Iqbal's Concept of ‘Khudi' [Part 1 of 4]
By Dr. Zafar M. Iqbal
TCCI, Chicago, IL
If I were to define Iqbal, I'd say he was a scholar-philosopher-visionary who also wrote poetry, largely in Persian and, to a lesser extent, in Urdu. Besides his works in Persian and Urdu, Iqbal wrote, in English, two books on philosophy apart from many important statements and letters on various literary, socio-political, cultural and religious issues of his time, all of which accumulated in ten books. To describe him only as a great Urdu poet-philosopher is to ignore and deny him the best he produced in other languages, i.e., Persian and English. I cannot let him be disenfranchised of what he did do: inspire generations after him, on what he wrote and elaborated, among other things, on ‘khudi' and its global philosophical appeal.
We cannot ignore the fact that out of some 12,000 verses Iqbal wrote, about 7,000 (or over 58%) were in Persian, rest in Urdu. About Urdu and Persian, Iqbal said:
"Garche Urdu dar uzūbat shakar ast
Lék Pārsī-am ze Hindi shīrīntar ast"
Translation:"Even though in sweetness, Urdu is sugar -
(but) My Persian is sweeter than Hindi [Urdu]."
Although his first book was in Urdu, "Ilm-ul-Iqthisad" (‘The Knowledge of Economics'), and appeared in 1903, his first poetic work was in Persian, Asrar-e-Khudi (1915). This was followed by Rumuz-e-Bay-Khudi (1917), Payam-e-Mashriq (1923), after which he went back and forth between these two languages: Bang-e-Dara (1924), his first set of Urdu poetry, after which Zabur-e-Ajam (1927) and Javid Nama (1932) in Persian, and then to Urdu (Baal-e-Jibreel, 1935 and Zarb-e-Kalim, 1936) and then back to Persian (Awam-e-Sharq, 1936 and Armughan-e-Hijaz, 1938, published posthumously), mostly in Persian, some in Urdu. He also wrote two books in English: First, "The Development of Metaphysics in Persia" (1908), his PhD thesis from University of Munich, in which he discussed Islamic Sufism, besides the continuity of Persian thought. Second, "The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam" (1930), based on Iqbal's six lectures delivered in Madras, Hyderabad and Aligarh, at the request of` Madras Muslim Association (with the 7th chapter, "Is Religion Possible?" added in 1934 from the Oxford Edition). These lectures, densely philosophical for an Indian audience (in my opinion), were also translated into Urdu by Syed Nazir Niazi.
Few philosophical concepts in Urdu literature have received as much critical attention and analysis as ‘Khudi', one of the main themes Iqbal introduced in Asrar-e-Khudi. On the term ‘Khudi', Iqbal had an intensive internal debate, and still, he was not totally satisfied with his choice, as he admits in one of his notes kept at Iqbal Academy, Karachi and included in ‘Thoughts and Reflections of Iqbal," edited by Syed Abdul Vahid. In a note he dictated to Nazir Niazi more than two decades later (1937 summer), Iqbal described the process by which he "most reluctantly" chose ‘khudi'. He admits that "[f]rom a literary point of view it has many shortcomings and ethically it is generally used in a bad sense both in Urdu and Persian." He mentions that "other words for the metaphysical fact of the ‘I' are equally bad, e.g., Ana, Shakhs, Nufs, Ana-nawath. What is needed is a colorless word for self, ego, having no ethical significance. As far as I know there is no such word in either Urdu or Persian. The word ‘Mun' in Persian is equally bad. However, considering the requirements of verse, I thought that the word ‘khudi' was the most suitable."
Elaborating on ‘khudi', he says, it is used in Persian "in the simple sense of self, i.e., to say the colorless fact of the ‘I'. Thus metaphysically the word ‘khudi' is used in the sense of that indescribable feeling of ‘I', which forms the basis of uniqueness of each individual. Metaphysically, it does not convey any ethical significance for those who cannot get rid of its ethical significance." To emphasize the point he refers to what he said in Zuboor-e-Ajam: "Guraf-thum ain kay sharaab Khudi bay-tha-luq usth / ba-durd kwaish na-gur zaher ma ba-durman usth." ("The wine of egohood is no doubt bitter, but do look to thy disease and take my poison for the sake of thy health": Translator unspecified.")
