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Who could understand Allama Iqbal better than the
Quaid-e-Azam himself, who was his awaited "Guide of
the Era"? The Quaid-i Azam in the Introduction to
Allama Iqbal's lettes addressed to him, admitted that
he had agreed with Allama Iqbal regarding a State
for Indian Muslims before the latters death in April,
1938. The Quaid stated:
His views were substantially in consonance with
my own and had finally led me to the same conclusions
as a result of careful examination and study of the
constitutional problems facing India and found expression
in due course in the united will of Muslim India as
adumbrated in the Lahore Resolution of the All-India
Muslim League popularly known as the "Pakistan Resolution"
passed on 23rd March, 1940.
Furthermore, it was Allama
Iqbal who called upon Quaid-i Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah
to lead the Muslims of India to their cherished goal.
He preferred the Quaid to other more experienced Muslim
leaders such as Sir Aga Khan, Maulana Hasrat Mohani,
Nawab Muhammad Isma il Khan, Maulana Shaukat Ali,
Nawab Hamid Ullah Khan of Bhopal, Sir Ali Imam, Maulvi
Tameez ud-Din Khan, Maulana Abul Kalam, Allama al-Mashriqi
and others. But Allama Iqbal had his own reasons.
He had found his "Khizr-i Rah", the veiled guide in
Quaid-i Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah who was destined
to lead the Indian branch of the Muslim Ummah to their
goal of freedom. Allama Iqbal stated:
I know you are
a busy man but I do hope you won't mind my writing
to you often, as you are the only Muslim in India
today to whom the community has right to look up for
safe guidance through the storm which is coming to
North-West India, and perhaps to the whole of India.
Similar sentiments were expressed by him about three
months before his death. Sayyid Nazir Niazi in his
book Iqbal Ke Huzur, has stated that the future of
the Indian Muslims was being discussed and a tenor
of pessimism was visible from what his friends said.
At this Allama Iqbal observed:
There is only one way
out. Muslim should strengthen Jinnah's hands. They
should join the Muslim League. Indian question, as
is now being solved, can be countered by our united
front against both the Hindus and the English. Without
it our demands are not going to be accepted. People
say our demands smack of communalism. This is sheer
propaganda. These demands relate to the defence of
our national existence.
He continued:
The united front
can be formed under the leadership of the Muslim League.
And the Muslim League can succeed only on account
of Jinnah. Now none but Jinnah is capable of leading
the Muslims.
Matlub ul-Hasan Sayyid stated that after
the Lahore Resolution was passed on March 23, 1940,
the Quaid-i Azam said to him:
Iqbal is no more amongst
us, but had he been alive he would have been happy
to know that we did exactly what he wanted us to do.
But the matter does not end here. Allama Iqbal in
his letter of March 29, 1937 to the Quaid-e-Azam had
said:
While we are ready to cooperate with other progressive
parties in the country, we must not ignore the fact
that the whole future of Islam as a moral and political
force in Asia rests very largely on a complete organization
of Indian Muslims.
According to Allama Iqbal the future
of Islam as a moral and political force not only in
India but in the whole of Asia rested on the organization
of the Muslims of India led by the Quaid-e-Azam.
The
"Guide of the Era" Iqbal had envisaged in 1926, was
found in the person of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. The "Guide"
organized the Muslims of India under the banner of
the Muslim League and offered determined resistance
to both the Hindu and the English designs for a united
Hindu-dominated India. Through their united efforts
under the able guidance of Quaid-I Azam Muslims succeeded
in dividing India into Pakistan and Bharat and achieving
their independent homeland. As observed above, in
Allama Iqbal's view, the organization of Indian Muslims
which achieved Pakistan would also have to defend
other Muslim societies in Asia. The carvan of the
resurgence of Islam has to start and come out of this
Valley, far off from the centre of the ummah. Let
us see how and when, Pakistan prepares itself to shoulder
this august responsibility. It is Allama Iqbal's prevision.
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