A Comparative Study of Ghalib Dehlavi and Iqbal Lahori’s Poetry

Ghalib Dehlavi and Iqbal Lahori are famous poets of the Indian subcontinent who lived in the 19th and 20th centuries. They reflected the social and political concerns of their society in their poetry. They introduced a new style of poetry in both Farsi and Urdu languages and objected to worn-out superstitions and customs. The intellectual and literary sources of the two poets are almost the same. The mutual themes of the poetry of these two mystic poets include love, sincerity in worship, unity of existence, and human dignity. The philosophy of self, love, and wisdom and the philosophy of poetry and mysticism are among the most important concepts about which they have disagreement. In the intellectual system of Iqbal, concepts such as people, God, and love are highlighted but the intellectual system of Ghalib is more based on wisdom and makes use of symbols more tangible. In this article, we try to study the works of Ghalib and Iqbal in order to determine the similarities and difference between their poetry and to analyze their philosophical and mystical approaches.