EVERY year readers are deluged with new books and articles on Allama Iqbal. On his death anniversary, falling on April 21, one feels that the topic has been done to death and hardly any aspect of Iqbal’s life and works is left over to write about as a huge body of critical and research works on him has been amassed over the past several decades.

It is a fact that the standard of work on Iqbal has suffered a tangible lapse as every Tom, Dick and Harry decides to write on Iqbal once he or she learns how to hold a pen. But most of such new works lack crux as they are simply jotted down ideas from the works already published. Hardly any new work on Iqbal offers anything new or fresh these days.

But some scholars think slightly differently: “It is being said repeatedly that there is no more room to carry out fresh research or publish new critical work on Allama Iqbal as all that could have been written on him has been written,” writes Dr Khalid Nadeem in the preface to his new book on Iqbal, titled Kulliyaat-i-Nasr-i-Iqbal, or collected prose works of Iqbal. “The purpose of promoting such ideas is not to acknowledge Iqbal’s greatness, but to slow down the speed of work on him,” adds Dr Nadeem.

He agrees with the notion that every great theme is unfortunate in the sense that everybody starts writing on it and it results in substandard works, but he says much of Iqbal’s prose and poetic works need to be edited and annotated again --- in a modern, scientific way.

So Khalid Nadeem decided to compile and annotate all of Iqbal’s Urdu prose, except for three works: Iqbal’s letters, his book Ilm-ul-Iqtesaad and Tareekh-i-Tasavvuf.

Iqbal’s letters have been compiled by Syed Muzaffar Husain Barni and published in four volumes by Delhi’s Urdu Academy. Iqbal’s book Ilm-ul-Iqtesaad (1903) is the first book in Urdu on Economics but Iqbal never gave it any importance. It was reprinted in 1961 by Iqbal Academy.

As for, Tareekh-i-Tasavvuf, it is a half-finished work by Iqbal on the history of Sufism and has already been compiled and published by Dr Sabir Kalorvi.

Khalid Nadeem sifted through all the books that include Iqbal’s Urdu prose and, aside from these three works by Iqbal, has put Iqbal’s entire Urdu prose together. Believe me, this itself was a gigantic task as Iqbal’s Urdu prose is scattered in a large number of works. Writing notes on each and every prose piece by Iqbal and that too based on research, along with references, was another peak that Khalid Nadeem has surmounted.

Published a couple of months ago by Nashriyaat, Lahore, the book under review includes Iqbal’s Urdu prose and covers: prefaces by Iqbal on his five poetic works; Iqbal’s eight articles and essays; Iqbal’s 21 explanatory notes on the meanings, allusions and background of his certain verses; 22 book reviews or blurbs written by Iqbal; seven reviews by Iqbal on magazines; five certificates or corrections given by Iqbal; two translations by Iqbal; seven messages on different occasions by him; 38 speeches of Iqbal; 15 statements; four interviews; six discussions; two wills (for Javed Iqbal and guardian of Iqbal’s minor children) and two prefaces written on textbooks in collaboration with other writers.

The book also includes some prose pieces by Iqbal published with his poetic works. These are brief notes that Iqbal had written to explain the background of some of his poems. The notes are not only useful and interesting, but have been collected together for the first time.

This backbreaking work must have been very taxing and Dr Khalid Nadeem, already known for burning the proverbial midnight oil, has done an exquisite work, proving his point that much work is left to be done on Iqbal and that not every new work on Iqbal is substandard and a mere copy of the previous ones.

Dr Khalid Nadeem heads the department of Urdu language and literature at Sargodha University. He now has several remarkable research works under his belt, for example, Shibli Shikni Ki Rivayet, Urdu Mein Armughan-i-Ilmi Ki Rivayet, Shibli Ki Aap Beeti, Aap Beeti Allama Iqbal, Aap Beeti Mirza Ghalib, Akhter Husain Raipuri: Hayat-o-Khidmaat and Ehde-i-Hazir Ka Fikri Bohran Aur Iqbal.

A detailed index of subjects at the back of the book, a rarity in Urdu books, adds to the value of the book. With the publication of Kulliyaat-i-Nasr-i-Iqbal, we can now safely say that every year at least a couple of worthwhile books are published on Iqbal as there still remains some research to be carried out on the great bard.

drraufparekh@yahoo.com

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2022