Tulip in the Desert: A Selection of the Poetry of Muhammad Iqbal

A very influential poet and philosopher, Muhammad Iqbal was born in the Punjab, where he received his early education. He also studied philosophy in England and in Germany but returned to India three years later to practice law. Although he noted that European civilization was materially advanced, he also found it hypocritical and lacking in support of true human values. Islam, on the other hand, though somnolent, was at once both truly creative and able to give humanity moral direction. It was this, the true Islam of Muhammad and the Koran, that Iqbal sought to help Muslims recover. As evidenced in his six lectures on The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (1928--29), he interpreted the dynamic of Islam in Bergsonian vitalistic terms, as a leading extension of the fully developed self. In line with his attempt to rethink the problems of Islam in terms of modern categories, Iqbal advocated that the solidly Muslim portions of northwest India be given autonomy so that they could be governed in accordance with Islamic ideals, a position that led to the emergence of the state of Pakistan. He was knighted in 1922.