IQBAL

Early Life in Sialkot: 1877–1895:

At the age of four, Iqbal’s parents sent him to a mosque where he learnt how to read the Quran, and in later life Iqbal fondly related several anecdotes to show how his attitudes were subtly but decisively influenced by his early training. At the age of five, Iqbal became a student of Sayyid Mir Hasan, a distinguished scholar of religion and literature who headed a madrasa (religious school) in Sialkot city. Mir Hassan instructed Iqbal in the Islamic religious heritage, and also helped him cultivate a highly refined literary taste.  Furthermore, Mir Hassan also spotted the talent of the young Iqbal and persuaded Iqbal’s father to have Iqbal admitted to Sialkot’s Scotch Mission College, where Mir Hasan himself was a professor of Arabic.  From there, Iqbal passed his intermediate or F.A. in 1895.

While at Scotch Mission, Iqbal started composing poetry at the age of 15 or 16 years, and became a student by correspondence of Mirza Dagh of Delhi, a famous Urdu poet, who was also known as the “Nightingale of India.”  By the age of 18 years, Iqbal had acquired all that Sialkot had to offer him, and Dagh had also advised that Iqbal’s poetic art needed no further correction.

These early years and his parents’ training gave Iqbal a deep religious and mystical orientation, which he was to retain for the rest of his life.  His love for the Islamic scripture, the Quran, is well-known.  Iqbal has himself claimed that his poetry is no more than an elucidation of the Quranic message.  His father once advised him to read the Quran as if it were being revealed to him direct from God, for only then, he said, would Iqbal truly understand it.  This remark left an indelible impression on Iqbal’s mind.   In one of his Persian verses, Iqbal pleads to the Prophet Muhammad:

If indeed the mirror of my heart is without lustre,

And if indeed there is anything in my words other than the Quran,

Then, O Prophet, rend the fabric of my thoughts,

Sweep clean the world of my offending thorn,

Choke in my breast the breath of life,

Remove my wicked mischief from the community of your followers,

Do not nurture the life of my seed,

Do not provide me any portion from spring’s bountiful showers,

Disgrace me on the day of reckoning,

And do not allow me the honour of kissing your feet.

Iqbal always attributed his love for the Islamic scripture to his father’s spiritual influence, saying that he had not formed his view of life through philosophical investigation, but had ‘inherited’ it.  The influence of Mir Hasan on Iqbal, too, was formative.  A committed and enlightened scholar, Mir Hassan instilled in Iqbal the love for Islamic heritage and also introduced him to modern learning. When the British government offered Knighthood to Iqbal in 1922, Iqbal made his acceptance conditional upon recognition of Mir Hassan’s scholarship.  When asked at that juncture to name Mir Hassan’s most famous work, Iqbal replied, “I am his most famous work.”  Accordingly, when Iqbal received the Knighthood in 1923, Mir Hassan received the title of Shams-ul-Ulama (the Sun of the Scholars).

Student Days in Lahore: 1895–1905:

Iqbal moved to Lahore in 1895 to study at the famous Government College, where he spent four years, earning his B.A. in 1897 (reading English, philosophy, and Arabic), and his M.A. in philosophy in 1899.  He was appointed the MacLeod Arabic Reader at Lahore’s Oriental College, where he taught history, philosophy, and economics, and worked on research and translation projects.  Iqbal also served as Assistant Professor of English at Government College Lahore for a short while.

It was in Lahore that Iqbal’s intellectual and literary talents blossomed as he was exposed to the broad and vigorous tradition of European learning. The most important influence on Iqbal here was the able mentorship of Sir Thomas Arnold, who coached and encouraged Iqbal to undertake several research projects. So writes Mustansir Mir, “The precious stone discovered by Mir Hasan in Sialkot was polished into a glittered jewel by Sir Thomas Arnold in Lahore.”

Lahore boasted several literary societies where poets presented their work before the general public.  Iqbal quickly established his credentials there as a fine poet who initially employed the form of ghazal but later on perfected the form of nazm (or narrative verse).  He ripped apart the rigid framework of convention with his novel images that enthralled his audience, winning him praise from noted poets and critics of that time.

Iqbal’s poetry showed an increasing influence of English literature, and political thought (both European and Indian) started figuring in his message as he started to deal with themes of patriotism.  His work received a new direction through his association with the Society for the Support of Islam (the Anjuman Himayat-e-Islam), at whose annual fundraising events he became a regular star with his poetic expositions.  This soon won Iqbal tremendous acclaim, and he became famous as an accomplished poet and thinker in pre-independence India at the turn of the century as he just turned 23.

