Preface

The Quranic Reflections in Iqbal’s poetry is an interesting read for those who appreciate Iqbal’s poetry; for those who appreciate his theological theories and for those who respect him as a sufi.

The idea started taking shape in 1997 when I was working on the English language of my father Abdul Hakeem Malik’s amazing compilation “Quranic prism”; my job included simplifying the language and reading various tafaseer to understand the meaning in order to work out the simpler replacement diction for today’s man. Working long hours; being a student of literature, occasionally I would stumble upon some content in Quran that would seem to reflect in Iqbal’s poetry, after a few accidental finds, we started looking more into it and found out that indeed plenty of our National poet Iqbals poetry is inspired by ayahs in Quran. My father saw a few more books that were of the same subject but language barrier was a big thing and at times we found that essence of either ayah or the verse of Iqbal couldn’t be totally understood when put together. So in order to avoid “lost in translation” effect my father and I decided that there should be a work which overcomes that problem. So in this book we juxtapose not only the original Quranic ayat but English as well as Urdu translation of the related ayah.

I feel less than deserving to write the preface of this book as after our initial scrap work, a rough notebook with references I left for UK and never saw the work through. Whereas my father Abdul Hakeem Malik not only compiled amazing Quran Atlases, revised editions of Quranic Prism but also continued work on this brainchild. After about12 years off and on work this book is in your hands in the most accomplished form.

This book can be approached in various ways depending on what interests you the most; some will see the ayah and wonder how Iqbal portrayed it in verse form, some will wonder about Iqbal’s verse and look for the ayah which originated the idea. Either way I hope it gives you as much pleasure as it gives us sense of satisfaction Alhamdulillah.

No doubt many books on Iqbal in English have appeared, even by his English professors and men of learning and knowledge, but unfortunately their focus was never Islam or Quran. They highlighted Iqbal’s works with reference to his critiques on Socialism, Capitalism, Marxism being the issue of that era. Various Muslim Scholars have also worked on Quranic Concepts and Holy Prophetic Reverence in Iqbal’s mind, but these are seen either in Urdu in the Sub Continent and in Persian in Iran. This was also why this work is unique on the subject being in Bilingual format (both in Urdu n English) with original Holy Quranic text in Arabic to facilitate the readers all over the world. It goes with the agenda of Islamic research foundation works that the work is original in concept and timeless in approach.

We realize that this abridged format of the book is far beyond the Vista of Iqbal but we plan to enhance it from time to time and extend it to Persian Kalam of Iqbal which Iqbal himself was very proud of.

I am indebted to my father for every step I take. May he be of highest ranks in my Allah’s eyes. Amen.

Attiya Thanvi
Glebelands - London East