Noted Urdu poet Allama Iqbal (1877-1938), whose birth anniversary on November 9 is also celebrated as World Urdu Day, had a deep bond with Mumbai. The poet who penned stirring patriotic poems, including the famous ‘Saare Jahan Se Achcha’, first came to Mumbai in 1905.
City-based senior Urdu scholar and linguist Abdus Sattar Dalvi who has researched Iqbal’s Mumbai connection in his book ‘Iqbal Aur Bombay’ said that the poet stayed at a hotel in South Mumbai before he took a ship to London.
“One evening Iqbal strolled down to Victoria Terminus (now CSMT) and came to the Anjuman-I-Islam campus. He met some boys who were playing cricket and asked them if it was a college. The boys told him this was a school that Muslims of Bombay had built. Iqbal felt good about it,” said Dalvi, who recently came across fascinating observations that Iqbal made about Mumbai when he scoured the files of longdefunct Urdu daily ‘Khilafat’. “At one place Iqbal said that Muslims of Mumbai were aqalmand (wise). In an interview he told Muslims to uphold the message of universal brotherhood and peace,” said Dalvi.
Theatre directors Mujeeb Khan and M Saeed Alam are celebrating Iqbal’s birth anniversary by making their plays available online.
In the 1930s Iqbal visited Mumbai several times, once on his way to attend a Round Table Conference in London. The feisty, liberal Atia Faizi, who came from the family of Badruddin Tayyabji who had founded Anjuman-I-Islam, was Iqbal’s friend. They had first met in Europe in 1907 while Iqbal and Atia studied there. They were rumoured to be close and their relationship had left tongues wagging.
In reply to a letter where Atia had complained that Iqbal was ignoring her, Iqbal wrote: “No. Please, don’t call me indifferent or hypocrite. It hurts my soul. I want to open my heart to you so that you can peep into my soul.” “Some of Iqbal’s critics read too much into the exchange of letters between him and Fiazi,” wrote late scholar Dr Rafiq Zakaria in his book ‘Iqbal: The Poet and the Politician.’ Iqbal and Faizi never married but Mumbai gave them yet another opportunity to meet before Iqbal voyaged to England. While Iqbal had stayed at the historic Khilafat House in Byculla, Fiazi invited him to Awan-e-Rifat, her bungalow at Malabar Hill, over tea. As Iqbal prepared to leave, Faizi asked him to write a message for her. He penned a coupletfull of love.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/bombay-was-city-of-layovers-letters-for-urdu-poet/articleshow/79108289.cms