Dr Muhammad Iqbal was a great thinker and poet who had presented the concept for creation of a separate homeland for the Muslims of the sub-continent which came to be known as Pakistan. An ever-grateful nation continues to pay glowing tributes to him for his memorable contributions towards awakening the Muslims and creation of Pakistan, generally round the year but particularly on his birth anniversary on November 9 and his death anniversary on April 21.
The birth anniversary is celebrated officially and the death anniversary somehow privately though a number of functions are also duly organized by various socio-cultural organizations at which scholars and Iqbaliyat experts as well as people from different walks of life pay rich tributes to the great philosopher.
On such occasions, different aspects of the life, teachings and poetry in Urdu and Persian of the great philosopher and poet are highlighted. But, somehow, one aspect has not been so highlighted on all these occasions by the speakers that Dr Muhammad Iqbal was also an elected member of the Punjab Legislative Council from 1927 to 1930 from Lahore City Urban on a seat for Muhammadans on a ticket of Muslim League. In those days, Muslims were described as Muhammadan and others as non-Muhammadan.
Allama Iqbal was elected as President in the annual meeting of All India Muslim League in Allahabad in December 1930 which continued for two days. It was here that he had presented his concept of a separate homeland for the Muslims of the sub-continent. He had also attended the Second and Third Round Table Conferences.
It is well-known that Allama Muhammad Iqbal hailed from a Kashmiri family which had migrated from Kashmir in the early part of 19th century and settled in Sialkot. His family initially lived in Mohalla Khatikan. In 1861, Allama’s grandfather Sheikh Muhammad Rafiq bought a house in Kashmiri Mohallah os Sialkot which is now known as Iqbal Manzil. Allama Iqbal was born in this house on 9 November 1877.
His education started from Masjid Peer Hisamuddin, Later he joined Scotch Mission High School Sialkot and passed his Middle examination in 1891, Matriculation in 1893 and Intermediate from the Scotch Mission College which was later known as Murray College. He continued his further education in the Government College Lahore from where he did BA in 1897, with honours and also got two gold medals for showing excellence in English and Arabic and did his MA in Philosophy.
He started his teaching career from Oriental College Lahore as Arabic Teacher from 1899 to 1903 and afterwards taught English and Philosophy in his alma mater Government College and in Islamia College, and then went to England for higher education, getting BA degree from Cambridge University and being conferred PhD by Munich University of Germany in 1907 and Bar-at-Law from Lincoln’s Inn London 1908. On return to Lahore, he was appointed as Professor of Philosophy alongside which he continued legal practice in Lahore High Court also.
Allama Iqbal was fond of poetry right from his childhood days and was introduced to the people in 1901 when Sir Abdul Qadir published his poem Himala in his literary journal Makhzan.
Allama Iqbal had lived at several places in Lahore for varying periods including the upper storey of a bookshop of Attar Chand Kapoor Booksellers in Anarkali from 1908 to 1922, in a house on Mcleod Road from 1922 to 1935. He had also lived somewhere inside Bhati Gate from 1900 to 1905 though its exact location has not yet been identified.
Construction of Javed Manzil on Mayo Road, from Lahore Railway Station to Garhi Shahu at the back of Cairns Railways Hospital, which has since been turned into Iqbal Museum housing personal belongings etc of the great thinker and poet, itself makes an interesting story which may not be known to many.
While residing on Mcleod Road, Allama Iqbal had in 1934 bought a piece of land measuring about seven kanals in open auction at Mauza Garhi Shahu in the name of his younger son Javid Iqbal. When the construction of the house was completed at a total cost of Rs 43,025, he shifted there from Mcleod Road. Javed Iqbal was the owner of the house and Allama Iqbal lived there on rent. Allama Iqbal had written a document on stamp paper in May 1935 according to which he had rented three front rooms for Rs 50 per month and the amount was paid regularly to his son/landlord Javed Iqbal and receipt of the same duly acquired. Within four days of shifting to the newly-constructed house, Allama Iqbal suffered a great personal loss when his wife and mother of Javed Iqbal, Sardar Begum, died on 24 May 1935.
