INTRODUCTION

• Iqbal was born in 1873 in Sialkot (British India) to devout parents who imparted Islamic education at an early age.

• For secondary education, he attended both an Islamic school and a missionary school providing English education on British lines.

• He graduated from Government College Lahore in 1899 with degrees in Philosophy, English Literature, and Arabic.

• After graduation, he was appointed as a lecturer in the Philosophy Department.

• Iqbal became well-known as a poet, composing Taranae-Hind (popularly known for its first lines “saare jahan se achcha”), a nationalist song promoting love for Hindustan beyond religious identities.

• In 1905, Iqbal went to Europe for further studies, obtaining a degree in Law from Trinity College, Cambridge, and a PhD from Munich University.

• After returning to India in 1908, Iqbal left his teaching career to practice law in Lahore, where he spent his life.

• In Europe, Iqbal was exposed to the ideas of western philosophers like Nietzsche and Bergson, as well as contemporary Islamic thinkers.

• Iqbal began to reflect on civilisational questions and developed a critique of western political and cultural forms, particularly the divisive nature of national identities.

• Iqbal saw a solution to divisions and moral dilemmas generated by modernity through Islamic ideas of universal brotherhood and ethics.

• Upon returning to India, Iqbal focused on questions such as how to advocate for a polity and society based on Islamic principles of universalism rather than divisive nationalism, how to understand Islam and the Muslim community in light of modernity, and the issues with modernity.

• Iqbal is often regarded as the spiritual father of Pakistan in contemporary India and Pakistan.

• He was involved with several Muslim organisations, including the All India Muslim League until his death in 1938.

• In the 1930 Allahabad session of the Muslim League, Iqbal presented his vision for a political framework to ensure the welfare of Muslims, proposing an autonomous state based on Islamic principles in the north-west of India.

• This vision is often seen as the birth of the idea of Pakistan.

• However, Iqbal envisioned such a state not out of hatred for other religions or love for a separate nation, but because he believed that an Islamic polity could lead to the fullest development of man and promote universal brotherhood, in contrast to the divisive nature of western political ideas.

• Scholars have viewed Iqbal in various ways, such as an Islamist, a reformer, and a third world nationalist, reflecting the complexity of his ideas.

• It is crucial not to reduce Iqbal’s extensive philosophical, religious, and civilisational concerns to merely a demand for a separate nation.