Essay 27 Allama Iqbal/My Favourite Poet/My Hero in History for 12/BA/B.Sc. English by AG Ahmad

 

Essay No 27

Allama Dr. Muhammad Iqbal

My Favourite Poet Or Writer Or My Hero

OUTLINE: (For BA Students)

1. Iqbal is my favourite poet. He is one of greatest poets of the East.

2. His early and later life is marked with his great interest in poetry.

3. He awakened the Muslims of the sub-continent India and produced in them a spirit to get a separate country.

4. He has advocated the cause of Islam with such dedication as no other writer has done.

5. His poetry is purposeful and marked with mysticism.

Some-one has wisely said,

A hero is someone

who devotes his life for something bigger than himself.

Iqbal is my favourite poet. He is one of the greatest poets of the East. He was born in Sialkot and educated at Murray College. There, he came under the influence of Maulana Mir. Hassan. From the very beginning, he was said to be a talented child. He got his higher education at Government College, Lahore. Then, he went to Cambridge and later to Germany where he got his doctorate degree. He began his legal practice at Lahore. Once he said,

The soul is neither inside nor outside the body;

Neither proximate to nor separate from it.

          He did not devote his attention to his profession but entered political life. He found the

Muslims politically backward. It was at this stage of life that he began to write poems. He wanted to produce a new awakening in the backward Muslims of the sub-continent. He started writing in Urdu. Later on, he used Persian as a vehicle of his expression. As once he said,

Nations are born in the hearts of poets,

they prosper and die in the hands of politicians.

His poetry worked wonders. It was at one of the meetings of Anjuman Himayat-Islam that he recited his famous poem "Nala-i-Yatim. The poem impressed the audience very much. People paid him great tribute. He was thought a symbol of respect and honour. His books, “Bang—Dara” and “Bal-l-Jabril” are the products of his great genius. All the poems in them are sublime. They have great poetic appeal. Some of the lines in them are pure magic. His poetry is burdened (loaded) with message of Islam. As once he said,

When truth has no burning, then it is philosophy.

When it gets burning from the heart, it becomes poetry.

He has advocated the cause of Islam with such dedication as no other writer has done. He has written many books of poems. Some of his books are in Urdu, while others are in Persian. His books have been translated into English also. In his poems, he has done a lot to awaken the Muslims and produced in them a political consciousness. As once he said,

Why hast thou made me born in this country,

The inhabitant of which is satisfied with being a slave?

He brought the Muslims of sub-continent of India on a single platform and infused in them unity. He put forward the two-nation theory before the Muslims of India. He pointed out that the Muslims were different from the Hindus in their economic, social and cultural life. They must live in a separate state if they wanted to make progress. In this way, he was the first one who gave the idea of Pakistan. As once he said,

I, therefore, demand the formation of a consolidated

Muslim State in the best interest of India and Islam.

He has derived a lot from the teachings of the Holy Quran. His poems preach the lessons of unity, faith and discipline. As a matter of fact, they are the mirrors of Islam. Iqbal himself is a mystic. He has been greatly influenced by the great Sufi poet Maulana Jalal-ud-Din Rumi. He considers him his spiritual guide. Once he said,

Unbeliever is he who follows predestination even if he will be Muslim,

Faithful is he, if he himself is the Divine Destiny.

Iqbal is my favourite author because his poetry is purposeful. It preaches mysticism of new order. This mysticism is entirely based on the teachings of Islam. We are greatly impressed by the profound and depth of his message. He lives in the mind of all Muslims, for his everlasting message. Once he said,

"If faith is lost, there is no security and

there is no life for him who does not adhere to religion."

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