(Reproduced with minor edits from my mailing list message dated today 21 April 2014). Feel free to pass it on!
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It’s been a while since I last sent out a message to this list, and to many of my friends, I have been completely out of touch for a long time (for reasons that are not important here). For that I apologise.
Today is the anniversary of Iqbal’s death, an annual day of remembering the poet-philosopher’s message and what it means not only for people in the Indian subcontinent but also humanity as a whole. Iqbal has been simultaneously been celebrated and misunderstood since the time he was alive, and numerous biographies have been written on him. I’m pleased to announce the imminent release of a new biography on Iqbal, of which Libredux Publishing is printing the UK/US edition.
But this book is unlike the standard biographies on Iqbal. For a start, its author is Khurram Ali Shafique, who is known by most of you as the man behind the Marghdeen Learning Centre, and whose previous biography on Iqbal won him the Presidential Iqbal Award. But to really explain why this book is different, I can do no better than to reproduce its blurb:
This was the unparalleled legacy of the poet-philosopher credited with birthing a nation and a state, and at no other time has the world been more ready to embrace his ideas than it is right now.
The story of his mind, and what he taught, as told herein from a new and compelling angle, leads us on a trail of discovery towards a new way of life. You’re invited to approach this as a handbook for implementing his life-giving ideas.
Written by a foremost authority on the subject, this is a tribute to Dr. Sir Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938) by ten sovereign states: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are members of the Economic Cooperation Organization, whose Cultural Institute (ECI) has published this book jointly with Iqbal Academy Pakistan.
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Postscript 26/Apr/2014 * Since the time of writing this, the line has been changed from The Splendour of Taj Mahal to The Message of the Quran.
“Mind of Goethe, heart of Rumi and splendour of Taj Mehal” wow this statement provides a new aesthetics for understanding Iqbal’s SYSTEMS.
Thanks kindly Dar Sahib. 🙂 Actually, that part of the blurb has just been edited slightly (see the postscript at the end of my post). Hope it meets with your approval.
Message of Quran is the basis on which Iqbal developed all his poetic and political thoughts, and when we say message of Quran we do not expect other parallels to be drawn with that. To me if Goethe was mind, Rumi was heart, Taj Mehal was the splendor, because it is collective Islamic soul. However it is always something better in the mind of writers’ and editors’ because they know their book better than the readers who have yet to see what it is all about. Waiting for this as it promises something refreshing.
To add more Taj Mehal is the manifestation of mind and heart and hence a splendour of soul.
Dar Sahib, Thanks for your valuable thoughts on this. 🙂 Our cover designer (Sadie) also wrote the original blurb. Khurram Sahib asked for the line change at the last minute, and yes, it was partly in view of the book’s contents that the change was made. But I should add that direct theological references are relatively few, and the book appeals to a universal audience and not just the Muslim world.
Looking forward to the print version 🙂
Getting there soon, Bushra Sahiba! 🙂