Self-portrayals of Iqbal

Painting by Saeed Akhtar — one of the most popular and celebrated painters in Pakistan — juxtaposes three photographs of Iqbal: the book held open is reminiscent of a picture taken with an admirer Shuja Namoos c.1923; the shawl comes from a famous profile photographed in Simla in the late 1920s; and the signature "thinking posture" of Iqbal comes from a photograph taken in Paris in 1933. See also Chapter 39, 'Glory' in The Republic of Rumi: a Novel of Reality

Urdu and Persian poets address themselves by their takhallus (pen name), almost always, in the last couplet of a ghazal. Iqbal indulges in this practice rarely, and never just for the sake of word play (unlike many other poets), since he is a poet who aims at imparting learning to his readers.

More frequently, he alludes to himself in a direct manner. His poetical works abound in anecdotes from his life, travelogues and personal reflections about events and people (see also ‘Iqbal's parents remembered in his works' and ‘Javid’).

Quite often, self-portrayal of Iqbal in his poetry is meant to outline the various strands of his journey. For instance, two different points in self-awareness are marked, respectively, by the poems ‘Piety and Vice’ and ‘The Inconstant Lover’ – both of which were eventually included in The Call of the Marching Bell (1924).

The first of the two poems was written in 1904, and recalls an actual conversation with a neighbor who was perplexed about what he perceived as “contradictions” in the personality of Iqbal (see Chapter 41 in A Novel of Reality). About the other one, Iqbal wrote to his friend Atiya Fyzee on July 17, 1909: “I have nicely put what people think about me; the answer is yet to be versified.” Apparently completely sometime afterwards, the poem marks a point where the poet has resolved the seeming contradictions in his personality and has become self-aware.

Likewise, the first book of his poetry, Secrets and Mysteries (1915-1922) introduces a qalandar from history as a role model. The epigram of the fourth book, Persian Psalms (1927), informs the readers that the poet himself has now become a qalandar.

Poems that could be least suspected to be based on actual experiences but turn out to be so, include some like ‘A Walk Through the Sky’, included in The Call of the Marching Bell (1924), which describes an “imaginary” visit to hell but is apparently based on an actual dream that was mentioned in a letter to Atiya Fyzee, dated April 17, 1909.