ALLAMA IQBAL WITH QAID E AZAM
The Quaid stated:
His views were substantially in consonance with my own and had finally led me to the same conclusions as a result of careful examination and study of the constitutional problems facing India and found expression in due course in the united will of Muslim India as adumbrated in the Lahore Resolution of the All-India Muslim League popularly known as the "Pakistan Resolution" passed on 23rd March, 1940.
I know you are a busy man but I do hope you won't mind my writing to you often, as you are the only Muslim in India today to whom the community has right to look up for safe guidance through the storm which is coming to North-West India, and perhaps to the whole of India.
Similar sentiments were expressed by him about three months before his death. Sayyid Nazir Niazi in his book Iqbal Ke Huzur, has stated that the future of the Indian Muslims was being discussed and a tenor of pessimism was visible from what his friends said. At this Allama Iqbal observed:
There is only one way out. Muslim should strengthen Jinnah's hands. They should join the Muslim League. Indian question, as is now being solved, can be countered by our united front against both the Hindus and the English. Without it our demands are not going to be accepted. People say our demands smack of communalism. This is sheer propaganda. These demands relate to the defence of our national existence.
He continued:
The united front can be formed under the leadership of the Muslim League. And the Muslim League can succeed only on account of Jinnah. Now none but Jinnah is capable of leading the Muslims.
Matlub ul-Hasan Sayyid stated that after the Lahore Resolution was passed on March 23, 1940, the Quaid-i Azam said to him:
Iqbal is no more amongst us, but had he been alive he would have been happy to know that we did exactly what he wanted us to do.
But the matter does not end here. Allama Iqbal in his letter of March 29, 1937 to the Quaid-i Azam had said:
While we are ready to cooperate with other progressive parties in the country, we must not ignore the fact that the whole future of Islam as a moral and political force in Asia rests very largely on a complete organization of Indian Muslims.
According to Allama Iqbal the future of Islam as a moral and political force not only in India but in the whole of Asia rested on the organization of the Muslims of India led by the Quaid-i Azam.
The "Guide of the Era" Iqbal had envisaged in 1926, was found in the person of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. The "Guide" organized the Muslims of India under the banner of the Muslim League and offered determined resistance to both the Hindu and the English designs for a united Hindu-dominated India. Through their united efforts under the able guidance of Quaid-I Azam Muslims succeeded in dividing India into Pakistan and Bharat and achieving their independent homeland. As observed above, in Allama Iqbal's view, the organization of Indian Muslims which achieved Pakistan would also have to defend other Muslim societies in Asia. The carvan of the resurgence of Islam has to start and come out of this Valley, far off from the centre of the ummah. Let us see how and when, Pakistan prepares itself to shoulder this august responsibility. It is Allama Iqbal's prevision.
IQBAL AND QUAID-I-AZAM
Dr M. Moizuddin
Director, Iqbal Academy,
Lahore
The achievement of Pakistan
is a great tribute to the farsighted-of Allamah Iqbal and the unfailing
statesmanship of the Quaid-i-. Both were motivated by patriotic spirit. How
splendid that ammad Ali Jinnah and Muhammad Iqbal had the name of our Holy het,
the benefactor of humanity, common in their names! In this text, it is
interesting to note that both the Quaid-i-Azam and Allamah Iqbal were ardent
lovers of the Prophet (peace be on him). The Quaid i-Azam once said that he
joined the Lincoln's Inn because on the entrance of that institution the name of
the Prophet Muhammad peace be on him) was included among the names of great
law-givers the world. The Allamah's intense love for the Prophet is proverbial.
is emotional attachment is evident from these lines:
|
معنئ حرفم کنی تحقیق اگر
بنگری بادیدۂ صدیق اگر قوت قلب و جگر گردد نبی او خدا محبوب تر گردد نبی[1] |
[If you go deep into the
meaning of my verse, If you have the eyes of Siddiq (Abu Bakr),
The strength of our heart
and soul is our Prophet; To us our Prophet is dearer than God.]
In the context of Pakistan
today Iqbal and Jinnah are synonyms. They are two sides of the same coin.
The greatness of their
achievement can be realised only when the ' I, economic, political and cultural
conditions of the time in which lived are studied.
Iqbal had to fight on many
fronts. The British, the Hindus and nationalist Muslims, particularly the Punjab
Unionist Party—all formidable opponents, Man Sir Fazle Hussain, the champion of
cost Party of Hindu and Muslim landlords, being one of them. But he, through his
poetry, speeches and writings impressed upon the Muslims of India that their
salvation was not in United India.
