Unity among Muslims, message of Iqbal Lahori: Iran envoy

Mehdi Honardoost made the remarks while speaking as a chief guest at a conference on ‘influence of Allama Iqbal and Maulana Rumi’s poetic thoughts on contemporary mysticism’ at National University of Modern Languages (NUML) Islamabad.

The ambassador went on to say that Iqbal Lahori is a multidimensional personality. He said that other countries of the world know him as a great poet but actually he was a great diplomat.

“We find different messages in Iqbal’s poetry,” he said.

He added that Iqbal always desired unity among Muslims in the region. Honardoost regretted that some of the countries in the region are playing in the hands of the enemies.

The ambassador strongly believed that educational institutions and professors of Iran and Pakistan must give more focus on teaching the thoughts of Iqbal Lahori to the youth.

“If we want to respect Iqbal we have to get united,” he said.

The Iranian diplomat added that body of Iqbal belongs to Pakistan but his soul belongs to both Iran and Pakistan and Iranian nation is proud of him.

“We must look towards our culture and great heritage instead of looking towards the culture of the West,” he noted.

Muhammad Iqbal, widely known as Allama Iqbal, was a poet, philosopher, and politician, as well as an academic, barrister and scholar in British India who is widely regarded as having inspired the Pakistan Movement. He is called the spiritual father of Pakistan. He is considered one of the most important figures in Urdu literature, with literary work in both Urdu and Persian.

Iqbal is admired as a prominent poet by Pakistanis, Iranians and other international scholars of literature. Though Iqbal is best known as an eminent poet, he is also a highly acclaimed Muslim philosophical thinker of modern times.

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