Under Arnold’s tutelage, Iqbal the poet also now became Iqbal the academic. He taught and wrote prolifically on a range of diverse subjects, and wrote and published his first Urdu book on the principles of economics in 1903.  Arnold motivated Iqbal to purse higher studies in the West, even though Iqbal had probably already begun the process of intellectually synthesizing the Eastern and Western traditions.  Thus writes Mustansir Mir, “In the fertile soil of Lahore, the sapling of Sialkot had become a sturdy tree.”

Student Days in Europe 1905 – 1908:

In 1905, Iqbal arrived in Cambridge, entering Trinity College as a research scholar.  Cambridge was then a renowned centre of Arabic and Persian studies.  Its luminaries included the orientalist Reynold M. Nicholson, who later translated Iqbal’s Persian poetical work Asrar-i Khudi into English in 1920, and the philosopher John McTaggart who Iqbal met with and whose lectures Iqbal attended.  Iqbal also enrolled as a student of law at Lincolns Inn in London, and, at Sir Thomas Arnold’s suggestion, registered as a doctoral student at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in Germany.

In June 1907, Iqbal earned an M.A. from Cambridge, in November 1907 University of Munich awarded him a Ph.D. for his thesis on The Development of Metaphysics in Persia, and in July 1908, Iqbal was called to the Bar in London.  Thus, in three intense years, Iqbal remarkably earned three degrees from three prestigious institutions, which none of his famous contemporaries could accomplish in such short time, including Mahatma Gandhi, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Rabindra Nath Tagore, or Mohammad Ali Jinnah (Quaid-e-Azam).

Iqbal also acquired sound knowledge of the German language.  Already familiar in translation, now he was in a position to make a first-hand, in-depth study of the German philosophical and literary tradition.  References to German writers and their thoughts thereafter became more frequent in his works, and he began to see himself playing in India a role similar to that played in Germany by Goethe, whom he greatly admired.

Sir Thomas Arnold continued to play an important role in Iqbal’s education and intellectual upbringing. Iqbal frequently stayed with Arnold on visits to London, and also stood in for Arnold as professor of Arabic when Arnold was on leave for six months.  Iqbal’s doctoral thesis, upon publication, was dedicated to Sir Thomas Arnold.

In his three years in Europe, Iqbal made close and critical study of Western civilization, on which he was to comment in much of his later work.  While he admired certain aspects of that civilization, he was critical of its secular character and warned Muslims of blindly imitating the West.  “The storm from the West has transformed Muslims into real Muslims” wrote Iqbal in his landmark poem Tulū-i Islam (The Rise of Islam), an observation that applied first and foremost to Iqbal himself as he underwent a major change in his view and estimation of nationalism.

He had previously championed the cause of Indian nationalism and had worked for Hindu-Muslim unity.  To him, loyalty to the country could co-exist without any serious tension with one’s commitment to one’s religion.  But here he witnessed first-hand the deep discord that jingoistic nationalism had caused among the major European powers and that, several years later, was to climax in World War I.  Iqbal’s dedication thus turned to the ideological universalism of Islam.

Last Three Decades in Lahore: 1908–1938:

Iqbal Returned to India in July 1908, and set up legal practice in Lahore.  He also started teaching philosophy at his alma mater, the Government College.  In 1911, the British government under Hindu pressure reversed the 1905 partition of the Bengal province, which caused grave disappointment to the Muslims.  The international scene, too, was depressing from the Muslim perspective: Italy had occupied Libya, France annexed Morocco, and several Balkan states attacked Turkey, divesting it of its East European possessions.  So to speak, local and international events had caused incredible despair and helplessness in many sensitive Muslims, including Iqbal, whose life from this point on is marked by a growing earnestness of purpose.

In both poetry and prose, Iqbal thus began to address the global plight of Muslims, and, in this process, his philosophical and political ideas started to take more definite shape.  His first book of poetry was published in 1915 in the name and style of the Persian work Asrar-i Khudi (Secrets of the Self), which addressed the worldwide Muslim community. Upon publication of the English translation of this work by Nicholson in 1920, Iqbal was introduced in the West as a major literary and philosophical writer.  Reviewing the English version, Herbert Read compared Iqbal to the famous American poet Walt Whitman.  Several other of Iqbal’s Persian and Urdu collections of poetry followed.

