دیباچہ’’بانگِ درا‘‘ پر ایک نظر

Abstract

Iqbal’s first Urdu poetry collection, Bang-e-Dra, was published in 1924. The preface to this collection was written by Sheikh Abdul Qadir, one of Iqbal’s closest friends. Their friendship began during Iqbal's student days at Government College Lahore and deepened over time. In the preface to Bang-e-Dra, Sheikh Abdul Qadir discusses various aspects of Iqbal’s life, education, poetry, and literary works. He also mentions the teachers who played a significant role in shaping Iqbal’s education and training.According to Sheikh Abdul Qadir, the poems written during Iqbal’s stay in Europe reflect a unique influence of European society. The preface is particularly significant because it includes events that Sheikh Abdul Qadir personally witnessed, making him the sole narrator of these occurrences. This gives the preface a distinctive and important position in the context of Iqbal studies. However, some of the conclusions drawn by Sheikh Abdul Qadir regarding certain events have been contested by later interpreters of Iqbal’s work. The objective of this study is to critically analyze the preface written by Sheikh Abdul Qadir and shed light on key points that have been a source of disagreement among Iqbal’s critics and scholars.