About Muhammad Iqbal
Sir Muhammad Iqbal (9 November 1877 – 21 April 1938) was an Islamic philosopher and poet. His poetry in Urdu is considered among the greatest of the 20th century, and his vision of a cultural and political ideal for the Muslims of British India is widely regarded as having animated the impulse behind the Pakistan Movement. The honorific commonly refers to him as Allamah (Persian: علامه, romanized: 'Allāma, lit. 'learned') and is widely considered one of the most important and influential Muslim thinkers and Islamic religious philosophers of the 20th century. Iqbal was born and raised in Sialkot, Punjab, British India and studied at Scotch Mission College in Sialkot and Government College in Lahore. He taught Arabic at the Oriental College, Lahore, from 1899 until 1903, during which time he wrote prolifically. Notable among his Urdu poems from this period are "Parinde Ki Faryad" ("A Bird's Prayer"), an early contemplation on animal rights, and "Tarana-e-Hindi" ("Anthem of the Indians"), a patriotic poem—both composed for children. In 1905, he departed from India to pursue further education in Europe, first in England and later in Germany. In England, he earned a second BA at Trinity College, Cambridge, and subsequently qualified as a barrister at Lincoln's Inn. In Germany, he obtained a PhD in philosophy at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), with his thesis focusing on "The Development of Metaphysics in Persia" in 1908. Upon his return to Lahore in 1908, Iqbal established a law practice but primarily focused on producing scholarly works on politics, economics, history, philosophy, and religion. He is most renowned for his poetic compositions, including "Asrar-e-Khudi", "Rumuz-e-Bekhudi", and "Bang-e-Dara". His literary works in the Persian language garnered him recognition in Iran. An ardent proponent of the political and spiritual revival of the Muslim world, particularly of the Muslims in the Indian subcontinent, the series of lectures Iqbal delivered to this effect were published as The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam in 1930. He was elected to the Punjab Legislative Council in 1927 and held several positions in the All-India Muslim League. In his Allahabad Address, delivered at the League's annual assembly in 1930, he formulated a political framework for the Muslim-majority regions spanning northwestern India. In August 1947, nine years after Iqbal's death, the partition of India gave way to the establishment of Pakistan, a newly independent Islamic state in which Iqbal was honoured as the national poet. He is also known in Pakistani society as Hakim ul-Ummat (lit. 'The Wise Man of the Ummah') and as Mufakkir-e-Pakistan (lit. 'The Thinker of Pakistan'). The anniversary of his birth (Youm-e Weladat-e Muḥammad Iqbal), 9 November, is observed as a public holiday in Pakistan. He stood first in grade one and had started versifying under the pen-name of Iqbal while still in class nine, being published in literary journals as a teenager. In 1899, he received his Master of Arts degree from the same college and won first place in philosophy in the University of the Punjab.
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