Muhammad Iqbal

The Secrets of the Self (Dodo Press) Muhammad Iqbal

Sir Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938) was a Muslim poet, philosopher and politician born in Sialkot, British India (now in Pakistan), whose poetry in Urdu and Persian is considered to be among the greatest of the modern era, and whose vision of an independent state for the Muslims of British India was to inspire the creation of Pakistan. He is commonly referred to as Allama Iqbal. After studying in England and Germany, Iqbal established a law practice, but concentrated primarily on writing scholarly works on politics, economics, history, philosophy and religion. He was a strong proponent of the political and spiritual revival of Islamic civilisation across the world, but specifically in India; a series of famous lectures he delivered to this effect were published as The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (1930). He is best known for his poetic works including: Asrar-e-Khudi (The Secrets of the Self) (1915)-which brought a knighthood- Rumuz-e- Bekhudi (The Secrets of Selflessness) (1918) and the Bang-e-Dara (The Call of the Marching Bell) (1924), with its enduring patriotic song Tarana-e-Hind.