Professor Ayub Sabir's sixth book titled Iqbal ki Fikri Tashkeel: (A journey towards understanding the thought of Allama Iqbal) was launched at the Pakistan Academy of Letter (PAL), here on Saturday.
A set of speakers, such as PAL chairman Iftikhar Arif, Professor Fateh Muhammad Malik and Professor Abdul Jabbar Shakir presented the classical view of Iqbal's literary work. Fateh Malik touched on propaganda against Iqbal, which was inspired by western scholars who wanted a shift away from his inspiring poetry that would stir the Muslim peoples against colonialism.
Iftikhar Arif wished that works of Iqbal, including his poetry, his lectures, and his speeches, should be studied as one body of knowledge. The very same idea has been suggested by the poet's son, Dr Javed Iqbal, on several occasions. Javed Iqbal has called for new interpretation based on his father's prose writings.
But present at the book launching ceremony, others advocated that we should do away with fantasies of the past and interpret Iqbal lofty thoughts in a new vocabulary, in the context of the present technological age. Among them was Allama Iqbal Open University vice-chancellor Dr M. N. Butt.
He appreciated Professor Sabir's book and thought it provided an elementary guide for understanding of Allama Iqbal's poetical and philosophical contents in the background of nasty criticism on which Professor Sabir had focused. For a critical evaluation of any writer, small or great, it was important to know the touchstones by which he should be measured.
But a great mind needed to be critically examined in the light of social dynamics of the age. Speaking on this occasion Dr Butt said Iqbal dominated the world intellectual scene as a critical historian of Muslim civilisation. For this reason he had read Iqbal's lecture on the reconstruction of Muslim Thought several times and every time he has received new political guidance for recreating the role of Muslim nation in the challenging world of the 21st century in which nearly all of us live mimicking the western civilisation and under estimating our own precious heritage.
'Why should we presume that no one should cast stone at Iqbal?' asked poet Ejaz Rahim, a former federal minister. He said Shakespeare was one of the greatest poets of this age. A great dramatists George Bernard Shaw, was not impressed with Shakespeare and publicly stated that if he could he would dig him from the grave and pelt stones at him.
GBS's statement was perhaps a figure of speech in admiration of the incomparable poet whose works could not be improved upon. 'So it must be with Allama Iqbal, who has selected symbols, metaphors in a new language and proclaimed a theistic view of the universe in contrast to a contemporary Godless view in the current materialist civilisation,' Ejaz Rahim observed.
Islamic University, President, Dr Anwar Hussain Siddiqui dismissed uninformed criticism of Allama Iqbal, and remarked that must be the reason for Urdu literary criticism to lag behind modern literary critical thought. Criticism should not bother any one, since 'Iqbal's poetry stands vindicated by the veneration he has received in the Muslim world and in western capitals'.
In this regard Dr Anwar Hussain Siddiqui referred to the example of Iran where Iqbal's is looked upon as inspiration. Hence he urged scholars to learn to critically examine Iqbal in the light of current scientific advancement.
Professor Ayub Sabir head, Urdu Department, Peshawar University, has written six books, examining Allama Iqbal's works against vitriolic criticism from Indian, Marxist, Western and even Islamic fundamentalists. He has now undertaken to write a seventh one in this series, which would be a compendium of religious interpretation of history by Allama Iqbal.