‘Eghbal-i-Lahuri’ and the Iranians
(article published in Daily Dawn, coauthored by Nasir Riaz)
04-09-11
Iran is a country with 5,000 years old history, an astonishing heritage and rich culture. Iranians have a rich knowledge base in almost every field ranging a wide variety of subjects. Their libraries are full of original books and journals all written in Persian. This is a priceless treasure accumulated over centuries and well preserved by Iranian scholars and researchers.
Iran has one of the world’s oldest as well as most advanced knowledge bank and its people are not dependent on any other nation for acquiring knowledge. Iran is the land of Maulana Rumi, Firdausi, Hafiz Shirazi and Omar Khayyam, whose classic work has been, and is, a source of inspiration for centuries.
Pakistan is also known as the land of the Shaer-i-Mashriq Dr Allama Iqbal, a world famous poet and maestro of inspirational poetry and change philosophy. This article narrates a stunning discovery made in Iran about the deep-rooted relationship of Dr Allama Iqbal’s work in Persian with the common people of Iran.
While living in Iran for an extended period of time as a part of work there was an ample opportunity for us to travel extensively in the country and mingle with both the Iranian intelligentsia and commoners. It came as a pleasant surprise during this interaction that our national poet Dr Allama Iqbal is very popular and well known in every strata of Iranian society. Almost everyone, from children to grown ups, from a taxi driver to an office executive, all know some of Allama Iqbal’s verses in Persian. It was a surprise to find that in Mashhad there is an Eghbal-i-Lahuri Institute of Higher Studies functioning under the patronage of the Iranian Government offering degrees in social sciences and engineering. In Iran, Dr Allama Iqbal is commonly known as “Eghbal-i-Lahuri”.
While talking to scholars in Tehran University it was discovered that Iqbal’s poetic work like “Az Zabur-i-Ajam” was a major source of inspiration and motivation for many young people taking part in the 1979 Inqelab. They recalled that it was a common thing during the revolution days to see people gathering in a park or corner to listen to someone reciting Iqbal’s blood-warming Persian poetry.
Iqbal’s “Asrare-i-Khudi” and famous “Bal-i-Jibreel” enjoy mass popularity in Iran and are taken as a way of life. The scholars in Firdausi University of Mashhad were of the view that both the Pakistani people and government have no idea what an asset they have in the form of Iqbal’s preserved poetic works.
It is unfortunate to see how we in Pakistan have carried forward the legacy of our national poet. How many of us remember any verse from his poetry? Iqbal’s philosophy and its imbedded message is virtually unknown to our youth and common people. The main reason for it is that no one in Pakistan has bothered to translate and communicate Iqbal’s philosophical thoughts in a simple and easy to understand language.
Unfortunately, we have paved way for fundamentalism, sectarianism and dividing people in faith and practice by not being able to comprehend the true essence of Iqbal’s message. Realistically speaking, the common people only know Iqbal as more of a revolutionary poet whereas the intellectual people know another version of Iqbal—the poet, philosopher and mystic.
This compartmentalisation has become so strong in Pakistani society that it has divided us into two opposing factions, both of which are intolerant of the existence of the other. What is the probable reason of this dilemma? Did we deliberately block the promotion of Iqbal’s vision in favour of promoting right-winged politics? Or was it that Iqbal’s vision was too far ahead of its time and many of our academicians and politicians have not yet reached the level of intellectual evolution that would enable us to promote it for the desired change in society?
We are a classical example of a country where the philosophy of Iqbal is being interpreted and used for all the wrong reasons.
It is due to this that the country today is in dire straits and heading towards destruction which seems to be its only destiny.
Perhaps Allama Iqbal was also cognizant of the fact that his philosophy will be best understood by people knowing classic Persian and by doing so they will be able to relate it to its genuine roots as well; therefore, he recorded his wisdom in Persian.
