- Lived:
- 1877–1938 · Sialkot and Lahore (British India), with the decisive years in Cambridge, Heidelberg, and Munich
- Tradition:
- Islamic modernism — poet-philosopher of the self; the reconstruction of religious thought
- The Big Idea:
- The self (khudi) is real and sacred, and strengthening it — not dissolving it — is the purpose of life, of religion, and of civilization; a tradition that taught self-erasure must be rebuilt around selfhood.
- In their words:
- "Raise your khudi so high that God Himself asks: what is your wish?" (a close rendering of his most famous couplet)
- If you remember one thing:
- The man revered as Pakistan's spiritual founder was also the poet of India's best-loved patriotic song — and behind both flags stands a philosopher who tried to wake a sleeping civilization by teaching it the word "I."