Allama Iqbal

I am snowed under with work at the moment so service on J4P is slower than normal. In circumstances like this I resort to the tried and trusted methods of blogging with minimal effort (BWME). You will notice below the frequency of youtube clips has increased. Further excuses are on the way as a new PC is arriving on Sunday and the electricians are busy disrupting my home from Monday(as if it isn't disrupted enough already). Therefore, I can plead legitimate grounds for not producing more content to keep you entertained and informed. Another method of BWME is illustrated here. This involves 'copy and paste' of some information of interest and letting your readers explore the topic for themselves. This particular post is about a guy who is a national hero in Pakistan but very few people seem to have heard about him in the West even though he was an outstanding scholar who studied over here and in Munich:

From Wikipedia:

Sir Muhammad Iqbal (Urdu: محمد اقبال, Hindi: मुहम्मद इक़बाल) (November 9, 1877–April 21, 1938) was an Indian Muslim poet, philosopher and politician, whose poetry in Persian and Urdu is regarded as among the greatest in modern times.^[1] Also famous for his work on religious and political philosophy in Islam, he is credited with first proposing the idea of an independent state for Indian Muslims, which would inspire the creation of Pakistan. He is commonly referred to as Allama Iqbal, where Allama means Scholar.

After studying in England and Germany, Iqbal established a law practice, but he primarily concentrated on religious and philosophical subjects, writing scholarly works on politics, economics, history, philosophy and religion. He is best known for his poetic works, which include the Tarana-e-Hind, Asrar-e-Khudi, in honour of which he was knighted by the British government, Rumuz-i-Bekhudi, and the Bang-i-Dara. Iqbal was also the author of many political, philosophical and historical commentaries. He is officially recognized as the "national poet" in Pakistan.

From Cybercity online:

Allama Dr. Sir Mohammad Iqbal is one of most outstanding poets, writers, intellectuals and thinkers of modem times.

Iqbal was born at Sialkot on November 9, 1887. He held a brilliant academic record. He did his Masters in Philosophy from Government College, Lahore and joined there as a lecturer. He left for Europe in 1905 and studied Philosophy and Law at the Trinity College, Cambridge, Lincolin's Inn, London and the Munich University. He was awarded a 'Ph. D' by the Munich University.

He retu.med home in 1908 and rejoined service in the Government College, Lahore. He resigned after sometime and started practicing Law. He was elected Member of the Punjab Legislative Assembly in 1926 for three years. In 1930 Iqbal was elected President of the Muslim League session held at Allahabad. In 1931 he attended the Round Table Conference which met in London to frame a constitution for India and took active Part in its various committees.

He was the first to give a concrete shape to the Muslim aspirations in India for 'a separate homeland'. In his Presidential Address at the Annual Session of the All India Muslim League at Allahbad (1930) he boldly asserted the Muslim demand for the creation of a Muslim India within India, and said "I would like to see the Punjab, the North-West Frontier Province, Sindh and Baluchistan amalgamated into a single State".

It was Iqbal's fervent appeal which persuaded the Quaid-e-Azam in 1934 to return from England and lead the Muslims of the Indo-Pakistan Sub-continent in their struggle for constitutional rights and it was in his letters to the Quaid"e-Azam that he elaborated his scheme in its political as well as cultural context. He succeeded in convincing the Quaid-e-Azam that Pakistan was the only solution to the Political problems of the Muslims of India, and it was on the foundations laid by Iqbal that the Muslim Leageue's historic Pakistan Resolution of 1940 wa~ ha~rl

He believed, on the one hand, in the emancipation and freedom of the Muslims of the Indo-P~istan Sub-continent and on the other, he argued for the unity of Muslim nations all-over the world. Iqbal's political philosophy is not atomistic but organic in that it implied the formation of an associaiton of the Muslim countries to betten their own lot and be the upholder of peace and justice throughout the World. His verses in Urdu and Persian and his monumental treatises have been translated into almost all the important languages of the world and found wide recognition in Iran, Turkdy, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Italy, USSR, etc.

He died on April 21, 1938 at Lahore and was laid to rest near Badshahi Mosque. An academy named after him has been established by the Government of Pakistan to promote and disseminate the messages and teachings of Allama Iqbal.