मुहम्मद इकबाल

मुहम्मद इकबाल (1877-1938) was an important poet, philosopher and thinker. Along with Muhammad Ali Jinnah he is considered one of the preeminent founding fathers of Pakistan.

His grandfather Shaikh Rafiq, was a Kashmiri Pandit named Sahaj Ram Sapru before his conversion to Islam. In Kashmir he was a revenue collector. He had embezzeled state funds, and when his guilt was established, the Afghan governor, Azim Khan, gave him the choice of death or conversion to Islam. Sahaj Ram Sapru chose life, and assuming new names, he and his family moved to Sialkot in the Panjab. Shaikh Rafiq had two sons, Shaikh Ghulam Qadir and Shaikh Nur Muhammad, Iqbal's father.