Becoming heavily engaged on the intellectual, educational, and social fronts, Iqbal gave public talks and academic lectures, he wrote articles for journals and newspapers, he assisted in the production of textbooks for students at school and college levels, and he corresponded with many people, expressing a wide range of views.  His major philosophical work, The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam was published in 1934.  He was also invited to give the Rhodes lectures in 1934, but ill health prevented him from travelling to England.

The worldwide Muslim community – the Ummah – became a major focus of Iqbal’s attention, and became his sense of mission, in the post-Europe period.  From being an Indian nationalist who had written “We are Indians and India our country is the best in the whole world…” he now wrote the Islamic Community Song, proclaiming, “We are Muslims, and the whole world is our country.”

In 1926, Iqbal was elected as a member of the Punjab Legislative Council, a position he retained until 1930.  He also played an important role in determining the course of the All-India Muslim League, which was to become India’s largest Muslim political party.  Formerly a supporter of Hindu-Muslim unity, Iqbal eventually become doubtful about the viability of the project – he stood for Hindu-Muslim rapprochement but did not think Hindu-Muslim unity a practical proposition – concluding that the Muslims of India must maintain their distinct religious and cultural identity as he spoke of the need of a separate electoral system for Hindus and Muslims.

In December 1930, at the annual meeting of the All-India Muslim League held at Allahabad, Iqbal delivered his famous presidential address in which he proposed the creation of a separate homeland for at least the Muslims of northwest India.  In 1931, he represented the Muslims of India at a meeting of the World Islamic Congress held in Palestine.  In 1931 and 1932, again representing India’s Muslims, Iqbal participated in the London Round Table Conferences held to decide India’s political future.  In 1933, he travelled to Afghanistan at the invitation of Nadir Shah, who wished to consult with Iqbal about Afghanistan’s political system.

Although he did not live to see the creation of Pakistan in 1947, he is widely admired as its spiritual father and as its national poet.  Iqbal died in Lahore at about dawn on 21st April 1938.  His funeral, which was led by the Imam of the historic Badshahi Mosque at Lahore, Maulana Ghulam Murshid, was attended by more than fifty thousand people.  He is buried beneath the high walls of the Badshahi Mosque, Lahore, in simple mausoleum designed by Nawab Zain Yar Jang of Hyderabad, Deccan, the exterior of which is made of red stone imported from the city of Dholpur in India and the white marble inside is gifted by Nadir Shah of Afghanistan.

Personality:

In an autobiographical poem “Piety and Impiety” (Bang-i-Dara), Iqbal tells of a neighbour, a religious scholar, who had heard that Iqbal, though well-versed in Islamic law and religion, was not exactly a pious individual; that he recited the Quran at dawn, but was also fond of music, which Islam forbids; that, under the influence of his philosophical training, he refused to regard Hindus as infidels; that he was not averse to associating with beautiful women; and that he had Shiite leanings.  On accosting the scholar in this poem one day, Iqbal confessed that he himself did not know the truth about himself and that he wished someday ‘to see Iqbal’.  There is undoubtedly some humour here, but the essential point made is that Iqbal is a multifaceted personality, and a man of serious disposition by nature and training.

Iqbal had profound respect for the religious and mystical figures of Islamic history – in fact, of world history – as his poetry testifies.  While intellectually as well as emotionally, he was devoted to the ideals of Islam, which his early training had inculcated in him, and this devotion only grew with time, he was by no means a religious obscurantist.  Several writers have commented on his acceptance of broad humanity, his closest friends included not only Muslims, but also Christians, Hindus and Sikhs, and in his poetry he sang the praises of several famous ancient and modern non-Muslims.

When Iqbal lost his wife in 1935, and, as an ailing man, was left behind with a young son aged eleven years and a little daughter aged five years, he had no qualms about appointing a German woman of Christian faith as his children’s governess.  Ironically, when that governess, upon a visit to the missionary school in Lahore where Iqbal’s daughter was attending, came to know that Muslim children were being taught the Bible in one of the classes, protested against it and pressed upon Iqbal to withdraw his daughter from that school, Iqbal overruled the governess, saying that his daughter should understand the basic principles of other religions, and directing that a Muslim teacher could be employed to teach the Quran to his daughter at home.

