THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 'ALLÿMAH IQBÿL

Period I (Before 1905)

He started poetry at the age of about twenty years, while still at school and continued it all his life. From the very beginning he was a non-believer in the concept of "art for art's sake". As has been stated earlier he practiced poetry as a vehicle for conveying his message to his readers.

His poetry started with ghazals, some of which show classic strain, such as ghazals 50-2 and 50-4 in B«ng-i-Dar«. However, romanticism of Western poetry soon started influencing his poetry. This change was also noticed by D«gh, who was his early teacher and mentor. ‘All«mah Iqb«l started using his ghazals and other poems for expressing his thoughts about politics and other fields. His poetry started being the vehicle of his thoughts very early. In the political field his main concern was the political, intellectual and cultural independence of India. He firmly believed in the development of at least working relationship between Hindus and Muslims which were the two major nations in India. Educational and economic emancipation of Muslims was a pre-requisite for bringing them at par with Hindus in these fields, so that the amity could be on honorable terms. ‘All«mah Iqb«l used his genius for bringing home to Muslims their potential for material and spiritual advancement, which alone could provide a reasonable stage for Hindu-Muslim amity with honor. He endeavored to convince Muslims that Islam required advancement in material along with spiritual fields. In his efforts to bring about Hindu-Muslim amity he was bold enough to point out the shortcomings of both groups which were obstructing such amity. He also tried to create patriotism as a means of achieving the same end. Poems No. 16, 23, 39, 42 and 43 are some of the poems in B«ng-i-Dar« aimed at this.

For effective use of poetry for conveying his political, philosophical, religious and mystic thoughts he had the rare gift of molding mundane objects and events for producing the desired effects. Almost every poem of the first part of B«ng-i-Dar«, up to No. 50-13 bear witness to this.

His early poems are classical ghazals in the style of Mâr, Gh«lib and D«gh. After making the change mentioned earlier he also wrote some topical poems which are philosophical or political in the style of some famous English poets, such as Emerson, Tennyson etc. He also wrote poems for children which appear in the beginning of the first part of B«ng-i-Dar«. Some of them are too advanced in thought for children to comprehend, such as No. 12 "Parinday Kee Fary«d" (The Bird's Complaint). Even at that early stage many poems contain some elements of Khudâ, such as No. 25 "Ins«n Aur Bazm-i-Qudrat" (Man and Nature's Assembly). The poetry of that age not only contains the rudiments of the pillars of his philosophy such as Khudâ , dynamism, and pan-Islamism his merit lies in the fact that he has worked out his themes from mundane objects and events.