Iqbal’s Concept of Khudi – 3
By Dr. Zafar M. Iqbal
Chicago , IL
A few years after "Asrar-e-khudi," "Rumuz-e-Bay-khudi" appeared (1918) in Persian, to complement the former. The latter was translated into English in 1953, "The Mysteries of Selflessness: A Philosophical Poem" by A. J. Arberry (a student of "R. A. Nicholson who had translated Asrar). Asrar-e-Rumuz, as the complementary collection is familiarly called, serves as a dialogue between them on khudi, and an individual trying to integrate into the community. It is in the development of such a community does khudi begin to realize its limitations on its freedom in a societal, community-related sense. In this context, Iqbal sees the vital role of women in forming and participating in developing such a community.
As a tangent off the controversy over the Asrar, Iqbal was right when he said in January 1921 that "the history of Muslim thought is so little known in the West." Much earlier, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe(1749-1832), Germany's great poet-philosopher, bemoaning the increasingly materialistic ways of the West, tried to bring in the spiritual values of the East. Goethe and Iqbal, each in his own ways, did much to narrow the gulf, the best they could, and made literature in each language, each culture richer.
For instance, Goethe, fascinated by the images and tales from the East since he was 12, wrote ‘Mahomets-Gesang' [Mahomet's Song) in 1774 and then a famous collection of poems, "West-Östlicher Diwan" ' in German (1819), or, "Diwan of West and East." This was based on Persian Sufi-poet, Hafiz Shirazi, and the Eastern culture, written over the previous 4-5 years. To Goethe, he was "Saint Hafiz or a "celestial friend. "Goethe was familiar with Persian Literature and had talked about Firdowsi, Anvari, Nizami, Mowlavi, Sa'adi, Hafiz and Jami.
"Mahomets Gesang" (Mahommad's Song) was initially designed as a dialogue between Ali and Fatima for the fourth act of the drama. In 1877, Goethe turned it into a dialogue.
Here are English translation Goethe. First, a part of ‘Mahomets Gesang':
"See the rock-born stream!
Like the gleam
Of a star so bright
Kindly spirits
High above the clouds
Nourished him while youthful
In the copse between the cliffs......."
[Stream used as a metaphor for the prophet]
[1774]
A few parts from "West-Oestlicher Diwan" :
"Stupid that everyone in his case
Is praising his particular opinion!
If Islam means submission to God,
We all live and die in Islam."
"Whether the Koran is of eternity?
I don't question that!...
That it is the book of books
I believe out of the Muslim's duty."
Another from Goethe's ‘Diwan':
"TO HAFIS.
HAFIS, straight to equal thee,
One would strive in vain;
Though a ship with majesty
Cleaves the foaming main,
Feels its sails swell haughtily
As it onward hies
Crush'd by ocean's stern decree,
Wrecked it straightway lies.
Tow'rd thee, songs, light, graceful, free,
Mount with cooling gush;
Then their glow consumeth me,
As like fire they rush.
Yet a thought with ecstasy
Hath my courage moved;
In the land of melody
I have lived and loved."
In "Unbounded," Goethe to Hafiz:
That you never end is what makes you great.
And that you never begin is your fate......
And if the whole world should disappear
Hafiz, with you and you alone
Would I compete! Pleasure & pain
As twins we'd share!
To love & to drink like you
That shall be my pride, my life.
May songs now resound with their own fire!
For you are older, you are newer!
At another place in ‘Diwan', he says:
"Stupid that everyone in his case
Is praising his particular opinion!
If Islam means submission to God,
We all live and die in Islam."
[Other Western writers who have translated, or written about Hafez, include Rudyard Kipling, Ralph Waldo Emerson, etc.]
Goethe was quite interested in Sufism and mysticism, had bought copies of Rumi, Dschami, Hafez, Saadi, and was impressed by some of the mystic metaphors (moth and candle, e.g.): In another poem in ‘Diwan', he refers to this metaphor as: "Blissful yearning / Selige Sehnsucht" ; Sacrifice of the self / Selbstopfer" and "Perfection / Vollendung."
Iqbal's ‘Payam-e-Mushriq' (‘Message from the East', 1923-1924) was in fact a response to Goethe's "West-Ostlicher Diwan' ( 1819). In Javid Nama / ‘Book of Javid' (1932) Iqbal addressed the future generations, through his own son, Javid. Iqbal took the example of Dante's ‘The Divine Comedy', casting himself as Zinda Rood (a lively stream). Iqbal was guided here by Rumi, "through the realms of thought and experience to the final encounter."
In an article, "Devil in the Triangle of Rumi, Goethe and Iqbal," Dr.Javid Iqbal points out that "the three poets blend the ‘classical' with the ‘romantic', and despite the gaps in the times of their lives, their ideas on the role of evil in the spiritual and material development of Man are similar." Compared to Goethe's "Faust" (Evil, reverse of good) and Rumi's "Mu`awiyah & Iblis" (evil is necessary for the fulfillment of the divine plan), Iqbal sees "the running parallel lines of good and evil [meeting] in infinity." Goethe and Iqbal both found Rumi difficult to fathom, but this quatrain from Payam-e-Mushriq by Iqbal takes an interesting turn:
" How may I describe good and evil?
The problem is complex, the tongue falters,
Upon the bough you see flowers and thorns,
Inside it there is neither flower nor thorn."
In Payam-e-Mushriq, Iqbal has Rumi and Goethe meeting in paradise, and Goethe telling Rumi about the pact between the Doctor Faustus and the Devil, and Rumi responding to him this way:
"O Portrayer of the inmost soul
Of poetry, whose efforts goal
Is capturing the seraphim
And God himself, yes even Him,
Your thought, consorting with your heart,
Remade the world by means of art.
O you have seen the spirit's frame
Ablaze in its corporeal frame,
And you from observation know
How in their shells pearls form and grow
All this you know, but there is more.
Not all can learn love's secret lore,
Not all can enter its high shrine
One only knows by grace divine
That wisdom is the Devil's own,
While Love belongs to man alone."
("Jalal and Goethe"-Payam-e- Mashriq; Translation by M. Hadi Hussain)
Iqbal once said (‘Stray Reflections'): "I confess I owe a great deal to Hegel, Goethe, Mirza Ghalib, Mirza Abdul Qadir Be-dil and Wordsworth. The first two led me into the "inside" of things; the third and fourth taught me how to remain oriental in spirit and expression after having assimilated foreign ideals of poetry, and the last saved me from atheism in my student days." About Goethe's influence on him, Iqbal also said: "Our soul discovers itself when we come into contact with a great mind. It is not until I had realized the infinitude of Goethe's imagination that I discovered the narrow breadth of my own."
In a tribute to Ghalib (Bang-e-Dara, 1923), Iqbal compliments Goethe by including with Ghalib) in these lines, written before he went West
"Ah tu ujadi hui Dilli menh aramidah hai
Gulshan-e-Weimar menh tera humnavah khwahbida hai"
("Alas, you lie buried in devastated Delhi,
while in the Garden of Weimar sleeps your colleague.")
( Weimar is a German city where Goethe lived all his life, since he was 17-18)
(To be continued)