Iqbal had an affective disposition; it grew out of his sensitive relation to both faith and aesthetics.  He wept as he recited the Quran; sometimes, his copy of the Quran, wet with tears had to be put out in the sun to dry.  He was possessed with and admired courage of conviction, creativity, and a dervish mindset embodied by self-sufficiency and indifference to the trappings of power, fame and material things.  Powerful verse moved him similarly. On one occasion, he was so overcome with by emotion on reading a set of verses that he almost fainted.  One of the high points of his emotional life was his visit to the Cordova Mosque in Spain.  The visit took him, in his own words, “to heights I had never experienced before.”  His poem ‘Cordova Mosque’ is reckoned by many as his masterpiece.

He was very attentive to detail and was in the habit of meticulously revising his work, which often resulted in delayed publication, and he often destroyed the poems that, in his view, did not meet a certain standard of excellence. But he was always quick to accept and appreciate well-founded criticism.

He became a legend within his lifetime, and his stature has only grown since.  In Pakistan, at least, to cite a verse of Iqbal in support of one’s view is practically to clinch the argument in one’s favour.  But that was not always the case.

He has had his critics – he was attacked for accepting a Knighthood, for writing poems to commemorate or celebrate certain occasions (like the coronation of King George V or the death of Queen Victoria), for refusing to support the civil-disobedience movement against British rulers, and for addressing God in a seemingly audacious manner in his poetry.

But Iqbal has also had his defenders, including some of the best-known scholars and literary writers, and they have put up a fierce defence of Iqbal against the charges brought against him.

Iqbal lived a simple, dignified, and principled life.  His biographers have pointed out that, during most of his life – specially in his last few years, when he was at the height of his fame – he lived in straitened circumstances, and that the British would have been only too happy to patronise him and give him financial support had he asked for it.  He was aptly called ‘the poorest knight.’

Publications:

Iqbal produced works in three languages: he wrote prose in English, poetry in Persian, and both poetry and prose in Urdu.  He has a total of fifteen publications to his credit, comprised of seven collections of Persian poetry, four collections of Urdu poetry, three prose publications in English, and one prose publication in Urdu.  His seven Persian collections of poetry are called:

• Asrar-i-Khudi (Secrets of the Self)

• Rumuz-i-Bikhudi (Secrets of Selflessness)

• Payam-i-Mashriq (The Message of the East)

• Zubur-i-Ajam (Psalms of Persia)

• Javid Nama (Pilgrimage to Eternity)

• Pas Chih Bayad Kard Ay Aqwam-i-Sharq (What Must Now be Done O Nations of the East)?

• Armughan-i-Hijaz Farsi (The Gift of the Hijaz – Persian)

His four Urdu collections or poetry are called:

• Bang-i-Dara (The Clarion Call)

• Bal-i-Jibril (Gabriel’s Wing)

• Zarb-i-Kalim (The Rod of Moses)

• Armughan-i-Hijaz Urdu (The Gift of the Hijaz – Urdu)

His three English publications are called:

• The Development of Metaphysics in Persia

• Stray Reflections

• The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam

His solitary Urdu prose publication – his first in 1903 – is called Ilm-ul Iqtisad (Political Economy).

Poetic Art:

Iqbal’s poetry has an extraordinary variety of themes. A randomly drawn list would include nature, the human situation, khudi or selfhood, life as a quest, and Islam as a living faith.

Although Iqbal’s poetry has variously dealt with nature, what stands out the most is how nature serves in it as a foil for drawing out man’s potential.  Nature is described as God’s unfinished business – like a rough-hewn rock awaiting a sculptor’s hand to chisel a masterpiece from it.  Human beings fulfil their proper role in the world in perfecting what is imperfect in nature, thereby also discharging their role as God’s co-workers.  In a short Persian poem in Payam-i-Mashriq “A Dialogue Between God and Man”, God accuses man of putting to evil use the benign natural objects:

                                    From the earth I produced pure iron

                                    But you made from that iron sword, arrow and gun.

In his response, man alludes to the enhancement of an otherwise crude and undeveloped nature:

                                    You made deserts, mountains, and valleys;

                                    I made gardens, meadows, and parks;

                                    I am one who makes a mirror out of stone,

                                    And turns poison into sweet delicious drink.

In taking up the human situation, Iqbal places his trust in the human being, a trust vindicated by the contribution that human beings have made in turning the world into a beautiful place. Yet again in Payam-i-Mashriq, Iqbal states:

                                    God created the world, but Adam made it better –

                                    Adam perhaps is God’s co-worker.

