PUNE, February 23: The famous Urdu poet Dr Muhammed Iqbal loved India till his last breath and to dub him as a creator of Pakistan would not be fair as he believed in co-existence, friendship and love for mankind, opined Urdu scholar and winner of the Jnanpeeth award for this year Ali Sardar Jafri here today.Jafri was speaking after releasing the Urdu version of Dr Muhammed Iqbal's Lala-E-Toor which has been rendered into Urdu from Persian by renowned scholar late Prof Ghulam Dastagir Shehab Shaikh, at a literary function organised by Deccan Muslim Institute at the Anglo Urdu High School Assembly hall.
Iqbal's writings often refer to two flowers, one of them is Lale Ka Phool (tulip) said Jafri while describing how Iqbal has presented the relationship between "Insan" and "Khuda" in his writings.
People have often misunderstood Iqbal as "creator of Pakistan", but confining him to any particular country and territorial limits would be unfair as the famous Urdu poet loved Indiatill his last breath. "He staunchly believed in humanism and was one of its greatest advocates," felt Jafri. He was the poet of humanity, he said. In a speech ornamented with couplets from Iqbal's najms, Jafri said Iqbal had mastery over seven languages and one of them was Sanskrit. He had great respect for Vedant and Upanishads as he had studied them.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
