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ALLAMA Iqbal’s first poetic collection in Urdu, Baang-i-Dara, was first published in 1924. But before Iqbal could bring out this work, two admirers of Iqbal collected and published their own versions of Iqbal’s poetry, much to the displeasure of Iqbal.
The first one, compiled by Ahmed Deen, a close friend of Iqbal, was in fact a critical appreciation of Iqbal but it included a copious selection from Iqbal’s Urdu poetry. Titled Iqbal and published in 1923 from Lahore, the book included many poems and verses that Iqbal had discarded while preparing the manuscript of Baang-i-Dara as he wanted it to be based on a stringent selection. To appease Iqbal, Ahmed Deen burnt down all the copies of his book. In 1926, Ahmed Deen published the book again and expunged all the verses that Iqbal had discarded.
The second extensive selection from Iqbal’s poetry was compiled and published by Abdur Razzaq Rashid from Deccan in 1924. This one, too, was compiled and published without Iqbal’s permission and Iqbal managed to restrict its sale and distribution within the princely state of Deccan. Then Iqbal published Baang-i-Dara from Lahore in 1924, which did not include many of his verses previously published in magazines and newspapers: Iqbal, just like Ghalib, had discarded quite a large number of his early verses, considering them unworthy of inclusion. Secondly, Iqbal might have felt that some of his previous works did not go with his current thoughts or circumstances and sounded irrelevant or outdated in the new milieu, deciding against the inclusion. As Dr Sabir Kalorvi put it, about 55 per cent of Iqbal’s Urdu poetry published until then in periodicals was not made part of Baang-i-Dara.
Aside from the discarded verses, Iqbal revised many poems and couplets and rewrote them, either wholly or partially, before inclusion in Baang-i-Dara, Baal-i-Jibreel, Zarb-i-Kaleem and Armughaan-i-Hijaz. So, in many instances the texts included in these books are quite different from the ones published earlier in periodicals. Comparing both the texts, one can see that some of the revised couplets or lines have indeed become more refined and more forceful.
But lovers of Iqbal’s poetry wanted to read all his texts, whether amended or discarded. So they dug up all his previous works and published each and every word of Iqbal they could find, notwithstanding the fact that Iqbal himself had rejected them. On the basis of those verses several anthologies of Iqbal’s discarded poetry were compiled and published.
These collections are:
Islaahaat-i-Iqbal (1950)
The 88-page book, compiled by Muhammad Basheerul Haq Desnavi Azeemabadi and published from Patna, India, gives early versions of some of Iqbal’s Urdu poems and verses. The older and the corrected versions have been reproduced in parallel columns.
Rakht-i-Safar (1952)
Muhammad Anwer Haris collected Iqbal’s discarded verses and published them from Karachi. In second edition (1977) more such verses were added.
Baaqiyaat-i-Iqbal (1953)
Abdul Vahid Moeeni compiled it and its second edition published in 1966 included more discarded verses discovered by Muhammad Abdullah Qureshi. Two reprints of the first edition were published from India.
Sarud-i-Rafta (1959)
Ghulam Rasool Mehr and Sadiq Ali Dilaveri compiled it with some annotations and published it from Lahore. Facsimiles of some pages taken from the manuscripts of Baang-i-Dara and Rumooz-i-Bekhudi were included, showing corrections and amendments in Iqbal’s own hand.
Tabarrukaat-i-Iqbal (1959)
The slim volume, compiled by Muhammad Basheerul Haq Desnavi Azeemabadi and published from Delhi, has Iqbal’s discarded verses that were not included both in Rakht-i-Safar and Baqiyaat-i-Iqbal.
Navaadir-i-Iqbal (1962)
Abdul Ghaffar Shakeel published it from Aligarh and it included Iqbal’s Urdu and Persian verses not included in any of his works.
Ibtedai Kalaam-i-Iqbal (1988)
Compiled by Gian Chand Jain on the basis of some private diaries and notebooks, it included Iqbal’s discarded verses with notes. First edition was published from Hyderabad, India, and two Pakistan editions followed.
Kalaam-i-Iqbal (2001)
Akber Hyderi Kashmiri extracted Iqbal’s discarded poems and verses from magazines and published them from Srinagar. It offered the background details of poems and verses.
Kulliyaat-i-Baqiyaat-i-She’r-i-Iqbal (2004)
Sabir Kalorvi took up the gigantic task of compiling all the collections of Iqbal’s discarded poetry in one volume and in chronological order. The book added some 750 discarded verses of Iqbal that had not been included in any such collection published earlier. An Indian edition appeared in the same year.
Baqiyaat-i-Iqbal (2023)
Syed Taqi Abedi’s work, published from Jehlum, includes some of Iqbal’s Persian verses along with their Urdu translations as well as discarded Urdu verses.
One feels Sabir Kalorvi had it right when he wrote that the discarded verses of Iqbal help us understand Iqbal’s mental development but these verses should not be made part of curricula.
Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2025
