Sir Syed and Iqbal's Concept of Civilization and Current Situation.

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan is the very first thinker in British India who coined the concept of civilization in Urdu. Although he was inspired by H.T. Buckle and took basic theme of civilization from his renowned work "History of Civilization in England" but he also disagreed to Buckle. According to Sir Syed, it is wrong to think that State and Religion have the full authority to set the outlines of individual life. He knew that such thoughts would have streamlined the goals of colonialism. Undoubtedly, Sir Syed was a great advocate of British Government but he always kept in mind the interests of his nation. His concept of civilization is simply drawing a line between savagery and humanity. According to Sir Syed, civilization starts with realizing that other human beings also have emotions and sentiments. It is true that Sir Syed and Iqbal's emphasis on different political, religious and social aspects changed naturally with time but they shared the ideological commonality regarding civilization. In 'Javed Nama', Iqbal has clearly defined the veracity of civilization as respect towards human being (Ehtram e Adam). In this paper Sir Syed and Iqbal's thoughts regarding civilization are discussed from the perspective of contemporary situation of Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]