Linguistic experts and writers have expressed great concern over the wrongly attributed poetic verses to Allama Muhammad Iqbal and termed it unfair to share others’ work under the impression of Iqbal.
Talking to APP, writer, poetess, and lecturer at the National University of Modern Languages (NUML) Dr. Snober Altaf said that Iqbal Day events and social media platforms are displaying wrongly attributed verses to Allama Iqbal which is unfortunate. She said social media has played a negative role in distributing wrongly attributed poetry and quotations.
She said the youngsters do not refer to the original work and books and rely on the information available online.
She said messages are forwarded and shared without verification and sometimes the name of a famous writer or poet is attributed to writings with the purpose to make them viral.
“This has happened with Ahmad Faraz, Jaun Elia and now the same is happening with a national poet Allama Iqbal,” she added. She said those people distant from the literature consider any poetic work as ‘Kalam-e-Iqbal’ that has the word ‘Iqbal’ in it.
She said poetry having mystic colour is also attributed to the Allama Iqbal without confirming from the original sources.
Talking to APP Secretary Halqa-e Arbab-e Zauq Islamabad Khaleeq ur Rehman said that due to over-prioritizing the English youth has lost its connection with Urdu.
He said the decline in book reading and less interest in literature is the reason that Allama Iqbal is being wrongly attributed. —APP
