Epitomizing grace and poise, Munira Salahuddin (91), the last living child of Pakistan’s national poet, Allama Sir Muhammad Iqbal has vivid memories of her father.
One of the greatest Urdu and Persian language poets, whose cultural and political ideals conceptualized a separate country for Muslims of South Asia, Iqbal passed away in 1939, when Munira was just seven-year-old.
Grey hair tied into a neat bun behind her head, dressed in a shalwar kameez, Munira who lives in Pakistani city of Lahore tries to remember her father, who was very fond of the Turks and supporter of their War of Independence.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, her son Iqbal Salahuddin said that his mother fumbles and forgets details due to her age.
“No matter how old you get, you always need your parents. She was just four years old when her mother passed away and seven years old when Allama left the world. She has seen him fighting for his people’s rights. After Allama’s death, she was raised by her aunts and a German lady Mrs. Doris, but at this age, she misses her parents the most,” said Salahuddin.
Born on Nov.9, 1877 in Sialkot, a city now in Norrth Pakistan in an ethnic Kashmiri Muslim family, Iqbal is also referred as Poet of the East, due to his revolutionary poems against colonial expansion.
Based in Pakistani city of Lahore, Iqbal Salahuddin runs an institute with the name of Dabistan e Iqbal (Garden of Iqbal) where he teaches the philosophy of his grandfather to the students from different colleges and universities free of cost.
“I got my basic training on Iqbal’s philosophy from my maternal uncle Javed Iqbal and now after reading and understanding Iqbal. I think it is my utmost responsibility to pass on these concepts of Iqbal as it is to the next generation,” said Salahuddin.
