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Pakistan
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Pakistan's national poet, the 'Poet of the East' (Shair-e-Mashriq)
Khudi ko kar buland itna ke har taqdeer se pehle / Khuda bande se khud poochhe, bata teri raza kya hai
"Raise your selfhood so high that before every decree of fate, God Himself asks you: 'Tell me, what is your wish?'"
Muhammad Iqbal was born in Sialkot, where his teacher Maulvi Mir Hassan encouraged his love of language and poetry. He studied at Government College Lahore, where the orientalist Sir Thomas Arnold became his mentor.
From 1905 to 1908 he studied in Europe: philosophy at Cambridge, a doctorate at Munich (on Persian metaphysics) and law in London. Europe deepened his belief that Muslims needed to rediscover their own spiritual strength rather than imitate the West.
Back in Lahore he practised law, wrote poetry in Urdu and Persian, and entered politics. In his 1930 Allahabad Address to the Muslim League he proposed a Muslim state in north-western India, and in letters to Jinnah he urged him to lead the Muslims. He died in Lahore in 1938, nine years before Pakistan was created.
Khudi (selfhood and self-respect), action instead of passivity, the unity and revival of the Muslim world, love ('ishq) as a force greater than reason, and the 'mard-e-momin' (the true believer). He took much inspiration from Maulana Rumi, whom he called his spiritual guide.
Iqbal is honoured as Pakistan's national poet and the spiritual father of the Pakistan idea. His birthday, 9 November, is Iqbal Day. He wrote more poetry in Persian than in Urdu and is also revered in Iran and Afghanistan.