They must have their
separate homeland. He had to incur the displeasure of many in the beginning
which has been aptly described in the following lines:
|
اپنے بھی خفا مجھے سے بیگانے بھی ناخوش
میں زہر ہلال کو کبھی کہ نہ سکا قند[2] |
[My friends and foes—all are
angry, But I had to say the truth.]
Both the Quaid-i-Azam and
Iqbal had their political conviction. They stood like a rock against all odds
and oddities.
Iqbal has composed a poem
titled Mard-i-Buzurg (“A Great Man”) which aptly describes both these great
personalities, Quaid-i-Azam and Iqbal :
|
اس کا انداز نظر اپنے زمانے سے جدا
اس کے احوال سے محروم ہیں پیران طریق![3] |
[His vision is different
from that of his age ; Even the saints are not aware of his qualities.]
Honesty, sincerity,
selflessness and straightforwardness are the qualities of a true Muslim. These
virtues were inherent in abundance in both :
|
نگہ بلند، سخن دل نواز، جان پرسوز
یہی ہے رخت سفر میر کارواں کے لیے[4] |
[Loftiness of idea,
soft-spokenness and vigour of life, Are the property of the leader of the
caravan.]
The Quaid-i-Azam and Iqbal
both are the true emblem of these qualities of Mard-i-Mu'min as described by
Iqbal in these lines:
|
ہو حلقۂ یاراں تو بریشم کی طرح نرم
رزم حق و باطل ہو تو فولاد ہے مومن![5] |
[In the company of friends
he (Mu'min) is as soft as silk;
If there is a fight for
truth and falsehood he is as hard as iron.]
|
جس سے جگر لالہ میں ٹھنڈک ہو ہو شبنم!
دریاؤں کے دل جس سے دہل جائيں وہ طوفان![6] |
[Like dew drops which
refresh the heart of tulip,
The storm which brings
uproar in the heart of rivers]
Their love for truth, their
fearlessness and devotion to the Holy Prophet go a long way to make them
successful in their fight for Pakistan.
We are indebted to Iqbal,
not only for his beautiful poetry and wonderful dynamic philosophy of life, but
for upholding the rights of G e Muslims of India. Concrete idea of Pakistan was
brought into existence by Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Allamah Iqbal entered
politics, not for the lust of power and position, but for establishing the
right of self-determination of the Indian Muslims and secure a homeland for them
where they could live honour-ably with their Islamic way of life, culture and
their own heritage. The basis for demanding Pakistan was not only the fear of
Hindus, or merely economic emancipation, but it was demanded on ideological
grounds, i.e. on the basis of the two-nation theory. Muslims are Muslims,
Hindus are Hindus,
like Rudyard Kipling's “West is West and East is East.”
While delivering the
historic Presidential Address at the annual session of the All-India Muslim
League, Allahabad, in 1930, Iqbal in uequivocal words said:
“I entertain the highest
respect for the customs, laws, religious and social institutions of other
communities… Yet I love the communal group which is the source of my life and
behaviour and which has formed me what I am by giving me its religion, its
literature, its thought, its culture, and thereby recreating its whole part as a
living operative factor in my present circumstances.”[7]
We hear the same echo so
beautifully phrased in Jinnah's retort to Gandhi:
“We are a nation, with our
own distinctive culture and civilization, language and literature, art and
architecture, names and nomenclature, sense of value and proportion, legal laws
and moral codes, customs and calendar, history and tradition, aptitudes and
emotions in short we have our own distinctive outlook on life and of life. By
all canons of international law we are a nation.”
This is, in fact, the same
concept of the separate identity of which Iqbal had been giving to the Muslims
through his writings and poetry.
It is interesting to note
that in the early part of their lives both Iqbal and Jinnah were champions of
Hindu-Muslim unity. But both were disillusioned by the sinister designs of the
Congress and Hindus in India. Muhammad Ali Jinnah was so much depressed and
dejected by the petty-mindedness and fanaticism of Hindus that he left India and
sought a sort of asylum in London. He was not hopeful of the bright 'future for
Muslims in India,
In December 1928, when Mr.
Jinnah as a leader of Muslim League suggested some amendment in the Nehru Report
which was accepted by the All. Parties Conference at Luckhnow, it was outright
rejected by the All-Parties Convention at Calcutta, although Mr. Jinnah had
joined hands with Hindus against the British and boycotted the Simon Commission.