Iqbal also extensively and fascinatingly dwells on the idea that humans, though made of earth, are yet possessed of a certain element that impels them to break free of their earthly limitations and engage in a ceaseless search for loftier goals.  In considering these loftier goals, it is pertinent to briefly examine Iqbal as the philosopher of khudi or selfhood.  Philosophically, Iqbal describes khudi as a primordial force, the Ultimate Reality, or the Absolute Ego, whose personal name is God.  This force, which we may call Divine khudi, through self assertion or self manifestation, gives rise to a phenomenal world.

Iqbal adds that khudi is a point of light, and equates to life itself – to quote from his first publication Asrar-i-Khudi, khudi ‘is the spark of life in our dusty being’.  But the source of khudi’s light is divine – as stated in his last publication Armughan-i-Hijaz, “Khudi is lit up from the light of the Majestic One’, and its very existence depends on Divine existence.  Compared with the rest of creation, the human being possesses khudi in a relatively complete form and, for this reason, tops the chain of created things.

Iqbal gives details of how khudi might be nurtured.  He mentions factors that strengthen khudi (for example, love of God and the Prophet Muhammad, devotion to a noble cause, self-discipline, and struggle against odds) and factors that weaken it (for example, dependence on others, and life-negating philosophy and literature).

At the start of the twentieth century, the majority of the world’s Muslims were politically weak, economically backward, and socially disintegrated.  To Iqbal, this general decadence of the Muslims was due to the fact that they had forgotten who they were, were ashamed to take pride in their glorious tradition, suffered from a crisis of self-confidence, lacked self-esteem, and had despaired of building a bright future for themselves – in a word, had allowed their khudi to waste away.

The concept of khudi thus furnishes Iqbal with a reason for judgment: whatever nurtures khudi is good, and whatever kills or dampens khudi is bad. The theme of khudi is closely linked in Iqbal’s works with that of life as quest and discovery.  He asserts that the mandate of humans is to bring out their potential to the fullest and to change and mould the world after their hearts’ desire.  Thus, conquest of nature is an important way in which human beings affirm their khudi.  To show that challenge strengthens khudi, Iqbal tells the story of the young man who visited the great saint Ali Hujwairi and complained to him that he was unable to fend off the many enemies that surrounded him.  The saint, instead of commiserating with the young man, remarked that a powerful enemy is a blessing from God since such an enemy presents a man with challenges that push him to the limit, thereby bringing out the best in him (Asrar-i-Khudi).

Since the human potential is limitless and the task of conquering nature never-ending, life becomes a series of quests.  We must progress from one stage to another, never resting on our laurels, always regarding our destination as another milestone along the way (Payam-i-Mashriq).  Success in life requires strength, and one becomes strong not by passively confirming to the given scheme of things, but by putting the stamp of one’s own personality on the resistant environment; the same substance becomes coal through passive conformity to the environment, but it becomes a shining diamond when it seeks to assert itself by challenging the environment (Asrar-i-Khudi).

Iqbal asserts in Payam-i-Mashriq that commitment to Islam will not by itself work miracles.  Muslims must realize that life is a struggle and not a set of rights to be claimed unconditionally.  They must also learn the lesson of self-reliance: they should be like the self-respecting Turkish sailor who sang as he rowed his boat, saying that if he ran into trouble on the high seas, he would call upon none other than the storm itself for help.

In short, Iqbal used poetry to state and argue a for a carefully formed and passionately held world view.  He writes in what may be called High Urdu and High Persian, his poetry acquiring early on its distinctive quality, which is best described by the Arabic word jalal or the Persian word shikoh, both signifying ‘majesty, stateliness, and grandeur’.

Iqbal’s vocabulary is, ultimately, instrumental in character; he uses it to convey his understanding of life and reality. He holds, for example, that existence is marked by perpetual change and movement.  To begin with, the cosmos is in motion – the stars, the moon, and the sun are all travelling through space.  But Iqbal does not simply note the fact of change and movement; he sees meaning in the fact: the heavenly bodies are in motion because they are earnestly pursuing a goal or seeking a destination.

