Allama Iqbal, a great poet-philosopherand an active political leader was born in 1873, in Sialkot in the Punjab. Hedescended from a family of Kashmiri Brahmins, who had embraced Islam about three hundred years earlier. Iqbal''s first education was in the traditional Mukatab. Later he joined theSialkot Mission School, from where he passed his matriculation examination. In 1897, he obtained Bachelor of Arts Degree from the Government College, Lahore. Two years later, he secured his Master''s Degree and was appointed in the Oriental College, Lahore, as a lecturer in History, Philosophy and English. Later he proceeded to Europe for higher studies. Having obtained a degree at Cambridge, he later secured his doctorate at Munich and finally he was able to qualify as a barrister. In 1908, on returning to India, besides teaching and practicing Law, Iqbal continued to write poetry. He resigned from the Government service in 1911 and took to the propagation of his individual thinking to the Muslims through his poetry. By 1928, his reputation as a great Muslim philosopher was solidly established and he was invited to deliver lectures at Hyderabad, Aligarh and Madras. These series of lectures were later on published as a book - The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam. In 1930, Iqbal was invited to preside over the open session of the Muslim League at Allahabad. In his historic Allahabad Address Iqbal visualized an independent and sovereign state for the Muslims of North-Western India. In 1932, Iqbal came to England as a Muslim delegate to the Third Roundtable Conference. In latter years, when the Quaid had left India and was residing in England, Allama Iqbal wrote to him informing his personal views on political problems and state of affairs of the Indian Muslims and also persuading him to come back. These letters are dated from June 1936 to November 1937 and they now form important historic documents concerning our struggle for freedom.

It was on April 21, 1938, that this great Muslim poet-philosopher and champion of the Muslim cause passed away and lies buried next to the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore.