Iran (IMNA) - For Iqbal Lahori, one of South Asia’s most celebrated poets and philosophers, Iran was not just a place—it was a source of intellectual and spiritual ancestry. Though born in 1877 in Sialkot, in present-day Pakistan, Iqbal’s family traced its lineage to Kashmir, a region profoundly influenced by Mir Syed Ali Hamadani, the renowned Islamic scholar from Hamadan. That early flow of ideas from Iran to Kashmir became the unseen current that shaped Iqbal’s poetic and philosophical journey.
A Philosopher Formed by Persian Thought
In 1907, while studying in Europe, Iqbal submitted his doctoral thesis “The Development of Metaphysics in Persia” at the University of Munich—a groundbreaking study that introduced Western scholars to centuries of Iranian intellectual history.
His research traced philosophical thought from Zoroaster to Mulla Sadra and Hadi Sabzavari, making Persian philosophy visible to European academia for the first time. Later, in his magnum opus Javid Nama, Iqbal reimagined Zoroaster as a symbol of moral perseverance, echoing the philosophical path he first mapped in his doctoral work.
Turning to Persian: A Civilizational Choice
By the 1920s, Iqbal had deliberately chosen Persian as the language of his central philosophical poetry. Persian, still a cultural bridge across South Asia, Afghanistan, and Central Asia, carried with it centuries of mysticism and metaphysics.
For Iqbal, Persian was not merely a language—it was a civilizational archive. Through works such as Payam-e Mashreq (1923), Zabur-e Ajam (1927), and Javid Nama (1932), he used Persian to redefine the relationship between selfhood ( khudi), love ( ishq), and divine purpose.
His use of Persian was a conscious intellectual stance—an act of resistance against Western materialism and a reclamation of Eastern spiritual depth.
Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, Leader of the Islamic Revolution, has often praised Iqbal’s mastery of Persian, describing his works as unparalleled achievements among non-native Persian poets. “There are a large number of non-Persian speaking poets in the history of our literature, but none of them reaches the excellence of Iqbal’s Persian poetry,” he has said.
Rumi: The Eternal Guide
At the heart of Iqbal’s spiritual and literary universe stood the Persian mystic Molana Jalaluddin Rumi. To Iqbal, Rumi was not just a poetic inspiration but a spiritual guide. In Javid Nama, Rumi appears as his companion on a cosmic journey, symbolizing the union of intellect and love.
Rumi’s teachings offered Iqbal a language for an active God and a dynamic human self—one that grows, creates, and seeks divine reflection rather than passive submission. Through Rumi, Iqbal articulated his vision of ishq as a creative force and khudi as the divine spark within humanity.
Iran and the Quest for Identity
Iqbal’s admiration for Iran’s potential was explicit in his verse:
“If Tehran could become the Geneva of the Orient,
The fortunes of this world might change.”
Scholars note that this vision found resonance in post-revolutionary Iran. Ayatollah Khamenei has drawn parallels between Iqbal’s philosophy and Iran’s post-1979 identity, particularly its founding slogan, “Neither East nor West.”
Khamenei once remarked, “Had he been alive today, he would have seen a nation standing on its feet, infused with the rich Islamic spirit… advancing with the frenzy of a lover.”
Many Iranian thinkers view Iqbal as a precursor to their own spiritual and political awakening—a visionary who saw Iran as a moral and civilizational axis capable of resisting both colonialism and hollow nationalism.
A Legacy That Still Echoes
Nearly ninety years after Iqbal’s death, his intellectual and poetic presence endures in Iran—in universities, cultural gatherings, and political thought.
The mountains of Alvand, which he once immortalized in verse, still rise over Hamadan—a silent witness to the enduring dialogue between Iqbal’s Lahore, Iran’s Tehran, and the Kashmir of his ancestors.
His words continue to bridge geographies and generations, reminding the East of its moral and spiritual inheritance—and the power of love and selfhood to shape civilization.
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