Iqbal by
Dr. Ali Shariati:
A Manifestation of
Self-reconstruction and Reformation: by: Dr. Ali Shariati
Muhammad Iqbal: If one
were to reconstruct the form of Islam, which has been made to degenerate over
the course of history, re-assemble it in such a way that its spirit could return
to a complete body, and transform the present disorientated elements of Islam
into that spirit, as if the trumpet of Israfil were to blow in the 20th century
over a dead society and awaken its movement, power, spirit, and meaning, it is
then that exemplary Muslim personalities like Muhammad Iqbal would be
reconstructed and reborn.
Muhammad Iqbal is
not just a Muslim mystic who is solely concerned with mysticism or gnosis as
were Ghazzali, Muhyi Din ibn Arabi, and Rumi. They emphasized individual
evolution, purification of the soul, and the inner illuminated 'self'. They only
developed and trained a few people like themselves but, for the most part,
remained oblivious to the outside world, having been almost unaware of the
Mongol attack and the subsequent despotic rule and suppression of the people.
Iqbal is also not
like Abu Muslim, Hasan Sabah or Saladin Ayyubi and personalities like them who,
in the history of Islam, are simply men of the sword, power, war, and struggle
and who consider the exercise of power and the defeat of the enemy enough to
effect reform and revolution in the minds of the people and in their social
relationships.
Nor is Iqbal
similar to those learned individuals like Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, who imagined
that no matter in what situation Islamic society is (even if it is under the
domination of a British viceroy), it can be revived with modern scholarly
interpretations or with 20th century scientific and logical commentaries on
Islamic tenets and Quranic verses, as well as through profound philosophical and
scholarly research.
Iqbal is not among
some Western people who consider science to be sufficient for human salvation,
for evolution, and for curing anguish. He is not one of those philosophers who
thinks meeting economic needs is tantamount to meeting all human needs. Nor is
he like his fellow countrymen, that is, the great Hindu and Buddhist thinkers
who consider peace of mind and spiritual salvation to be transmigration, or who
consider the cycle of kanna to Nirvana to be the fulfillment of the mission of
humanity, and who imagine that in a society where there is even one hungry
person, where slavery, deprivation and disgrace exist, one can still develop
pure, elevated spirits and disciplined, educated people who have attained
well-being and even a sense of morality !
No. Iqbal
demonstrates through his very being and through his School of Thought that
thoughts which are related to Islam are thoughts which, while paying careful
attention to this world and the material needs of humanity, also give the human
being a heart. As he himself says, "I find the most beautiful states of
life during the yearnings and meditations between daybreak and dawn."
He is a great
mystic, with a pure spirit, delivered from materialism and, at the same time, a
man who respects and honors science, technological progress, and the advancement
of human reason in our age. He is not a thinker who debases science, reason, and
scientific advancement having had his emotions aroused by Sufism, Christianity,
the religion of Lao Tzu, or Buddha. Neither is he a proponent of "dry"
factual science like the science of Francis Bacon or Claude Bernard, which is
limited to the discovery of the relationships between phenomena or material
manifestations and the employment of natural forces for material life. At the
same time, he is not a thinker who links philosophy, illumination, science,
religion, reason, and revelation together in an incongruous way, as some have
done. Rather, in his outlook and attitude towards this world, he regards reason
and science in the very sense they are understood today as allies of love,
emotion, and inspiration in the evolution of the human spirit, but he does not
accept
their goals.
The greatest
advice of Iqbal to humanity is: Have a heart like Jesus, thought like Socrates,
and a hand like the hand of a Caesar, but all in one human being, in one
creature of humanity, based upon one spirit in order to attain one goal. That
is, to be like Iqbal himself: A man who attains the height of political
awareness in his time to the extent that some people believe him to be solely a
political figure and a liberated, nationalist leader who is a 20th century
anti-colonialist. A man who, in philosophical thought, rises to such a high
level that he is considered to be a contemporary thinker and philosopher of the
same rank as Bergson in the West today or of the same level as Ghazzali in
Islamic history.
At the same time,
he is a man we regard as being a reformer of Islamic society, who thinks about
the conditions of human and Islamic society, a society in which he himself lives
and for which he performs jihad (i.e. struggles nobly in the way of God) for the
salvation, awareness, and liberation of Muslim people. His efforts are not just
casual and scientific or of the kind that Sartre called "intellectual
demonstrations of political, pseudo-leftists" but rather of the kind
exhibited by responsible individuals.
He struggles and strives and, at the same time, he is also a lover of Rumi. He
journeys with him in his spiritual ascensions and burns from the lover's flames,
anguishes, and spiritual anxieties. This great man does not become
one-dimensional, does not disintegrate, does not become a one-sided or
one-dimensional Muslim. He is a complete Muslim. Even though he loves Rumi,
he is not obliterated by him.
