Fikr-e-Iqbal - I
By Dr Basheer Ahmed Khan
Garden Grove, CA

Much has been written about the philosophical thoughts and poetry of Allama Iqbal and a lot more will be written in the future. Having studied Allama Iqbal’s poetry for almost fifty years this is my tribute to his poetry and his philosophy.

A plethora of essays explaining the philosophy of Allama Iqbal make a reader more confused and less perspicacious about the person and the philosophy he expounded. That is why some call Allama Iqbal the real scholar of Islamic renaissance and others blame him for blasphemy. His detractors want us to remember him as a partisan thinker promoting Islamic fundamentalism. The issue becomes more complex when the ideas expounded in a philosophy are intertwined with a flavor of different world views and cultural ethos to which the philosopher is not just exposed, but also demonstrates respect. Philosophical thoughts expressed by a philosopher are ultimately an expression of the contemporary consciousness, and the one who is trying to understand and explain it should also share this consciousness both in his genes, and through his own life experiences to do justice to the philosopher about whom he is commenting.

Our understanding of the philosophical concepts of various philosophers is based upon our interpretation of their word. This differs from person to person, based upon his or her acumen, to grasp not just the words of the philosopher's work but also have a peek into his time, his education, his family background, etc. Therefore we have different explanations to the work of various philosophers and their philosophy, and Allama Iqbal is no exception.

Most of these commentaries are written with the intention of filling out the missing idea in the work of the previous commentators. Allama Iqbal himself has alluded to this dilemma of comprehending and explaining the sublime thoughts in his epoch-making poem “Israr e Khudi” (The secrets of self) in the following couplets.

Guftam wa Harfam Ze Ma’ane Sharmsar

Shikwa e Ma’ane Ba Harfam Chay Kar

Zinda Ma’ane Choon Ba Harf Aamad Be-Murd

Az Nafas e Ha’aye Thoo Naar-e Oo Fa-sard

Nuktha-ye Ghaib O Huzoor Dar Dil’ast

Rimze Ayyaam-o Muroor Dar Dil’ast

Naghma Khamoosh Dar- oo Saaz e Waqt

Ghotha Dar Dil Zan ke Beeni Raaz e Waqt.

Allama says in these couplets that beautiful thoughts that enchant one's heart fail to represent themselves when they are given the cloak of words. Words should not be sorry for it because it is not the mistake of the words but the Nafs (which means both breath and our prejudiced and polluted souls), which dampens the spirit of our sublime and subtle thoughts as these words come out of our mouth to give meanings to them.  The real description of what we see and what we can’t see, the reality of time all reside in the heart and can only be enjoyed by dipping into its depth.

Consciousness of Allama Iqbal is quiet complex. He belonged to the family of Kashmiri Brahmins who are supposed to be the most knowledgeable people in India. The purpose of life of a true Brahmin is to merge his Atma (soul) with that of Pram-Atma (The Supreme Soul) by sound thoughts, correct words and perfect actions. That is why Allama Iqbal’s family did not stop the quest of knowledge at any stage of their journey, to know and reach the ultimate, or exchanged it for the petty gains of the world, but continued on the journey to its perfection. His ancestors embraced Islam in the course of this journey. Allama Iqbal, therefore, had a thorough understanding of not just the oriental thought but also had an in-depth understanding of Islam through all its peaks and lows in its history to the extent that people recognize him more as Allama Iqbal than Dr or Sir Muhammad Iqbal.

Dr Iqbal was rooted not just in the consciousness of the past but was also adept in all contemporary trends and thoughts that were shaping the world. He had a law degree from Britain and a doctorate from Germany and he was knighted by Britain. He did not use his degrees or knighthood to get a high paying job, instead he spent all his energies in understanding the realities of life and explaining them to the world for its betterment. His illustrious teachers were from different religious backgrounds to temper his thought and perfect it. In short, consciousness of Allama Iqbal was as old as that of the first man, Adam, and as new as Kant, Hagel, Nietzsche, Bergeson and Marx, and everyone in between. He preserved this consciousness for posterity in the form of a Persian poem comprising of about 7000 couplet titled “Javed Na’ama” which can be translated into English as “Eternal Script” and is spread over 225 pages.

Javed, which means eternal, was also the first name of his son Justice Javed Iqbal. The eternal consciousness covering the ordeal of mankind over several millenniums was thus gifted to posterity as an epoch-making poem to his son. At the same time Jawaharlal Nehru was writing the history and philosophy of India for his daughter Indira Gandhi as “Glimpses of World History” and "Discovery of India"; Maulana Azaad, and Ghulam Ahmed Pervez etc were trying to explain Islam in a new paradigm to make it understandable to the modern mind; Nadwathul Ulema and Darul Musannafeen were trying to counter the allegations of orientalist scholars against Islam; Deoband was taking shape as an institution of learning of Orthodox Islam, Aligarh Muslim University was emerging as a seat of modern learning for Indian Muslims. Jamia Millia, Delh, emerged later to impart both religious and secular education under one roof.

