IQBAL is one of the most favourite poets of Pakistan -- if not the most favourite. This has driven an incessant flow of articles and books on Iqbal. As a result, almost every aspect of Iqbal’s works and life has been done to death and hardly any new point can be brought to light.
But some discerning scholars sometimes find a treasure trove of knowledge and from that treasure they can dig up some rare and hidden gems of information on Iqbal and his life. Muhammad Hamza Farooqi is one such scholar. When Hamza Farooqi was working on some rare historical sources to collect data for his book that reconstructed and retold Iqbal’s travels -- published under the title Safar Nama-i-Iqbal -- he contacted Ghulam Rasool Mehr, a renowned scholar, historian and journalist. Mehr Sahib, while guiding him, advised him to work on certain issues of Inqilab, an Urdu newspaper published from Lahore. Mehr was the editor of Inqilab along with Abdul Majeed Salik and they both were pretty close to Iqbal. The editors of Inqilab had a high regard for Iqbal and they would publish not only articles on Iqbal’s works but also Iqbal’s speeches, statements and details about his travels and literary activities, says Farooqi. That’s why Inqilab has many clues to Iqbal’s life as well as the political role he played in the subcontinent during the late 1920s and 1930s.
Hamza Farooqi began working on the idea and indeed found some rare information on Iqbal’s life buried in the files of Inqilab. Several of these files were housed in National Bank of Pakistan’s library at Karachi. These issues had carried many poems by Iqbal, some of which were not included in Iqbal’s published works. The newspaper had published some letters written by Iqbal and many pieces of news and views on his political thought, too. Hamza Farooqi collected all these rare pieces in his book named them Hayat-i-Iqbal Ke Chand Makhfi Goshe, published in 1988.
But Farooqi, as he keeps on revising and updating his knowledge as well as his books, did some additions and amendments and now the new, revised edition of the book has been published by Karachi’s Academy Bazyaft. Three newly traced essays that were published in Inqilab have been added to the second edition, not to mention new annotations by Farooqi.
While introducing these essays, Farooqi says Zaboor-i-A’jam, a collection of Iqbal’s poetry, had appeared in June 1927 and Inqilab had published a ‘Number’, or special issue, on Zaboor-i-A’jam in July 1927, which carried six exclusive pieces. Out of those six pieces, three have been reproduced in the new edition of the book.
One of the pieces introduces Zaboor-i-A’jam, explains its message and narrates the reason behind the book’s peculiar name. The essay then quotes Iqbal as saying about Zaboor-i-A’jam: “I wish Goethe had read this book”. Iqbal had a fascination for German author Goethe and had found similarities between Ghalib and Goethe, as Iqbal’s poem titled ‘Mirza Ghalib’ included in Baang-i-Dara, pays rich tributes to Ghalib and addressing Ghalib says about Goethe:
Gulshan-i-Weimer mein tera ham nava khwabeeda hai
This can roughly be translated as: Your fellow songster is at rest at the garden of Weimer (Weimer is the place where Goethe was buried). Looking at Iqbal’s fascination with Goethe’s works, one can well imagine what message Iqbal wanted to convey through Zaboor-i-A’jam. As we know, Goethe was much inspired by the Eastern poetry and Iqbal was trying to convey the message of awakening of the East through Zaboor-i-A’jam.
Hamza Farooqi writes that Inqilab was launched by Abdul Majeed Salik and Ghulam Rasool Mehr from Lahore on April 21, 1927 and it ceased publication on Oct 17, 1949. The book covers a period between April 1927 and April 1938. But it breaks one’s heart when Hamza Farooqi informs that when he went to National Bank Library to collect more material for the revised edition, he realised that “90 per cent of the files of Inqilab housed in the library had been badly damaged or disappeared” and he did not know “whether it was eaten up by worms or fell victim to staff’s negligence”. What a loss!
The book narrates the details about Iqbal’s association with literary organisations, his travels, friends, contemporaries, literary and social activities and other aspects of his life and works. An important chapter reproduces reports, as published in Inqilab, that narrate Maulana Hussain Ahmed Madani’s arrival and speech in Lahore and the resultant untoward incident when he said that “a nation is not made of religion, but country” (pages 281-285) . Iqbal’s reaction is now part of history.
The book reproduces in chronological order the writings published in Inqilab. It is an authentic account of certain speeches and events concerning Iqbal. Annotations have added to the value of the book.
Muhammad Hamza Farooqi is a Karachi-based veteran scholar and researcher and has penned a number of research articles, pen sketches and research works, with Iqbal, Ghulam Rasool Mehr and political history of Indo-Pak subcontinent being his speciality. His travelogues and memoirs, too, have been received well in the literary circles.
Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2020
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