This shocked Mr. Jinnah and he understood the evil designs of Hindus in India.
How Mr. Jinnah reacted is described by his friend Mr. Jamshed Nausherwanji:
‘One man said that Mr.
Jinnah had no right to speak on behalf of the Muslims, that he did not represent
them. He was humbled and he went back to his hotel.
“About half past eight next
morning, Mr. Jinnah left Calcutta by train, and I went to see him off at the
railway station. He was standing at the door of his first-class compartment; and
he took my hand. He had tears in his eyes and said, Jamshed, this is the parting
of the ways.”
Iqbal had already visualised
the parting of the ways. As early as 1909, in a letter to Ghulam Qadir Farrukh
of Amritsar, he rejected the idea of Hindu-Muslim unity. In 1927, Maulana Qarshi,
one of his compatriots, wanted Muslims to join hands with Hindus against the
British in their own interest. Iqbal wrote to him that
Hindus wanted only internal
autonomy and they did not want the British to quit India.
Allamah Iqbal, who dominated
the Muslim political thought, becomes more vocal for political safeguard of the
Muslims of India. While presiding over the annual session of the Muslim League
at Allahabad in 1930, he strongly advocated the establishment of an autonomous
State of North-Western Muslim majority provinces, I quote his words:
“I would like to see the
Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan amalgamated into a
single State. Self-government within the British Empire or without the British
Empire, the formation of a consolidated North-West Indian Muslim State appears
to me to be the final destiny of the Muslims, at least of North-West India.”[8]
Late Mr Mumtaz Hasan has
given us interesting information about it in his article “Iqbal As A Seer”;
“Speaking of the 1930 address, I am reminded of a personal anecdote. When Iqbal
returned to Lahore from Allahabad, I went to see him. I was still a student at
College and felt greatly perturbed at his reference to self-government for the
new Muslim state, ‘within the British Empire'. ‘Why did you say that, Sir,' said
I ; ‘why must our Muslims state remain within the British Empire?' His first
response was a smile. ‘You will notice,' said he, 'that I have said,
“self-government within or without the British Empire”. You are worried about
“within,” but there are so many others who told me they are worried about
“without”. “But why did you have to say that at all, Sir?' I insisted.
'Because,' said he, 'while I see the establishment of a Muslim state as
inevitable in the process of history, I cannot see clearly, at least at present,
whether it will be within or without the British Empire.' I had to keep quiet.
Here was a man who was utterly loyal to his vision, who told you what he saw
clearly and what he did not.”[9]
Allamah Iqbal further said:
“ The life of Islam as a
cultural force in this country very largely depends on its centralisation in a
specific territory. This centralisation of the most living portion of the
Muslims of India . . . will eventually solve the problem of India as well as of
Asia.”[10]
His interest in politics and
demand for a separate State were motivated by his inner commitment to his own
ideals for the preservation of the cultural heritage of the Musalmans of the
subcontinent. By preaching and propagating this ideal ceaselessly he laid the
foundation of Pakistan. He wrote letters to the Quaid-i-Azam stating the
necessity of Pakistan and persuaded him to fight for the cause of the Muslims of
India. These letters written during the period May 1936 to November 1937 were
published[11]
with a Foreword by the Quaid-i-Azam himself which shows his invaluable
contribution towards the making of Pakistan. In this brief Foreword the
Quaid-i-Azam says:
“I think these letters are
of very great historical importance, particularly those which explain his views
in clear and unambiguous terms on the political future of Muslim India. His
views were substantially in consonance with my own and had finally led me to
the same conclusions as a result of careful examination and study of the
constitutional problems facing India, and found expression in due course in the
united will of Muslim India as adumberated in the Lahore resolution of the
All-India Muslim League, popularly known as the 'Pakistan Resolution,' passed on
23 March 1940.”[12]
The poetry of Iqbal is a
definite contribution to human thought and knowledge and his message is at once
noble, sublime and invigorating. His views are not only identical to those of
the Quaid-i-Azam in poetical thoughts but are also in consonance with his
message of hope, unity, faith and action. Unity, Faith and Discipline, the motto
of the Quaid-i-Azam, also forms the guiding principles for human struggle in
Iqbal:
|
یقین محکم، عمل پیہم، محبت فاتح عالم
جہاد زندگانی میں ہیں یہ مردوں کی شمشیریں[13] |
[Faith, constant struggle
and intense love are the conqueror of the world. In the struggle of life for men
of valour, these qualities are like swords.]
