Prelude:

Allama Mohammad Iqbal was born on 9th November 1877 in Sialkot.Iqbal is unique among

contemporary Muslim thinkers and philosophers in utilizing theology, mysticism, philosophy of the
East along with that of the Sets and the potent emotional appeal and nuanced style of Persian-Urdu
Poetry to understand and explain the destiny of Man, and then to relate that vision to his social life and
polity. It is Iqbals ability to traverse the expanse which separates philosophy from socio-cultural
concerns that has made him a philosopher and a cultural hero, as well as the fountainhead of
contemporary political thought.
A brilliant intellect from the beginning, Allama Iqbal's devotion to knowledge and intellect
verily attributed to his academic achievements:

Education:
Bachelor's degree from the Government College Lahore, then another Bachelor's from the
Cambridge University, Master's degree from the Punjab University, Law degree from the
Lincoln's Inn London, and a PhD from the University of Munich. In recognition to his
remarkable scholastic work and extraordinary poetry, the British Crown knighted him in
1922. His works and inspirations cover a wide range of topics, e.g., Religion, Islam, Quran,
Philosophy, Metaphysics, Art, Politics, Law, Economics, Universal brotherhood, the Revival
of Muslim glory. The Encyclopedia Britannica appropriately entitled him as "the greatest
Urdu poet of the century."
Iqbal was immensely inspired with political wisdom and divinely insight. He was deadly
against atheism and materialism and discarded the European concept of religion as the
private faith of an individual having nothing to do with his temporal life. In his view, the
biggest blunder made by Europe was the separation of Church and State.

Iqbal argued that it is in the realization of their destiny that the spiritual salvation and political
emancipation of Muslims can be realized. Islam holds the key to the realization of that destiny, for faith
is central to a Muslims life. It is religion that defines human existence, and it is through religion that
man may rise to greater heights. That rise is predicated on the rediscovery of the true faith, and that
rediscovery is in turn tied to the reconstruction of the Islamic community.

Iqbal's Idea about Nationhood

Allama Iqbal was the greatest philospher and poet of the present era. Alongwith this, he possessed a
view about political affairs. He awakened the feeling of Muslim Nationhood among the Muslims of India
through his poetry and told them about the propaganda of West about Muslims.
When the Hindu philosphers presented this philosphy that a nation is born throughout the country and
when Maulana Hussain Ahmed Madni seconded it, then Iqbal reacted strongly towards it. His thinking
and poetry reflect the Two Nation Theory and his poetry awakened the feeling of Islamic nationality
among the Muslims of India. This sense of a single unity was a major factor in the creation of Pakistan.

Works:
Iqbals early works, sr r i hud and um i ekhud , encouraged Muslims to follow his prescriptions by
harping on the themes of love and freedom; not romantic love or political freedom per s, but love of the
truth and freedom from that view of Islam which had been vouchsafed through cultural transmission. Still
his most complex philosophical and political views were argued emotionally in his poetry. He caught the
attention of Muslims using the very language and sensibility which he believed they had to abandon if
they were to aspire to greater heights. Iqbal is just as towering a figure in Persian and Urdu poetry as he
is in contemporary Islamic philosophy.
Iqbal rejected fatalism (taqd r). He did not view history as the arena for the Divine will to unfold in, as
Muslims generally do, but for humans to realize their potential. He encouraged Muslims to take charge of
their own lives and destinies, to shape history rather than serve as pawns in it. To him history was not
sacred and hence was easily changeable. This was a conception which showed the influence of the
Kantian notion of Divine aloofness. It was at odds with the time-honored sharite tradition in Islamic
theology and philosophy, which teaches that history is the manifestation of the Divine will and is
therefore sacred; man can not hope to understand the Divine wisdom and hence should not reject the
writ of history, nor seek to interfere with it. In encouraging Muslims to redirect history and to assume
responsibility for its unfolding through a rational interpretation of their faith, Iqbal also echoed the beliefs
of Muta alite philosophers who had centuries earlier taken the sharite to task but had failed to shape
the subsequent development of Islamic thought.

