Allama Iqbal:

While Ghalib’s poetry moves the heart, the following poet strikes the intellect. He played a huge part in inspiring the people of the subcontinent towards the liberation movement. We know him today as Allama Iqbal. 

Iqbal is often viewed as the philosopher of the East. He wrote both in Persian and Urdu and communicated with the Muslim ummah, believing in the sufi concept of wahdat ul wujood andpromoted the concept of khudi, or selfhood, which stressed on self-realization and the exploration of hidden talent with compassion and determination. Beyond that lay the stage of complete submission, which he thought, was the ultimate stage of khudi. 

His poetry emerged as a great station where message and art merged, as he re-configured major poetic devices like metaphor, allegory and symbol to revisit history, philosophy and Islamic faith to develop his individual vision. He left behind his collection of poems such asAsraar-e Khudi, Rumooz-e Bekhudi, Baang-e Daraa, Baal-e Jibreel.

Nahin tera nasheman qasr-e-sultani kay gumbad pe,

Tu shaheen hai basera kar paharon hi chatanon per

(Your abode is not on the dome of a royal palace,
For you are an eagle, destined to live on the hard rock’s of mountains)

Faiz Ahmed Faiz: 

The process of creative writing did not end after the partition and Pakistan can attribute some great names to the list. One great example of a post-partition poet is Faiz Ahmed Faiz.

Faiz’s early writings were simple and blithe discourses on love and beauty, but later he grew interested in politics, community, and the substantive connection he felt was common in both life and poetry. Two of his poetry collections, Dast-e-Saba and Zindan Namah, focus on his life in prison, which he regarded as a chance to see the world in a new light. 

Throughout his life, Faiz continually wrote, becoming the best-selling modern Urdu poet in both India and Pakistan. While his work follows a fairly strict expression, his poems maintain a casual, conversational tone, creating tension between the rich and the poor, somewhat in the ritual of Ghalib. 

Faiz is especially famous for his poems in traditional Urdu, such as the ghazal, and his amazing skill to expand the conventional prospects to include political and social issues. In his famous poem “Mujhse pehli si mohabbat” his focus changes from traditional Urdu poetry to poetry with purpose, social conscience pursuing social causes.

aur bhī dukh haiñ zamāne meñ mohabbat ke sivā 

rāhateñ aur bhī haiñ vasl kī rāhat ke sivā

(There are many other sorrows in this world besides the sorrow of love
There are many other delights besides the delight of union.)

Saadat Hasan Manto:

The diversity of the subcontinent can be seen by the variety of poets it produced. The most eccentric of the modern poets is Manto. Manto touched on questions of belief, religion and nation and how people are often lost for answers. He laid bare the horrors human beings can unleash on one another. Manto’s poetry and writing exposed the obscenity and double standards of society. He was charged six times for obscene content. He retorted back by saying, “If you find my stories dirty, the society you are living in is dirty. With my writings, I only expose the truth.”

A revolutionary from the start till the very end of his life, Manto wanted the following words written on his tombstone after his death:

"In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Here lies Saadat Hasan Manto and with him lie buried all the secrets and mysteries of the art of short-story writing. Under tons of earth he lies, still wondering who among the two is the greater short-story writer: God or He.”