ALLAMA MUHAMMAD IQBAL: THE POET OF THE EAST

In the midst of the disintegration of Islamic society hastened by Western domination; in the midst of chaos and cultural sterility, the poet-philosopher Allama Muhammad Iqbal remains unique in the history of modern Muslim literature.

The descendant of an aristocratic Brahmin Kashmiri family who had embraced Islam some three centuries back, Allama Muhammad Iqbal was born in Punjab in 1873 and thoroughly educated both in Muslim and Western culture. After he graduated from the Government College at Lahore in 1899, he remained a lecturer there for six years. From 1905 to 1908 he studied philosophy at Cambridge and Munich, also qualifying for law.

After he returned to Lahore, he earned his modest living as a lawyer, devoting his spare time to his poetry.

“The Secrets of the Self”¹ and “The Mysteries of Selflessness”² are two of his notable works. Although both these philosophical poems were composed more than fifty years ago, their message is as appropriate for today as it was then.

85 In his “Secrets of the Self” he argues that only by the self-affirmation, self-development and self-expression of superior individuals can the Muslims once more become strong and free. All life is individual. God is the most unique individual. The greater a man’s distance from God, the less his individuality. He who comes nearest to God possesses the most complete personality. He is not absorbed into God but rather absorbs the attributes of God into himself.

The source of individuality is the formation of ideals and translating them into vigorous action.

Here Iqbal condemns passive religions like Buddhism and Hinduism as decadent.

Negation of desire is death to the living Even as absence of heat extinguishes the flame.

According to Iqbal, all human achievement is the result of the struggle for self-preservation.

What is death, he asks, but to become oblivious to Self?

Oh men of understanding! Open thine eyes, ears and lips… War is good if its object is God… Strength is the twin of truth…

Iqbal considers devotion to the Holy Prophet Muhammad and the urge to follow his example essential to the progress of the individual personality towards perfection:

In the Muslim’s heart is the home of Muhammad… All our glory is from the name of Muhammad… His dwelling place is a sanctuary to the Kaaba itself…

86 The song of love for him fills my silent reed. A hundred notes throb in my bosom. How shall I tell what devotion he inspires? A block of dry wood wept at parting from him. The Muslim’s being is where he manifests his glory. Many a Sinai springs from the dust on his path. My image was created by his mirror. My dawn rises from the sun of his breast.

The Self can be educated only by obedience to the law of the Quran and Sunnah:

Liberty is the fruit of compulsion. By obedience the man of no worth is made worthy… Whosoever would master the sun and stars, Let him make himself a prisoner of the Law… The star moves toward its goal With head bowed in surrender to the Law… Drops of water become a sea by the law of union. And grains of sand become a Sahara.

Since Law makes everything strong within…

O thou who art emancipated from the Old custom, Why dost thou neglect this source of strength? Do not complain of the hardness of the law! Do not transgress the statutes of Muhammad!

By means of devotion to the Holy Prophet, submission to the law of the Quran in its pristine purity and wholehearted practice of the Five Pillars of Islam, the individual personality reaches its culmination when it assumes the role of the vicegerent of God on earth:

‘Tis sweet to be God’s vicegerent in the world 87 and exercise sway over the elements… He executes the command of Allah in the world… His genius abounds with life and desires to manifest itself. He will bring another world into existence… He puts the idols out of the sanctuary. Heart-strings give forth music at his touch. He wakes and sleeps for God alone… He bestows life by his miraculous action. He renovates old ways of life. Splendid visions rise from the print of his foot… His rich substance makes precious all that exists.

However, the individual has no meaning in isolation from society.

It is only as a member of community based firmly on the principles of Islam that the individual can achieve fulfilment of his potentialities. It is only through an association of superior individuals that society is preserved. The characteristics of a true Islamic society is described in Iqbal’s second notable work, “The Mysteries of Selflessness.”

The basis of Islamic society is Prophethood.

Shrunk is the scope of its crude life, Its narrow thoughts confined Beneath the rim of its constricting roof, Fear for its life the meagre stock in trade. Of its constituent element its heart trembling before the whistle of the wind, Its spirit shies away from arduous toil Till God discovers a man pure of heart…

88 The naked understanding he adorns With wealth abundant fills its indigence Fans with his skirts its embers, Purifies Its gold of every particle of dross Drawing each one, he circumscribes the feet Of all within the circle of one Law, Reschools them in God’s wondrous unity And teaches them habit and the use Of self-surrender to the will Divine.

The solidarity of the Muslim community is dependent upon a common belief and vigorous propagation of the unity of God:

There is one God! No other god but God! This the point on which the world concentrically turns. This the conclusion of the world’s affairs.

The community requires a visible symbol on which to focus its unity.

The sacred Kaaba at once our secret is And guardian of our secret, our heart’s fire, Instrument whereupon our passion plays. We are a breath nurtured with its breast. The body we, and it the precious soul. In circumambulation of its shrine Our pure Community draws common breath. Thou livest by a sanctuary’s bond And shalt endure, so long as thou shalt go About the shrine thereof.

Islamic society is sustained by its submission to the Law of the Quran, the urge to follow the example of the Prophet 89 and the preservation of its traditions:

It behooves us all that we beware of Persia’s fantasies. Though Persia’s thought have the heavens surpassed, They equally transgress the boundaries set by the Prophet’s faith… To fortify the heart, Conform thyself with Arab ways to be a Muslim true.

Pride in the past

Allama Iqbal considers essential if the future is to be faced with confidence:

The record of the past illumines the conscience of a people. Memory of past achievements makes it self-aware But if that memory fades and is forgot The folk again is lost in nothingness.

Fix in firm bond to-day with yesterday If thou desireth everlasting life.

The honouring of motherhood is the cornerstone of Islamic society:

Motherhood is a mercy being linked by close affinity to Prophethood. He for whose sake God said, “Let there be life” Declared that Paradise lies at the feet of mothers. In the honouring of the womb the life communal is alone assured… Now take the slender figured, bosomless, close-corseted, a riot in her glance… Her thoughts resplendent with the Western light… Inwardly no woman she! Her sacred charms are all unloosed and spilled 90 Bold-eyed her freedom is provocative And wholly ignorant of modesty, Her learning inadequate to bear the charge of motherhood And on the dusk and evening of her days not one star shines. Better if this rose had never grown within our garden. Better were her brand washed from the skirt of the Community… The perfect pattern, Fatima the chaste. While her lips chanted the Holy Book, she ground the homely mill… Be ever conscious of thy model Fatima So that thy branch may bear a new Hussain, Our garden blossom with the Golden Age.

The Islamic community is based on common belief transcending geographical boundaries, language and race. All his life Iqbal remained a passionate foe of modern nationalism and here denounces it in the strongest terms:

In man’s allegiance and constructive work

The Country is the darling of their heart…

Humanity is but a legend. Man became a stranger to his fellow man. Vanished is humankind. There but abide the disunited nations. Politics dethroned religion.

When this tree first struck root within a Western garden, The tale of Christianity was all rolled up.

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