In mid 19th Century, India was being ruled by the British Raj, which was in the process of stabilizing its hold on the sub-continent. In India, there were two major communities - Hindus in great majority and the Muslims a minority. This was the period of great depression for the impoverished, uneducated and deprived Muslims who did not exist as an entity in the broad expanse of the scattered heterogeneity. In the twin years of 1876 and 1877, two children were born in the two Muslim families, who later grew into towering monuments of history of India. One is the Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah who changed the geography of the world while other is Allama Muhammad Iqbal, the thinker and great poet of the East who rejuvenated the dying spirit of the Muslim Nation from the debris of lifelessness with his God gifted poetry and strong messages of Islamic surge with conception of a separate home for them - independent of the British capitulation and Hindu domination. The day of 9th November 1877 when Iqbal was born in a corner city of Sialkot is our red-letter day. Iqbal's poetry enshrined in many books contains unforgettable messages of Muslim unity, of "Khudi" (Self-Respect); past glory of Islamic conquests; urging the youth to rise and fight as "Shaheen" etc etc. "Prindon ki duniya ka dervish hun mein; ke Shahin banata nahin ashiana". (Shahin is the wanderer amongst the birds, it therefore, makes no nest to live). It points to the life of Salah-ud-Din Ayubi, who was the conqueror of Egypt, Syria and last of all Jerusalem but died without a house of his own. He refused to live in any Palace in his life. Each Muslim family in those days of depression had one or two books of Iqbal to read and recite. Iqbal's messages were the source of surge amongst the youth, which acted as a catalyst to a silent revolution ultimately ending in achieving of Pakistan in 1947. A message from Iqbal for the rulers is: "Aa tujh ko bataoon mein, taqdir-e-Umum kia hai; Shamshir-o-Sannan awal, taoos-o-rubbab Akhar" (I tell you the fate of a nation; it starts with sword but is demolished with palatial living and listening music). BRIG (R) A.Q ANJUM, Rawalpindi, November 5.