Toronto, 8 November 2021 (TDI): On the occasion of Iqbal Day, a virtual international conference was organized by the Consulate General of Pakistan, Toronto and International Iqbal Society on 6 November 2021. Iqbal experts from Turkey, Bangladesh, UK, India, Canada and Pakistan participated in it.
International Conference/Webinar organised by the CG of Pakistan, Toronto and IIS on 6 November. Iqbal experts from Turkey, Bangladesh, UK, India, Canada and Pakistan participated in it. Here is recording of the event. @ForeignOfficePk @FMPublicDiploPK https://t.co/1qp6DTRezz pic.twitter.com/E9Lh9rTAdt
— Pakistan Consulate General Toronto (@PakinToronto) November 7, 2021
Iqbal Day is celebrated every year on 9th of November which marks the birth anniversary of the great poet.
Biography Of Allama Iqbal
Sir Muhammad Iqbal was a Muslim poet, philosopher, and politician who lived throughout the twentieth century. He was a prolific Urdu and Persian poet, for which he is revered as the Poet of the East. And it was his vision of a cultural and political ideal for Muslims in British-ruled India that fueled the desire for Pakistan. The honorific Allama- from Persian, literal meaning very knowledgeable, highly learned, is his most common appellation.
Iqbal was born and raised in Sialkot, Punjab, in an ethnic Kashmiri Muslim family, and attended Government College Lahore for his B.A. and M.A. degrees. From 1899 until 1903, he taught Arabic in the Oriental College in Lahore. He wrote a great deal at this time. Parinde ki faryad (A bird’s prayer), an early meditation on animal rights, and Tarana-e-Hindi (The Song of India), a patriotic poem, are two Urdu poems from this period that are still popular.
In 1905, he moved to Europe for higher studies, first to England, where he received a second B.A. at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was later admitted to the bar at Lincoln’s Inn, and then to Germany. At the University of Munich, he earned a Ph.D. in philosophy. He began a law practice after returning to Lahore in 1908, although he focused on writing scholarly works on politics, economics, history, philosophy, and religion.
He is well known for his poetry compositions, such as Asrar-e-Khudi, for which he was awarded a knighthood following its publication, and Rumuz-e-Bekhudi, and the Bang-e-Dara.
Iqbal and Pakistan
Iqbal was one of the Muslim leaders who struggled for a separate homeland for the Muslims of the Indian Subcontinent.
Iqbal was a strong advocate for the political and spiritual revival of Islamic civilisation throughout the world, but especially in South Asia; a series of lectures he gave to this end were published as ‘The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam’. Iqbal was elected to the Punjab Legislative Council in 1927 and served in the All India Muslim League in several positions.
He formulated a political framework for Muslims in British-ruled India in his famous address to the League’s annual convention in Allahabad in 1930. from this time onwards, the Muslims of the subcontinent crafted a way for their separate state.
Iqbal passed away in 1938. He was named Pakistan’s national poet after the country’s independence in 1947. He is also known as “Hakeem-ul-Ummat” (Sage of the Ummah) and “Mufakkir-e-Pakistan” (Thinker of Pakistan). The 9th of November, the anniversary of his birth is a national holiday in Pakistan.
Iqbal’s literary work
Prose book in Urdu
Ilm ul Iqtisad (1903)
Prose books in English
The Development of Metaphysics in Persia (1908), The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (1930)
Poetic books in Persian
Asrar-i-Khudi (1915), Rumuz-i-Bekhudi (1917), Payam-i-Mashriq (1923), Zabur-i-Ajam (1927), Javid Nama (1932), Pas Cheh Bayed Kard ai Aqwam-e-Sharq (1936), Armughan-e-Hijaz (1938, in Persian and Urdu)
Poetic books in Urdu
Bang-i-Dara (1924), Bal-i-Jibril (1935), Zarb-i Kalim (1936)