This was also the time when the world was at the threshold when the sun would set over the colonial world and independent nations would emerge with great expectations. As neither the declining empires nor the emerging new nations gave credence to the psychological undercurrents of the time the world lost the opportunity that was seen by the enthusiastic populace of the time much the same way as we are ignoring it now and witnessing the failures of many revolutions and springs initiated in the last decade. It is essential that the world sees what it is that Allama Iqbal was trying to say then and we ignored to be in the present state, and see if it is relevant now to reverse the anarchy of the Muslim world into an order. This is not just the need of the Muslim world but the entire world.

Allama Iqbal was baffled at the paradox of beauty of Islam which his ancestors had embraced through their study, and the dismal state of contemporary Muslims. He focused his study of Islam and philosophies of other contemporary civilizations making progress in the world. He did this with the sole aim of understanding the mutual harm and benefits they caused to each other in the past and were causing in the present, and to suggest solutions to develop a universal order which gives peace and hope to the entire world.

Allama Iqbal did not point to anything that was mythical or mystical, he pointed out to what was evident to all students of history. As he had to explain it to the complicated and confused philosophical minds in the language and jargon that was understood by them it became a little cumbersome for simple minds. That is why Allama Iqbal became a Muslim partisan philosopher even though his message was universal. In any writing it is one line or few lines which expresses the gist of an idea and the rest is only an explanation with a spirit to elucidate the idea which often time causes some confusion. The devil is not in the detail but detail itself is the devil. The problem with “intelligent” people is that they dismiss the simple facts as oversimplification and complicate them by their own explanations to make things beyond the comprehension of the common man so that they can use these complex and confusing explanations to assert their way.

Allama Iqbal was right in his analysis that the backwardness of nations and people stems from the lack of self-confidence due to wide acceptance of defeatist ideologies to which they have been exposed. Allama attributes the dismal affairs of the Third World to wasting their spiritual prowess by bad practices in the name of spiritual awakening that takes them away from the zeal to be active and adventurous. Allama says:

Agar ho Ishq to hai Kufr bhi Musalmani

Na ho to Mard e Musalman bhi Kafir O Zandiq

Meaning: the zest to live and make life better is being Muslim; if it is not there it is disbelief.

Maulana in another couplet says:

Samajhtha hai thoo Raaz hai Zindagi

Fakhat Zaukhe Parvaz hai Zindagi

Meaning: You think that life is a big secret but actually it is only the desire to fly.

His analysis of the reasons for the downfall of Muslims was: Muslims discarded the message of dynamism given to them by the Qur’an, and got involved in rituals in its name that led them to inaction. He says:

Isi Qur’an men hai ab tark e jahan ki Taleem

Jis ne momin ko banaya Mah-o-Parvin ka Ameer

Than Ba Thakhdeer hai aaj unke amal ka andaaz

Thi nehan jin ke Iradon men Khuda ki Taqdeer.

Allama says: Qur’an was revealed to make people master over Pleiades; people use it now to abandon the world and become hermits. Those who were given the determination to change destiny through the Qur’an are submitting themselves to vagaries of fate.

Allama further says:

Khudi ko kar buland ke har taqdeer se pehle

Khuda bande se khud puche batha theri razaa kya hai.

Meaning: raise your confidence in yourself to the level that before writing your destiny Allah asks you what is it that you wish for!

Allama says that it is not possible to build this self-confidence and nurture it to this level until and unless we establish a proper connection of our soul with the one Who has given it to us because the strength of the spirit comes from the One who has given it to us. In the following quadruplet Allama says: This consciousness of the self can come into existence and can be nurtured only if we accept the existence of the Supreme consciousness (that is Allah). The invaluable pearl of spiritual consciousness will not come into existence if we don’t accept The existence of Ocean of Universal Consciousness.

Khudi Ra Az wajood e Haq Wajoode

Khudi Ra Az Namood e Haq Namoode

Nami Danam Ke Ein Tabinda Gauhar

Kuja bude Agar dariya na boode.

This is what Nabi SA said in a hadith when he said: Man Arafa Rabbahu Fakhad Arafa Nafsahu; meaning: the one who knows Allah alone knows his spiritual prowess to become a good successful person. The Qur’an gives the same message conversely when it says: The one who ignores and forgets Allah also ignores and forgets his own spiritual prowess and becomes dissolute and lecherous (Ch60 V19).

It is a universal need for every society to have physically and spiritually strong individuals with sound morals and exemplary character to progress. As the sure way to develop such individuals suggested by Allama Iqbal is to follow the prophets and those who correctly follow them, Allama and his poetry and his philosophy becomes partisan. And those who promote personal agenda through God less hedonistic philosophies are considered as champions of universal good. The poetry of Allama Iqbal addresses to the entire mankind and is neither gender-specific, race-specific nor nation-specific as his detractors try to portray him.

