Allama Sir Muhammad Iqbal
(Urdu:; November 9, 1877 – April 21, 1938) was a Muslim poet, philosopher and
politician born in Sialkot, British India (now in Pakistan), whose poetry in
Urdu, Arabic and Persian is considered to be among the greatest of the modern
era,[1] and whose vision of an independent state for the Muslims of British
India was to inspire the creation of Pakistan. He is commonly referred to as
Allama Iqbal (علامہ اقبال, Allama meaning "Scholar".)
After studying in England and Germany, Iqbal established a law practice, but
concentrated primarily on writing scholarly works on politics, economics,
history, philosophy and religion. He is best known for his poetic works,
including Asrar-e-Khudi—which brought a knighthood— Rumuz-e-Bekhudi, and the
Bang-e-Dara, with its enduring patriotic song Tarana-e-Hind. In India, he is
regarding for the patriotic song, Saare Jahan Se Achcha (सारे जहाँ से अच्छा). In
Afghanistan and Iran, where he is known as Iqbāl-e Lāhorī (اقبال لاہوری Iqbal
of Lahore), he is highly regarded for his Persian works.
Iqbal was a strong proponent of the political and spiritual revival of Islamic
civilisation across the world, but specifically in India; a series of famous
lectures he delivered to this effect were published as The Reconstruction of
Religious Thought in Islam. One of the most prominent leaders of the All India
Muslim League, Iqbal encouraged the creation of a "state in northwestern India
for Indian Muslims" in his 1930 presidential address.[2] Iqbal encouraged and
worked closely with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and he is known as Muffakir-e-Pakistan
("The Thinker of Pakistan"), Shair-e-Mashriq ("The Poet of the East"), and
Hakeem-ul-Ummat ("The Sage of Ummah"). He is officially recognized as the
national poet of Pakistan.[3] The anniversary of his birth (یوم ولادت محمد اقبال
- Yōm-e Welādat-e Muḥammad Iqbāl) on November 9 is a national holiday in
Pakistan.
•Early life
See also: Timeline of Muhammad Iqbal's life
Sheikh Muhammad Iqbal was born in Sialkot, Punjab, British India (now part of
Pakistan); the eldest of five siblings in a Kashmiri family. It is believed that
Iqbal's family were originally Hindu Brahmins, but became Muslim following his
ancestor Sahaj Ram Sapru's conversion to Islam, although this version is
disputed by some scholars[who?].[4][5] Iqbal's father Shaikh Nur Muhammad was a
prosperous tailor, well-known for his devotion to Islam, and the family raised
their children with deep religious grounding.
Iqbal in 1899
Iqbal was educated initially by tutors in languages and writing, history, poetry
and religion. His potential as a poet and writer was recognised by one of his
tutors, Sayyid Mir Hassan, and Iqbal would continue to study under him at the
Scotch Mission College in Sialkot. The student became proficient in several
languages and the skill of writing prose and poetry, and graduated in 1892.
Following custom, at the age of 15 Iqbal's family arranged for him to be married
to Karim Bibi, the daughter of an affluent Gujrati physician. The couple had two
children: a daughter, Mi'raj Begam (born 1895) and a son, Aftab (born 1899).
Iqbal's third son died soon after birth. The husband and wife were unhappy in
their marriage and eventually divorced in 1916.
Iqbal entered the Government College in Lahore where he studied philosophy,
English literature and Arabic and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree, graduating
cum laude. He won a gold medal for topping his examination in philosophy. While
studying for his masters degree, Iqbal came under the wing of Sir Thomas Arnold,
a scholar of Islam and modern philosophy at the college. Arnold exposed the
young man to Western culture and ideas, and served as a bridge for Iqbal between
the ideas of East and West. Iqbal was appointed to a readership in Arabic at the
Oriental College in Lahore, and he published his first book in Urdu, The
Knowledge of Economics in 1903. In 1905 Iqbal published the patriotic song,
Tarana-e-Hind (Song of India).
