Aligarh: A national webinar on the topic “Legal Philosophy of Sir Muhammad Iqbal (Allama Iqbal) was organized by the Law Society, Faculty of Law, Aligarh Muslim University. People from 15 different countries of the world participated in this webinar.
Chief Guest of the webinar, Prof. Abdul Haq, Professor Emeritus, University of Delhi and an authority on Allama Iqbal said that if we look at the history of poets, then we cannot find any match of Allama Iqbal. He is the greatest poet in the world. Allama Iqbal has done a lot of work in the field of law but people have not highlighted that work. He congratulated Prof. Shakeel Samdani for organizing a webinar on this aspect of Allama Iqbal’s life.
Prof. Haq further said that law was an important part of Iqbal’s life and one can find many legal terms in Iqbal’s poetry. Legal terms from Urdu like Daleel, Gawah, Insaaf, Huqooq, etc are repeated simultaneously in his writings. He practiced law for 30 years in his life. Allama Iqbal was the only Urdu poet who was a very successful barrister and he wrote successfully in three different languages, that is, English, Persian, and Urdu. He said that Iqbal was a farsighted man who advocated modern education in the early 20th century and gave the concept of compulsory education. He said that it is the duty of the Law faculties throughout the subcontinent to do research in the legal works of Allama Iqbal. He also suggested that AMU must have a Chair in his name.
Presiding over the webinar, Prof. Shakeel Samdani, Dean, Faculty of Law and President, Law Society said that Sir Muhammad Iqbal is a very well known personality throughout the world. The song ‘ Sare Jahan Se Accha, Hindustan Hamara ‘ is a song which takes our patriotic spirits to the next level and is a gift to all Indians from him. Prof. Samdani further said that about 90 years ago, Iqbal was a human rights activist who talked about fundamental rights, freedom of expressions, labour rights, compulsory education and patriotism. Iqbal has contributed a lot in Urdu poetry and there is no substitute for him.
Giving a detailed information on Iqbal, Prof. Shakeel Samdani said that Iqbal’s poetry is based on social justice. Over 4500 books in all major languages have been written on Allama Iqbal which is a record in itself. He also discussed the journey of Iqbal to Europe.
At last Prof. Samdani promised the participants that he will make all efforts to establish a chair in the Faculty of Law, AMU in the name of Sir Muhammad Iqbal and also announced that a lecture on the legal aspect of Sir Muhammad Iqbal will be organized every year by the Law Faculty.
Chief Speaker of the webinar, Prof. Saud Alam Qasmi, Former Dean, Faculty of Theology, AMU said that Prof. Shakeel Samdani and the Law Society has done a very commendable job by organizing a webinar on the legal philosophy of Allama Iqbal. He said that Iqbal was very much fond of Sir Syed Ahamd Khan and Aligarh Muslim Univeristy and this can been seen in his writings. He has praised Sir Syed for bringing Muslims in the mainstream of education. Prof. Qasmi further said that Iqbal was of the view that both old and new laws should be taught in AMU. Iqbal was also very much attached to Sir Ross Masood.
This conference was inaugurated by Prof. Zahiruddin, PVC, AMU who said that Allama Iqbal was a great poet, reformer and politician. He was a highly educated man who has contributed a lot for the development of Indians. Personalitites like him are very rare.
Addressing the participants, Ayesha Samdani, MBBS Student, AMU said that the parents of Iqbal played a very important role in his personality building by giving two examples from Iqbal’s life. She further said that Sir Iqbal has completed his legal education from England and he was a great Barrister of his time. Ayesha said that there are more than 100 reported cases of Iqbal and his first reported case was in the first year of his legal career. Some of his principles were adopted by the British courts and are still being used today. She also discussed in detail about some of the leading cases from his life time.
Prof. Mohd. Asharf welcomed the guest and Abdullah Samdani, Secretary, Law Society proposed the vote of thanks. This webinar was conducted by Ayesha Nasir Alavi.
Afif Jilani, Mahelaka Abrar and Nikita Motwani introduced the guests. Shalja Singh, Somya Agarwal and Fozia were rapporteurs in this webinar. Sadaf Khan started this webinar by reciting verses from the Holy Quran. This webinar was a great success with the efforts of Pawan Varhsney, Shubham Kumar, Hunain Khalid, Sheob Ali, Kashif Sultan, etc.