Iqbal, Greatest Protagonist of Muslim Identity
The federal government’s decision, under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, to restore November 9, the birth anniversary of the Poet of the East, Allama Dr. Muhammad Iqbal, as a public holiday is a welcome one. It reflects a national recognition that Iqbal was not merely a great poet but among the architects of our intellectual, cultural, spiritual and national identity. Yet a holiday alone is not enough. The real question is how we make the day meaningful. Iqbal showed a scattered and inferiority-ridden people the path to self-knowledge, self-confidence, freedom and collective awakening. Carrying those ideas to the new generation is the truest tribute we can pay him.With this in mind, I have drawn on the research of Prof. Dr. Ayub Sabir, a distinguished scholar of Iqbal studies who examined, through long research and authentic references, the objections raised against Iqbal’s personality, thought, art and vision of Pakistan. His engagement with Iqbal is no passing reaction. His book Iqbal Dushmani: Aik Mutalia appeared in 1993, followed by Iqbal ki Shakhsiyat par Aitrazat ka Jaiza in 2003. His doctoral thesis, also on objections to Iqbal’s personality and work, was published by Iqbal Academy Pakistan in 2018 in three volumes. Covering Iqbal’s personal life, poetry, intellectual evolution, religious ideas and the concept of Pakistan, this body of work offers a scholarly method for testing misconceptions, superficial criticism and conclusions torn from their context.A natural question arises: why has Iqbal attracted so many objections? The answer is that he challenged the intellectual stagnation, mental servitude, cultural awe of the West and collective inertia of his age, and a voice that disturbs complacency must expect resistance.
His poetry is not merely the language of emotion but an intellectual movement, urging people to know themselves, trust their abilities and build their character. At its heart lies the concept of khudi, or selfhood.Some critics have misread khudi as arrogance or egotism. For Iqbal it means inner strength, self-awareness, moral elevation, dignity and the realisation of one’s creative potential. His Persian masnavis Asrar-e-Khudi and Rumuz-e-Bekhudi address, respectively, the building of the individual and the relationship between individual and community: the individual finds fulfilment in the community, and the community draws strength from the training of its individuals. Selfhood is perfected through devotion to God, love, ethics and ceaseless striving, and Iqbal calls people out of passivity and despair toward a purpose in life. He expresses this in his well-known couplet:Raise your selfhood so high that, before every decree of destiny,God Himself asks His servant: “Tell me, what is your wish?”Here Iqbal does not set man against God. He invites man to rise to the highest station of servitude, recognise his capacities and give life purpose through character and action. The verse can be understood properly only within the whole philosophy of khudi, not as an isolated line.A second pillar of his thought is the presentation of Islam as a living, dynamic faith that welcomes ijtihad, independent reasoning. His English work The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam discusses religious experience, reason and knowledge, time and space, selfhood and ijtihad. For Iqbal, a Muslim society’s progress requires firm attachment to the Quran and Sunnah together with awareness of changing circumstances. Stagnation is not the mark of a living nation, but renewal does not mean departing from Islam’s foundations; it means finding answers to new problems in their light.This spiritual outlook also shaped his personality. Love of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him), devotion to the Quran, austerity, self-respect and spiritual freedom recur throughout his verse. Love, for him, is not mere sentiment but the source of self-construction, clarity of purpose and power to act. Rather than setting reason against love, he treats them as two complementary aspects of human consciousness, and this balance underlies his ideal of the true believer.
His poetry mirrors this journey. Bang-e-Dara, Payam-e-Mashriq, Zabur-e-Ajam, Javid Nama, Bal-e-Jibril, Zarb-e-Kalim and Armaghan-e-Hijaz reveal successive stages of his thought. Love, beauty, humanism and patriotism appear, but the canvas keeps widening from individual to community, from community to humanity, and from humanity to the cosmos. His early verse expresses love of homeland and Indian social life; later work foregrounds the distinct cultural identity of Muslims, communal selfhood and Islamic revival. Some critics called this a decline in his poetry, but an evolution of thought should not be dismissed as artistic weakness without considering the poet’s age, circumstances and purpose. It reflects, rather, the breadth of his intellectual journey and his deep engagement with the collective problems of his time.Objections to Iqbal’s private life have also surfaced in different eras. Research into a historical figure’s personal life should never be barred, but it must be distinguished from allegation. Claims about his married life, family matters, letters and personal relationships must be tested against authentic records, original documents and their historical circumstances. Dr. Sabir’s work points to this principle: presenting unverified incidents as historical fact violates scholarly integrity.Iqbal’s political thought carries equal weight. His address at the All-India Muslim League’s Allahabad session on December 29, 1930, is a historic document on the distinct political and cultural identity of the Muslims of the subcontinent, envisioning a political arrangement for the Muslim-majority regions of north-western India. His later letters to Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah likewise offer guidance on Muslims’ political future, and in this context Iqbal is widely recognised as an important intellectual guide of the Pakistan Movement. Dr. Sabir also addresses objections to the concept of Pakistan, and understanding this subject requires reading the Allahabad Address, the letters to Jinnah and Iqbal’s other relevant writings directly, as these are the primary sources. For Iqbal, the Muslim question was not merely one of power or territorial division but of protecting culture, religious freedom, collective identity and political future.Today, Iqbal’s thought grows more relevant. Our society grapples with intellectual confusion, educational weakness, economic pressure, intolerance and collective inertia. Iqbal’s message reminds us of knowledge, character, self-confidence, unity, perseverance and national responsibility. In an age of science, technology and artificial intelligence, his spirit of ijtihad and quest for knowledge takes on fresh meaning. His shaheen, the falcon, teaches young people high flight, dignity and lofty aims in an era of social media noise and fleeting popularity, while his idea of the community urges individuals to look beyond themselves.
The balance of love and reason, and the spirit of ijtihad, are antidotes to both extremism and stagnation. As he wrote, the destiny of nations lies in the hands of individuals; every individual is a star in the fortune of the nation.Paying tribute to Iqbal does not mean placing him beyond criticism. Scholarly disagreement is part of any living intellectual tradition, but criticism must rest on research, argument and original sources. Herein lies the value of Dr. Sabir’s work: it invites us to examine the historical and scholarly basis of any claim or objection before accepting it.The holiday is welcome, but the day will acquire real meaning only when educational institutions hold serious dialogue, debates and essay competitions on Iqbal’s thought; universities promote Iqbal studies; young people read his original works rather than selected verses; and digital libraries and online platforms spread his message. We must make that message part of our individual and collective lives instead of settling for recitations and ceremonial events. Iqbal reminds us still:Learn again the lesson of truth, of justice, of valour;You will be called upon to lead the world.This intellectual legacy is a national trust whose preservation, understanding and promotion is our responsibility. Iqbal is not only a great literary figure of the past but a continuing invitation to build the future. The restoration of the holiday should be seen in that wider national purpose. Making November 9 a day of Iqbal scholarship, research, intellectual awakening and national renewal, not merely a day of rest, will be the truest tribute to the Poet of the East.
