Allama Iqbal was born at Sialkot, Punjab, in 1877. He was a great poet, philosopher and active politic leader. He was born in a Kashmiri Brahmin family, which had embraced Islam about 300 years earlier. Iqbal completed his early education from a maktab (Islamic School of Sufism). He passed his matriculation examination from the Sialkot Mission School. In 1897, he completed his Bachelor of Arts degree from Government College, Lahore. After two years, he completed his Masters Degree and was appointed as a lecturer of history in the Oriental College, Lahore. Then he went to Europe for his higher studies and secured his doctorate at Munich and qualified as a barrister.
After returning to India in 1908, Iqbal continued to write poetry besides teaching and practicing law. In 1911, he resigned from government service and propagated individual thinking among the Muslims through his poetry. He established a solid reputation as a great Muslim philosopher and was invited to deliver lectures at Hyderabad, Aligarh and Madras. 'The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam’, is a book compiling those lectures.
Iqbal was invited to preside over the open session of the Muslim League at Allahabad in 1930. Iqbal also visualized an independent and sovereign state for the Muslims of north-western India. He went to England as a Muslim delegate to the third Round Table Conference. He passed away on April 21, 1938.
