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Famous
Personalities of the Global Islamic Movement Throughout History
Dr Muhammad Iqbal
(1877-1938) called “the most serious Muslim
philosophical thinker of modem times.” The frequently
used appellation of “poet-philosopher” is thus well
deserved. Iqbal was born in Sialkot, in the present-day
province of the Punjab in Pakistan, in 1877. In 1898 he
obtained a Law degree and in 1899 an MA in philosophy.
In his three years of stay abroad, Iqbal obtained a BA
from Cambridge (1906), qualified as a barrister at
London’s Middle Temple (1906), and earned a PhD from
Munich University (1908). Iqbal is one of the best
articulated Muslim response to Modernity that the
Islamic world has produced in the 20th century. As a
political activist/ social reformer - Iqbal died (1938)
before the creation of Pakistan (1947), but it was his
teaching that “spiritually ... has been the chief force
behind the creation of Pakistan.” He is the national
poet of Pakistan.
Political career
Iqbal, with Muslim political activists.While dividing
his time between law and poetry, Iqbal had remained
active in the Muslim League. He supported Indian
involvement in World War I, as well as the Khilafat
movement and remained in close touch with Muslim
political leaders such as Maulana Mohammad Ali and
Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He was a critic of the mainstream
Indian National Congress, which he regarded as dominated
by Hindus and was disappointed with the League when
during the 1920s, it was absorbed in factional divides
between the pro-British group led by Sir Muhammad Shafi
and the centrist group led by Jinnah.
In November 1926, with the encouragement of friends and
supporters, Iqbal contested for a seat in the Punjab
Legislative Assembly from the Muslim district of Lahore,
and defeated his opponent by a margin of 3,177 votes. He
supported the constitutional proposals presented by
Jinnah with the aim of guaranteeing Muslim political
rights and influence in a coalition with the Congress,
and worked with the Aga Khan and other Muslim leaders to
mend the factional divisions and achieve unity in the
Muslim League.
Revival of Islamic polity
Iqbal's second book in English, the Reconstruction of
Religious Thought in Islam, is a collection of his six
lectures which he delivered at Madras, Hyderabad and
Aligarh; first published as a collection in Lahore, in
1930. These lectures dwell on the role of Islam as a
religion as well as a political and legal philosophy in
the modern age. In these lectures Iqbal firmly rejects
the political attitudes and conduct of Muslim
politicians, whom he saw as morally-misguided, attached
to power and without any standing with Muslim masses.
Iqbal asserted that secularism as a guiding principle
for government was a mistake and must be abandoned by
the Muslim polity. Iqbal expressed fears that not only
would secularism weaken the spiritual foundations of
Islam and Muslim society, but that India's
Hindu-majority population would crowd out Muslim
heritage, culture and political influence. In his
travels to Egypt, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey, he
promoted ideas of greater Islamic political co-operation
and unity, calling for the shedding of nationalist
differences. He also speculated on different political
arrangements to guarantee Muslim political power; in a
dialogue with Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Iqbal expressed his
desire to see Indian provinces as autonomous units under
the direct control of the British government and with no
central Indian government. He envisaged autonomous
Muslim provinces in India. Under one Indian union he
feared for Muslims, who would suffer in many respects
especially with regard to their existentially separate
entity as Muslims. Sir Muhammad Iqbal was elected
president of the Muslim League in 1930 at its session in
Allahabad, in the United Provinces as well as for the
session in Lahore in 1932. In his presidential address
on December 29, 1930, Iqbal outlined a vision of an
independent state for Muslim-majority provinces in
northwestern India:
Iqbal with Choudhary Rahmat Ali and other Muslim
activists."I would like to see the Punjab, North-West
Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan amalgamated into
a single state. Self-government within the British
Empire, or without the British Empire, the formation of
a consolidated Northwest Indian Muslim state appears to
me to be the final destiny of the Muslims, at least of
Northwest India."
In his speech, Iqbal emphasised that unlike
Christianity, Islam came with "legal concepts" with
"civic significance," with its "religious ideals"
considered as inseparable from social order: "therefore,
the construction of a policy on national lines, if it
means a displacement of the Islamic principle of
solidarity, is simply unthinkable to a Muslim." Iqbal
thus stressed not only the need for the political unity
of Muslim communities, but the undesirability of
blending the Muslim population into a wider society not
based on Islamic principles. He thus became the first
politician to articulate what would become known as the
Two-Nation Theory — that Muslims are a distinct nation
and thus deserve political independence from other
regions and communities of India. However, he would not
elucidate or specify if his ideal Islamic state would
construe a theocracy, even as he rejected secularism and
nationalism. The latter part of Iqbal's life was
concentrated on political activity. He would travel
across Europe and West Asia to garner political and
financial support for the League, and he reiterated his
ideas in his 1932 address, and during the Third
Round-Table Conference, he opposed the Congress and
proposals for transfer of power without considerable
autonomy or independence for Muslim provinces. He would
serve as president of the Punjab Muslim League, and
would deliver speeches and publish articles in an
attempt to rally Muslims across India as a single
political entity. Iqbal consistently criticised feudal
classes in Punjab as well as Muslim politicians averse
to the League.