At Sir Thomas's encouragement, Iqbal travelled to and spend many years studying
in Europe. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Trinity College at
Cambridge in 1907, while simultaneously studying law at Lincoln's Inn, from
where he qualified as a barrister in 1908. Iqbal also met a Muslim student,
Atiyah Faizi in 1907, and had a close relationship with her. In Europe, he
started writing his poetry in Persian as well. Throughout his life, Iqbal would
prefer writing in Persian as he believed it allowed him to fully express
philosophical concepts, and it gave him a wider audience.[1] It was while in
England that he first participated in politics. Following the formation of the
All-India Muslim League in 1906, Iqbal was elected to the executive committee of
its British chapter in 1908. Together with two other politicians, Syed Hassan
Bilgrami and Syed Ameer Ali, Iqbal sat on the subcommittee which drafted the
constitution of the League.
Literary career
Upon his return to India in 1908, Iqbal took up assistant professorship at the
Government College in Lahore, but for financial reasons he relinquished it
within a year to practise law. During this period, Iqbal's personal life was in
turmoil. He divorced Karim Bibi in 1916, but provided financial support to her
and their children for the rest of his life.
While maintaining his legal practise, Iqbal began concentrating on spiritual and
religious subjects, and publishing poetry and literary works. He became active
in the Anjuman-e-Himayat-e-Islam, a congress of Muslim intellectuals, writers
and poets as well as politicians, and in 1919 became the general secretary of
the organisation. Iqbal's thoughts in his work primarily focused on the
spiritual direction and development of human society, centred around experiences
from his travel and stay in Western Europe and the Middle East. He was
profoundly influenced by Western philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Henri
Bergson and Goethe, and soon became a strong critic of Western society's
separation of religion from state and what he perceived as its obsession with
materialist pursuits.
In London, 1908
The poetry and philosophy of Mawlana Rumi bore the deepest influence on Iqbal's
mind. Deeply grounded in religion since childhood, Iqbal would begin intensely
concentrating on the study of Islam, the culture and history of Islamic
civilization and its political future, and embrace Rumi as "his guide." Iqbal
would feature Rumi in the role of a guide in many of his poems, and his works
focused on reminding his readers of the past glories of Islamic civilization,
and delivering a message of a pure, spiritual focus on Islam as a source for
socio-political liberation and greatness. Iqbal denounced political divisions
within and amongst Muslim nations, and frequently alluded to and spoke in terms
of the global Muslim community, or the Ummah.[3]
Works in Persian
Iqbal's poetic works are written mostly in Persian rather than Urdu. Among his
12,000 verses of poem, about 7,000 verses are in Persian. In 1915, he published
his first collection of poetry, the Asrar-e-Khudi (Secrets of the Self) in
Persian. The poems delve into concepts of ego and emphasise the spirit and self
from a religious, spiritual perspective. Many critics have called this Iqbal's
finest poetic work.[7] In Asrar-e-Khudi, Iqbal has explained his philosophy of "Khudi,"
or "Self." He proves by various means that the whole universe obeys the will of
the "Self." Iqbal condemns self-destruction. For him the aim of life is
self-realization and self-knowledge. He charts the stages through which the
"Self" has to pass before finally arriving at its point of perfection, enabling
the knower of the "Self" to become the viceregent of Allah.[3]
In his Rumuz-e-Bekhudi (Hints of Selflessness), Iqbal seeks to prove that
Islamic way of life is the best code of conduct for a nation's viability. A
person must keep his individual characteristics intact but once this is achieved
he should sacrifice his personal ambitions for the needs of the nation. Man
cannot realise the "Self" out of society. Also in Persian and published in 1917,
this group of poems has as its main themes the ideal community, Islamic ethical
and social principles and the relationship between the individual and society.
Although he is true throughout to Islam, Iqbal recognises also the positive
analogous aspects of other religions. The Rumuz-e-Bekhudi complements the
emphasis on the self in the Asrar-e-Khudi and the two collections are often put
in the same volume under the title Asrar-e-Rumuz (Hinting Secrets), and it is
addressed to the world's Muslims. Iqbal sees the individual and his community as
reflections of each other. The individual needs to be strengthened before he can
be integrated into the community, whose development in turn depends on the
preservation of the communal ego. It is through contact with others that an ego
learns to accept the limitations of its own freedom and the meaning of love.
Muslim communities must ensure order in life and must therefore preserve their
communal tradition. It is in this context that Iqbal sees the vital role of
women, who as mothers are directly responsible for inculcating values in their
children.
