MY FAVOURITE POET

THE POET I ADMIRE MOST

OR

MY FAVOURITE POET

Points: Introduction - Why l like Iqbal - His poetical achievements - A great poet and leader.

I am a great admirer of Dr .Sir Mohammad Iqbal, the poet of the East. He is not only the greatest poet of our age but he is one of the greatest poets of all times. Few poets wrote so many great poems as he did. He did not write poetry to please his readers or to earn money. Nor did he write poetry because it was fashion to write poetry in his age. Poetry was only one of his many accomplishments.

Dr. Iqbal was infact, much more than a poet. He was a scholar and a philosopher. He was well-versed in philosophy both eastern and western. His study of law was a sheer mistake on his part. This poet in him nourished and nurtured from his boyhood days took the better of the lawyer in him, and he turned his attention to Urdu poetry which had been, as it were his life-blood. He was a poet and philosopher combined and the ideas conveyed through his Asrar-i-Khudi, Shikwa-Jawab-e-Shikwa were new and very appealing.

Through his thoughtful and philosophical writing imbued with the spirit of Islam, he brought a new life to the Muslims of the sub-continent. His poetic fervor inspired the Muslims from one end of India to the other with a new life, new feelings and new aspirations.

What attracts me most towards Dr. Iqbal and his poetry is the great message of life that he conveys through his poems. He wrote poetry to express the great and permanent truths of philosophy, history and religion. In all over the world the Muslims were at their lowest ebb politically economically and morally. They were under the influence of western thinking. Iqbal warned his people against this cultural suicide. Iqbal called the Muslim youth back to the Holy Quran and Hadith. More than anything else, Iqbal was a true Muslim who loved God and His Prophet (peace be upon him). His famous lectures on different aspects of Islamic philosophy which he delivered at Madras and Aligarh brought a revolution in the thinking of young people. He wrote poetry to awaken the Muslims from sleep. He gave us the philosophy of self-realization (Khudi). His poetry is full of force and enthusiasm. It inspires us to struggle against the forces of evil.

Dr. Iqbal was a poetic-reformer and as such, he could not but take interest in the politics of the day for the amelioration of the Muslims. He was a political leader as well. He was a Member of the Punjab Legislative Assembly and attended the Round Table Conference in London to safeguard the interests of the Indian Muslims. It was he who, first of all felt that a separate homeland for the Indian Muslims was necessary and it was he who submitted a scheme for Pakistan.

Dr. Iqbal has real love for Islam and was completely devoted to it. Both his prose and poetry reflect this devotion. He always advised the Muslims to remain true to their faith.