Dr. Muhammad Iqbal – The Sage Par Excellence

 ‘Muhammad Iqbal – lawyer, jurist, and poet – rests in a simple tomb just outside the main entrance to the Badshahi mosque in Lahore. That simple tomb is a place of pilgrimage to me. For Iqbal was a man who belonged to all races; his concepts had universal appeal. He spoke to the consciences of men of good will whatever their tongue, whatever their creed’.

Justice William O’Douglas, Associate Justice, The Supreme Court of the United States of America.

Iqbal (1877-1938) holds a place of remarkable importance among contemporary Islamic thinkers. He was born on 9 November 1877 in Sialkot, a small town in the Punjab region of British India in modern-day Pakistan. His early education was from Scotch Mission College, Sialkot and he learnt the Quran and the Arabic language in a local mosque school. Iqbal went on to study Arabic, English Literature and Philosophy at Government College Lahore, the best institute of higher learning of the time in the subcontinent, and graduated cum laude in 1897 with a scholarship for further studies. By the time he did his masters in Philosophy in 1899, Iqbal was already recognized as a promising young poet in literary circles of Lahore. In 1903, he published his thesis on Economics titled Ilm-ul-Iqtesad (The Science of Economics). He left for Europe in 1905 and joined Lincoln’s Inn to qualify for the Bar and also enrolled at Trinity College, Cambridge while simultaneously submitting his PhD dissertation in philosophy to Munich University. After returning to Lahore in 1908, over the next ten years, he emerged into public life, both in his province and in Muslim India. Iqbal’s poetical works alone include four volumes of Urdu and seven volumes of Persian poetry.

Professor Arberry remarks that no Muslim author in modern times has provoked so much discussion and varying interpretation – a sure proof of relevance and fertility of Iqbal’s ideas. Smith claims that since Iqbal was anti-capitalist, and capitalism fosters intellect, hence Iqbal was anti-intellect. On the other hand, Hussain argues that Smith’s concept is a misconstruction of Iqbal for the sake of defending capitalism. Abbot was another objector to Iqbal’s views saying that Iqbal was unable to picture the West apart from imperialism and that Iqbal was not immersed enough in Western culture to fully appreciate the various benefits of modern democracy, economic practices and science. Interestingly, Abbot himself mentioned in the same writing that Melville and Emerson found the same flaws in Western Civilization as Iqbal did. This led Hussain to argue that Abbot’s objection is hollow and unfounded, since Iqbal was raised and educated in European institutions even in India, was taught by European teachers, and thoroughly studied Western philosophers and literature.

Professor Anikoy, the Soviet biographer, states that Iqbal passionately condemns weak will and passiveness. He is angry against inequality, discrimination and oppression of all types: social, political, national, racial and religious. He asserts the noble ideals of humanism, democracy, peace and friendship among peoples. According to Kiernan, Iqbal’s poems reflect a complex personality depicting the complexity of a time of changes, attacking a static and torpid thinking and mode of living. While concerned first and foremost with the destiny of his own community, Iqbal seems concerned with the human race in its entirety, which has given his work a universal relevance. Vahid writes that the greatness of Iqbal lies in the fact that he wants to see human life stand on its own dignity, and set itself free from narrow tribal, racial, regional or class bonds and to evolve a brotherhood of man linked together by the ties of humanity’.

Iqbal’s work is an eclectic mix of history, spirituality, philosophy and politics. While glorifying the past and longing for a better future for Muslims, he focuses on spiritual direction and the development of a just human society. Iqbal is called the poet and philosopher of Pakistan. While this title is perfectly well deserved, it is also unjust at the same time, wrongly confining a man with universality in his message and thought to one small area of the world. In addition to a unique status in Pakistan as an ideological founding father and national poet, he is an inspiration in many other countries including Iran, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and India. In Turkey, his symbolic grave stands in the compound of the mausoleum of Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi. In the universities of Heidelberg and Cambridge Universities, there are chairs or fellowships in Iqbal’s name.

Iqbal’s poetry traverses through different phases, which follow the course of political events in colonial India and the wider world. From being a champion of Hindu-Muslim unity to an advocate of a separate Muslim state, Iqbal inherently remains a humanist with hatred towards all injustices and oppression. Iblees ki majlis-i-Shura (The Advisory Council of Iblees) is an allegoric poem that Iqbal wrote in 1936, less than two years before his death. It was published posthumously in Armaghan-i-Hijaz. Dr Shaukat Ali writes that this poem is an imaginative way of expressing his dislike for Western political systems. The verses represent the last phase of Iqbal’s thinking and can be considered to embody his final verdict on the contemporary political scene. Kiernan observes that this is an extremely significant poem of Iqbal in which he made his last approach of passionately denouncing imperialism and capitalism. Raja comments that as a product of colonial system Iqbal exposes Western liberal democracy’s class hierarchies and wealth distribution in this poem, and expresses his longing for a system which offers the best of all other political systems.

Despite extensive and systematic research on Iqbal’s political philosophy, mostly by eastern scholars, it is surprising to see the paucity of scholarly treatment of this particular poem which is a chef-d’oeuvre and covers all of Iqbal’s critiques including of the imperialist and capitalist West, the enslaved and powerless East, sluggish Sufism and inept Muslim leadership. Iqbal also shows his admiration for Socialism and his opposition of Bolshevism, and finally his hope in Islam as a solution for the problems faced by East as well as the West.

Source adapted from: http://www.mybitforchange.org/