Writer: Jaweria Chaudhary
City: Lahore, Pakistan

خِرد مندوں سے کیا پوچھوں کہ میری اِبتدا کیا ہے
کہ میں اس فکر میں رہتا ہوں، میری انتہا کیا ہے

Sialkot, a small city holds the honor of being Allama Iqbal's birth place in 1877. Sheikh Nur Muhammd, Allama Iqbal's father, being a pious and religious person himself, delivered much of his religious and contemporary education to his son. Iqbal was educated and groomed initially at home by a renowned scholar of his times, Syed Mir Hassan who furnished Iqbal and nourished the talent of his poetry in its initial stages, which lead Iqbal to give his best regarding Urdu and Persian for all times. He accomplished his Bachelor and Master degrees with distinct grades in his district and was appointed to Oriental College Lahore. It was where he got his first Urdu publication in 1903.

But his untamed quests and keenness for knowledge soon lead him to Europe where his educational career culminated in various renowned institutions and got the honor of being a barrister from Lincoln's Inn at London.It was in England that he got involved practically in politics in 1908. Then he came back to subcontinent.

His well known literature in Persion include Asrar-i-Khudi (1915), Rumuz-i-Bekhudi (1917), Payam-i-Mashriq, Zabur-i-Ajam, Javiadnama and Armaghan-i-Hijaz (1938 and in Urdu Bang-i-Dara (1924) followed by Bal-i-Jibril (1935) and Zarb-i-Kalim (1936) are worthseen .One finds Iqbal's top Urdu poetry among these in Bal-i-Jibril.

The main theme of Allama Iqbal's Urdu and Persian poetry remains Khudi or Selfhood. He teaches and tries to inculcate the essence of Khudi into Muslims by exposing them to their brilliant past, giving them the strength and motivation fr a Renaissance, for the betterment in their present, setting a foundation for yet another buoyant future.

کبھی اے نوجواں مسلم! تدبّر بھی کیا تو نے
وہ کیا گردُوں تھا تو جس کا ہے اِک ٹوٹا ہوا تارا

His poetry was exposed to certain new wonderful and powerful dimensions of self realization,bravery, courage and universal Muslim brotherhood.

Iqbal expanded the horizons of Urdu poetry in several of its domains like poems, Nazams, Ghazals etc, thus offering the depth and versatility which lacked priorly.

He has also embroidered Urdu poetry by producing wonderful poems for children as well, thus presenting himself as a real poet of masses.

His main focus on Muslims was to learn from his past, work on your present and hope for the future.He was the person who made his rich contribution in creating awareness among people about the worst condition of subcontinent.

اُٹھو ! میری دنیا کے غریبوں کو جگا دو
کاخِ اُمراء کے دَر و دیوار ہلا دو

جس کھیت سے دہکان کو میسّر نہ ہو روزی
اُس کھیت کے ہر خوشہء گندم کو جلا دو

Allam Iqbal's poetic contributions to Urdu and Persian languages, no doubt are of greatest stature, but what could be deemed as his greatest achievement, turning the course of history for the Muslims of Subcontinent in particular and Muslims all across the globe in general, is his idea of a sovereign Muslim state comprising of the Muslim majority areas of United India.

As stated earlier, encompassing the achievements of Sir Allama Muhammad Iqbal, in there scope and level of impact and significance might take decades to be done justifiably.

It’s the need of hour to make the above mentioned part of Iqbal’s poetry a pictorial picture to lead a life freely.

IQBALs poetry made people THINK to raise their hope and motivated them to stand against the imperialism & other humiliating systems. By the virtue of this thought provoking poetry, his poetry live in the hearts of people. his literary efforts are still applauded and remembered...!

ہزاروں سال نرگس اپنی بے نوری پہ روتی ہے
بڑی مشکل سے ہوتا ہے چمن میں دیدہ وَر پیدا

May his soul rest in peace…