Iqbal goes to
Europe and becomes a philosopher. He comes to know the European Schools of
philosophy and makes them known to others. Everyone admits that he is a
20th-century philosopher, but he does not surrender to Western thinking. On the
contrary, he conquers the West. He lives with a critical mind and the power of
choice in the 20th century and in the Western civilization. He is devoted to and
a disciple of Rumi to an extent that does not contradict and is not incompatible
with the authentic dimensions of the Islamic spirit.
Sufism says
"As our fate has been pre-determined in our absence, if it is not to your
satisfaction, do not complain". Or, "If the world does not agree with
you or suit you, you should agree with the world". But Iqbal, the mystic,
says "If the world does not agree with you, arise against it!".
"The world" means the destiny and life of human beings. The human
being is a wave, not a static shoreline. His or her being and becoming is in
motion. What do I mean? It is to be in motion. In the mysticism of Iqbal, which
is neither Hindu mysticism nor religious fanaticism, but Quranic mysticism, the
human being must change the world. Quranic Islam has substituted "heavenly
fate" in which the human being is nothing, with "human fate" in
which the human being plays an important role. This is the greatest
revolutionary, as well as progressive and constructive principle which Islam has
created by its
world view, philosophy of life, and ethics.
The greatest
criticism that humanism and liberal intellectuals have leveled and continue to
level against religion is that religious beliefs have been interpreted as being
founded on absolute determinism or Divine Will, and thus the absolute
subjugation of human will, so the human being is logically reduced to being weak
in terms of free-choice in relation to the Absolute.
If this were true, it would be a disgrace. It would be servitude and a means for
the negation of power, freedom, and responsibility. It would be to submit to the
status quo, to 'whatever will be, will be', to accept any fate which is imposed
upon the human being in this world and to admit to the futility and uselessness
of life. As past, present, and future events have been and will continue to be
dictated by fate, in this view, any criticism or objection, then, or efforts to
attain our hearts' desires or to change the situation, must be subjugated to
"whatever has been pre-destined for us". In this way, the human
being's attempts to change, convert, and amend
the status quo become impossible, unreasonable, and ill-advised.
But in the
philosophy of Islam, although the One God has Absolute Power and is Almighty and
although for Him is the Creation, Guidance, Expediency, and Rule over the
universe, "His is the Creation and the Command." (7:54), at the same
time, the human being, in this extensive universe, is considered in such a way
that while one cannot dissociate oneself from the rule of God and from Divine
Sovereignty, one can live freely. A Muslim has free will and the power to rebel
and surrender. Thus, he or she is responsible and the maker of his or her own
image. "Every soul is held in pledge for what he earns" (74:38).
"And the human being shall have nothing but what he strives for"
(53:30).
In his mystic
journey with the Quran, Iqbal described this principle, that is, the principle
of authenticity of deed and responsibility towards human beings, that which
humanists, existentialists, or radicals endeavor to help humanity achieve by
negating religion and denying God. These people, quite rightly, see the religion
and the God conceived by the minds of human beings to be incompatible with human
freedom, esteem, authenticity, and responsibility, whereas Islam, without
resorting to philosophical justification and interpretation, clearly declares
"the day when the human being shall see what his two hands have sent
before" (78:40).
With his outlook,
his orientation to faith and his Islamic mysticism, Iqbal passed through all the
philosophical and spiritual states of this age. It can be said that he was a
Muslim migrant who appeared in the depths of the Indian Ocean and rose to the
highest peaks of honor of the majestic European mountains, but he did not remain
there. He returned to us to offer his nation - that is, to offer us - whatever
he had learned on his wondrous journey. Through his personality, I see that once
again Islam in the 20th century presents a model, an example, for the anguished
but confused new generation which has some degree of self-awareness. A shining
spirit, full of Eastern inspiration, is selected from the land of the heart of
spiritual culture and illumination. The great thoughts of the West, the land of
civilization, intellect, and knowledge with the power of creativity and
advancement are placed in his mind. Then, with all of this investment, he
becomes knowledgeable of the 20th century. He is not one of those reactionaries
and worshippers of the past who have enmity towards the West and whatever is
new; who oppose new civilization without a sound reason. He is also not like
those who imitate and are absorbed by the West without having the courage to
criticize and to choose.
On the one hand, he employs science and, on the other, he senses its
inadequacies and shortcomings in meeting the spiritual needs and the
evolutionary requirements of humanity. He offers solutions for its completion.
