Allama Iqbal

Adapted from the biography of Allama Muhammad Iqbal titled Iqbal by Mustansir Mir (Lahore: Iqbal Academy Pakistan, 2008)

Introduction

Dr. Sir Allama Muhammad Iqbal (9 November 1877 – 21 April 1938) was a Muslim poet, philosopher, political thinker, and politician from Punjab, British India (now Pakistan). His poetry in Urdu and Persian is considered to be among the greatest of the modern era, his vision of an independent state for the Muslims of British India was to inspire the creation of Pakistan, and he is thus revered by Pakistanis and recognized internationally as Pakistan’s spiritual father of the nation.

Iqbal was born in Sialkot, now in Pakistan’s Punjab province. His father, Sheikh Noor Muhammad, was a tailor by profession and a pious individual with a mystic bent – he had received no formal education but could read Urdu and Persian books and treasured Read in detail