Muhammad Iqbal quotes

Muhammad Iqbal was a renowned philosopher, poet, and politician from the Indian subcontinent. His poetry in Persian and Urdu inspired the movement for the creation of Pakistan. He is remembered as the "Spiritual Father of Pakistan" and a leading figure in modern Islamic thought. Here are 89 of his quotes:

Ends and purposes, whether they exist as conscious or subconscious tendencies, form the wrap and woof of our conscious experience. (Muhammad Iqbal)
The immediacy of mystic experience simply means that we know God just as we know other objects. God is not a mathematical entity or a system of concepts mutually related to one another and having no reference to experience. View quote
Muhammad Iqbal
Nations are born in the hearts of poets, they prosper and die in the hands of politicians. View quote
Muhammad Iqbal
Vision without power does bring moral elevation but cannot give a lasting culture. View quote
Muhammad Iqbal
Democracy is a system in which heads are counted but not weighed. View quote
Muhammad Iqbal
I would like to see the Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan amalgamated into a single State. Self-government within the British Empire, or without the British Empire, the formation of a consolidated North-West Indian Muslim State appears to me to be the final destiny of the Muslims, at least of North-West India. View quote
Muhammad Iqbal
I lead no party; I follow no leader. I have given the best part of my life to careful study of Islam, its law and polity, its culture, its history and its literature. View quote
Muhammad Iqbal
The ultimate aim of the ego is not to see something, but to be something. View quote
Muhammad Iqbal
People who have no hold over their process of thinking are likely to be ruined by liberty of thought. If thought is immature, liberty of thought becomes a method of converting men into animals. View quote
Muhammad Iqbal
Be not entangled in this world of days and nights; Thou hast another time and space as well. View quote
Muhammad Iqbal
Destiny is the prison and chain of the ignorant. Understand that destiny like the water of the Nile: Water before the faithful, blood before the unbeliever. (Muhammad Iqbal)
My ancestors were Brahmins. They spent their lives in search of god. I am spending my life in search of man. View quote
Muhammad Iqbal
I have already indicated to you the meaning of the word religion, as applied to Islam. The truth is that Islam is not a Church. It is a State conceived as a contractual organism long before Rousseau ever thought of such a thing, and animated by an ethical ideal which regards man not as an earth-rooted creature, defined by this or that portion of the earth, but as a spiritual being understood in terms of a social mechanism, and possessing rights and duties as a living factor in that mechanism. View quote
Muhammad Iqbal
It cannot be denied that Islam, regarded as an ethical ideal plus a certain kind of polity – by which expression I mean a social structure regulated by a legal system and animated by a specific ethical ideal – has been the chief formative factor in the life-history of the Muslims of India. It has furnished those basic emotions and loyalties which gradually unify scattered individuals and groups, and finally transform them into a well-defined people, possessing a moral consciousness of their own. View quote
Muhammad Iqbal
Human intellect is natures attempt at self criticism. View quote
Muhammad Iqbal
Would we have played with our lives for nothing but worldly gain? If our people had run after earth's goods and gold, Need they have smashed idols, and not idols sold? View quote
Muhammad Iqbal
O water of the river Ganges, thou rememberst the day When our torrent flooded thy valleys... View quote
Muhammad Iqbal
China and Arabia are ours, India is ours, Muslims we are, the whole world is ours... View quote
Muhammad Iqbal
Our India is the best of all countries in the world. View quote
Muhammad Iqbal
Every land which belongs to God is our land. View quote
Muhammad Iqbal
The alchemist of the West has turned stone into glass But my alchemy has transmuted glass into flint Pharaohs of today have stalked me in vain. (Muhammad Iqbal)
"Heart – "It is absolutely certain that God does exist.”. View quote
Muhammad Iqbal
"Muhammad of Arabia ascended the highest Heaven and returned. I swear by God that if I had reached that point, I should never have returned." These are the words of a great Muslim saint, 'AbdulQuddës of Gangoh. In the whole range of Sufi literature it will be probably difficult to find words which, in a single sentence, disclose such an acute perception of the psychological difference between the prophetic and the mystic types of consciousness. The mystic does not wish to return from the repose of "unitary experience"; and even when he does return, as he must, his return does not mean much for mankind at large. View quote
Muhammad Iqbal
The wing of the Falcon brings to the king, the wing if the crow brings him to the cemetery. View quote
Muhammad Iqbal
Rise above sectional interests and private ambitions... Pass from matter to spirit. Matter is diversity; spirit is light, life and unity. View quote
Muhammad Iqbal