Noting a similar change and movement in human history, in human society, and in the individual human being, Iqbal seeks correspondence between the condition of human beings and the condition of the heavenly bodies.  He goes one step further.  Not content to situate the human being within the cosmos, he seeks to incorporate and telescope the cosmos within the human being: the human being is the primary fact – Adam created by God and meant to rule over the universe – all other existence enjoying only secondary status; it is the human being who manages and exploits the world and assigns value to it.  In principle, then, the human being towers above the universe, the story of the human being thus becoming the story of a being with a stature and importance next only to God’s – a being whom Iqbal calls God’s colleague or co-worker in Payam-i-Mashriq.

Given this epic-like setting of his poetry, Iqbal’s diction acquires a power that is as authentic as it is natural.  To continue and conclude with his motif of movement, Iqbal seems to be at his best when he is describing movement, whether physical or metaphorical.  The following few lines describe the joyous movement of the mountain stream in Iqbal’s grand poem Saqi Nama or ‘Ode to the Cup-Bearer’, which itself celebrates movement, change, and creativity:

                                    The mountain stream over there – it bounds

                                    It halts, it curves, it glides,

                                    It leaps, it slides, it gathers itself,

                                    After much winding and turning, it sallies forth,

                                    Should it be stemmed, it would burst the rocks,

                                    And cut open the hearts of the hills.

                                    This mountain stream, my fair Cupbearer,

                                    Has a message to give us of life.

Philosophical Thought:

Coupled with Iqbal’s poetic art is his philosophical thought, most famously embodied in his magnum opus “The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam”, which represents his most complex and least understood work.  The seven lectures of the book bear the mark of a brilliant intellect that is seriously engaged with the diverse Western and Islamic philosophical traditions, offering a spirited analysis of issues and presenting an original synthesis of ideas.

In this book, Iqbal discusses, cites, or refers to the works and ideas of over one hundred and fifty thinkers and writers from both the Islamic and Western philosophical and literary traditions.  Iqbal’s aim in these lectures is to address the demand for a scientific form of religious knowledge by attempting to reconstruct Muslim religious philosophy with due regard to the philosophical tradition of Islam on the one hand and the more recent developments in the various domains of human knowledge, particularly science.

In so doing, Iqbal underscores the necessity of reconstructing Muslim political philosophy to make it compatible with the modern mind’s inclination towards concrete thought driven by science.  Such reconstruction comes under the concept of tajdid, the Islamic technical term for a significant ‘renewal’ or ‘rejuvenation’ of Islamic religion.  Although Iqbal hopes that religion and science, now estranged from each other, will one day find common ground, it is evident that he regards the modern mind’s incapability of reliving religious experience as an impoverishment, or even as a disability.

In the fifth of the seven Reconstruction lectures, titled ‘The Spirit of Muslim Culture’, Iqbal emphasizes that the Quranic view of nature as something concrete, and its view of the universe as dynamic, eventually led Muslim thinkers to revolt against the speculative Greek thought, which at first they had embraced.  The revolt, joined by prominent theologians, philosophers, and scientists over a course of centuries, manifested itself in mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and logic.  The experimental method, born of the anti-classical spirit of Islam, is the product of Islamic culture, from which it was borrowed by Europe.

In the sixth of the seven lectures, also widely believed to be Iqbal’s finest, titled ‘The Principle of Movement in the Structure of Islam’, Iqbal underscores the need to reconstruct Islamic law.  He argues that in Islam, the Ultimate Reality – God – is the eternal spiritual ground of all life, which expresses itself in variety and change.  An Islamic society must, therefore, reconcile eternal principles with the possibilities of change, and it must have a principle of movement to mediate between the two categories. Ijtihad – technically, the endeavour to form an independent legal judgment – is such a principle in Islam.  Iqbal emphasizes that that shutting the door on ijtihad as has been done by conservative thought has immobilized the legal system of a religion whose scripture takes a dynamic view of life.

Political Discourse:

In his political philosophy, Iqbal argues that the essence of Tawhid (Islamic monotheism), as a working idea is equality, solidarity, and freedom.  The state, from an Islamic standpoint, is an endeavour to transform these ideal principles into a realization of definite human organization.  In a short Urdu poem in Bang-i-Dara, Iqbal refers to a nation as a body and the individuals comprising it to its limbs: those in industry are the nation’s hands and feet, those who help to administer the government are its beautiful face, and those who cultivate arts – Iqbal mentions poets as representing this class – are its eyes.