At this stage it is pertinent to reflect as to why the religion that started with Adam and perfected with Qur’an by Nabi SA, and given by the One who is the Creator of mankind from antiquity to eternity failed after some early resounding successes. When the religion of reformation became the religion of conquest, those who were indulging in expanding their empires and increasing their fortunes cared little about the efforts of reformation, and many of the few hundred companions of Nabi SA who were well trained in Mecca to do this job died either in the infighting that followed the martyrdom of Usman RA or secluded themselves to protect their honor and their religion. Letters of Umar bin Abdul Azeez (Tareekh e Dawath O Azeemath TEDA Vol. 1) lamenting the pathetic affairs in the conquered land testify to this.

When there is a vast expansion of an empire over a well populated land it is impossible for both the conquered and the conquerors to remain unaffected by the culture and civilization of each other, especially when the conqueror comes with the intention of staying and working for the good of the occupied land. Therefore it was inevitable for Islam to remain unaffected by the local cultural currents.

At that time Neoplatonic thought AKA Illuminism (Ishraqiath) was dominant in Egypt, and parts of Byzantine Empire that was under Muslim rule. In the East, up to Indonesia, the Indian version of the same thought was dominating the populace. Muslims in the process of understanding the local culture and presenting their own absorbed a lot of it into their practices. Using Plato’s dialect of love, advocates of Neoplatonism like Porphyry, emphasized on a religion that taught people to merge with God through contemplation leading to ecstasy. This was accepted by many a Muslim who had gone into recluse to keep themselves away from the infighting of Muslims. One of the offshoots of this Neoplatonic practice was that the illuminists who experienced the ecstatic union with the creator denied their separate independent existence and considered the existence of the world as illusory. Having attained this state and this understanding some of them thought that they were one with God and justified every type of behavior with no consequence as the small sovereigns sharing power with God.

Neoplatonic practices were different from the practice of Tazkiyah which was practiced by companions of the Prophet SA and those who succeeded them (Ta’ba’een and Tab’e Ta’ba’een) when they were forced to go into seclusion to be safe from the atrocities committed on righteous people during the time of Umayyad and Abbasside dynasties. The only thing that was common in both was seclusion, penance and voluntary abdication of certain pleasures. The spirit of the two systems was totally different. While Tazkiyah was practiced by those who believed in Allah swt and His messengers and in accordance with the rules of Qur’an and Sunnah to cleanse themselves of greed, hatred, jealousies, lust and such other baser instincts to become better human beings, the practice of illuminists was based on their own world view to become one with God and transform the world according to their wish.

Shaikh Muhiyuddin Arabi (Death 638 AH) legitimized this Neoplatonic concept and named it as Wahdath ul Wajood to emphasize the Oneness of God and dissuade those undergoing this ecstatic experience from claiming that they were gods. He said God remains One and you only lose your separate identity and therefore you are not gods. Shaikh accepted the ecstatic element experienced by mediators and gave moderate and due importance to this metaphysical experience. By moderating and Islamizing the Neoplatonic thought the Shaikh wanted to keep Islam acceptable to new entrants into its fold and at the same time keep Islamic teachings safe from the hedonistic corollaries associated with this concept of Neoplatonic thought.

Shaikh Sharfuddin Yahya Munairi RA (661-786 AH) and later Shaikh Ahmed Sarhandi RA (971-1034AH) explained the error in this concept which was given the term Wahdathul Wajood (One Existence) and replaced this concept with their concept of Wahdathul Shahood (One appearance). In this new concept they proved through sound arguments that in the ecstatic moments of meditation they don’t lose their independent existence, and their being does not merge with Allah, but their existence becomes dim before the Noor (brilliance) of Allah like that of the candle light before the brightness of sun. Na Boodam digar asth wa Na deedam digar (Not existing is different than not being visible), they concluded. Thus they tried to remove this fallacy that those who enter any level of purity with penance or other rituals become one with God. Thus they argued that as distinct beings living in a real universe we need to behave responsibly by being mindful of the consequences of our action, both on ourselves and our societies.

Allama Iqbal, with his knowledge of oriental and Islamic thought as well as modern philosophies, knew the error of overindulgence in spiritual and metaphysical matters and rightly understood this as the main cause of the backwardness of the Third World and tried to limit it to the limits permitted by the Qur’an and Sunnah. The few verses of his poetry mentioned above illustrate this. Poverty and exploitation was not just a problem of the Third World but it existed in the advanced countries of Europe also and the reason was the same in both places. Iqbal’s poetry addresses the issue in both places. As the jargons and the symbols used in the poem were mostly oriental, people in the West thought it concerned only the people of the subcontinent and had nothing to do with them. And the Muslims of the subcontinent who were suspicious of change also did not pay due attention to it.

Descartes helped Europe to rid itself of the deleterious impact of Neoplatonic thought and paved the way for renaissance. Insha’Allah I will try to compare and contrast the teaching of Descartes and other European philosophers with that of Islamic teachings in the second part of my article and how the two can learn from each other and build a peaceful and just world.