WITH a heavy heart and teary eyes, I lodge this complaint against the entire nation. Allama Muhammad Iqbal died eight decades ago on April 21, and the day passed without anybody or any media outlet or government functionary even remembering the occasion or the man.

As an Iqbal follower, on that day I was expecting love, appreciation from across the world for the great philosopher poet who gave the Muslims of the subcontinent the dream of Pakistan.

Unfortunately, the world was silent, but only on Iqbal. But what was more frustrating was that while we, as shaheens of Iqbal, forgot to remember the man, the ‘trends’ on the social media remained confined to politics being played in the ‘land of the dreamer’.

We lost a visionary. We lost a dreamer. We lost a godfather on that day. And we fail to even remember him even if for pretences.

Collectively and individually, we failed him and his dream. We surely did not deserve to have that man in our lives. I fail to understand what was keeping us so busy on the day that we forgot the man whose dream we are breathing in. May God help us!

Makhdoom Saman
Gambat

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2022