The Quaid i-Azam described
Iqbal as a friend, guide and philosopher and added, “during the darkest moments
through which the
Muslim League had to go, he
stood like a rock and never flinched for one single moment.”
It is refreshing to note
that the present Government is alive to the teachings of the Quaid-i-Azam and
Allamah Iqbal. While speaking on the occasion of the Foundation Ceremony of the
Staff College, Quetta, our Prime Minister, Mr Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, reiterated
the same guiding principles in these words: “We have repledged to strive with
unity, faith and
discipline to elevate the status of Pakistan as envisaged by the Quaid-i-Azam”.[14]
In his Presidential Address
of Allahbad in 1930, Iqbal advocated for a separate homeland for Muslims of
India. He said:
“Islam can remain alive as a
cultural force only if it is concentrated in a territory. Indeed, Islam does not
mean a private relation-ship between man and God. It is a system of Government
and this system had been determined before any Rousseau had even thought of
any.”[15]
In August 1941, in Hyderabad
(Deccan), the Quaid-i-Azam answering a question summarized the concept of the
Islamic State in the following lines which are very near to Iqbal's concept as
explained in his Allahabad address:
“It must always be borne in
mind that the distinguishing characteristics of the Islamic state is that in it
God is the source of all obedience and allegience. The practical way of doing
this is the establishment of the supremacy of the Quran. In Islam there is no
obedience to any king, parliament, person or institution. The laws of the Quran
alone determine the boundaries of our limits and freedom in politics and
society. Islamic state, in other words, is the supremacy of and government by
the Quranic laws and principles. And for government you need territory and a
state.”
After 1930 theoretically the
conception of Pakistan was accepted. It was now the choice of a leader. Iqbal
defines the qualification and attributes of a leader in these words:
“By leader I mean one who by
divine gift or experience possesses a keen perception of the spirit and as
destiny of Islam along with the equally deep perception of the trend of modern
history. Such men are really the divine forces of a people, but they are God's
gift and can-not be made to order.”
And definitely he found such
a leader in the Quaid-i-Azam.
His famous line, as a matter
or fact, is applicable to both these luminaries:
|
ہزاروں سال نرگس اپنی بے نوری پہ روتی ہے
بڑی مشکل سے ہوتا ہے چمن میں دیدہ ور پیدا![16] |
[For thousands of years the
Narcissus sheds tears over its lack of sight or visionary power;
A man with powerful vision
is rarely born in the garden of life.]
The fundamental values of
Islam were strong forces for both Iqbal
and the Quaid-i-Azam. Iqbal
believed that “Islam” is itself a destiny and will not suffer a “destiny”.
When the Quaid-i-Azam
returned to India in 1934, Iqbal influenced his thought. Between 1932 and 1937
Iqbal worked towards two ends:
First, to convert the
Quaid-i-Azam towards the idea of Pakistan, and, secondly, to make the Muslim
League the acknowledged voice of the Indian Muslims.
Subsequently, Muslim League
as a mouthpiece of Indian Muslims organized itself to the extent that the
movement culminated into direct action. Iqbal wrote to the Quaid-i-Azam on 28
May 1937:
“I have no doubt that you
fully realize the gravity of the situation as far as Muslim India is concerned.
The League will have to finally decide whether it will remain a body
representing the upper classes of Indian Muslims or Muslim masses who have so
far, with good reason, taken no interest in it.”[17]
Thus on 21 June 1937, Iqbal
wrote to the Quaid-i-Azam:
“…you are the only Muslim in
India today to whom the community has a right to look up for safe guidance
through the storm which is coming to North-West India, and perhaps to the whole
of India.”[18]
In 1940, two years after
Iqbal's death, the Quaid-i-Azam said: “Pakistan is inevitable.”
Iqbal held the Quaid-i-Azam
in great reverence. He replied curtly to a questioner: “He is incorruptible and
unpurchaseable.” Pakistan will always remember Iqbal and Jinnah as its
benefactors and their message is an eternal guideline for us.
Between May 1936 and June
1937 Iqbal wrote several confidential letters to the Quaid-i-Azam giving an
outline of the type of State he envisaged for the Muslims of India. By 1940 the
movement was complete. The federation of Muslim majority provinces was made in
Pakistan. In such a State the Islamic principles will be the guidelines of the
constitution, in which every individual has his economic safeguard.
Pakistan was created, not on
geographical demarcation, but as an ideological State.
The Quaid-i-Azam and Iqbal
dreamt of Pakistan to be a home-land of Islamic principles, social justice and
economic emancipation.