There is lot to see for the researchers and scholars of Iqbaliyat at the Iqbal Museum and also at the bungalow of late Dr Javid Iqbal on Main Boulevard in Gulberg Lahore where Jimmy Engineer’s mural of “Javid Namah” may be of some interest for many.
Allama Iqbal had lived at Javed Manzil till his death on 21 April 1938, nine years ahead of his concept of a separate homeland for the Muslims being translated into reality under the inspiring leadership of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, on 14 August 1947.
Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah along with his illustrious sister Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah had visited Allama Iqbal at Javed Manzil in 1936. Hindu leader Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru was also a great admirer of Allama Iqbal and had visited him at Javed Manzil.
The transformation of Javed Manzil, the last abode of Allama Iqbal, into the Iqbal Museum is also a story of great interest and will be narrated some other time in bit detail.
1977 was Iqbal’s birth centenary year of great thinker and poet Allama Mohammad Iqbal. To mark the beginning of the year long celebrations in this regard, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had visited Lahore on 1 January 1977. He went to the mazar of Allama Iqbal, who is laying in eternal rest on the right side of the stairs of historic Badshahi Masjid, offered “fateha” and placed wreaths.
In brief here, on the asking of the military ruler, President/Chief of Army Staff General Muhammad Ziaul Haq, Dr Javed Iqbal had sold Javed Manzil along with all personal documents, belongings and articles of personal use to the Federal Government for Rs 3.5 million and it was turned into Iqbal Museum in December 1977.
During the reign of another military dictator General Pervez Musharraf, some personal belongings and documents of Allama Iqbal were supposedly “borrowed” for sometime on his express orders for the newly-established National Monuments Museum in Islamabad. These are on display there and the Curator of the Iqbal Museum on being contacted said that this makes no difference whether Allama Iqbal’s personal belongings are on display in Islamabad or Lahore because these are being keenly viewed by the visitors there also.
Dr Javid Iqbal had purchased a bungalow of his choice, as per direction of the President/COAS to the Punjab Government, on Main Boulevard in Gulberg Lahore where he had lived till his death couple of years back with wife Justice (retd) Nasira Javid Iqbal.
Dr Javid Iqbal’s bungalow in Gulberg is also a place of great interest for the researchers and scholars of Iqbaliyat, as in one of its room there is a big mural which is the great art work of prominent Pakistani artist Jimmy Engineer who had translated Allama Iqbal’s collection of Persian poetry “Javid Namah” into colours on the asking of Dr Javid Iqbal in 1980/81. It was the desire of Allama Iqbal expressed in one of his letters to son Javid that ‘Javid Namah” be translated into a mural by any artist.
The great thinker and poet had stated that in the first instance, no artist can do that but if any artist dares and accomplishes this challenging task, he will attain immense fame and reputation both nationally and internationally. Pakistan’s most prominent artist Jimmy Engineer had undertaken this challenging task and accomplished it successfully in one year while staying at the bungalow of Dr Javid Iqbal all the time during 1980/81. He was criticized for accomplishing this task but he had brushed aside such criticism by merely saying “I have done what others could not do with the blessings of Almighty Allah and I am genuinely proud of my artistic feat”.
Jimmy Engineer continues to regard the Javid Namah mural and series of Pakistan Movement paintings as his major artistic achievements which have given him immense fame and reputation in Pakistan as well as around the world internationally.
On display in Iqbal Museum are Allama Iqbal’s original degrees, about 60 books including Holy Quran, English and Urdu books which had remained under his study, letters written and received, furniture, dresses, utensils as well letters and his own handwritten manuscripts among other things.
So, there is lot to see for the researchers and scholars of Iqbaliyat at the Iqbal Museum and also at the bungalow of late Dr Javid Iqbal on Main Boulevard in Gulberg Lahore where Jimmy Engineer’s mural of “Javid Namah” may be of some interest for many.
