Allama Muhammad Iqbal Lahori and Afghanistan

Some local Pashtuns of Khost (Afghanistan) removing name of Allama Iqbal from a sign board (2017)

(Allama Iqbal was of Kashmiri descent and was born in Sialkot but in Iran and Afghanistan he is known as "Iqbal Lahori")


1- Iqbal's grave is covered by the most precious lapiz lazuli, found mostly in Afghanistan. These stones were gifted by the Government of Afghanistan. The value of these stones was equal to three hundred thousand Afghanis (currency of Afghanistan) at that time. The stone for the grave and also for the tomb-stone was sent from Afghanistan. Two stone-torches made of lapiz lazuli were also sent but were broken during the transportation. The contents inscribed on the tomb are as under :-

 (The poet and philosopher of the East, Dr.Muhammad Iqbal who illuminated the paths of struggle and spirit of Islam had endeared himself to the great king of Afghan milat, Muhammad Nadir Shah Ghazi. Born in 1292 (A.H) and died in 1357 (A.H).


2- The book "Musafir" of Allam Iqbal is versified account of his journeys to Afghanistan in 1933. It consists of 291 couplets or 382 lines distributed in eleven independent poems and a 23-verse ghazal.

The title and contents of the poems are :-

→ Nadir Shah
→Address to the people of Afghan borderland (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa)
→The traveler enters the city of Kabul and presents himself before the King of Afghanistan
→At the Mausoleum of King Babur
→Journey to Ghazni and visiting the grave of Hakim Sanai
→The spirit of Hakim Sanai responds from the heaven
→On the tomb of Sultan Mahmud (of Ghazni)
→Supplications of an emotionally abnormal individual in the wilderness of Ghazni
→ Qandahar and beholding the holy coat of the Prophet (pbuh)
→  Masnavi Musafir
→ Ghazal
→At the grave of Ahmad Shah Baba, founder of the Afghan nation
→ Address to the King of Islam Zahir Shah
→ First poem Nadir Shah

 3-  Allama Iqbal dedicated his book "Payam-i-Mashriq" to Amir Amanullah Khan of Afghanistan. In its preface he wrote :-

("At this point in time, in the world at large, and more particularly in the countries of the East, those efforts should be lauded with aim at subliming and elevating the vision of the individuals and nations above the petty geographical considerations. This is why i dedicate these pages to the King, Amanullah Khan of Afghanistan , who by dint of his natural intellectual powers had grasped this point. He, as such, was busy training and educating the Afghans towards that end. In this stupendous task, may God almighty help and support him)

Besides dedicating his book to him, Iqbal composed a long poem in the name of Amanullah.


4- Allama Iqbal collected money for military efforts of Nadir Khan to wrest throne from Habibullah Kalakani. A meeting of Muslim leaders of public opinion was held on 3rd of October 1929 at the residence of Sadat Ali Khan under the chairmanship of Iqbal. With a consensus it was decided to open funds under the title of "Nadir Khan Hilal-i-Ahmad fund" immediately. An executive committee under the president hip of Iqbal was constituted for collecting the money. Allama Iqbal issued an appeal for making donations in the Daily Inqilab of 11th October 1929.

The efforts of Iqbal were recognized and appreciated by Nadir Khan (later Nadir Shah) who expressed his gratitude in a letter addressed to Iqbal on September 11, 1929, the English translation of which reads as follow :-

5-  Allama Iqbal held Ahmad Shah Abdali in high esteem. In a poem addressed and dedicated to Ahmad Shah Abdali, Iqbal calls him "Baba". The text of dialogue between Ahmad Shah Abdali and Allama Iqbal in Javed-nama as taken place in the celestial sphere is given alongwith its English translation  :-

Source : "Iqbal and the Afghans" by Zahoor Ahmad Awan