Days ahead of Pakistan’s Independence Day, a road in New York City’s Queens borough has been named after Muhammad Iqbal, the national poet who envisioned the establishment of a separate homeland for South Asian Muslims, and a revered Renaissance figure in the Middle East and Central Asia.
The 101 Avenue in Richmond Hills in Queens is now Allama Iqbal Avenue to the delight of the Pakistani American community, particularly the Pakistanis living in New York.
Iqbal, born in 1877 in Sialkot, was a philosopher and poet, who infused the spirit of freedom among Muslims, who, under the founding father Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s leadership, got the new country in 1947, nine years after Iqbal’s death in 1938. Iqbal published several books of poetry in the Persian and Urdu languages.
Popularly known as Allama Iqbal for the breadth and depth of his learning, he also penned two books “The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam.” and “The Development of Metaphysics in Persia.” two of the most acclaimed philosophical works in Islamic history.
“It is a proud moment for all of us,” Ali Rashid, who heads the American-Pakistani Advocacy Group, said as a gathering of Pakistani-origin people cheered the inauguration of the road with its new name as a tribute to the poet.
Among those who the ceremony included New York City government officials and Assembly council members — Ms. Jenifer Rajkumar and David Weprin — who called Allama Iqbal a great thinker and paid tributes to his life and mission.
Iqbal, who in his powerful and revolutionary poems urged people to strive for freedom from British colonial rule, was also a deeply respected poet among the Hindu majority. Mohandas Gandhi, the father of modern India, recited his poem “Saray Jehan Se Achha Hindustan Hamara” hundreds of times when he was imprisoned.
New York is home to a vibrant Pakistani-origin community. In 2019, a section of a busy avenue in Brooklyn — also a borough of New York City — was named after the founder father of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
