Afghan Nation from the Perspective of Iqbāl

Allāmeh Iqbāl Lahori was an intellectual whose thoughts and vision transcended geographical boundaries. He was always woeful about the circumstances of the Muslim world making efforts to find out solutions to revive Muslims’ majesty and diligent. It was his wish to see human beings coming towards Islam and Muslims’ unity and fraternity in order to remove hatred and conflicts from the world making it peaceful and calm. In order to approach more Muslims and convey his message to more people, he chose Persian Dari as the basic language for his poems; most of his poetry is in Persian as he liked Persian-speakers a lot.
Iqbāl was devoted to Afghanistan and Afghan nation strongly and he expressed his sincerity in poetry. In 1933, he traveled to Afghanistan by invitation of the king of Afghanistan Mohammad Nādir Khan, father of Zāhir Shah. Mawlana Sayyed Suleiman Nadawi (senior teacher at Darululoom Nadwat-ūl-Ulama and supervisor of Darūl-Mūsannifeen Azamgarh, India) and Sir Ross Masood (Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University, India) also accompanied Iqbāl Lahori in the trip. The result of this journey is the “traveler/Mūsāfir” poem, which depicts the most beautiful poems of Allāme’s pure and subtle feelings to this land and its great historical personalities. Iqbāl has a contemplative look at Afghanistan. He considers Afghanistan the heart of Asia whose stability or instability affects the whole region; the thing which observe it well nowadays that how incidents in Afghanistan influence the entire region. Iqbāl thinks two Muslim ethnic communities – Arabs and Afghans – enjoy great competencies.
In an Urdu poem Iqbāl says: Rūmi has changed, Shāmi has changed, India has changed; O son of mountain! Recognize yourself; O neglectful Afghan! Recognize yourself. By saying “Mard-e Kūistāni”, Iqbāl means the Afghan nation. He was very devoted to this nation and used to advise them that as their ancestors, they should go on the correct path and reach to real self-scrutiny in order to advance their destiny towards the good.
The other advice of Iqbāl to Afghan nation is to get education and avoid from the acts which have no educational bases. Then they can protect their religion and material lives in the best possible method.
Iqbāl thinks deep affiliation of Afghan people with the tribal system is one of the main reasons behind the backwardness of Afghanistan and its domestic problems. Absolute ethnicism persuades an individual to consider himself away from his united nation. Then he becomes unable to move along with other tribes and ethnic communities to a stable and united country.