Iqbal's 1924 publication, the Payam-e-Mashriq (The Message of the East) is
closely connected to the West-östlicher Diwan by the famous German poet Goethe.
Goethe bemoaned that the West had become too materialistic in outlook and
expected that the East would provide a message of hope that would resuscitate
spiritual values. Iqbal styles his work as a reminder to the West of the
importance of morality, religion and civilization by underlining the need for
cultivating feeling, ardour and dynamism. He explains that an individual could
never aspire for higher dimensions unless he learns of the nature of
spirituality.[3] In his first visit to Afghanistan, he presented his book "Payam-e
Mashreq" to King Amanullah Khan in which he admired the liberal movements of
Afghanistan against the British Empire. In 1933, he was officially invited to
Afghanistan to join the meetings regarding the establishment of Kabul
University.
Iqbal in 1929, with his son Javid Iqbal.
The Zabur-e-Ajam (Persian Psalms), published in 1927, includes the poems
Gulshan-e-Raz-e-Jadeed (Garden of New Secrets) and Bandagi Nama (Book of
Slavery). In Gulshan-e-Raz-e-Jadeed, Iqbal first poses questions, then answers
them with the help of ancient and modern insight and shows how it effects and
concerns the world of action. Bandagi Nama denounces slavery by attempting to
explain the spirit behind the fine arts of enslaved societies. Here as in other
books, Iqbal insists on remembering the past, doing well in the present and
preparing for the future, emphasising love, enthusiasm and energy to fill the
ideal life.[3] Iqbal's 1932 work, the Javed Nama (Book of Javed) is named after
and in a manner addressed to his son, who is featured in the poems, and follows
the examples of the works of Ibn Arabi and Dante's The Divine Comedy, through
mystical and exaggerated depiction across time. Iqbal depicts himself as Zinda
Rud ("A stream full of life") guided by Rumi, "the master," through various
heavens and spheres, and has the honour of approaching divinity and coming in
contact with divine illuminations. In a passage re-living a historical period,
Iqbal condemns the Muslim traitors who were instrumental in the defeat and death
of Nawab Siraj-ud-Daula of Bengal and Tipu Sultan of Mysore respectively by
betraying them for the benefit of the British colonists, and thus delivering
their country to the shackles of slavery. At the end, by addressing his son
Javid, he speaks to the young people at large, and provides guidance to the "new
generation."[3]
His love to Persian language is evident in his works and poetry. He says in one
of his poems:[8]
Works in Urdu
Iqbal in Spain, 1933.
Iqbal's first work published in Urdu, the Bang-e-Dara (The Call of the Marching
Bell) of 1924, was a collection of poetry written by him in three distinct
phases of his life.[3] The poems he wrote up to 1905, the year Iqbal left for
England imbibe patriotism and imagery of landscape, and includes the Tarana-e-Hind
(The Song of India), popularly known as Saare Jahan Se Achcha and another poem
Tarana-e-Milli (Anthem of the (Muslim) Community), which was composed in the
same metre and rhyme scheme as Saare Jahan Se Achcha. The second set of poems
date from between 1905 and 1908 when Iqbal studied in Europe and dwell upon the
nature of European society, which he emphasized had lost spiritual and religious
values. This inspired Iqbal to write poems on the historical and cultural
heritage of Islamic culture and Muslim people, not from an Indian but a global
perspective. Iqbal urges the global community of Muslims, addressed as the Ummah
to define personal, social and political existence by the values and teachings
of Islam. Poems such as Tulu'i Islam (Dawn of Islam) and Khizr-e-Rah (The Guided
Path) are especially acclaimed.
Iqbal preferred to work mainly in Persian for a predominant period of his
career, but after 1930, his works were mainly in Urdu. The works of this period
were often specifically directed at the Muslim masses of India, with an even
stronger emphasis on Islam, and Muslim spiritual and political reawakening.
