Allama Iqbal Poet of East

Allama Iqbal poet of The East(1877-1938)

Allama Muhammad Iqbal is no doubt poet of the east of 20th century.He was a scholar of different  languages like Urdu, Persian, Arabic and English.He had  god gifted ability to say poems but he also got training from a well known poet Dagh when he came Lahore for graduation.
  His early poems are  melodious and have traditional romantic touch. He was also propagating the concept of Hindu Muslim (two major nation of India of )unity. His famous tarana ''saray jahan sa acha Hindustan hmara  hum bulbleinn hein es ki ya gulstan hmara.''
  In 1902 he had to go to England and then to Germany for higher studies. During his stay in Europe his beloved mother died.He could not come to his homeland but he wrote a memorable poem ''walda marhooma ki yad ma''  The poet was young and Heidelberg was surrounded with greenery.Climate was extremly moderate.  An intellectual and attractive woman named Atia Faizi was not only  his class fellow but a person who liked to give most of her time to poet where as Iqbal loved to share all his sorrows and joys with her and even discussed his new thoughts and philosophy not being published yet to her. Many unforgettable and pure love poems included in Bang e Dara like wasal'' and ''husn o Ishq'' were written in Germany.
Soon  he felt bitterly that west was making progress  because it wass concentrating on technical education while east is wasting his time in poetry. So he stopped writing poetry. People of India were struggling for freedom. Iqbal was also a freedom lover. His close friends like Abdul Qadir who was an editor of a popular magazine 'Makhzan' told him that his poetry can play an important role in freedom movement as his poetry is popular in public very much. So he again started writing poetry. Now his poetry had new and wide horizons. Instead of Hindu Muslim unity he emphasized on international Muslim brotherhood and said ''Chin o Ara hmara Hindustan hmara Muslim hein hum watan hay sara jahan hmara.''
He  advised Muslims to have separate homelands where ever they were in majority. Iqbaal has suggested Muslims to have their territories where they are in majority but at the same time he severely opposed that concept of Nationalism which persuades people of a nation to exploit fundamental rights and even to shed blood of another nations and split the bond of humanity in pieces.
 He stressed on character building and told faith,unity,bravery and justice main tools for that purpose. His poems (when sang by singers or the poet himself in the processions) ignited a new fire in the hearts of freedom lovers. A mob of 40 or 50 thousands people wept while he recited his poems. When Muslim leaders didn't agreed at one agenda Qaid e Azam got annoyed, resigned from chairmanship of Muslim League and went to London. Leaders of Muslim League persuaded Alama Iqbal to accept Chairman ship of Muslim League.At that time Allama Iqbal said a historical sentence .He said, ''I would prefer to work as subordinate of Quaid e Azam rather than to chair the  party in his presence because he is the only leader in India who can take the astray ship to the shores of freedom''
     He also took active part in politics and was elected  a member of provincial legislature assembly. His addresses were also published in book form. In these addresses Iqbal has  pinpointed the shortcomings of Muslims and found a solution as well. He gave idea of self esteem and asked to  develop self abilities according to concent of Allah and then devote ourselves for the welfare of our fellowmen.He called it  ''ba khudii''. Some prejudicial religious leaders called him kaffir for his boldness in religion matters but truthfulness of his thoughts gradually convinced them too. His throat was soar so he could not speak  in his late years. On 11 sep1938,in the morning ,that poet who can receive messages of breeze, moon and stars passed away with a dream of freedom in his eyes which came true after nine years of his death.