Then, he describes what the term ‘Khudi' means to him: "Ethically the word ‘Khudi' means (as used by me [Iqbal]) self-reliance, self-respect, self-confidence, self-preservation, even self-assertion when such a thing is necessary, in the interests of life and the power stick to the truth, justice, duty, etc., etc., even in the face of death. Such behavior is moral in my opinion because it helps in the integration of the forces of the Ego, thus hardening it, as against the forces of disintegration and dissolution; practically the metaphysical Ego is the bearer of two main rights that is the right to life and freedom as determined by the Divine Law."
Iqbal views ‘Khudi' in a larger context and thinks it rests on two basic points:
(a) "Personality is the central fact of the universe." In the Old Testament, this is referred to as ‘I Am', while in the Qur’an it is mentioned in Sura "Hashr" (59: 24-25): "Hoo Allah ul-lazi la illa-ha illah howa ul-malekul khudoosus salaam-mul, momaynul mohaiminul azizul jabbar-ul muthakabbir, subhaanul lahi ammayush-raykoon. Hoowal lahul, khaliq-ul, baari-ul, moo-sua-wayro lahul usma-ul husna yousub-bayho lahu mafis-samawaa-thay wull arzay wa hoo-wull aziz-ul-Hakeem" It is in this context, Iqbal asks us to consider this statement from Asrar-e-Khudi : "The ego is the root of all existence."
(b) "Personality, ‘I Am'," is the central fact in the constitution of man. In the Qur’an it is not only referred to as "za-eef'," "kofoor," and "jo-hool," sometimes, referring to the human weaknesses and its less than ideal image, but also as "the bearer of Divine trust," implying all is not lost or "hopeless" for the man, despite his "shortcomings." Iqbal says this "slender ‘I'," which can be dissolved by smallest shocks can also "achieve permanence" if he adopts "a certain mode of life." It has both "the quality of growth' and of "corruption"; it can expand by absorbing the elements of the universe of which it is an insignificant part, as well as "the power of absorbing the attributes of God and thus attain "the vice-regency of God on earth" through obedience and self-control.
Here, Iqbal clarifies the fundamental difference between ‘khudi' and Nietzsche's three-stage metamorphosis. Iqbal points out that Nietzsche does not believe in ‘khudi'. To Nietzsche, the ‘I' is "a fiction," and agreeing with Kant's ‘Critique of Pure Reason', concludes that
"God, immortality and freedom are mere fictions though useful for practical purposes. But the other point is the ‘inner experience' which says that "I" is "an indubitable fact... In this respect," Iqbal thinks, "[Gottfried] Leibnitz is near to truth than either Kant or Nietzsche."
He also makes a clear distinction between "self-negation" which he ‘condemns' and "self-denial" which "in the moral sense is a source of strength to the ego. In ‘self-negation', he sees "forms of conduct which lead to the extinction of the ‘I' as a metaphysical force, for its extinction would mean its dissolution, its incapacity for personal immortality." To him, the extinction of the ‘I' is not consistent with the ideals of Islamic Mysticism, in which ‘fana' means "not extinction" of the ‘I' but "complete surrender of the human ego to the Divine Ego," that is, "baqa" - a stage beyond "fana" - a stage which, to Iqbal, "is the highest stage of self-affirmation." Aware of the comparisons made at that time between his view and that of the German philosopher, Nietzsche, Iqbal offers this contrast: "When I say ‘Be as hard as the diamond', I do not mean as Nietzsche does, callousness or pitilessness. What I mean is the integration of the elements of the ego so that it may be able to obstruct the forces of destruction in its means towards personal immortality." Or, the ‘Self' progressing through self-realization, self-knowledge to the stages of ‘Ithaa-uth' (obeying the law) and Zabth-e-Nufs' (self control) to become the ‘vice-regent' of Allah(niyabat-e-Alahi).
[In memory of my father who once tried (rather unsuccessfully) to make me understand what Allama Iqbal meant by ‘Khudi'. I could have used his scholarship and comments while writing this piece. Sadly, too late now!] (To be continued)
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