Effective medium

His emotion-leaden and soul-lifting poetry was the medium Iqbal chose to bring his people a
new awareness of the depths of degradation to which they had fallen, to diagnose their
ailments, their predicament and the prime cause of their decline and to warn them of the
dire consequences if they failed to mend themselves in good time. A more effective medium
he
could
not
have
possibly
chosen.
For one thing, poetry is the most powerful medium for touching the deepest emotions of
people and for driving a message into their subconscious. For another, the Indian Muslims
had been among the most poetry-oriented people in the wold, with a long tradition of readily
taking to heart what was written in verse. Political orations may stir and audience into
action, but their impact is bound to be restricted to a particular audience and dissipate with
time and events. In contrast, a poetic message seeps through the ethos of a nation, working
on its psyche all the while.

New consciousness

His role in awakening the Muslims to a new consciousness began in 1899 when he recited
a poem at the annual session of the Anjuman-i-Islam, Lahore. His moving Nala-i-Yatim was
symbolic of the echoing cry of the faceless masses of the Indian Muslims, who had long felt
themselves
sidelined
neglected.

What pained him most was the impact of nationalism on various Muslim countries, eroding
the pan-Islamic concept, enfeebling the Muslim world and laying it open to European
aggression
and
exploitation.
To the ailments the Muslim world was afflicted with, Iqbal found the solution in Islam and its
message. In order to reach the innermost recesses of their consciousness, he invoked the
past glory of Islam, telling Muslims of the accomplishments of their ancestors. In so doing,
he tried to fight off the prevalent slough of despondency, raising drooping spirit of Muslims
and replacing it with a sense of soaring confidence.
Message of hope

Next, he gave them a message of hope. He told them that they could still redeem
themselves if they could only recapture their soul and regain their pristine moral and
spiritual values.
He emphasized the imperative need to develop human qualities and the right type of
character. He attributed their degeneration to their taking to a life of passivity and
resignation for several generations. That debilitating trend could be reversed by opting for
initiative and endeavour which, he believed, Islam stood for. To him, an active, struggling
non-believer was preferable to a sleeping Muslim.
But if Muslims were to be beckoned to a new destiny, they must first be confirmed as
Muslims and they must own up their pristine values. This was all he more necessary in the
context of the rise of positivism and skepticism, which posed a serious challenge to the
modern Muslim.

Iqbal and Pakistan movement:

Allama Muhammad Iqbal was not only a sage, a revolutionary poet-philosopher, an
extraordinary scholar and harbinger of Islamic renaissance but also a political thinker and
seer of Pakistan. From the outset he took keen interest in the political situation of India
and in 1908 while he was still in England, he was selected as a member of the executive
council of the newly-established British branch of the Indian Muslim League. In 1931 and
1932 he represented the Muslims of India in the Round Table Conferences held in England
to discuss the issue of the political future of the Indian Muslims
Allama Iqbal is also known as the architect of Pakistan because he was the first person to address the
partition of India and gave the idea of an independent Muslim state. During his presidential address to
Muslim League at Allahabad in 1930, he demanded for an independent Muslim state in the north-west
India. This idea of Iqbal became the policy of Muslim League just after 10 years.

Contribution as a Politian

He was an active politician. He was a member of the Punjab Assembly and attended the Round
Table Conferences in London to defend the Muslim community in India. He made significant contributions
in making the Muslim League as a mass political party. He wrote many poetry books, writing in Urdu and
Persian. Through his poetry, he recalled the Muslims their past glory. He kindled the candle of freedom
and provoked their desire for having a separate state. Furthermore, he instructed the Muslims to work
hard in order to improve their status in the society

Iqbals presidential address(Allahabad,1930):

Presidential Address delivered at the annual session of the all-India Muslim League on
December 29, 1930, Iqbal demanded in the best interests of India as well as Islam the
creation of a separate homeland for the Indian Muslims. Let us delve into this monumental
and historic document of great importance, which like Rousseaus Social Contract is most
widely quoted but rarely studied in full. Expressing his views as a student of Islam, its laws
and polity, its culture, its history and its literature, Iqbal believed that Islam was the major
formative factor in the life history of Indian Muslims; it adequately furnished those basic
emotions and loyalties which gradually unify scattered individuals and groups and finally
transform them into a well-defined people, possessing a moral consciousness of their own.
He maintained: Islam does not bifurcate the unity of man into an irreconcilable duality of
spirit

