Pakistani American Cultural Center Celebrates Iqbal Day
ByDr Waheed Siddiqee
Milpitas, CA: Pakistani American Cultural Center celebrated Iqbal Day on Saturday, December 6.
The invited guest speaker was Mrs Sabahat Rafiq Sherwani, an ardent lover of Iqbal’s poetry. She has studied Iqbal’s poetry, both Urdu and Persian, for many years.
The program started with the recitation of a few verses of Iqbal from Shikwa and Jawab-Shikwa by Tasadduq Attari.
This was followed by a brief but very insightful talk by Muhammad Ashraf on Iqbal’s poem titled Bilal. He gave an excellent historical background of the contents of the poem while reciting couplets.
The Chief Guest Mrs. Sabahat Sherwani presented a very well-researched paper explaining in detail the intricacies and depth of Iqbal’s ideas contained in Javed Nama. She covered such aspects as Iqbal’s mythical journey to various stations of heaven along with Maulana Roomi, his encounters with several historical figures including Saints, Sufis , Kings, Traitors, The Devil, and many more.
In some of these encounters, Iqbal expresses his own views about love, intellect, Khudi (Selfhood), Man’s relationship with God, Man’s role in this world, the superiority of Ishq over intellect. Javed Nama, written in Persian, is considered as one of the best works of Iqbal and has been translated in many languages including English, Japanese, and German.
At the end, Mrs Atiya Hai and Mrs Talat Qadeer Khan beautifully recited four poems of Iqbal with tarannum.
The program, which was open to all without any charge, was attended by more than 60 people and was very much appreciated by everyone. Tea and snacks were served at the end of the program.
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