Husain Ahmad

 

 بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

 

Here is a poem that Iqbal wrote which caused grief to a lot of the Muslims supportive of Indian National Congress. But it's important to understand it in modern context 

 
حُسین احمد!
عجم ہنوز نداند رموزِ دیں، ورنہ
 

Husain Ahmad!
The non-Arab still does not grasp the secrets of the faith—otherwise...

 
ز دیوبند حُسین احمد! ایں چہ بوالعجبی است
 

That Husain Ahmad of Deoband—what strange absurdity is this!

 
سرود بر سرِ منبر کہ مِلّت از وطن است
 

He proclaimed from the pulpit: “Nationhood comes from the homeland”!

 
چہ بے خبر ز مقامِ محمدِؐ عربی است
 

How unaware he is of the rank of Muhammad the Arab ﷺ!

 
بمصطفیٰؐ برساں خویش را کہ دیں ہمہ اوست
 

Align yourself with Mustafa ﷺ—for the faith is entirely in Him;

 
اگر بہ او نرسیدی، تمام بولہبی است
 

If you do not reach Him, your faith is nothing but Abu Lahab’s.




Maulana Husain Ahmad Madani supported territorial nationalism, proposing that Muslims and Hindus could form one Indian nation (qaum) based on shared land and anti-colonial struggle.

Iqbal rejected this, insisting that Muslim identity and nationhood were based not on geography or ethnicity, but on a shared spiritual and ideological connection to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.


“He proclaimed from the pulpit: ‘Nationhood comes from the homeland’”
Iqbal sees this as a departure from Islamic principles, a borrowing of Western nationalist ideology which defines a nation by land, not by belief.

“How unaware he is of the rank of Muhammad the Arab ﷺ!”
Iqbal points out that Madani's framework ignores the prophetic model, which did not rely on bloodline or territory, but on belief and submission to the message.

And here lies Iqbal’s critical point:
 

If nationhood were based on shared homeland or ethnicity, then Abu Lahab—who belonged to the same tribe, same city, and same bloodline as the Prophet ﷺ—would have been part of his nation.
But Islam did not count him as such.
Because faith, not land or lineage, defines the Muslim ummah.



“Align yourself with Mustafa ﷺ—for the faith is entirely in Him”
Iqbal insists that the true bond that forms a nation in Islam is alignment with the Prophet’s message and mission. Any attempt to define nationhood outside of this is hollow.

“If you do not reach Him, your faith is nothing but Abu Lahab’s.”
Iqbal ends sharply: even if one opposes colonialism, waves flags, or speaks of unity—if it is not rooted in prophetic truth, it is spiritually empty, like the religion of Abu Lahab who lived with the Prophet but stood opposed to his truth.