Remembering Allama Iqbal

This Punjabi poet, called Iqbal used Khushal Khan Khattak`s ideology and Islamic fundamental and fanatic theme. Khushal Khan Khattack`s Shaheen, khudi and mard-e-momin were never based on Islamic ideology. Khushal Khan Khattak never used or abused Islam as his shield. His own personality was his shield. Khushal Khan Baba was far sighted , he emphasised on modernism and modern day fighting skills.

Iqbal lacked his own ideology , all he was master of copying other`s ideology. Iqbal lacked originality of his thoughts, which Punjabis deny.

Iqbal commited the biggest crime of PALGIARISM. He was never a CREATIVE GENIUS himself. He stole Khan baba`s ideology with out even having a second thought that all he was doing was scholarly dishonesty.

I will openly say, Iqbal is the biggest PALGIARIST of this century. No doubt about it.

Inquirer - I partially agree with your desire to dissect certain concepts in Iqbal`s poetry and evaluate their validity and application today. A poet or a philosopher can be influenced by a number of factors: people(intellectuals, thinkers, leaders and poets) and places. All the influencing factors can be even contradictory to each other. He can come up with something completely new while expanding his horizons. In my opinion, his travels gave him new perspectives and insights. Without that, he could not have composed poetry to address a broader audience (Ummah). A lot of his poetry focuses on historical places and significant characters. There is subtle humor, irony and sarcasm in a lot of his poems where he addressed the Muslim youth all over the world.

I find it completely out of line to insult Iqbal by comparing him to Tagore or any other poet under the umbrella of this article. Without hurting your sentiments, I must mention that such comparisons do not qualify for any scholarship, but clearly delineate the insecurity and dementia among some Hindu interactors. On Chowk, majority of the Hindu interactors` scholarship is limited to dissing the significant or insignificant Muslim (with a glorious or humble Hindu/Arab background) characters. That is never going to assist anyone in gaining any understanding, but will definitely propagate the jahalut on board.

Lastly, I do believe that his words and verses were to influence a certain class and its mindset. I am not willing to buy that his language was easily understood by all and sundry. As a thought leader, he must/could have opened the eyes and minds of his audience, made them embrace what they believed in and reject what they didn`t and led them to various paths. I am sure his audience believed in exercising their prerogative.

Regarding his stance on women - As a reader, I`ve never felt that the poet is addressing the male audience. I guess I have never considered a man better or superior so that never became an issue. Let`s put it this way, anyone who thinks that a woman should know of her standing by a poet`s humor or a writer`s wise remark needs to get his head examined. I am sure a man would not determine his worth by Maureen Dowd`s ``Are men necessary?`` I must admit that I would never consult Iqbal to illuminate my mental faculties on feminism. On the contrary, I am not sure if his poetry instigated some kind of machismo among his male audience in our culture. That`s quite a possibility :)

On a serious note - Iqbal`s poetry has many subtle pointers and lessons that are reiterated by the spiritual and business leaders of today in their books. I find that very pleasing.

Regards.

#109 nasah

nasha sahib

I will stand for my Khan Baba`s ideology. May be you disagree with Iqbal`s ideology. That you have every right to disagree.

My disagreement with Iqbal is , this man from Punjab(Sialkot/Lahore) fooled everyone about his ideology. His ideology was word to word copy of Khan Baba`s.........
What is Iqbal today is only and only because of Khushal Khan Khattak`s ideology. Allama Iqbal also admired Rumi,but never had his influence. Shaheen, mard-e-momin, ego(khudi), modernism all came from Khan Baba.

Sad thing is majority of NAIVE Pakistani b/c of their own prejudices and narrowmindedness do not want to admit this. But, the fact is fact, we can`t hide the sun with the palm of our hand....................

Majority of Punjabis b/c of their biasedness towards Pushtoons never give recognition to Khan Baba. They only project a Lahorie, called Iqbal who copied all his ideology word by word from Khan Baba`s ideology.

khushal Khan Khattak was born at Akora Khattak district Nowshera in 1613. He was an intelligent and bold person from childhood. His father Shahbaz Khan was killed in a tribal clash on 4th January, 1641. Mughal Emperor Shahjehan was the ruler of India during that period. Shahjehan had great regard for Khushal Khan Khattak due to the guts that he possessed. Khushal Khan Khattak was the ally of Mughals during many adventures and was awarded a Jagir and Lakhs of rupees.