Published in 1935, the Bal-e-Jibril (Wings of Gabriel) is considered by many
critics as the finest of Iqbal's Urdu poetry, and was inspired by his visit to
Spain, where he visited the monuments and legacy of the kingdom of the Moors. It
consists of ghazals, poems, quatrains, epigrams and carries a strong sense
religious passion.[3]
The Pas Cheh Bayed Kard ai Aqwam-e-Sharq (What are we to do, O Nations of the
East?) includes the poem Musafir (Traveller). Again, Iqbal depicts Rumi as a
character and an exposition of the mysteries of Islamic laws and Sufi
perceptions is given. Iqbal laments the dissension and disunity among the Indian
Muslims as well as Muslim nations. Musafir is an account of one of Iqbal's
journeys to Afghanistan, in which the Pashtun people are counseled to learn the
"secret of Islam" and to "build up the self" within themselves.[3] Iqbal's final
work was the Armughan-e-Hijaz (The Gift of Hijaz), published posthumously in
1938. The first part contains quatrains in Persian, and the second part contains
some poems and epigrams in Urdu. The Persian quatrains convey the impression as
though the poet is travelling through the Hijaz in his imagination. Profundity
of ideas and intensity of passion are the salient features of these short poems.
The Urdu portion of the book contains some categorical criticism of the
intellectual movements and social and political revolutions of the modern age.
Political career
Iqbal with Muslim political activists
While dividing his time between law and poetry, Iqbal had remained active in the
Muslim League. He supported Indian involvement in World War I, as well as the
Khilafat movement and remained in close touch with Muslim political leaders such
as Maulana Mohammad Ali and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He was a critic of the
mainstream Indian National Congress, which he regarded as dominated by Hindus
and was disappointed with the League when during the 1920s, it was absorbed in
factional divides between the pro-British group led by Sir Muhammad Shafi and
the centrist group led by Jinnah.
In November 1926, with the encouragement of friends and supporters, Iqbal
contested for a seat in the Punjab Legislative Assembly from the Muslim district
of Lahore, and defeated his opponent by a margin of 3,177 votes.[9] He supported
the constitutional proposals presented by Jinnah with the aim of guaranteeing
Muslim political rights and influence in a coalition with the Congress, and
worked with the Aga Khan and other Muslim leaders to mend the factional
divisions and achieve unity in the Muslim League.
Revival of Islamic polity
Iqbal's second book in English, the Reconstruction of Religious Thought in
Islam, is a collection of his six lectures which he delivered at Madras,
Hyderabad and Aligarh; first published as a collection in Lahore, in 1930. These
lectures dwell on the role of Islam as a religion as well as a political and
legal philosophy in the modern age. In these lectures Iqbal firmly rejects the
political attitudes and conduct of Muslim politicians, whom he saw as
morally-misguided, attached to power and without any standing with Muslim
masses. Iqbal expressed fears that not only would secularism weaken the
spiritual foundations of Islam and Muslim society, but that India's
Hindu-majority population would crowd out Muslim heritage, culture and political
influence. In his travels to Egypt, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey, he promoted
ideas of greater Islamic political co-operation and unity, calling for the
shedding of nationalist differences. He also speculated on different political
arrangements to guarantee Muslim political power; in a dialogue with Dr. B. R.
Ambedkar, Iqbal expressed his desire to see Indian provinces as autonomous units
under the direct control of the British government and with no central Indian
government. He envisaged autonomous Muslim provinces in India. Under one Indian
union he feared for Muslims, who would suffer in many respects especially with
regard to their existentially separate entity as Muslims.[9] Sir Muhammad Iqbal
was elected president of the Muslim League in 1930 at its session in Allahabad,
in the United Provinces as well as for the session in Lahore in 1932. In his
presidential address on December 29, 1930, Iqbal outlined a vision of an
independent state for Muslim-majority provinces in northwestern India:
Iqbal with Choudhary Rahmat Ali and other Muslim activists
"I would like to see the Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sind and
Baluchistan amalgamated into a single state. Self-government within the British
Empire, or without the British Empire, the formation of a consolidated Northwest
Indian Muslim state appears to me to be the final destiny of the Muslims, at
least of Northwest India."[2]
In his speech, Iqbal emphasised that unlike Christianity, Islam came with "legal
concepts" with "civic significance," with its "religious ideals" considered as
inseparable from social order: "therefore, the construction of a policy on
national lines, if it means a displacement of the Islamic principle of
solidarity, is simply unthinkable to a Muslim."[10] Iqbal thus stressed not only
the need for the political unity of Muslim communities, but the undesirability
of blending the Muslim population into a wider society not based on Islamic
principles. He thus became the first politician to articulate what would become
known as the Two-Nation Theory — that Muslims are a distinct nation and thus
deserve political independence from other regions and communities of India.
