Allama Iqbal’s Major Contributions to Urdu Literature & Pakistan

Allama Muhammad Iqbal, who later came to be known as Poet of the East (Shair e Mashriq), made various contributions to Urdu literature and the formation of Pakistan. Allama Iqbal was not the first person to present the idea of a a separate country for the Muslims of the sub-continent. However, his poetry played a great part in spreading awareness about Islam, need of a separate country for its followers and the self (Khudi).

Even though he was recognized for his poetry and published works in languages like Urdu and Persian; Sir Muhammad Iqbal remained a practicing lawyer for quite some time after attaining a law degree from London. 

Iqbal Day in Pakistan 

According to the latest Urdu news, Iqbal Day might once again become a public holiday as it once was over a decade ago. The day is still celebrated on his day of birth (9 November 1877) by the whole Pakistani nation to signify his contributions to Urdu literature and the formation of their country.

He wrote various notable verse books in Urdu and Persian language, some of which are as follows:

• Asrar-e-Khudi
• Bang-e-Dara
• Payam-e-Mashriq
• Bal-e-Jibril

Iqbal’s Outlook towards Education

As per the views of the great scholar, “essential nature of man-- consists in will and not intellect or understanding.” What that means is as long as a person wants to do something he/she can accomplish it despite his/her level of understanding (knowledge).

During his time, he once talked about the educational systems as such, “I venture to say that the current system of education in the country is not all appropriate to us as a people. It is not true to our genius as a nation, it tends to produce a non-Muslim type of character, it is not determined by our national requirements, and it breaks entirely with our past, and appears to proceed on the false assumption that ideal of education is the training of human intellect rather than human will.”

Thus, we can conclude Allama Iqbal’s philosophy of education focused on human will instead of human intellect.

Influence of Iqbal on Modern Education

Many Pakistani educational websites, such as BeEducated have to include articles on the accomplishments of Allama Iqbal. After all he was honored with the title of “Sir” by King George V in 1922. Also, after the establishment of Pakistan, the country’s government named him a ‘national poet’.

Sir Muhammad Iqbal even authored two books in the English language on the subjects of The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam and The Development of Metaphysics in Persia. In these books he talked about Islamic Sufism and the Persian philosophy.

In the last years of his life, Allama Iqbal poured most of his time in starting the Dar ul Islam Trust Institute, close to Pathankot, to give education on both traditional Islam and modern social science. He kept on supporting the regime of an autonomous Muslim state until his last breath, as he suffered from a throat disease and after months of sickness he finally left this world on 21 April 1938.