The distances between the Aurangzeb Allamgir and Khushal Khan Khattak increased due to some misunderstandings and the latter was not remained a favorable person near the former personality.

Mahabat Khan who was the governor of Peshawar had tried to keep the relation between Khushal Khan Khattak and Aurangzeb Alamgir and was successful to a great extent. After Mahabat Khan, Syed Amir Khan was appointed as governor Peshawar then the tension increased between Khushal Khan Khattak and Syed Amir Khan, as a result Khushal Khan Khattak was arrested and put behind the bars. Khushal Khan Khattak was later on released and returned to homeland in 1668, but the relations between government and him remained tense. He was a good poet and religious scholar.

He is also called with the name of Baba-e-Pushto. His poetry consists of more than 45,000 poems. According to some historians the number of books written by him is more than 200. But the books, which enjoyed more fame, are Baz Nama, Fazal Nama, Distar Nama and Farrah Nama. The Mazar of Khushal Khan Khattak is situated near the Railway Station of Akora Khattak in Nowshera district.

From Encycolpedia(Khushal Khan Khattak and his poetry)

Re: # 108

I always had a slight suspicion that you had your connection with some good spirits. Do not spill the beans. Keep some for your Easter break :)

Kaal Babu,

Arz kia hai

Kahin pay nigahain, kahin pay nishana!


Even the ``best and the brightest`` eat the humble pie sometimes…

re: HP # 108

LOL, come on now. Even for a provocative thinker like you that is a bit much :)

To further raise some heckles, I do think there is (or, over time, became) something genetically wrong with Indians with their hollow pretensions of peace.

#109

``got to admit that Iqbal did take revenge for the `forced conversion` of his Hindu grandfather..... ``



Are you suggesting that his problems were genetic? Could be!

Sanatani: U are a scumbag and I don`t believe in displaying good manners to scum just for the sake of appearences. There is no need to engage me in any interact unless you want abuse. A masochist like you, I`m not surprised that you possibly even enjoy the abuse.

Re: # 91

``Shaheen, mard-e-momin, ego(khudi), modernism all came from Khan Baba. (Zeena)

dear Zeena -- may be Iqbal`s modernism came from your Khan Baba -- but his Shaheen and the `superman` aka `` mard-e momin`` came from Fascist Mussolini -- Iqbal admired Mussolini -- it was good that he did not live to see his hero`s last days in ignominy....being dragged in the streets of Rome and hanged by a lamp post.....

Iqbal`s Id ego or `Khudi` business came from that mad poet Nietzsche......from whose womb later on a Rosemary baby called Hitler was born...

got to admit that Iqbal did take revenge for the `forced conversion` of his Hindu grandfather from the Umma by pushing the Umma into Nietzsche’s Hell to burn for all time to come.....


...but on the other hand the `conversion` was a great linguistic blessing for a malleably expressive language like Urdu that got its greatest poet that ever lived or will ever live....in the entire history of modern subcontinental poetry.......

I doubt Hindi had the wings to keep up with Iqbal’s mercurial soaring intellect…….:)

The truth is Iqbal was crazy and in his fits he wrote a few good things. Those were exceptions.
He was against women education and his only shair that I remember goes like this:

Larkian parah rahin hain ingrazy
Dhoondh lee quom nay falah kee rah.

Only a crazy mullah could have said a thing like that…

Echoboom

As even those with religio-political leanings different from yours must agree, your knowledge of Islamic poetry and philosophy is remarkable. It will be great if you or anyone else could summarize Iqbal`s major theoretical and philosophical contributions to advancing human understanding.

For instance, had the concept of a (powerful) self - independent and self-justified - not been incorporated in Islamic philosophy before Iqbal?

In the earnest hope that this would be invaluable to those who want to do a parallel
reading in english as well.

COMPLETE work in english below: click


http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/iqbal/default.htm

Ayatullah Ali Khamanei, the present supreme leader of Iran, said several years ago: It is truly unique that a poet has written in a language(farsi) without ever having lived there (iran) or that being his mother tongue. In the annals of poetry it is almost a miracle.

Anna-Marie Schimmel said ( & only she could have the courage & scholarship to utter this): Although we might not consider him a prophet, but he was definitely touched by Gabriel`s wing [ Gabriel`s wing= Baal-i Jibreel]



Muhammad Iqbal

Professor Allama Dr. Muhammad Iqbal

Iqbal stands alone in the post classical period of Islamic philosophy as a reviver of the discipline within the Muslim world. He is the only Islamic philosopher to make a serious attempt at grabbling with the problems of modern western philosophy within an Islamic context. His thought has been extremely influential throughout the Islamic world today.

