ALLAMA

MUHAMMAD
IQBAL
Nov 9,1877 - Apr
21,1938 
Biography
 Allama Iqbal, great poet and philosopher and
was born at Sialkot, Punjab, in 1877
 Iqbal received his early education in the
traditional maktab.
 In 1897, he obtained his Bachelor of Arts
Degree from Government College, Lahore.
 Two years later, he secured his Masters Degree
and was appointed in the Oriental College,
Lahore, as a lecturer of history, philosophy and
English.
 He later proceeded to Europe for higher
studies. Having obtained a degree at
Cambridge, he secured his doctorate at Munich
and finally qualified as a barrister.
Political Career
 He returned to India in 1908.
 By 1928, his reputation as a great Muslim
philosopher was established and he was invited
to deliver lectures at Hyderabad, Aligarh and
Madras.
 These series of lectures were later published as a
book “The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in
Islam”.
 In 1930, Iqbal was invited to preside over the
open session of the Muslim League at Allahabad.
In his historic Allahabad Address, Iqbal visualized
an independent and sovereign state for the
Muslims of North-Western India.
 Difference of ideas between
Iqbal and Sir Syed Ahmad Khan

Unlike Sir Syed Ahmad and his loyalists,

he takes it upon himself to complicate the
benevolent view of West by Highlighting
its darker side
Iqbal’s perspective

For Iqbal the question is not that of

choosing between East and West, but
rather to find a middle ground where
Muslims do not have to abandon their
Islamic identity to be part of the modern
world.
 Key Areas
 Iqbal
critiques and indicts certain specific
aspects of the West that include
 Imperialism ( Domination by force or
colonies)
 Secularism (Religion should not be a part of
affairs)
 Materialism
 Class System (in which people are grouped
into social categories, the most common
being the upper, middle, and lower classes.)
Major Categories
There are two main categories in which
Iqbal places the East and West;

 East is the world of Maan (Heart)

 West is the world of Tan (Body)

Islam & Ummah as a Political System

Iqbal does not seek the Muslim response

to the British within the private realm but
by articulating and foregrounding the
importance of Islam and the Ummah as a
political system.
Iqbal’s Work
 According to him the Muslim future does
not simply depend on gaining Western
Knowledge but also by balancing this
knowledge with their own traditions.
 The catagories of Maan and Ishq, Tan
and Aql, become a litmus test for
including certain aspects of Western
Knowledge into Eastern thought.
 Freedom from Imperialism

The world of heart is a world of feeling and passion

The world of body is a world of profit, loss and treachery
When you have the world of heart, it cannot be lost
The world of body is like a shadow, here now and then gone
In the world of heart I never encountered the Raj of Afrangi
In the world of heart I never found the Sheikh and Brahmin
(Baal-e-Jibreel)
 Iqbal’s view of Self

True freedom is experienced through soul,

not through one’s flesh

It shamed me to hear these words from a

Qalandar
When you bow in front of the other
You have neither the Maan nor tan
Iblees ki Majlis-e-Shura
(The Parliament of Satan) 1938

This poem is a scathing criticism of the

major socio-political and economic
systems offered by the West.

By that time Iqbal is reaching the end of

his illustrious career, and has already
expressed, his vision of a future Muslim
homeland.
Theme of Poem
Iqbal brought up all the major challenges-
mostly western systems-to Satan’s world
system and it is in these challenges that
Iqbal articulate the bankruptcy of various
Western system of governance and socio-
economic control.

I showed the Farangi the dream of Kingship

I broke the spell of the Church and the Mosque
I taught the poor the lesson of fate
I gave the rich the madness of capitalism
Who can dowse this raging fire?
That blazes with vigour of Iblees
(Armughan-e-Hijaz)
 Concept of Ummah

Iqbal’s idea of Muslim identity is trans-

historical and trans-national; he sees the
Westerns concept of the nation-state as a
divisive force against the Islamic concept
of larger Muslim Ummah.
I know this Ummah no longer holds the Quran
The same capitalism is Muslim’s faith
In the pitch-dark night of the East
The hands of the clergy are void of light
But the currents of the present make me fear
That the message of the Prophet might appear again
(Armughan-e-Hijaz)
Protectors of women’s honour, tester of men
A message of death for all sorts of slavery
Undivided amongst kings and beggars
Cleans the wealth of all its filth
Makes the rich the custodians of riches
What could be greater that this revolution?
Not to kings but to God belongs the land
(Armughan-e-Hijaz)
According to Satan,

“As long as the Muslims are

entangled in the sectarian divide
over the interpretation of the Quran
instead of embodying its dynamic
spirit, they will never be capable
enough to raise against him in
challenge. “