All intellectuals and critics agree that Iqbal’s best work is in Persian, and not in Urdu. His Urdu poetry is either a reflection of the classic readings he did in western knowledge or eastern knowledge or it is a summary of his ideas. Now the challenge of whether or not we would choose to comprehend Iqbal in the context of intellectuals and accept him as a proactive thinker and philosopher who gave us the remedy of all of our ills rather than taking him as a regressive theologian responsible for all our ills lies before us. Because not understanding the vision of Iqbal, many people even start questioning the aim of Pakistan.
But who will take up that challenge? What responsibility lies on the shoulders of the school and college teachers and university professors regardless of the discipline they teach? Is Iqbal the sole property of the linguists, who will keep on producing lifeless research? It is lifeless, because words are just a body, whereas the meanings are the soul. Who will introduce us to the spirit of Iqbal that would inspire life in a dead nation?
Experts responsible for designing school to university level curriculums have not done full justice to Allama Iqbal’s work. The teachers who are responsible to deliver that syllabus themselves have no idea on how to interpret or where to integrate Iqbal’s vision in their courses.
As explained before that Iqbal in our country has unfortunately been cornered gradually while being perceived as the property of linguistics only. A lot is written in appreciation on his asloob-i-biyaan, imagery, literally content and figurative language. But no one seems bothered to interpret the true meaning of Iqbal’s poetic work in terms of touching people’s heart and changing their lives. It is evident from the fact that Iqbal’s work is missing from all kinds of educational programme road maps. For example, his book Ilm-ul-Iqtasiad (1903), which is his only book on Economics written in Urdu, has never been considered by our curriculum planners.
It was not the job of the government to promote Iqbal’s vision but the job of a literate society. Unfortunately our writers, journalists and philosophers choose to limit themselves to write on topics which can sell well in the market. For example, most top line writers are for years churning out books on romantic poetry, memoirs, and travelogues; their contribution in spreading Iqbal’s vision and philosophy is next to nothing. In a similar fashion the electronic media, performing arts and singers all pursue their commercial interests while choosing from Iqbal’s poetry.
It is sad to conclude that Iranian people are more influenced by Allama Iqbal’s vision than we are here in Pakistan. They place Allama Iqbal in the same category as Rumi or Shirazi. In Pakistan we hardly see anyone even trying to groom one’s life according to Iqbal’s teachings. Iqbal’s vision is not a part of our daily professional and personal lives. We hardly talk about his philosophy in intellectual gatherings and academic conferences.
Had we been able to create such role models, it would have been easier for us to promote such vision. Who is ready to become such a torch bearer? Iqbal’s main concern was the youth, the future torch bearers. Do we have that kind of spirit in our youth today? Are we the nation that our great leader Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah predicted as a “dream nation”? If we are unable to take such a lead in the future as well, Iqbal will no longer be remembered as Eghbal-i-Lahuri. He will be followed as Eghbal-i-Farsi or Irani!
The writers are faculty members/researchers at University of Central Punjab, Lahore
Adding the censored and unpublished part
Unfortunately, we have paved way for fundamentalism promoting sectarianism dividing people in faith and practice by not being able to comprehend Iqbal reaching to the true essence of his message. Realistically speaking, the common people know Iqbal, which is more of a Jihadi Mullah, whereas, the intellectual people know another version of Iqbal – the poet, the philosopher and the mystique. This compartmentalization has become so strong in Pakistani society that it has divided the society in two opposing factions, both of which are intolerant of the existence of the other. What is the probable reason of this dilemma? Did we deliberately blocked the promotion of vision of Iqbal and we wanted to promote right winged politics? Or Iqbal’s vision was far ahead of time and many of our academicians and politicians have not yet reached the level of intellectual evolution that would enable us to promote Iqbal’s vision for desired change in society.
