Adil Najam
To me, the 23rd of March is a day to reflect on the message of Mohammad Iqbal, just like the 14th of August is to ponder on the legacy of Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
We, as Pakistanis, have not really been kind to the legacy of either man. We turned both into idols. And once we convinced ourselves that these were ‘supermen’ we conveniently absolved ourselves of the responsibility to learn from – let alone emulate – either. We are fond of celebrating but incapable of incorporating either the actions of Mr. Jinnah nor the thoughts of Mohammad Iqbal.
After all, once we turned Mr. Jinnah into the ‘Quaid-i-Azam’ and conferred near-divine status on him it became all too easy to say that we, mere mortals, could not be expected to act in the way – or even on the principles – that he did. His blemishes were to be denied, not just because we hold him in reverence but also because to acknowledge them is to accept that maybe ordinary – even flawed – human beings can stil have principles worth following. We have done the same to Iqbal. Because his the ‘the’ Allama, he is to be put on a pedestal. His work read with respect and honor; to be savored, but not really to be understood. Certainly not to be questioned, and absolutely not to be allowed to influence that we do. After all, he is an Allama; and we are not.
The Allama-ization of Iqbal, just like the Quaid-i-Azam-ization of Jinnah has been a disservice to both. For ultimately it has turned these two giants into mere statues; the iconography of the ‘Allama’ and the ‘Quaid’ have enabled us to turn them into dieties of reverence while at the same time distancing ourselves – if not outright disowning – the thought of the first and the actions of the later.
We at ATP have been rather remiss in not paying enough tribute to Mohammad Iqbal. This is a mistake I have been wanting to rectify. Today, the eve of Pakistan Day is a good time to begin doing so. The events and the idea behind the 23rd of March owes more to Iqbal than anyone else. And as a first offering of tribute to Iqbal I offer you this wonderful video. I found it on YouTube:
I do not really know who produced it although for some reason the voice sounds familiar. The selection of poetry as well as the pictures are excellent. Indeed, I wou urge you to focus on both. The pictures are not the ones you usually see of him and many of them evoke a humanness that is lost in many of our ‘official’ portraits on the man. But also focus on the ideas. This is a work less known that, say, Shikwa and Jawab i Shikwa, but it has ideas that are so contemporary that he may as well have been talking about the events of last week. For example:
anpay watan meiN houN kay ghareeb-ud-diyar houN
Darta houN daikh daikh kay iss dasht-o-dar ko meiN
“Kabhi ay naujwan Muslim tadabar bhi kiya tounain
Woh kya gardoon tha tu jiska hai ik tutta hua tara?
Tujhay us qaum nay paala hai aaghosh e muhabat mein
Kuchal daala tha jis nay paun talay
taj e saray Dara
Tujhay aaba say apnay koi nisbat ho nahin sakti
Kay tu guftar woh kirdar, tu sabat woh sayyar…
Hakumat ka tau kya rauna ki woh ik aarzi shai hai
Maggar woh ilm kay moti kittabain apnay aaba ki
Jo daikhoon unkon Europe mein do dil hota hai si-para.”
I have quoted the above from a fading memory. These verses were written almost a hundred years ago. They shook, aroused and galvanized the young generation of that period as nothing ever had.I too belonged to that generation.
THAT, is his contribution to our living Pakistan.
He could also write-prophetically-
Nahin hai na-umeed Iqbal apni kisht e veraan say
Zara nam ho to yeh mitti bari zarkhez ha saqi.
The seeds that he planted have germinated and now bear fruit. The present generation of Pakistanis–and the diaspora– is that fruit.
We owe it to his memory to ensure that the fruit does not wither on the vine. Today 23rd March provides a good occasion to make that resolve.
THAT is his contribution to our Pakistan.
“jata hoon thori door hur ek rah-ro kay saath
pehchaanta nahi hoon abhi raah-bur ko mein”
wah wah Chacha Ghalib, kia baat hay aapki. No matter Iqbal was inspired so much by you. He even claimed you were a peer to Goethe.
A nice post by adil and I agree with each word of it. Iqbal was a great poet but a human being too. I do find his poetry sometimes very emotional, which could not be useful for a streetman; but this is ofcourse my persoanl point of view. I have heard his son multiple times talking about his father, though I have not read his books and many of the things he says are contradiactory to what we have been tought in our high schools.
Suffocation & childhood misunderstandings aside (solid psychological foundations there, I can sympathise) I am so glad for a more clued in voice in the form of Mr P M Alvi. Perhaps this is an indication that someone should write an *interesting* article on Iqbal’s contribution, without getting all muddled up in the details of iqbaliat. As we can see, there is a need.
Pervaiz Sahib, I can’t partly because a friend borrowed it from me about a year ago and it still hasn’t been returned. :) I also remember hearing something to this effect on tv recently from Javed Iqbal. Again no back. In no way I want to pick an argument (discourse i.e.) here given my very limited knowledge of Iqbal. You can correct me and I will take it.
On a seperate note I used to wonder why I never read Iqbal like I read other poets of urdu. The only reason I can come up with is that while growing up starting from age 6 we used to watch Qauid-e-Azam ne farmaya and a verse from Iqbal after khabarnama during Zia’s time.. and it had such a revulsion in me that I almost never opened any of his books in our collection. And this was despite my elders asking me to read him. While writing these lines I still feel a degree of suffocation remembering those times.