Allama Iqbal and His Women

kya aap baat kar rahein hain, mian? , seigfreid sassoon like iqbaal shirt lifter tha?

aiysee barre baarre burreeeeee baat mat bolo! wash your bloody mouth

Hoho my God! All that really happened? I`ve never thought about Iqbal that way, and this really is a surprise. I feel sorry for him though. He wasted so much time going through all that and punishing himself with a turbulent love life. If he hadn`t met that Atiya lady in the first place, things would have been much better.

I wonder when he wrote his poetry related to the mashriq aur maghrib ka tasadum and foreign education. If he wrote them after 1908, then the source of his inspiration becomes very obvious!

Thank you Rafi sahib for a great piece. I have read much on Iqbal, almost all of the English language biographies and some Urdu ones too including the mammoth 1000 pager written by his son Javed entitled Zindarud (The Living Stream) which is actually very neutral and academic and the best of the lot by far! Your article was informative and interesting; yes, poor Iqbal was trapped in a loveless personal life. He seems to have had a Western mind and an Eastern soul!

It seems that biographers are divided as to the exact nature of his relationship with Attiya Faizi.
Some go as far as to say that they were lovers and others maintain they were just friends. I suppose only Attiya would know the truth or their close associates in Germany and Indo-Pak.
Having read all the various accounts I tend to believe what you have suggested that they were lovers.

Iqbal was also very good friends with Frau. Wegernast too--a German woman.
I should perhaps translate the section from Zindarud about Iqbal in Europe; in it Javid Iqbal describes--mostly from Iqbal`s letters--his days and evenings spent having fun and picnics with his female friends; he of course invited Attiya to come over from London and join him which she did.
After one such evening Iqbal wrote the following poem: which I have translated. He called it On the Banks of the River Neckar (Heidelberg):

The moon`s light is silent
The branches of every tree are silent

The songsters of the valley are silent
The green trees of the mountain are silent

Nature has become unconscious
It is sleeping in the night`s lap

Some such spell of serenity exists
That Neckar`s flow is also serene

The caravan of stars is silent
The caravan is moving without the bell

Silent are the mountains, forest, river
As if Nature is absorbed in deep meditation

O Heart! You should also become silent
Taking grief in your lap go to sleep

The original for Urdu speakers:

( دريائے نيکر `ہائيڈل برگ ` کے کنارے پر (
خاموش ہے چاندني قمر کي
شاخيں ہيں خموش ہر شجر کي
وادي کے نوا فروش خاموش
کہسار کے سبز پوش خاموش
فطرت بے ہوش ہو گئي ہے
آغوش ميں شب کے سو گئي ہے
کچھ ايسا سکوت کا فسوں ہے
نيکر کا خرام بھي سکوں ہے
تاروں کا خموش کارواں ہے
يہ قافلہ بے درا رواں ہے
خاموش ہيں کوہ و دشت و دريا
قدرت ہے مراقبے ميں گويا
اے دل! تو بھي خموش ہو جا
آغوش ميں غم کو لے کے سو جا


I visited the Neckar not too long ago and it made me recall Iqbal`s poem which is why I translated it. Is it still possible to buy a book containing the letters which Iqbal and Attiya wrote one another? Also she wrote a book in English, ``Iqbal and I`` which I`d like to read.

Perhaps the excellent Iqbal Cyber Library will have them...

An aspect pf Iqbal`s life that I was hitherto unfmiliar with, it comes as no surprise though. Many great people have been total failures in their personal lives even though on the intellectual front they may have achieved iconic status. It could be due to the fact that generally creative geniuses are also non-conformists by nature and cannot cope with traditional concepts of living and loving.

An interesting and revealing piece about Iqbal`s life.

Fascinating. Is it true that his teengage son Javed did resented Iqbal and burned down his library?

Also, by becoming a justice of Pakistani, Javed succeeds in a field that Iqbal could not?

his personal/love life seems to represent his intra-psychic conflicts and anxiety, perpetuated/precipitated by circumstances and cultural/religious values...... and his philosophical/poetic works are excellent example of the channelization of that anxiety into socially useful creative works through the use of mechanism of sublimation.

Examplery case for illustration and teaching from psychologist`s/psychiatrist`s/psychotherapist`s point of view!!

Re: # 6

drlokraj, neither his life nor this article is as complicated as the masala of words you have used in your post :)

Re: # 6 Loki Sir

What/how bull/shit(ty)!

Rabindra nath was mired in his own love affairs ..
he is atleast have had crush on his elder brothers wife (bhabhi ) `bou Di`

Rafi and Dr. Sohail:
Thanks for your informative article on Iqbal.
Iqbal was as much confused in his philosophy as he was in the affairs of his personal life. He was proud of his Ph.D. in philosophy which he acquired from a German University yet he condemned all his life everything that was western, including education. He wrote his name as Dr. Sir Muhammad Iqbal, Dr. because of his Ph.D. and Sir in honor of a title from the British Government. And he cursed the west which had conferred these cherished honors on him. He inserted Sheikh also somewhere in between.
It is true that he didn`t write his Ph.D. thesis on a topic that was directly relevant to the mainstream western philosophy, still the degree was awarded by a western university. He was a confused thinker and a confused intellectual leader of a confused people.
But he was a great poet. He wrote excellent poetry.
Mohammad Gill

Rafi,

Kudos for posting a wonderful paper on the personal life of Iqbal, an aspect on which very little has ever been written. Your research was very objective and, despite candidly describing many flaws in the judgement and personal dealings of this great philospher, did not degrade his huge stature of national poet and a founding father. Iqbal, after all, was a human being with all the inbuilt inadequacies. Thank you very much and keep it up.

Does anyone find it ironic that while Iqbal lamented the lack of free will in his life, he still managed to drink, contemplate suicide, marry, leave, divorce, remarry, etc. several women who had considerably less agency than himself?

No?

the evidence for his drinking is very thin neembu.

Re: # 13

Would that this expectation of evidence also be accorded Sardar Begum...but a woman`s reputation seems to be easily impugned.

Re: # 10
dear freethinker....thanks for your compliments. Rafi has done a wonderful job in

translating the article. When I read it in Toronto in Urdu it created an uproar as the lovers

and disciples of Iqbal who made him a saint....rehmatullahalaih....were offended. I wanted

to show him as a human being will all his vulnerabilities.

I also remember one evening when Habib Jalib was visiting Toronto and in a party different

people were commenting on Iqbal`s philosophy and poetry

...one said he was a nationalist

....the other said he was a socialist

....the third said he was a muslim scholar

...the fourth said Pakistan was his dream

when I asked Habib Jalib`s opinion he smiled and said...Iqbal ki shairy parchoon ki dokaan

thi (Iqbal`s poetry was a retail store not a speciality store).

For the greatness of Iqbal, Ghalib and Tagore is that in spite of their personal struggles

they rose above them in art and created wonderful poetry and we cherish their

masterpieces.

sincerely sohail

Re: # 14

Let`s agree that evidence about Sardar Begum having fun is very thin and the evidence about Iqbal having fun is also very thin.

Let`s also agree that even if Sardar Begum was a playa`, its all good and if Iqbal was a drinker, it all good!

However, neembu.. you can never know how great of a poet he was. Lousy philosopher but great, great poet.