Iqbal is a person who has a world view, and he has developed
philosophical-spiritual interpretations based upon it which he offers to the
world and its people. Iqbal is a person who bases his social teaching upon his
world view, and then offers his spiritual and philosophical interpretations of
it. Based upon the culture and history with which he is associated, he develops
the concept of a person based on the standard of an "Ali", to the
extent that the material for developing such a human being in our century
allows.
What does the
"standard of Ali" mean? It means a human being with an Eastern heart
and a Western mind. It means a person who thinks deeply and profoundly. It means
a human being who expresses a beautiful and splendid love. It refers to a person
who is well acquainted with the anguish of the spirit as well as with the
sufferings of life. It means a human being who both knows God and the people. It
is a devotee possessing the light of knowledge who burns with love and faith,
and whose penetrating eyes never allow negligence and ignorance to prevail
without questioning the fate of enslaved nations. It is a person who seeks
reform, revolution, and a change of mental attitudes. As a thinker, he realizes
that the spiritless eye of science (according to Francis Bacon) is incapable of
seeing all the realities of the universe. He also feels that a lovesick heart
attains nothing if it is only concerned with asceticism, self-abasement and
purification, because a human being affiliated with society and affiliated
to life and the material world cannot disentangle the "self" alone. An
individual moves with the caravan of society and cannot choose a way separate
from it.
This is why we
wish to have a School of thought and action which both responds to our
philosophical needs, and at the same time develops a thinking being who is
accepted by the world, recognized by civilization and the new culture of the
world, and not one alienated from us and our rich cultural resources. We wish
for a School of thought and action which nurtures a human being who is closely
aware of our culture and all of our good spiritual and religious assets, who is
not alienated from the times, and who does not live in the 4th or 5th century.
We long for it to develop a human being who can think, who has a scientific
mind, yet who does not remain negligent of the anguish, life, captivity, and
hardships of his people. We desire the development of a human being who, even if
he thinks about the real and material anguish of humanity and about the present
confusions and difficulties of human society or his own society, does not forget
the ideal human being or the significance of the human being or the eternal
mission of humanity in history, and does not lower all human ideals to the level
of material consumption.
All that we seek
in these various domains can be found in Iqbal, because the only thing that
Iqbal did - and this is the greatest success of Iqbal as a Muslim in an Islamic
society in the 20th century - was that, based upon the knowledge he had of the
rich new and old cultures, he was able to develop himself, based on the model
which his ideological School, - that is, Islam, - gave. This is the greatest
success of Iqbal in an Islamic society in the 20th century. We do not say that
he is a perfect human being. No. We do not say he is a symbolic person. No. He
is a personality who, after his disintegration, had been reconstructed into a
complete Muslim person and a perfect Islamic personality in the 20th century.
This reconstruction is the starting point from which we Muslim intellectuals
must ourselves begin. We must feel our greatest responsibility to be in
reconstructing ourselves and our society. Sayyid Jamal was the first who
produced such a feeling of re-awakening. Asking "Who are you? Who were
you?", Iqbal was the first fruit from the seed of the movement which Sayyid
Jamal planted in this people. The first product is a great model, an example,
and our very awaken- ing. As Easterners, we are affiliated to this part of the
world. We are connected with this history. We are human beings confronted by
nature and by the West.
But what do we
mean when we say Iqbal was a reformer? Can reform really save a society from all
of its misfortunes, anguish, and difficulties? Must not a sudden, severe,
deep-rooted revolution take place in thought and in relation to society? When we
say Iqbal was a reformer, those present who are familiar with the expressions
prevalent among the educated class think "reform" means something
which is the opposite of "revolution" in a socio-political sense. Most
often when we say "reform", we mean gradual change or change in the
superstructure, and when we say "revolution", we mean a sudden,
reconstruction. But when in these changes we say that Iqbal was a reformer, we
are not referring to slow and gradual change in society. Our intention is
not gradual change or external reform, but we use this word in its general sense
which also includes the meaning of "revolution".
When we say Iqbal
was a reformer or that the great thinkers after Sayyid Jamal are known for being
the greatest reformers of the century in the world, it is not in the sense that
they supported gradual and external change in society. No! They were supporters
of a deep-seated revolution, a revolution in thought, in views, in feelings; an
ideological and cultural revolution. Iqbal, Sayyid Jamal, Kawakibi, Muhammad
Abduh, Ibn Ibrahim and members of the Maqrib lJlama Association are great men
who shook the East in the last one hundred years. Their reforms or, still
better, "reforming revolutions", stand upon this principle, for they
believe that individual reform is no longer an answer. It is an altogether
different matter if reform affects society. A person can no longer think and
live in a way which he has chosen for himself, nor accept any influence from his
age or his society, and still develop himself into a pure and real human being
in a corrupt age and in a degenerate society, for if this were to be possible,
then "social responsibility and commitment" would make no sense.
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