Sunday, November 8, 2009

Iqbal's Birthday

Today is Sir Allama Iqbal's 132nd birthday. The man was a master in the control and flow of language. While his popular is mostly confined to Pakistan, him being declared the national poet, he is known in India as the man who wrote and composed the national anthem, saray jehan say acha [our home is the greatest in the world], it is Iran where the poet finds quite a large literati audience as Iqbal wrote much of his poetry in Persian.

It is said that Iranians always saw Iqbal as a 'persian' poet and only found out after the revolution that he's in fact from Lahore. When Majid Majidi spoke to the NCA students (in his local Persian language), he often mentioned Iqbal as a person we could be inspired from in the realm of art and called the man 'Iqbal Lahori'.

The poet Iqbal has many credentials. Mostly positive - even those who do not like his poetry.

But it is the philosopher Iqbal that causes severe problems. Iqbal has been put on a pedestal of philosophy. He's been glamorized to fill the intellectual void ringing in echos across Pakistan. The sad reality though is, the louder these echoes become, the more virulent the praise for Iqbal.

Unfortunately, there is nothing in Iqbal's so-called 'philosophy' that can save those basing their life's outlook on Iqbal's thoughts. That Iqbal is even considered a legitimate philosopher in the first place itself reflects the decadent minds of today's Pakistan. However, not only is he categorized with the likes of 'great philosophers', he's seen by many political leaders as their motivating spirit.

It won't be off the mark to say that most people who are impressed with Iqbal's philosophy are those who have not read it (as compiled under 'Reconstruction of religious thought in Islam'). Those who have read Iqbal's gibberish will be startled at how banal it is.

2 comments:

  1. I haven't read much of his poetry or philosophy but I do aspire to read more of it. So far I have read some of Asrar-e-Khudi and I must say that I was quite unimpressed by the poeticizing and aestheticizing of content that was nothing more than childish in affirming self-worth. It seemed like a lyrical self-help book or better yet an R. Kelly's song for young boys like "the world's greastest." I probably sound pedantic but that was my criticism of the said work.

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  2. 睇完之後覺得有d頓悟..感謝分享.........................................

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