Iqbal-An Appreciation

BY PROF. K. N. VASWANI, M.A., LL.B.

(D. G. National College, Hyderabad, Sind.)

In the death, last April, of Iqbal, India lost a distinguished poet of international repute and universal appeal. One of the brightest and most scintillating stars in the literary firmament of India passed out of our ken. The Moslems lost a prominent politician; India lost a great poet. It was not the loss of a province–the Punjab where he was born; it was not the loss of a community–the Moslems whose rights he worked for as a prominent member of the Moslem League; it was a national loss, for Iqbal in his poetry was a patriot–a patriot who gave to us the song "Sare Jehan se Achchha Hindustan Hamara."

The poet Iqbal was greater than the politician Iqbal. And the poet Iqbal will live long after the politician Iqbal is heard of no more. The Pakistan scheme of the politician Iqbal will have died and faded into nothing, but poet Iqbal’s "Safe Jehan se Achchha Hindustan Hamara" will live, will inspire countless Hindustani hearts and will immortalise him.

Our Iqbal is the poet Iqbal, who stood not for a community but who stood for "Hindustan Hamara." It is this Iqbal we love and hold in high esteem. This Iqbal was as good as his name–this Iqbal was the glory of India even as his very name signified. Our subject in this article is this great Iqbal, whose heart beat not only for the Moslem but for every Hindustani, nay for every human being, and who sang of the dignity of man as man, who stood for the self-respect and rights not only of the Moslem but of every man and woman. This universal Iqbal is the true Iqbal, the glorious Iqbal, of whom India can justly be proud, to whom India should build a monument and to whom we may rightly offer the flowers of love and homage.

Iqbal was born at Sialkot (Punjab) in 1877. His early education he received at a local school. Later he was educated at the Government College, Lahore, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He was for some time Lecturer in the Oriental College, Lahore. He was also Professor of Philosophy for some time in Government College, Lahore. In 1905, he visited Europe, where, during his visit to Germany, the Munich University, conferred on him the degree of Ph.D. in recognition of his erudition and scholarship. He was also appointed Professor of Arabic in the London University.

He had been called to the Bar in 1900, and after his return to India he started practice, became one of the leading lawyers, took active part in public life, and was a member of the Punjab Legislative Council for many years. He was knighted in 1923. He was a member of the Round Table Conference.

During the latter years of his life, he was a leading member of the Moslem League–this was a thing over which many Indian hearts have felt a touch of regret, for this meant that he gave to the Moslems what was meant for the whole of Hindustan–his gem-like genius and his rich and varied gifts. But things like this have happened before in the history of men of letters. One is reminded of Shelley’s regret over Wordsworth’s change of attitude in regard to Liberty. Let us not therefore pause here to lament.

"The evil that men do lives after them.
The good is oft interred with their bones"

Not so be it with Iqbal. We turn to what I have called the great Iqbal, the true Iqbal, who, I have said, is our subject here.

The poet Iqbal was a learned scholar who had known what is precious in the world of books, both of the East and of the West. He was also learned in another sphere, in which all great poets must be so. He had studied very well the world of men–both in the vast continent of India and the rapidly moving countries of Europe. Iqbal not only felt and thrilled, imagined and soared; he also thought and reasoned and understood and walked on the solid earth. He was a great intellectual, not only a man of dreams. He kept his eye on realities, not merely lived amidst poetic fancies. He was a poet, but he was also a philosopher.

Iqbal was a great master of Persian as well as Urdu. He wrote in both these languages with fluency, power and distinction. Bang-e-dara, Bob-e-Zabril and Zorb-e-Kalim are some of his chief works in Urdu. At the time of his death he was working on a book in Urdu–Soore-Israfeel. After 1908, he wrote, mostly in Persian. Among his books, in Persian are the following: Asrar-e-Khudi, Ramuz-be-Khudi, Plyam-e-Mashriq, Zabur-e-Ajam and Javad Nama.

In his expression, Iqbal was rather abstruse–a characteristic which he possessed in common with Browning with whom he invites a comparison in several respects. He was an intellectual like Browning, as also a realist like him. His abstruseness, like that of Browning, was perhaps the result of the complex materials which he handled and the complex aspects of life which he wrote about. Like Browning, he believed in a philosophy of unceasing endeavour, a climb higher and an urge upward. Both struck a note of courageous optimism and saw through dark strife and terrible struggle, the meaning and significance of the conflict and the glory and grandeur of man’s fight against adverse circumstances and opposing forces.

Iqbal’s last couplets, which he dictated ten minutes before his demise, are in Persian. One of these very aptly strikes what is perhaps the key-note of his poetry–courage in the face of difficulty, the marvellous spirit of man, which rises supreme in all trials–the note of optimism which is such a feature of Iqbal’s poetry.