Being a poet of peace, love, tranquility and fraternity, Iqbal despised the very idea of a civil
war. Hence he was obliged to propound:
Self-government within the British Empire or without the British Empire, I would like to see
the Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan amalgamated into a single
State. The formation of the consolidated North-West Indian Muslim State appears to be the
final destiny of the Muslims, at least of the North-West India. I, therefore, demand the
formation of a consolidated Muslim State in the best interests of India and Islam. For India
it means security and peace resulting for an internal balance of power; for Islam an
opportunity to rid itself of the stamp that the Arabian Imperialism was forced to give it, to
mobilize its laws, its education, its culture, and to bring them into closer contact with its
own original spirit and with the spirit of modern times.

Iqbal was not the first to suggest a division of India but he was
the first leader to do so from the plat form of the All-India
Muslim League.
Iqbals address came at the time when Indian Muslims were passing through a great crisis.
To be or not to be was the only question left before the desperate Muslim nation. Muslim
leadership was utterly isolated and demoralized. And the British and Hindus had agreed
upon a sinister scheme of constitutional amendments and establishing Hindu Raj under the
aegis of the British. Therefore, according to Allama Iqbal the future of Islam as a moral and
political force not only in India but in the whole of Asia rested on the organization of the

Muslims of India led by the Quaid-i Azam.

It is noteworthy that Iqbals proposal for a separate homeland or the Indian Muslims was a
bombshell for the British as well as Hindus. Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald was highly
displeased with the views expressed by Iqbal. British and Indian circles in the Round Table
Conference expressed resentment and termed it as an assault against the idea of an all
India constitution being worked out. The Tribune of Lahore viewed that Iqbal had
torpedoed all chances for a communal settlement. The Hindu Press carried out maligned and
raging campaign against him. They used all sorts of abusive epithets like fanatic,
mischievous, dangerously prejudiced, venomous, narrow-minded, mean, and a dangerous
Muslim of Northern India.
It was Inqilab of Lahore that came to his rescue and wrote a number of articles and
editorials in his favor.

Rt conferences:

Iqbal Attended Second Round Table Conference in

London(September31to1December1931) and the
Third Round Table
Conference(17Novemberto24December1932)
During the Third Round-Table Conference, Iqbal was invited by the London National League
where he addressed an audience which included among others, foreign diplomats, members
of the House of Commons, Members of the House of Lords and Muslim members of the
R.T.C. delegation. In that gathering he dilated upon the situation of the Indian Muslims. He
explained why he wanted the communal settlement first and then the constitutional
reforms. He stressed the need for provincial autonomy because autonomy gave the Muslim
majority provinces some power to safeguard their rights, cultural traditions and religion.
Under the central Government the Muslims were bound to lose their cultural and religious
entity at the hands of the overwhelming Hindu majority. He referred to what he had said at
Allah bad in 1930 and reiterated his belief based on cogent reason.

Jinnahs Tribute to Iqbal:

Conclusion
In short, Iqbal was the man behind the idea of Pakistan. His contributions to the Muslim
world as one of the greatest thinkers of Islam also stand unparalleled. In his writings, he
exhorted people, particularly the youth, to stand up and face the various challenges bravely

like an eagle. The central theme and main source of his message was the Qur'an that is a
source of foundational principles upon which the infrastructure of an organization must be
built as a coherent system of life. According to Iqbal, the only system of life that could be
implemented as a living and cultural force is ISLAM because it is based on permanent and
absolute values given in the Qur'an.
Pakistan owes its existence to Allama Iqbal and the people of Pakistan owe a great deal of
gratitude to his extraordinary vision
Jinnah, for whom Iqbal evinced a great deal of respect and admiration, was so eloquent in
his praise of the great Muslim poet. He will live, said Jinnah, as long as Islam will live. His
noble poetry interprets the true aspirations of the Muslims of India. It will remain an
inspiration for us and for generations after us. India. Iqbal died on 21st April, 1938. He was
buried infront of the "Badshahi Mosque" in "Huzori Bagh."