It follows that the failure of society’s leaders or representatives can have disastrous consequences for the entire society.  This understanding lies behind Iqbal’s scathing critique of the leaders of historical Muslim societies.  Iqbal holds three factors especially responsible for the general decadence of the Muslim world in recent centuries.  First Mullaism constituting the hidebound of the ulema who had previously been a source of strength to Islam, but had become its downfall by abandoning the freedom of ijtihad or independent judgment.  Second, the mysticism that used to be a force of spiritual education but had now turned into a system of exploiting people’s ignorance, replacing Muslim Democracy with Spiritual Aristocracy.  Third, kingship whereby protection of dynastic interests become the rulers’ first priority and Muslim kings did not hesitate to sell their countries to the highest bidder.

Therefore, instead of calling for a wholesale rejection of tradition, Iqbal aims at reinvigorating it – by subjecting it to a critical scrutiny – retaining its kernel and discarding its husk.  Iqbal emphasized that the existence of competent leaders is crucial to a society’s viability and progress, but so is the well-being – especially the economic well-being – of the masses. “It is the masses who are the backbone of the nation; they ought to be better fed, better housed, and properly educated” he wrote in a letter, adding that “Muslim social organizations should realize that their main obligation is to elevate the masses, not to exalt an individual’.

Iqbal was also a devout social democrat, declaring in a famous letter to Pakistan’s founder Jinnah, “For Islam the acceptance of social democracy in some suitable form and consistent with the legal principles of Islam is not a revolution but a return to the original purity of Islam.”

Iqbal is often called a pan-Islamist, but this can be misleading.  Iqbal wished to unify the Muslims of the world, but their unification, in his view, would have a spiritual rather than a geographical basis.  He nowhere proposes that the existing Muslim countries should abolish their borders and create a universal Muslim state ruled by a single caliph.  He grants the possibility of the simultaneous existence of many Muslim states and many Muslim rulers.

Contemporary Value:

The foremost aspect of Iqbal’s work that thus earns him contemporary value is the elevation of the human being – the transformation and well-being of man – at the individual and collective levels through self, selfhood, and self-identity as embodied in his concept of khudi.  He furnishes the formulae on how to strengthen, intensify, and raise one’s self, and highlights what dissipates, destroys, and disintegrates the same.  Driven by the Quranic force that God has infused his own spirit in man, Iqbal’s teachings are emphatic about man bearing witness that God is indeed present in him for therein lies the essence of moral and spiritual life. Iqbal thus condemns every economic, moral, or socio-political structure, may it be internal or international, that depresses the dignity and sanctity of man and is keen to reconstruct it in a manner that may restore the vicegerency of man in this world.

Another key aspect of Iqbal’s work in this regard is his explanation that the essence of the Islamic concept of Tawhid as a working idea, is human unity, human equality and human freedom.  He emphasizes that humanity unites in divinity, that humanity attains equality in divinity, that humanity attains freedom in divinity, that if this divinity were denied and disrespected, mankind would be divided and disintegrate.  This emphatic opinion of Iqbal’s serves as a beacon light towards interfaith harmony and the dialogue of civilizations in this day and age.

Furthermore, the value of Iqbal’s attempts to reconcile religion with science is also of paramount contemporary importance, particularly in the field of education. Iqbal divides knowledge into two broad categories: observational/scientific knowledge based on sense perception and directed towards improving and developing the worth this world has to offer, and revelational knowledge, which relies on intuition, and shows the light towards the ends and ideals of life and the very purpose of human existence.  Iqbal thus makes the Quranic recommendation that power gained through science and technology should be exercised as directed by revelation, as that power, exercised alone, could destroy mankind. Accordingly, if education is bereft of moral content, it would fail to serve its purpose here and in the hereafter. Iqbal’s hope therefore that religion and science, now estranged from each other, will one day find common ground, thus awaits fruition.

Finally, it is Iqbal, the social democrat, who pleads the case of the masses as being the backbone of a nation, and calls for elevating the masses, not exalting individuals so that the prevalent Spiritual Aristocracy is replaced with an Islamic Democracy.

It would be in the fitness of things conclude here with yet another quote from Mustansir Mir:

“But perhaps Iqbal’s most enduring legacy consists of his zestful affirmation of life.  A study of Iqbal’s life reveals that he was interested in practically everything that life had to offer.  He read much, he dreamed much, and he hoped much, he corresponded with many people, as he had made close friendships with many people from many different communities and nationalities, and, above all, he was open to new ideas.  His readers find his works to be inspiring.  No less inspiring to them is his decidedly positive attitude to life.”