Iqbal introduces his notion of Khudi, or self. Arising from a desire to awaken the Muslim Ummah and drawing upon inspiration from western existentialists like Nietzsche, and Muslim spiritual teachers he empowers the Muslim individual. Beyond its superficial, and important, role as a motivator for Muslims Khudi embodies a deep philosophical concept prevalent throughout his philosophical writings.

Iqbals breadth and depth of knowledge is truly remarkable. Being educated both in the east and the west gave him a unique perspective to tackle the problems of modern times. Below we sample some of his work, and some work related to him. Iqbal wrote in English, Urdu and Farsi. Many links below are compliments of the Iqbal Academy.

Works:

In English:

* The Development of Metaphysics in Persia (1908)
* The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (1930): The landmark work in Islamic philosophy by Iqbal. [alternate site]

In Urdu:

* Bang-i Dara (1924) - Call of the Marching Bell [alternate site] [alt. site2] [English translation]
* Bal-i Jibril (1935) - Wings of Gabriel [alternate site] [English translation]
* Zarb-i Kalim (1936) - The Rod of Moses [alternate site] [English translation]

In Persian (Farsi): [All of the below are English translations]

* Asrar-i Khudi (1915) - The Secrets of the Self
* Rumuz-i Bekhudi (1918) - The Mysteries of Selflessness
* Payam-i Mashriq (1923) - Message from the East
* Zabur-i Ajam (1927) - Persian Psalms
* Javidnama (1932) - To his son
* Pas Chih Bayad Kard (1936) - What should then be done: O people of the East?
* Armaghan-i Hijaz (1938) - Gift from Hijaz

More Links:

*

His life, biography, and more
*

Selected verses of Iqbal
*

Thoughts and Essays by Dr. Iqbal

Timeline:

*

His life, works, and more (opens in a new window) (846kb large but worth it!)



http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/iqbal/default.htm

#104 by Inquirer

[….I can understand your travail at poring over on these aspects of Iqbal but if we are to find our way out of the maze that the British deliberatly left us in and toward peace in South Asia we have to disect and analyze why we went wrong.]

Inquie, you break my heart! I truly feel your pain, Inquie!

You are hurting all over. Except perhaps in the brains area – that may perhaps be all numbed up – with pain!

The morons did it to themselves. They did it to the rest of the crowds. They continued to do it to themselves and to the rest of the crowds. They still continue to do the same after all the kicks they received all over the body and all over the place!

Yes, THOSE morons!

Sixty years! And the same morons still don’t see it!

Therefore, therefore, therefore….

Therefore, of course it must be all the Britishers’ fault!

I KNEW it!

And if that does not work, let’s say who else we can find. Blame the Americans. Blame Gandhi, blame Tagore, blame the Jewish folks, and blame everybody else’s uncles and mothers! Blame somebody else!

Blame everybody but the morons – who still keep doing it – right here on this pathetic crappy web-site with its seers – yes, those very word-pee-ers!

You still need to probe? Go probe doo-doo! Starting with the one located inside your own head!

Oh boy, how it must hurt – such tremendous pain!

Your pain is truly felt!

Re: # 88, echoboom:
I do not know if you are responding to my comments but the song you quote would have been the high Iqbal but somehow he got corrupted. he failed to live up to his vatan. He fragmented it, I men, intellectually.
If you are a Muslim I can understand your travail at poring over on these aspects of Iqbal but if we are to find our way out of the maze that the British deliberatly left us in and toward peace in South Asia we have to disect and analyze why we went wrong. Only then, can we find the viable path towards the reconciliation of the populations and healing of the wounds that all segments nurse.
Thanks again for providing us the music of Iqbal, that is as important as the philosopical analysis of him.

Re: # 90,ZahraJ:
Thanks for the explanation of Ummah. Howerver, you diffuse quotation of all the work of Iqbal fails to answer my assertions in #86. I wonder if they were supposed to be reply to my statements therein.

Re: # 89

Stuka,

You stoop lower than the dive bomber you name yourself after. Remind me of the fact ``ki oche bade na ho sake``.

The same must go for family background {you are a so called Air Force Expert because of your background (see romair)}, something tells me nobody from you family would have been a flyer must have been Pay & Accounts/ Ordinance types.

Yaarie indeed.

U are positively beneath contempt.

Sanatani