IQBAL DAY IN KUWAIT

SOME ASPECTS OF IQBAL'S LIFE

 Iqbal Ahmad Ghalum*

Iqbal was an outstanding personality in the world of literature. He always stood and fought for right against falsehood. He was a great philosopher, a great poet, a great scholar and a great personality. He was a sufi and the light that illumined his life was derived from Islam. His heart throbbed for the land of Hijaz that was the cradle of Islam and for Andalusia where Muslim culture blossomed and shed its light all around.

Iqbal was meek of heart because he always lived with a conscious- ness of God's presence all around him at all hours. He was a true dervish born in a simple unsophisticated religious family from which he inherited the ideal of unostentatious simplicity.

Iqbal's philosophy is based on realism; it tried to save Muslims from the romantic attitude of decadent poets and the total other worldly and passive attitude of the mystics. His message opened the way for new ideas and new patterns. It is expressed in words that because of exquisite beauty and charm appeal to the heart of the readers. Old and young alike turn to it for enjoyment and inspiration.

He had a great desire to see the Muslim world united in a common bond of brotherhood, spiritual comradeship and cultural fellowship. He took the first step towards this goal by suggesting the creation of a new State of Pakistan where the Muslims would be able to lead their lives unhampered by extraneous influences and in the light of Islamic principles. The creation of Pakistan was indeed a phenomenon of great significance, unique in the history of modern age.

Iqbal preached the doctrine of the Ego and took great pains to explain in his poetry how to strengthen this self and save it from disintegration. But his interest in the development of an individual's self is in no way a denial of social responsibilities. The self-assertion which Iqbal advocates is at the same time a dedicated commitment to social involvement and self-sacrifice for the sake of other members of the society

Iqbal unheld the rights of the people of Palestine against the Zionists who were supported by the Western imperial powers in their own interest and who allowed them to settle in Palestine at the cost of the Arabs. And the reason advanced was that the Jews used to live here before their historic exodus. In one of his statments, Iqbal said, "Nor does Palestine belong to the Jews who abandoned it of their own free will long before its possession by the Arabs" (Speeches & Statements of Iqbal, 214). If in spite of this, the Zionists claim Palestine, then the Muslims, Iqbal asserts, have an equally valid right to Spain where they lived for several centuries. In Zarb-i Kalim (159), he says:

ہے خاک فلسطین پہ یہودی کا اگر حق

ہسپانیہ پر حق نہیں کیوں اہل عرب کا

If the Jews claim Palestine

Why can't the Arabs claim Spain?

Iqbal always stood for the right and the just.

In the end I would pray to God: May there be another Iqbal among us who may guids us to the path of national and spiritual glory.