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Iqbal
Lahori |
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THE recent
National Day of Pakistan prompted one to remember one of its
founding fathers, Dr Sir Muhammad Iqbal, a Muslim figure that
helped shape the world as we know it today. |
Muhammad Ali Jinnah may have led the move
towards independence but it was Iqbal's spirit and thoughts
that laid the foundation for the country so much earlier. A
humble man and a great poet, Iqbal was a world-class
philosopher, a jurist, a literary figure and an educator all
rolled into one. Through his poems, he spoke from the heart
about not only Pakistan but also about the Muslims' fate and
civilisation, and what factors caused their strength and
weaknesses.
Born at Sialkot in Punjab (West Pakistan) on
February 22, 1873, Iqbal came from a Kashmiri Brahma family
who embraced Islam around three centuries earlier. His father
Nur Muhammad's devotion to Islam, especially its mystical
aspects, gained him respect among his Sufi peers and other
associates. His wife, Imam Bibi, was also a devout Muslim. The
couple instilled a deep religious consciousness in all their
five children. This upbringing nurtured Iqbal's spirituality
and artistic inclinations, especially under the tutelage of
one by the name of Mir Hassan.
Mir Hassan, who never learned English,
recognised early on Iqbal's potential as a poet. He was
Iqbal's tutor until his graduation in 1892.
In 1895, Iqbal continued his studies at the
Government College of Lahore where he wrote poetry in Arabic,
Persian and Urdu. He joined literary groups and made the
acquaintance of renowned literary figures there. He also
became close with Professor Sir Thomas Arnold of The Preaching
of Islam fame, and who was to have a strong influence on
Iqbal's intellectual development. In effect, Arnold, an
erudite scholar of Islam and modern philosophy, became for
Iqbal a bridge between East and West.
At Arnold's exhortation, in 1905, Iqbal went to
further his study at the Cambridge University in England and
stayed there for three years before studying law at the
Lincoln's Inn in 1908. His PhD dissertation was then published
in London.
It was while living in Europe that he learned
about the materialism of the Western people prompting the
following poem:
In the East the soul looks in vain for light;
In the West the light is a faded cloud of dust.
The fakirs who could shatter the power and pelf
of kings
No longer tread this earth, in climes far or
near.
The spirit of this age is brimful with
negations,
And drained to the fast drop is the power of
faith.
Muted is Europe's lament on its crumbling
pageant,
Muted by the delirious beats, the clangour of
its music.
A sleepy ripple awaits, to swell into a wave
A wave that will swallow up monsters of the sea.
What is slavery but a loss of the sense of
beauty?
What the free call beautiful, is beautiful
indeed.
The present belongs to him who explores, in
their depths,
The fathomless seas of time, to find the
future's pearl.
The alchemist of the West has turned stone into
glass
But my alchemy has transmuted glass into flint
Pharaohs of today have stalked me in vain;
But I fear not; I am blessed with Moses' staff.
It was while in Britain that he first went into
politics. Following the formation of the All-India Muslim
League in 1906, Iqbal was elected to the executive committee
of the league's British chapter. He also sat on the
subcommittee which drafted the league's constitution. Upon his
return from Europe in 1908, Iqbal embarked on a career in law,
academics and poetry, all at once. Of the three pursuits, he
excelled in what was his true calling and first love _ poetry.
In 1931, Iqbal made a second visit to Europe to
renew old acquaintances and make new ones and to reflect and
write. A visit to Spain inspired three beautiful poems, which
were later incorporated into a major composition, Bal-i
Jibrail (Gabriel's Wing).
After returning from a trip to Afghanistan in
1933, Iqbal's health deteriorated. But his religious and
political ideas were gaining wide acceptance and his
popularity was at his peak. One of the last great things he
did was to establish the Adarah Darul Islam, an institution
where studies in classical Islam and contemporary social
science would be subsidised.
Among his best works are Asrari Khudi (The
Secrets of the Self, 1915) followed by Rumuz-I Bekhudi (1917).
Payam-i Mashriq (Messages for the East) appeared in 1923,
Zabur-i Ajam in 1927, Javid Nama in 1932, Pas cheh bayed kard
ai Aqwam-i Sharq in 1936, and Armughan-i Hijaz (The Gift from
the Hijaz) in 1938. All these books were in Persian.
His first book of poetry in Urdu, Bang-i Dara
(Caravan Bell, 1924) was followed by Bal-i Jibril (Wings of
Gabriel, in 1935) and Zarb-i Kalim (The Blow of Moses' Staff)
in 1936. Bang-i Dara consist of selected poems belonging to
the three preliminary phases of Iqbal's poetic career. Bal-i
Jibril consists of ghazals, poems, quatrains, epigrams and
displays the vision and intellect necessary to foster
sincerity and firm belief in the heart of the ummah and turn
its members into true believers. Zarb-i Kalim was described by
the poet himself "as a declaration of war against the present
era".
The main subjects of the book are Islam and the
Muslims, education and upbringing, woman, literature and fine
arts, politics of the East and the West. In Asrar-i Khudi,
Iqbal has explained his philosophy of Self. He proves by
various means that the whole universe obeys the will of the
Self. For him the aim of life is self-realisation and
self-knowledge. He charts the stages through which the "Self"
has to pass before finally arriving at its point of
perfection, enabling the knower of the Self to become the
vicegerent of Allah on earth.
In Rumuz-i Bekhudi, Iqbal proves that Islamic
way of life is the best code of conduct for a nation's
viability. A person must keep his individual characteristics
intact but once this is achieved he should sacrifice his
personal ambitions for the needs of the nation. Man cannot
realise the "Self" out of society.
Other important works included Reconstruction of
Religious Thought in Islam and another one that he could not
finish due to ill health, The Reconstruction of Muslim
Jurisprudence.
Iqbal died in April 1938. Amongst his remaining
concerns for the life of the Muslim ummah can be found in the
Gift from the Hijaz in which he advised the King of Saudi
Arabia, as a leader of Islam-Arab world, to not be easily
swayed by the seduction and even aid, from Western and other
foreign powers. Instead they should remain steadfast and
self-reliant while holding on their belief in the power of
Allah.
Iqbal's inspiration is clear he recounted his
inspiration such: "Every morning after Subuh, my father would
watch and ask, 'What is it that you are reading?' and I would
answer, 'I am reading Al Quran'. This went on for three years;
my father would ask me the same question and I would give the
same response. Until one day I asked him, 'What is in your
heart, o my father, that you ask me the same thing and I have
to repeat the same answer'. And his answer was: 'I only wanted
to say to you, my son, read the Quran as if it was revealed to
you.' Since then, I have always tried to understand the
content of Al Quran and it is through Al Quran that I receive
the light of inspiration for my poems.
This was behind Iqbal's call to the humanity in
general to turn to Al Quran for the source of the law and for
refuge, and the spirit to move forward, advance and be dynamic
He wrote: You are left behind because you have stopped taking
the inspiration from the book that guided you. You have
narrowed your horizon about knowledge and thus you have lost
the inability to understand the book of meaning.
The writer is Deputy Minister of Education of
Brunei Darussalam
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