Stray reflections

Sir Muhammad Iqbal (9 November 1877 – 21 April 1938) was an Islamic philosopher and poet. His poetry in Urdu is considered to be among the greatest of the 20th century, and his vision of a cultural and political ideal for the Muslims of British India is widely regarded as having animated the impulse for the Pakistan Movement. He is commonly referred to by the honorific Allamah (Persian: علامه, transl. "learned") and widely considered one of the most important and influential Muslim thinkers and Islamic religious philosophers of the 20th century. Iqbal was born and raised in Sialkot, Punjab, British India and studied at Scotch Mission College in Sialkot and Government College in Lahore. He taught Arabic at the Oriental College, Lahore, from 1899 until 1903, during which time he wrote prolifically.