The almost forgotten radical message of Iqbal

I am reposting this old blog on Iqbal Day: God, You created the night, I made the lamp You created the earth, I made…

Was Iqbal Against The Idea of Secularism? Watch Faisal Devji’s Interview with Raza Rumi

Faisal Devji is one of the foremost historians on the politics of Indian subcontinent. In this interview with Raza Rumi for Naya Daur Media,…

Can India and Pakistan continue to blame the colonists for their failure to liberate its people?

Independence Day in India and Pakistan is a strange moment. Celebrating the end of racist imperialism comes along with the underplayed horrors of a…

‘On the wings of time, grief flies away’

Salma Mahmud’s new book is not a just a readable memoir, it sets a standard for fine writing. Perhaps the most memorable time of…

Khalifa Abdul Hakim (1896-1959)

For years I had been planning to write about Dr Khalifa Abdul Hakim (1896-1959), the great philosopher and intellectual of the twentieth century. Last…

Iqbal – The Universal Reformer

It takes thousands of year for a genious of the highest class to be born. Iqbal believed in habitual vision of greatness. He had…

The almost forgotten radical message of Iqbal

Yesterday was the Iqbal day- year after year it has become just another empty ritual. High sounding speeches and statements, visits to Iqbal’s tomb…

Iqbal on Mullahism

qoum kia cheez hay qoumo ke immammath kia hay is ko kia janay ye bechara do rakaath ka immam bayan may nukta tawheed aa…

On Rumi, Iqbal and ‘Dynamic Sufism’

Pakistan celeberates Allama Iqbal’s death anniversary on April 21 with the usual lip-service. The key messages of Iqbal seem to have been lost in…

No place like home: inventive [homesick] Pakistanis

The popularity of Internet as a medium and the personal space it provides to the diaspora is evident from the growing number of Urdu…