SOME UNREALISED DREAMS OF IQBAL

Riaz Hussain

To reinforce Muslim solidarity in the aftermath of London Round Table Conferences, the All-India Muslim Conference held its annual session in Lahore on 21 March 1932 and elected Iqbal as President. In his presidential address, Iqbal made some solid sug­gestions of permanent value which surprisingly have escaped the notice of the academician and the administrator so far. In this address, Iqbal envisaged "the formation of youth leagues and well-equipped volunteer corps throughout the country under the control and guidance of a central organisation". The Youth Leagues should actively concern themselves with "social service, customs reform, commercial organisation" of the Muslims. Iqbal suggested the founding of "male and female cultural institutes in all big towns. ... These institutes . . . should have nothing to do with politics" and should make the younger generation aware of "what Islam has already achieved and what it has still to achieve in the religious and cultural history of mankind". The cultural institutes were further advised to maintain close academic relationship with religious madrassas and modern Muslim educational centres "to secure the ultimate convergence of all the lines of our educational endeavour on a single purpose"[1]

In December 1937, the Punjab Muslim Students Federation organised an "IgbaI Day" function. Iqbal and the then Premier of the Punjab, Sikandar Hayat Khan, were political opponents. In a message to the function, Sikandar Hayat Khan offered a deliberate insult to Iqbal's self-respect. "I propose," said Sikandar Hayat Khan, "that in the cities where Iqbal Day is celebrated, the citizens should collect money and present it to the Great Poet. The Iqbal Committee should immediately open an Iqbal Day Account in the Imperial Bank of India, and his followers and admirers should directly make contributions to this Fund."[2] Iqbal smarted under Sikandar's suggestion, but kept his composure and came out with a counter suggestion, which, if implemented, would have revived interest in the political and economic teachings of Islam. "I feel," said Iqbal, "that the needs of the people as a whole are far more pressing than the needs of a private individual even though his work may have been a source of inspiration to most people. The individual and his needs pass away: the people and their needs remain. If the people want to honour me, they should establish a chair for Islamic research on modern lines in the Islamia College, Lahore." Iqbal hoped that his proposal "will meet the Premier's approval and his influence will make this pro­posal a success. I offer a humble contribution of Rs. 100 to the fund."[3] But the Punjab Premier who had all the power and re-sources to implement this scheme turned a deaf ear to it.

Iqbal was partial to Ḥakīms and the indigenous system of medicine. Though he appreciated and believed in the efficacy of Western medical system, he nevertheless had some reservations about Western drugs. Iqbal was no medical man and, from that point of view, his observations may be taken as a layman's opinion. Yet all Ḥakīms and many doctors would not disagree with the observations he made on the floor of the Punjab Legislative Assembly. Speaking on the resolution regarding Yūnānī and Ayurvedic systems of medicine (22 February 1928), Iqbal expressed the opinion that Western medical science had yet to learn much from the Yūnānī system. Many works of Muslim Ḥakīms, especial­ly those of Najībuddīn Samarqandī, lay unpublished in European libraries. "If they were published," suggested Iqbal, they could yet give surprise "to those who boast of the superiority of Western system of medicine."[4]

His second suggestion was that the Government should estab­lish an Institute of Pharmacy to teach the Ḥakīms the improved methods of preparing medicines. At the same time, he thought that the Ḥakīms should not imitate the Western pharmacopoeia because their own simple preparations are more natural. Taken all together, Iqbal's recommendations are worthy to be imple­mented even today.

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