Relationship with Jinnah
Iqbal, in his final years.Ideologically separated from
Congress Muslim leaders, Iqbal had also been
disillusioned with the politicians of the Muslim League
owing to the factional conflict that plagued the League
in the 1920s. Discontent with factional leaders like Sir
Muhammad Shafi and Sir Fazl-ur-Rahman, Iqbal came to
believe that only Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a political
leader capable of preserving this unity and fulfilling
the League's objectives on Muslim political empowerment.
Building a strong, personal correspondence with Jinnah,
Iqbal was an influential force on convincing Jinnah to
end his self-imposed exile in London, return to India
and take charge of the League. Iqbal firmly believed
that Jinnah was the only leader capable of drawing
Indian Muslims to the League and maintaining party unity
before the British and the Congress:
"I know you are a busy man but I do hope you won't mind
my writing to you often, as you are the only Muslim in
India today to whom the community has right to look up
for safe guidance through the storm which is coming to
North-West India and, perhaps, to the whole of India."
There were significant differences between the two men —
while Iqbal believed that Islam was the source of
government and society, Jinnah was a believer in secular
government and had laid out a secular vision for
Pakistan where religion would have "nothing to do with
the business of the state." Iqbal had backed the
Khilafat struggle; Jinnah had dismissed it as "religious
frenzy." And while Iqbal espoused the idea of
partitioning Muslim-majority provinces in 1930, Jinnah
would continue to hold talks with the Congress through
the decade and only officially embraced the goal of
Pakistan in 1940. Some historians postulate that Jinnah
always remained hopeful for an agreement with the
Congress and never fully desired the partition of India.
Iqbal's close correspondence with Jinnah is speculated
by some historians as having been responsible for
Jinnah's embrace of the idea of Pakistan. Iqbal
elucidated to Jinnah his vision of a separate Muslim
state in a letter sent on June 21, 1937:
"A separate federation of Muslim Provinces, reformed on
the lines I have suggested above, is the only course by
which we can secure a peaceful India and save Muslims
from the domination of Non-Muslims. Why should not the
Muslims of North-West India and Bengal be considered as
nations entitled to self-determination just as other
nations in India and outside India are."
Iqbal, serving as president of the Punjab Muslim League,
criticised Jinnah's political actions, including a
political agreement with Punjabi leader Sir Sikandar
Hyat Khan, whom Iqbal saw as a representative of feudal
classes and not committed to Islam as the core political
philosophy. Nevertheless, Iqbal worked constantly to
encourage Muslim leaders and masses to support Jinnah
and the League.
In his views on Muslim political future, Iqbal was at
odds with Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, who had opposed the
partition of India. Maududi had however, been closer to
Iqbal's poetic-philosophy of an ideal Islamic state
which would reject secularism and nationalism. After the
creation of Pakistan, nine years after Iqbal's death,
Jinnah and other League politicians would publicly
credit Iqbal as one of the visionaries and founders of
the state.
Death
The Mausoleum of Iqbal, next to Badshahi Masjid, Lahore,
PakistanIn 1933, after returning from a trip to Spain
and Afghanistan, Iqbal's health deteriorated. He spent
his final years working to establish the Idara Dar-ul-Islam,
an institution where studies in classical Islam and
contemporary social science would be subsidised, and
advocating the demand for an independent Muslim state.
Iqbal ceased practising law in 1934 and he was granted
pension by the Nawab of Bhopal. After suffering for
months from a series of protracted illnesses, Iqbal died
in Lahore in 1938. His tomb is located in the space
between the entrance of the Badshahi Mosque and the
Lahore Fort, and an official guard is maintained there
by the Government of Pakistan.
Criticism
Some intellectuals criticised Iqbal for embracing
Nietzsche's concept of Übermensch, reflected in Iqbal's
descriptions of ego, self, and renewal for Muslim
civilization. He has also been criticised for his
advocacy of Islamic political revival and rejection of
Western scientific and cultural influences. Several
scholars have called his poetic descriptions of the true
practice of Islam impractical and wrongly dismissive of
diverse societies and cultural heritages.
While credited and admired as the conceptual founder of
Pakistan, Iqbal is criticised by some historians and
scholars for implicitly endorsing the incompatibility of
Muslims with other religious communities. Some
historians and Indian nationalists criticise Iqbal's
vision for a Muslim state as specifically implying the
denunciation of Hindus and Hinduism, as well as the
peaceful co-existence of Hindus and Muslims. Iqbal was
also strongly criticised for advocating on occasions,
the division and fragmentation of India. Critics also
point to the civil war that led to the secession of East
Pakistan in 1971, as well as recent sectarian and
religious conflict in Pakistan to suggest that Iqbal's
notion of a natural Muslim nation and of Islam as a
political, unifying identity was inherently flawed and
fanciful. Despite this criticism, Iqbal is widely
credited for his work in encouraging the political
rejuvenation and empowerment of Muslims, and as a great
poet not only in India and Pakistan, but also in Iran,
Afghanistan and Muslim nations in the Middle East.
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Khilafah Movement