However, he would not elucidate or specify if his ideal Islamic state would
construe a theocracy, even as he rejected secularism and nationalism. The latter
part of Iqbal's life was concentrated on political activity. He would travel
across Europe and West Asia to garner political and financial support for the
League, and he reiterated his ideas in his 1932 address, and during the Third
Round-Table Conference, he opposed the Congress and proposals for transfer of
power without considerable autonomy or independence for Muslim provinces. He
would serve as president of the Punjab Muslim League, and would deliver speeches
and publish articles in an attempt to rally Muslims across India as a single
political entity. Iqbal consistently criticised feudal classes in Punjab as well
as Muslim politicians averse to the League.
Relationship with Jinnah
Final years
Ideologically separated from Congress Muslim leaders, Iqbal had also been
disillusioned with the politicians of the Muslim League owing to the factional
conflict that plagued the League in the 1920s. Discontent with factional leaders
like Sir Muhammad Shafi and Sir Fazl-ur-Rahman, 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. Building a
strong, personal correspondence with Jinnah, Iqbal was an influential force on
convincing Jinnah to end his self-imposed exile in London, return to India and
take charge of the League. Iqbal firmly believed that Jinnah was the only leader
capable of drawing Indian Muslims to the League and maintaining party unity
before the British and the Congress:
"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."[11]
There were significant differences between the two men — while Iqbal believed
that Islam was the source of government and society, Jinnah was a believer in
secular government and had laid out a secular vision for Pakistan where religion
would have "nothing to do with the business of the state."[12] Iqbal had backed
the Khilafat struggle; Jinnah had dismissed it as "religious frenzy." And while
Iqbal espoused the idea of partitioning Muslim-majority provinces in 1930,
Jinnah would continue to hold talks with the Congress through the decade and
only officially embraced the goal of Pakistan in 1940. Some historians postulate
that Jinnah always remained hopeful for an agreement with the Congress and never
fully desired the partition of India.[13] Iqbal's close correspondence with
Jinnah is speculated by some historians as having been responsible for Jinnah's
embrace of the idea of Pakistan.[14] Iqbal elucidated to Jinnah his vision of a
separate Muslim state in a letter sent on June 21, 1937:
"A separate federation of Muslim Provinces, reformed on the lines I have
suggested above, is the only course by which we can secure a peaceful India and
save Muslims from the domination of Non-Muslims. Why should not the Muslims of
North-West India and Bengal be considered as nations entitled to
self-determination just as other nations in India and outside India are."[9]
Iqbal, serving as president of the Punjab Muslim League, criticised Jinnah's
political actions, including a political agreement with Punjabi leader Sir
Sikandar Hyat Khan, whom Iqbal saw as a representative of feudal classes and not
committed to Islam as the core political philosophy. Nevertheless, Iqbal worked
constantly to encourage Muslim leaders and masses to support Jinnah and the
League. Speaking about the political future of Muslims in India, Iqbal said:
"There is only one way out. Muslims should strengthen Jinnah's hands. They
should join the Muslim League. Indian question, as is now being solved, can be
countered by our united front against both the Hindus and the English. Without
it, our demands are not going to be accepted. People say our demands smack of
communalism. This is sheer propaganda. These demands relate to the defence of
our national existence.... The united front can be formed under the leadership
of the Muslim League. And the Muslim League can succeed only on account of
Jinnah. Now none but Jinnah is capable of leading the Muslims."[11]
In his views on Muslim political future, Iqbal was at odds with Sayyid Abul Ala
Maududi, who had opposed the partition of India. Maududi had however, been
closer to Iqbal's poetic-philosophy of an ideal Islamic state which would reject
secularism and nationalism. After the creation of Pakistan, nine years after
Iqbal's death, Jinnah and other League politicians would publicly credit Iqbal
as one of the visionaries and founders of the state.