When the romantic, modernist writers and poets were cursed and punished for promoting secularism, the common man was unable to defend them because of the religious tag added to that persecution. We were unable to save our leaders promoting equality and preservation of basic human rights. Their names were taboos in popular and print media. They could not have left the desired mark on the collective conscience of society. We are raised in a country where intellectuals following Iqbal’s vision are accused of blasphemy and are sent to jail or to exile. We are a nation where everyone talks and nobody listens, therefore a leader-follower strong relationship never developed. When we took false pride in a so called Jihad, which had more political aim rather than reformists’, the whole nation has been converted into a large mass of uncouth and uncivilized hoodlums who are not shy of bullying each other. We are too much masculanized as a society leaving hardly any room for soft values like compassion and empathy. Why it all happened because we pay selective attention to Iqbal’s message; we had wrongly used Iqbal’s poetic wisdom to fuel jihad inferno by groups with vested interests. The mission failed, because we had wrongly coded the message of peace – the ultimate message of Islam. How much we may blatantly try to negate, the fact remains the same and we must admit that we were misguided and now we are lost on the way because we were allured by power. The desire of brutal winning over others keeps us crazy and we are obsessed with our right of victory, even in games we fail to show sportsmanship and we declare it a holy war. Sooner we come out of this denial stage the better it is. The extreme paranoia has robbed us of our joy in living. We are sucking with pain being thrown in the dark pit. Isn’t it a hell we are living in? Why this severe punishment? What went wrong in procuring sure license to paradise? What evil we have done: in ignorance, of ignorance and of false conceit and arrogance…..
We are a classical example of a country where philosophy of Iqbal is being interpreted and used for all the wrong reasons. It is due to this that the country today is in dire straits and heading towards destruction which seems to be its only destiny…..
Wonderful attempt to make people of Pakistan aware of their strengths like Iqbal. In fact an engineered scheme of creating ambiguities in the minds of people and developing feeling of worthlessness by the foreign forces and supported by our government, intelligentsia and more specifically hired media is leading the nation towards collapse, which can be reversed by people like you.
Academia must play its role in developing positivism through motivating the youth.
1- Youth be encouraged to improve their Urdu at least to understand the messages of Iqbal and to feel the beauty of Ghalib’s poetry.
2- Thought process of children works in their own mothers tounge (language). Any creativity can only be expected from those who express themselves in their own language.
3- There is no developed country in the world which has progressed in and language other than their own.
4- Pakistan and India has failed to educate their masses to learn to speak and understand English (less than 3% in India and less than 2% in Pakistan understand English) after an effort of 264 years.
5- It is high time that we set our priorities about languages, other wise we will keep on arresting the thought process of our nation with foreign languages and no innovation will come through, the way it is.
Basharatullah Malik
Thanks Basharat Sahib for a timely feedback. Thank you for your support and encouragement. Yes! it is “us” who can initiate change…changing our youth’s attitude towards our national language, our heritage, literature and knowledge culture.
Its a wake up call for sleeping ” Shaheens” of Iqbal’s vision who are nowadays living on ” Gunmbad of Qasr-e-Sultani” . Nice piece of intellectual work. Change is inevitable
Dear Seema Arif,
Thanks for writing this article on Iqbal. It can be taken as a fantastic tribute for him which he might have appreciated had he been living today.
You as intellectual, appreciative of Iqbal’s message, are wasting you energy, in my opinion, to educate the illiterate nation with the message of a Philosopher of high caliber – IQBAL. A Muslim philosopher whose 70% work is in Farsi and only a fraction in Urdu – can not possibly be understood let alone appreciated in this country where the priorities of the people are different than educating themselves. Where religion is in the hands of illiterates, where the law is in the hands of corrupt lawyers, where justice is purchased, where education is business …. you are trying to promote philosophy of Iqbal? who will buy it? No one in this country… at least for the time being. Here hunger and threat prevails all around us or at least it appears to be so.
Iqbal himself used to lament on Mulla and his mental approach. Until the nation is in the clutches of this Mullah there is no hope, we need to educate our Mullah first if we need a change in the society.
Who will bell the Cat?
Can you?