We are grateful to both of
them that they gave us a sense of direction. Muslims all over the world are
brothers. We have friendly relations, not only with the Arab world, but almost
all the Muslim States of Africa, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Malaysia, Indonesia,
Afghanistan, Bangla Desh, etc., are our friends and well-wishers.
In the words of Professor
Rush brook-Williams: “It is true that Iqbal influenced the Quaid-i-Azam, but it
is also true that the Quaid-i-Azam and his great nation-building work exercised
a profound influence upon Iqbal, and illuminated the last years of his life with
a new hope.”
The Quaid-i-Azam's sagacity
and great faith in negotiations were two permanent factors which helped the
Quaid-i-Azam in getting Pakistan. Iqbal took more radiant views about the future
of India because of his study in Islam and the Quran.
“He [Iqbal) firmly believed
that it was not for the Muslims to save Islam but for Islam to save the Muslims”
(Rushbrook-Williams).
He exhorted Muslims to get
back to the Quran and the fundamentals of Islam. He wanted the homeland in which
Islam could be practised. That is why Iqbal depreciated the concept of Nehru's
Secularism or Socialism.
In the words of the
Quaid-i-Azam, “Optimism, industry, faith, self-confidence and courage are the
principles on which Iqbal backs his philosophy “ These attributes are equally
applicable to the Quaid-i-Azam himself. That is why their views were identical
with regard to a separate State for Muslims.
The Quaid-i-Azam derived
inspiration from Iqbal's writings both in prose and poetry and was convinced of
his revolutionary idea of “Islamic Polity”.
After the Quaid-i-Azam's
return from England he continued his efforts with strong zeal and optimism.
|
نہ ہو نومید، نومیدی زوال علم و عرفان ہے
امید مرد مومن ہے خدا کے رازدانوں میں |
Now I quoted from the
Quaid-i-Azam's Foreword which he wrote to Letters of Iqbal to Jinnah:
“It was a great achievement
for Muslim League that its lead came to be acknowledged by both the majority and
the minority Provinces. Sir Muhammad Iqbal played a very conspicuous part,
though at the time not revealed to public, in bringing about this consummation.”[19]
They had different likes and
dislikes in their personal life, but their views in relation to national
interests were identical. Iqbal was the Qalandar, the Quaid-i-Azam, an
aristocrat. Iqbal's simplicity in dress and living is well known. The
Quaid-i-Azam was an immaculately dressed person. This is a unique combination of
two personalities having different approaches, but both worked together for
achieving our great Pakistan.
Iqbal wrote thirteen letters
to the Quaid-i-Azam during the last two years of his life. They reflect his
attitude, his confidence in the Quaid-i-Azam to marshal the cause of Musalmans
and his endeavours to see that the Muslim League emerged as a party of people's
representatives, not of landlords like the Unionist Party in the Punjab. The
Quaid-i-Azim was deeply moved by Iqbal's untimely death when he needed his
counsel and support.
A philosopher and guide died
when politics in India was at a crucial stage. How emotionally was the
Quaid-i-Azam attached to Iqbal is evident from his speech on Iqbal Day in 1940
which was being observed on 21st April, in Lahore paying high
tributes to Iqbal the Quaid-i-Azam said:
“Iqbal was not only a
philosopher but also a practical politician. He was one of the first to conceive
of the feasibility of the division of India on national lines as the only
solution of India's political problem. He was one of the most powerful thinkers,
tacit precursors and her alders of modern political evolution of Muslim India.”
THE QUAID-I-AZAM'S “IQBAL
DAY” MESSAGE*
“…his [Iqbal's] verse,
immortal as it is, is always there to guide us and to inspire us. His poetry,
besides being beautiful in form and sweet in language, presents to us a picture
of the mind and heart of this great poet, and we find how deeply he was devoted
to the teachings of Islam. He was a true and faithful follower of the Holy
Prophet (peace be upon him),—a Muslim first and a Muslim last. He was the
interpreter and voice of Islam.
“Iqbal was not merely a
preacher and a philosopher. He stood for courage and action, perseverance and
self-reliance, and above all faith in God and devotion to Islam…
“…With his firm conviction
of and faith in the ideals of Islam, he was one of the few who originally
thought over the feasibility of carving out of India such an Islamic State in
the North-West and North-East zones which are historical homelands of Muslims.”
On the occasion of the
celebration of “Iqbal Day” at Lahore, 9 December 1944.
No comments:
Post a Comment