Death
Tomb of Muhammad Iqbal, next to Badshahi Mosque, Lahore, Pakistan
In 1933, after returning from a trip to Spain and Afghanistan, Iqbal began
suffering from a mysterious throat illness.[15] He spent his final years working
to establish the Idara Dar-ul-Islam, an institution where studies in classical
Islam and contemporary social science would be subsidised, and advocating the
demand for an independent Muslim state. Iqbal ceased practising law in 1934 and
he was granted pension by the Nawab of Bhopal. After suffering for months from
his illness, Iqbal died in Lahore in 1938. His tomb is located in the space
between the entrance of the Badshahi Mosque and the Lahore Fort, and an official
guard is maintained there by the Government of Pakistan.
Iqbal is commemorated widely in Pakistan, where he is regarded as the
ideological founder of the state. His Tarana-e-Hind is a song that is widely
used in India as a patriotic song speaking of communal harmony. His birthday is
annually commemorated in Pakistan as Iqbal Day, a national holiday. Iqbal is the
namesake of many public institutions, including the Allama Iqbal Medical
College, Allama Iqbal Open University and the Allama Iqbal International Airport
in Lahore. Government and public organizations have sponsored the establishment
of colleges and schools dedicated to Iqbal, and have established the Iqbal
Academy to research, teach and preserve the works, literature and philosophy of
Iqbal. His son Javid Iqbal has served as a justice on the Supreme Court of
Pakistan.
Influence and Legacy
If we are resolved to describe Islam as a system of superior values, we are
obliged, first of all, to acknowledge that we are not the true representatives
of Islam.
—Muhammad Iqbal[16]
Allama Iqbal is regarded as one of the most influential Muslim poet and scholar
of the 20th century throughout the Muslim World. His concept of Islamic revival
did not only lead to the creation of Pakistan, but also the Iranian Revolution
which he had prophesied. His works were also influential during the breaking up
of the central Asian former Soviet republics, most of which were Muslim
majority. Allama Iqbal's poetry has also been translated into several European
languages where his works were amous during the early part of the 20th Century.
He lives on through the various organizations dedicated to his works throughout
the world. He lives among Iran as one of the greatest Persian Poets ever, in
Pakistan as the greatest Urdu poet of all time and is regarded as the national
poet and hero, who was the bases of the creation of the first Muslim Nation. His
works have been famously made into songs by various artists from time to time,
the most famous being the sufi-rock band 'Junoon'. In India he lives on through
his national song 'Sarey Jahan sey acha'.
The International airport at Lahore, the city where he died and is buried, is
named after him. He is also featured on Pakistani currency.
Criticism
Interior of Iqbal's tomb
Some intellectuals criticised Iqbal for embracing Nietzsche's concept of
Übermensch, reflected in Iqbal's descriptions of ego, self, and renewal for
Muslim civilization. In her book on Iqbal, the German scholar Annemarie Schimmel
defends him from this charge, saying that Iqbal's approval of Sharia as the
appropriate set of limits for the self or ego "marks the distinction between
Iqbal's Perfect Man and the Nietzschean superman." [17]
Iqbal has also been criticised for his advocacy of Islamic political revival and
rejection of Western cultural influences. Several scholars have called his
poetic descriptions of the true practice of Islam impractical and wrongly
dismissive of diverse societies and cultural heritages.[10] Nonetheless, it is
his advocacy of Islamic political revival and his concept of "khudi" or
self-esteem that earns him much of his respect in the Muslim world.
While credited and admired as the conceptual founder of Pakistan, Iqbal is
criticised by some historians and scholars for implicitly endorsing the
incompatibility of Muslims with other religious communities. Some historians and
Indian nationalists criticise Iqbal's vision for a Muslim state as specifically
implying the denunciation of Hindus and Hinduism, as well as the peaceful
co-existence of Hindus and Muslims.[10] Iqbal was also strongly criticised for
advocating on occasions, the division and fragmentation of India. Critics also
point to the civil war that led to the secession of East Pakistan in 1971, as
well as recent sectarian and religious conflict in Pakistan to suggest that
Iqbal's notion of a natural Muslim nation and of Islam as a political, unifying
identity was inherently flawed and fanciful.[10] Despite this criticism, Iqbal
is widely credited for his work in encouraging the political rejuvenation and
empowerment of Muslims, and as a great poet not only in India and Pakistan, but
also in Iran, Afghanistan and Muslim nations in the Middle East.