Muhammad Iqbal's political philosophy

Mohammad Iqbal with his son Javid Iqbal on Eid day in 1930

Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938) is the national poet of Pakistan and is regarded as the soul behind creation of Pakistan.^[1] The political objective condition of Indian subcontinent in pre-partition time influenced his poetry and politics. These political conditions ranged from British and Indian rivalry to the Muslim/Non Muslim or Muslim League and Congress rivalry.^[2] The political philosophy of Muhammad Iqbal went through several phases of development. The first (until 1905) was pan-Indian nationalism with a belief in the nationhood based on language, culture, race, and geography. The second (1905–08) was transitional/mental conflict and the third (1908–26) was Pan-Islamism/Muslim nationalism advocating political unity of the Muslim world. The fourth (1926–38) was Supranationalism or Internationalism wherein the Muslim ummah was universal, the boundaries of the state were for administrative convenience only and the affinity was spiritual.^[3]

In Iqbal's political philosophy and practice, parliamentary spiritual democratic system is universalistic and particularistic in its range. Global in nature, it is anchored in the religion of Islam that gives it a universal look. In 1926, when he entered politics to realize this ideal in practice, his ideas started to reflect the political scenario of the subcontinent.^[2] Besides Islam, Iqbal had made use of a good deal of western political concepts of nationalism, democracy, secularism, sovereignty, ethics of politics and communism. But he neither fully appreciates nor discards out rightly all these concepts. On the other hand, he has expounded his own political ideals of Tawhid, Khudi, Mumin, Islamic democracy, Millat, etc. Through these patterns of thought, Iqbal try to train an individual, a society and a global Islamic order. This universal order as it is construed from the concept of ummah will strive for the promotion of Panhumanism, i.e., freedom, brotherhood, and equality of humanity.^[2]