Tehran -- The Cultural Center of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Lahore will hold a conference on the Pakistani poet Iqbal Lahori.

Entitled “Iqbal’s Message for Youth”, the conference was cosponsored by the Alumni Association of Lahore College for Women University in Persian Language and Literature.

Allama Iqbal (1877-1938) was a poet and philosopher born in Sialkot, then in the Punjab Province of British India, now in Pakistan. Iqbal wrote poetry in the Urdu and Persian languages.

The Consul-General of Iran to Lahore Mohammad Hossein Baniasadi, the head of the Department of Persian of the Allama Iqbal Campus at the University of the Punjab, and the director of the Ferdowsi Chair of the University of Punjab Aftab Asghar attended the event.

“Allama Iqbal is truly one of the luminaries of the world of Islam in the contemporary era. He is one of the pioneers of reviving cultural identity and monolithic ideas,” the head of the center and Iran’s cultural attaché to Islamabad Abbas Famvari mentioned during the ceremony.

He also mentioned some Shia ideological traces in his poetry especially Imam Hussein (AS) and the Ashura uprising.

The Pakistani Iqbal scholar Rafiuddin Hashmi also made a short speech about the poets and characteristics of his works.

“As Pakistan’s national poet, Iqbal tried his best to call the Islamic nation to salvation but unfortunately, the nation has forgotten his lessons,” he lamented.

He also expressed his thanks to Iran for spreading the ideas and philosophy of this oriental poet.

Several other scholars, including Professor Qazi Ikram Bashir of the Urdu and Oriental Department of the Government College of Science, also spoke on Iqbal’s poetry.

At the end of the ceremony, the center honored selected university students and scholars who have written articles and conducted research on the poetry of Iqbal.

The Cultural Center of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Lahore is affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Culture and Relations Organization (ICRO).

SB/YAW

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