Iqbal in his early poetry

Today is Allama Iqbal’s 88th death anniversary

There are a very few number of the dynamic poets of the world, among whom is Allama Sir Muhammad Iqbal (9 November 1877, Sialkot- 21 April 1938, Lahore, buried at the footstep of the Badshahi Mosque), a titanic figure in both poetry and philosophy. During the Pakistan Movement, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah 25 December 1876, Karachi-11 September 1948) stated that if the Muslims of India were successful in getting a separate state, and if he was offered the choice of becoming the head of this state and of the writings of Allama Iqbal, he would choose the latter.

Allama Iqbal is the only universal reformer among all those who got the highest modern education along with ancient learning. As far as Allama Iqbal’s highest place in both the Islamic and non-Islamic worlds is concerned, it is based on his later poetry, not his earlier. That leads us to understand that his earlier poetry deals with and reflects his non-philosophical and traditional aspect, though reflecting some new trends,, and of a non-Islamic, secular type. In this early poetry, Allama Iqbal stands for the things others do.

Allama Iqbal’s early poetry and its thoughts belong to the period before he went abroad, from his very beginning to 1905. This is the period to which belongs the first part of his first poetic collection, Bang-i Dara.

In his early poetry, Iqbal follows different traditional Western-cum-Eastern thoughts At that time we find, when Iqbal was born and grew up, even at the time of his early poetry, Europe had two thoughts at their extreme, rationalism and nationalism. Rationalism is totally based on nonreligious wisdom, even being anti-religion, nationalism is also anti-religious, being based on patriotism or secularism. Patriotism, or we can say area-wise nationalism was being implemented everywhere globally. A country was not only a country, but a nation, like India was a country, and home to a nation and Indian nationalism. In this thought, the country-nation is above the country’s religions, castes, creeds and colours. ‘Jai Hind’ means the victory of the Indian motherland, or country-based nationalism, over all other creeds.

When Iqbal’s early poetry is studied on the issue of nationalism, he is to found a thinker similar to his contemporaries. We can see it evidenced in many verses of Bang-i Dara. For example he wrote:

Miti ki mooraton main samjha hai Khuda hai/Khak-i watan ka mujh ko ka har zarra devta hai (You think God is in earthen idols/For me every atom of the Motherland is an angel)

Poems like Tarana-i Hind and Mera Watan Wahi Hai in Bang-i Dara, out of the early poetry, can be brought further as further proof. Here one line, Saray jehan se achha Hindustan hamara (Our Inia is better than the whole world) can sketch a further picture of the contemporary and Western patriotism in the mind of Iqbal’s early mind and early poetry.That traditional and Western patriotic theory was removed from Iqbal’s mind and poetry when he came back from England after the completion of his Western higher studies in 1908, the year his early thought, as well as his early thought and early philosophy had changed.

It can easily be seen that patriotism, the country-based nationalism, highly influenced Iqbal’s early poetry. In these lines one can see that though Iqbal condemned idol worship, he gave preference to nationalism over religion. When we further study these lines, we find that in his early poetic age, he had agreed that God could be traced only in nationalistic patriotism, even as compared to religion.

Poems like Tarana-i Hind and Mera Watan Wahi Hai in Bang-i Dara, out of the early poetry, can be brought further as further proof. Here one line, Saray jehan se achha Hindustan hamara (Our Inia is better than the whole world) can sketch a further picture of the contemporary and Western patriotism in the mind of Iqbal’s early mind and early poetry.That traditional and Western patriotic theory was removed from Iqbal’s mind and poetry when he came back from England after the completion of his Western higher studies in 1908, the year his early thought, as well as his early thought and early philosophy had changed.

One must agree with Dr Iftikhar Ahmad Siddiqui’s statement, “In the previous stage of his poetry, Iqbal had been a supporter of the ideology of patriotism and the creator of the Tarana-I-Hindustan. However, this ideology had planted in the hearts of the people of the West the reason for prejudice. After witnessing this, Iqbal’s eyes were opened., so he expressed his abhorrence and condemnation thus: ‘I am strongly opposed to nationalism not just because, when this ideology became common in India it would cause greater harm to the Muslims, but the reason for my opposition is that I see germs of an atheistic materialism in it, which I believe to be the greatest danger of mankind. Love of country is no doubt a good thing, and there is a place for it in Man’s moral lives. Even though what is more important is a person’s beliefs, his culture and civilization, his historical traditions, and for them a person makes the greatest of sacrifices, rather than the piece of land from which he hails, and to which the human spirits has a temporary attachment,”