سید مظفر حسین برنی کی اقبال فہمی میں تصورِ پاکستان کے تنقیدی تفکرات

Abstract

This paper critically examines Syed Muzaffar Hussain Barni’s interpretation of Allama Iqbal’s role in conceptualizing Pakistan. It challenges the narrative, advanced by certain scholars and Orientalists, that Iqbal disavowed the idea of a separate Muslim state, a claim used to undermine Pakistan's ideological foundations. Utilizing a textual and historical methodology, this study analyzes Iqbal’s key writings, including his 1934 letter to Edward Thompson and his crucial 1937 correspondence with Muhammad Ali Jinnah. The research refutes Barni’s central thesis that Iqbal only ever advocated for a Muslim province within a united Indian federation. The findings demonstrate that Iqbal’s political thought evolved significantly. While his initial proposals focused on autonomy, his later letters to Jinnah explicitly champion a separate Muslim federation based on the right of self-determination. This articulates the core principle of what became Pakistan. The study concludes that Barni’s interpretation is reductively based on a single data point, ignoring the clear evolution in Iqbal’s stance. It affirms that Iqbal was the intellectual architect of Pakistan, providing its essential philosophical framework of Islamic nationhood. Disassociating him from Pakistan is an ideological project aimed at weakening the state's intellectual coherence.