the ideals of brotherhood and justice. Islam's secret weapon was its ability to transcend one's own selfishness. Active self-realization was best achieved by sacrificing one's self in service to larger, more important causes. The life of the Prophet Muhammad and the devotion of the first believers served as a model for the rest of the community. Iqbal's vision of the ultimate destiny of the self is brought to a close in the second poem.

In the following years, he published three more Persian books. A response to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's West-östlicher Divan (1819; "Divan of West and East"), Paym-e Mashriq (1923; "Message of the East") affirmed the universal validity of Islam. "Iqbal displayed here an altogether extraordinary talent for the most delicate and delightful of all Persian styles, the ghazal," or love poem, in the 1927 publication of Zabr-e Ajam ("Persian Psalms"). "The Song of Eternity" (1932) is considered Iqbal's greatest work. In Dante's Divine Comedy, the poet's ascent to the final encounter with Rm, the great 13th-century Persian mystic, is depicted as a journey through various realms of thought and experience.

Bl-e Jibrl (1935; "Gabriel's Wing"), Zarb-e kalm (1937; "The Blow of Moses"), and the posthumous Armaghn-e Hijz (1938; "Gift of the Hejaz") were Iqbal's later Urdu poetry publications. He is widely regarded as Urdu literature's greatest poet of the twentieth century.

Philosophical position and influence of Muhammad Iqbal

A collection of six lectures given at Madras (now Chennai), Hyderabad, and Aligarh in 1928–29, The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (1934) outlines his philosophy. A man who is focused on God's purposes is a man who is constantly generating vitality, according to him. The Prophet Muhammad had returned from his unitary experience of God to unleash a new type of manhood and a cultural world characterised by the abolition of priesthood and hereditary kingship and an emphasis on history and nature. The modern Muslim community should create new social and political institutions based on the principle of ijtihd, or legal advancement. Ijma—consensus—is another theory he supported. When it came to initiating actual change, Iqbal was more conservative than progressive when it came to acknowledging broader principles of progress.

Iqbal joined the Muslim League while he was delivering those lectures. In 1930, at the annual meeting of the league in Allahabad, he delivered the presidential address, in which he made a well-known statement that the Muslims of northwestern India should demand independence.

At the end of his life, Iqbal passed away in Lahore's Badshahi Mosque in April 1938, after a long battle with illness. In 1947, the Muslim League voted in favour of the creation of Pakistan. In Pakistan, he is celebrated as the father of the country, and Iqbal Day is observed on November 9....