By: Aasef Chauhdry
First time in the history of Pakistan Allama Iqbal’s birthday was
made controversial; deliberately or by err but certainly the attempts were made
to lower his gigantic stature which was prevailing ever since the
Subcontinent’s independence movement. Declaring his birthday as a national
holiday was just a small token of humble deference which this indebted nation
could offer to the Thinker of a separate Muslim State; nevertheless, since many
years the deliberate campaigns were launched in print, electronic and social
media to belittle his image of a hero, legend and Messiah for the Muslims of
Indo-Pak. Confusion at the national level was created by cancelling the
national holiday. Later a mockery was made of the decision when in federal
areas it was declared as a working day while in some of the provinces it was
declared as the holiday. To be honest Allama Iqbal never deserved this sort of
treatment. His role as the Thinker of Pakistan stays beyond any doubt, come
what may. As a matter of fact his role was more important and worth
acknowledging since he was the one who convinced Quaid e Azam to lead the
Muslims of India during their struggle for the freedom movement. He is regarded
as the only philosopher, poet and politician in British India who inspired the
Pakistan Movement. He is considered undisputedly one of the most important
figures in Urdu literature, with literary work in both the Urdu and Persian
languages.
Now the time has come that every Tom, Dick and Harry can get up
and picks the courage and guts to criticise Iqbal. There are idiots like
Hassan Nisar who remained drunk for 25 hours out of 24 hours and then publically
talk nonsense like blaming the great poet of the East and accusing him for the
downfall of the young generation specifically and the nation generally. The
Pseudo like Hassan Nisar and Pervez Hoodbhoy have done a great damage to our
national heritage through their careless, irresponsible and immature behaviour.
They are playing their role to belittle the image our national heroes,
purposely.
Iqbal was born in
Sialkot with ancestral roots to the Brahmins from Kashmir who converted to
Islam. Iqbal is admired as a prominent classical poet by Pakistani, Indian and
other international scholars of literature besides been acclaimed as a modern
Muslim philosopher. Although his first poetry book, Asrar-e-Khudi, appeared in
the Persian language in 1915, however his Urdu works like Bang-i-Dara,
Bal-i-Jibril and Zarb-i Kalim attained more fame and popularity in the
Subcontinent. In Iran and Afghanistan he is famous as Iqbal-e Lahori (Iqbal of
Lahore), and he is most appreciated for his Persian work. Iqbal is known as
Shair-e-Mushriq meaning Poet of the East. He is also called Muffakir-e-Pakistan
(The Inceptor of Pakistan), and Hakeem-ul-Ummat (The Sage of the Ummah).
Pakistan has officially recognised him as its “national poet”.
Iqbal had remained active in the Muslim League as he did not
support Indian involvement in World War I and remained in close touch with
Muslim political leaders such as Maulana Mohammad Ali Johar and Muhammad Ali
Jinnah. He was a critic of the mainstream Indian National Congress, which he
regarded as dominated by Hindus and was saddened with the League’s factional
division during 1920, when it gashed into the pro-British group led by Sir
Muhammad Shafi and the centrist group led by Jinnah. He supported the
constitutional proposals presented by Jinnah while parallel worked with Aga
Khan and other Muslim leaders to mend the factional divisions and accomplish
unity in the Muslim League.
Disillusioned with the
political elite of the Muslim League Iqbal came to believe that only Muhammad
Ali Jinnah was a political leader capable of preserving this unity and
fulfilling the League’s objectives on Muslim political empowerment besides
drawing Indian Muslims to the League and maintaining party unity before the
British and the Congress. Building a strong, personal communication with
Jinnah, Iqbal was a dominant force in convincing Jinnah to end his self-imposed
exile in London, return to India and take charge of the League, hence he wrote
him, “I know you are a busy man but I do hope you won’t mind my writing to you
often, as you are the only Muslim in India today to whom the community has
right to look up for safe guidance through the storm which is coming to
North-West India and, perhaps, to the whole of India.”
Iqbal always paid
special attention towards awakening the Muslim youth. He was invited to
Cambridge to participate in a conference in 1931, where he expressed his
inspired vision to students and other audience in a historic speech, “I would
like to offer a few pieces of advice to the young men who are at present
studying at Cambridge …… I advise you to guard against atheism and materialism.
The biggest blunder made by Europe was the separation of Church and State. This
deprived their culture of moral soul and diverted it to the atheistic
materialism. I had twenty-five years ago seen through the drawbacks of this
civilization and therefore had made some prophecies. They had been delivered by
my tongue although I did not quite understand them. This happened in 1907…..
After six or seven years, my prophecies came true, word by word. The European
war of 1914 was an outcome of the aforesaid mistakes made by the European
nations in the separation of the Church and the State”.
Allama Iqbal was the poet of the Pakistan who will remain in the
heart of every Pakistani particularly and every Muslim generally. While
taking look at few of his masterpiece works, one can conveniently visualise
that what service he did for the freedom of the Muslims of the Subcontinent and
the unity of the Islamic Ummah; Asrar-e-Khudi, Zabur-i-Ajam, Zarb-i-Mashriq,
Ilm ul Iqtisad in 1903, Rumuz-i-Bekhudi in 1917,
Payam-i-Mashriq in 1923, Javid Nama in 1832, Armughan-e-Hijaz in
1938, Bang-i-Dara in 1924, Bal-i-Jibril in 1935, Zarb-i Kalim in
1936, The Development of Metaphysics in Persia in 1909 and The Reconstruction
of Religious Thought in Islam in 1930.
Agreed that merely a holiday on his birthday wont serve the cause
or will raise his image further but it is just a small token to acknowledge his
role in the founding of a Muslim independent state. If we honestly analyse then
there are many other closed holidays given throughout the year which are
otherwise not relevant or important and the government needs to cancel those.
As earlier said that a specific lobby with the vested interests is quite active
since couple of years to defame this great poet of the East and no wonders if
these elements once succeed in their mission will take on Muhammad Ali Jinnah
as their next target because their mission is to ridicule our national heroes
and undermine their images. If people at the helm of the affairs sincerely
think that these holidays have got nothing to do with the cause they served
then let’s do away with the one on Quaid’s birthday too.
Allama Iqbal very rightly said and I quote, “Nations are born in the hearts of poets, they prosper and die in
the hands of politicians”.
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