The couplets, referred to here, run thus:

"Nishane marde moman ba to goyam
Choon marg ayad tabassam bar labe oost."
(Hark! The sign of the virtuous one To thee I unfold.
When him the Angel of Death approaches, On his lips a smile you behold.)

It is in lines like these that we have, the great, the universal Iqbal. We are inevitably reminded of Browning’s great lines:

"I was ever a fighter, so one fight more
The best and the last."

It is in such lines that a poet becomes a seer, a sage, and attains to serenity–the mark of a saint.

When a poet breaks out in verse like the following:

"O Grave! where is thy victory?
O Death! where is thy sting?"

we feel that the poet has become the superman or at least has become more than mortal. The reader gets uplifted and poetry fulfils its noblest end–that of raising the man, of putting heart in him, of teaching him to face, with spirit and manliness, the blows of life ‘and the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.’ For the teaching of all true poetry is one and the same:

"Be not like dumb driven cattle,
Be a hero in the strife."

Iqbal’s poetry stands the acid test of true and great poetry. It makes a man of a coward and a hero of a man. Its dominant note is, Excelsior! As we read him, the words seem to ring in ours ears:

Like some hero of the ocean,
Like some warrior of some field,
Fight the fight of Faith and Freedom
Fight till death and never yield.
No Surrender! No Surrender!
Ever be our battle cry
No Surrender! No Surrender!
Win the fight or die.

A few lines from Iqbal’s Piyam-e-Mashriq–perhaps his greatest and best known book–are most apposite here:

Qaba-e-zindagane chak ta kae?
Cho moran ashian dar khak ta kae?
Mian-e Lala-o-gul ashian dar geer
Ze murghe naghmakhwan dars-e-fughan geer."

(How long will the garment of your life remain torn? How long will you make your home in the earth like the ants? Build your nest amidst tulips and roses and learn music from the singing bird.)

The idea is: Let us soar high and sing beautifully like Shelley’s Skylark! Let us be up and doing!

"Life is real, life is earnest
And the grave is not its goal."

It is a noble message which calls up our drooping spirits and cries out: Aspire! Aspire! Aim at the stars!

The message of Iqbal clearly shows that he had assimilated and accepted the philosophy of Effort and Endeavour and Action from the West, as distinguished from the Asceticism, Resignation and Submission of the East. But let us not make the mistake of thinking that Iqbal was an admirer of the West, who enthused over the achievements of the West and deprecated and esteemed not the East. If anyone is labouring under this error, let him read Iqbal’s Piyam-e-Mashriq and his mind will be disabused of this wrong notion.

In his Piyam-e-Mashriq Iqbal is deeply critical of the materialism of the West and emphasises and highly esteems the spiritual values and the message of the East. It is perhaps, because of this criticism of the West and the, interpretation of the message of the East in the pages of his Piyam-e-Mashriq that this book of Iqbal has made the greatest appeal to the West, and has been translated into English, into German and several other languages. In Germany, the enthusiasm for Iqbal ran so high that a society was established whose work was to translate his works into German. In the German translation of Piyam-e-Mashriq, he was highly praised and compared to the great Goethe of Germany.

Some of the other works of Iqbal have also been translated into European languages. Among these is Asrar-e-Khudi which has been rendered into Russian and also into English. Italy did not fall behind the other European countries in her appreciation of Iqbal; and Dr. Schoria, a renowned Italian scholar, has paid high tributes to Iqbal and has also written an excellent commentary on his works. Recognition of the high merits of Iqbal’s poetry came from all sides. The late Dr. Brown spoke highly of him in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1921). Mr. Mackenzie, an American scholar, in his book on "The Awakening of India," paid him a glowing tribute. Rabindranath Tagore, in his fine tribute to Iqbal, justly referred to the universal value of his poetry.

Iqbal’s poetry will always remain interesting, appreciated alike by the scholar and the man in the street, for it is poetry based on an understanding of, and sympathy with, man as man in the East and the West. Iqbal was a poet whose rapture was reasoned and was not the result of mere sentiment and riotous fancy. He appreciated the best in both the East and the West and was not averse to condemning what he considered reprehensible in both.

He has therefore a message both to the East and the West and the best in both rings out of his poetry as his message. He was the product both of the East and of the West–he came under the influence of both–and his poetry will influence both and consequently the whole of humanity.

In a tribute recently paid to him Iqbal was praised as the Pride of Islam and it was said: "While Mustapha Kemal has served the Moslem world with the sword, Iqbal has served it with the pen. In one respect he is superior to Mustapha Kemal, for his poetry, if understood and acted up to, can create many like Mustapha Kemal." This was considered very high praise by the man who was paying his tribute to Iqbal. But, in fact, it does not do justice to Iqbal and his poetry.

A poet to be great should not be merely a Moslem, he must be human first. Iqbal is great and will remain great not because he served the Moslem world, but because he served man’s world through his fine poetry, and therefore he merits the world’s gratitude and remembrance. It is to this Iqbal that our tribute is due.