Recently, a Twitter thread that went viral gave us a chance to understand Allama Muhammad Iqbal, the beloved poet of the subcontinent and one of Pakistan's founding fathers, through that same lens of human existence. A Twitter user, Hamd Nawaz, shared a look into the bittersweet bond between Allama Iqbal and Indian writer and intellectual, Atiya Faizi.
https://twitter.com/_myocardium_/status/1548642585484431370
When 28-year-old Allama Iqbal moved to England in 1905, his Indian Hosts in Cambridge suggested that he invite a Muslim girl who lived nearby over for dinner. The Muslim girl in question was Indian author and intellectual Atiya Faizi, whose written works had been read by Iqbal previously.
Iqbal invited her by saying, "I’ve never failed in my life & I hope you won’t break my series by refusing to accept this invitation," and when she accepted the invitation, he had Indian food prepared for her visit.
The two found mutual admiration for each other and had many topics in common. They shared correspondences about matters of philosophy, religion, literature and art. The also frequently walked around England, enjoying picnics and museums and gatherings with friends. Hamd says that Iqbal mentioned his days spent in Atiya's company as the 'best ones he had ever had'.
https://twitter.com/_myocardium_/status/1548642624118161409
Iqbal eventually moved back to Lahore in 1908, and yet the two continued their correspondence through letters. Iqbal's father had arranged his marriage with Karima Bibi, and upon his return, the disconnect between the two became even more obvious to him.
In a letter to Atiya, he wrote, "I have written to my father that he had no right to arrange my marriage, especially when I had refused to enter an alliance of that sort; I am quite willing to support her, but I am not prepared to make my life miserable by keeping her with me.”
Eventually, Atiya married a Christian artist and writer Samuel Rahamin, and the two were very happy together. After partition they moved to Karachi, and lived in a house modeled after their residence in Bombay.
After both their marriages, Iqbal and Atiya lost contact, but a chance encounter in Lahore one day inspired Iqbal to write a couplet for her, wondering what could have been.
In Karachi, Atiya became a patron of the arts, and formed an arts institute in Burns Gardens, which couldn't be completed due to governmental negligence. Eventually, Atiya and Rahamin came upon hard times and were evicted out of their house in the 1950s, after which they moved to Nagar Hotel, which is where Atiya passed away.