Iqbal could see the irony that so many of his generation had received inspiration for action from the writings of Western poets and thinkers in order to get rid of that fatalism which had taken roots in the East in the days of its decline. Iqbal was among those who did not stop here but also rediscovered the past masters of the East through research and finally took Rumi, the great Persian poet, as his guide. However, as he now looked back at the West, he found it to be in the grip of the same defeatist mentality which appears in nations in their periods of decline. A Message from the East was compiled against this backdrop. It reflected the best tradition of Persian poetry, but also alluded to icons of Western learning.