Yes you are right Rajput Sahib that I am trying to count pearls before swines. Naqar khanay main tooti ki awaz kaun sunta hai?
One day all of these have to die….nothing useless survives and there will be younger generations, may be they have better ears and minds to work with. Qiyamat say pehlay Israfeel soor phonkain gay and as I told Nasir my co-author that we held Namaz-Janaza before laying the dead for eternal rest….though he is no more in the listening mode.
It is something like that. I cannot claim that I can bell the cat but I can identify the cat.
No society is changed overnight; it takes 50-100 years at least to substantiate change. If we will initiate it today. May be the coming generations will be able to substantiate it.
I am doing what my heart tells me to do. This article is the most simplest one. Otherwise you know that my real work on Iqbal and Rumi. Hardly people will be able to read and understand a single para of it…but I am writing…Iqbal had written too. We commemorate 800th anniversary of Rumi…perhaps when the same will be done for Iqbal, there will be a size-able community who will be able to comprehend him. InShaAllah.
Yes I like your optimism, Well done and well said. God bless you and gives you speed of Shaheen of Iqbal. Inshallah!!
Many Thanks! Keep praying and keep desiring. Iqbal say that prayer is the fifth dimension of reality which nears us to the ultimate reality.
Great manuscript!!
It has motivated me to discover IQBAL’S work…..
Thanks!
Regards,
Dear Seema,
Nice to see your email. Congratulations for the publication of an article, I visited that web site, article is really very impressive and informative. Here I want to share with you an important activity which I conduct at COMSATS for Dr Allama Iqbal on his birth and death days. Just to protect and promote Dr. Allama Iqbal’s poetry among youth.
Are you conducting some researches related to our area of interest at your institute? I would love to join your group. Thanks
with best regards,
Aqeela Asif
DEAR SEEMA
SALAM
IT IS VERY NICE TO HEAR FROM YOU. THANK YOU.
IQBAL IS A VERY THOUGHT PROVOKING POET. MY WIFE IS VERY INTERESTED IN HIS POEMS AND SHE HAS ONCE TAKEN PART IN
A STUDENT CONTEST OF MEMORIZING HIS POEMS IN HER HIGH SCHOOL TIME.
PROF. MIRI HAS TOLD ME THAT WE SHOULD SEND THE BOOK TO THE PUBLISHER BY THE END OF THIS WEEK. WHAT IS YOUR IDEA IN THIS
REGARDS
YOURS
BEY
TEHRAN
Thanks a lot Mam for sharing the article. I am in Finland these days. completing my MS in Economics and Business Administration.
Please remember in prays.Thanks
Yours,
Arshed
Dear Madam
It is every time really nice to hear from your side. I till remember your first Lecture and then the whole semester which I had with you.
It was really nice learning time for me.
Thanks for sharing the article!
Good job both of you. Keep it up
Dear Seema Arif
I am so grateful for sending me this article.I will read it as fast as I could.
Esin Çelebi
Konya
Turkey
Dear Seema
Thanks a lot. Yesterday we had a group of Asian women from all over Asia (Pakistan, India, Russia, Turkey, Kazakestan, Bangladesh, Taiwan, ………..) who came for a short visit at our institute. I spoke to the Pakistani lady (Dr. Ghasempour) who studied at Tehran university about you. She is from Peshavar I gather and spoke fluently in Persian too. She said that she knows you from your publications but not met you in person.
best
seyed javad
Tehran
Iran
AA read your / your colleague’s Iqbal article. Was fun doing a quick comparison of the full version to the Dawn version. The Dawn version was actually quite on-point, even if a bit “streamlined.” : ) Congratulations to the co-authors, MA.
K.Ali
USA
Kashif It was planned. we censored it ourselves. We knew this portion is bit too emotional …bloggy content….so we put it here. The plan worked.
Thanks for taking out time to read!
I read your article, beautiful very informative.
Congratulations
Naheed Ghazanfar