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Dr. Javid Iqbal
Journal of the Iqbal Academy Pakistan
October 2001 – Volume: 42 – Number: 4

The problem of evil has baffled many thinkers. Evil is not mere darkness that vanishes when light arrives. In other words, evil does not have a negative existence. This darkness has as positive an existence as light. The problem is how to account for evil in a world created by an all‑good God? Rumi’s answer is that the existence of evil is necessary for the fulfilment of the divine plan. Goethe thinks that evil is the reverse of good. Without evil, it would not be possible to identify good. Iqbal is of the view that the running parallel lines of good and evil meet in infinity. He points out in one of his quatrains:

How may I describe good & evil?

The problem is complex, the tongue falters,

Upon the bough you see flowers and thorns,

Inside it there is neither flower nor thorn.

(Payām i Mashriq)

Rumi’s long poem titled “Mu‘awiyah & Iblis”, Goethe’s Faust and Iqbal’s verses dedicated to Satan can be considered as great diabolical apologies in the world literature. The three poets blend the “classical” with the “romantic”, and despite the gaps in the times of their lives, their ideas on the role of evil in the spiritual and material development of man are similar.

In Iqbal’s poetic vision, Rumi and Goethe meet in paradise. Goethe reads out to him the tale of the pact between the Doctor and the Devil, and Rumi pays tribute to him in these words:

O portrayer of the inmost soul

Of poetry, whose efforts goal

Is to trap an angel in his net

And to hunt even God.

You from sharp observations know,

How in their shell pearls form & grow,

All this you know, but there is more.

Not all can learn love’s secret lore,

Not all can enter its high shrine,

One only knows by grace divine,

That reason is from the Devil,

While love is from Adam.

(“Jalal and Goethe”–Payām i Mashriq)

When Goethe became acquainted with Rumi’s Mathnavi through German translations, he found it too complicated and confusing as he initially failed to fathom the depths of Rumi’s thought. Iqbal had an identical experience of lack of comprehension and in his early stage of life mistakenly believed that Rumi was a pantheistic Sufi.

In the revealed scriptures, evil is connected with the story of the creation of Adam or, in Rumi’s words, when man in the process of evolution, had passed through the stages of plant & animal life and arrived at the stage from where he was to develop into superior forms of life.

When God informed the angels that he was about to place Adam on Earth in His stead, and that Adam would be granted freedom of choice, they expressed apprehensions that Adam would do ill therein. But God admonished them that they knew not what he knew. Since disobedience of Adam by partaking the forbidden fruit was his first act in exercise of freedom of choice, he had to choose between good and that which is reverse of it. Therefore it was necessary to introduce evil by deputing a “tempter” to mislead Adam before he was to exercise the freedom. It is probably in this background that Iqbal is prompted in one of his verses to blame God for conspiring with Satan against man. He wonders suspiciously:

How could he (Satan) have the courage to

refuse on the day of creation?

Who knows whether he is your confidant or mine?

(Bāl i Jibrīl)

Goethe’s view of evil is Pelagian when he claims that evil is merely the reverse of good. The forces, good and evil, apparently working in opposite directions, in fact work in cooperation in order to carry out the divine plan. The action and reaction of good and evil or the succumbing before temptation and the resulting remorse in the course of conflict between the Devil and man, according to Goethe, brings out the best in man.

Iqbal supplements Goethe when he affirms “evil has an educative value of its own. Virtuous people are usually very stupid”. (Stray Reflections)

He says:

I asked a sage: “What is life”?

He replied: “It is wine whose bitterness is the best.”

I said: “They have put evil in its raw nature.”

He answered: “Its good is in this very evil.”

(Payām i Mashriq)

While the positive existence of evil is acknowledged by Rumi, Goethe and Iqbal, the nature of evil can only be poetically illustrated through a reference to the Devil. Therefore, Iblis in Rumi, Mephisto in Goethe and Shayṭān in Iqbal represent different aspects of the same “cobweb” personality.

Rumi’s Iblis wakes up Mu‘āwiyah at dawn reminding him to offer the morning prayers before the time runs out. A dialogue ensues, in the course of which Iblis tries to convince Mu‘āwiyah that he adores God. It was the hand of God’s bounty that sowed his seed and brought him into being from nothingness. God procured milk during his infancy. God rocked his cradle. Therefore God’s wrath is only temporary like a mother’s anger. The doors of His grace are not permanently shut on anyone.

“My refusal to bow before Adam”, Iblis argues, “did not amount to disobedience of God’s command. On the contrary, it resulted from my extreme love of God. Has he not himself commanded ‘do not bow before any other except Me?’ This forehead which has always bowed only before God cannot bow before anyone else even at His bidding.”

Iblis contends, “This was a game between lover and beloved. He commanded me to play and I played the predetermined hand of lover. Thus I did what I was destined to do and was made to accept His wrath. But I still remain His companion, friend and comrade.”

Iblis advances the argument that although virtue and vice are opposed to each other, their operation is complementary. He asks: “How can I be held responsible for transforming good into evil. I am not the Creator. The Creator makes man good or bad. I am only expected to hold a mirror through which virtuous and vicious can see their faces and identify themselves.” According to Iblis’s reasoning evil circulates in every drop of human blood and yet man blames. Iblis for his own frailties.

Rumi’s Iblis is equipped only with reason, like a snake who attacks with his head. None can controvert his arguments, and no one can get out of his snare except through divine grace. However Mu‘āwiyah is not persuaded by Iblis’ articulate apology. He finds it deceitful and consisting of a pack of lies. When Iblis sarcastically claims that man is incapable of distinguishing between truth & falsehood, Rumi steps in and points out that falsehood always agitates the heart whereas truth provides solace and satisfaction.

Eventually Mu‘āwiyah overpowers Iblis who confesses that he woke up Mu‘āwiyah because had he missed the morning prayers his remorse would have earned him more grace. Iblis remains a liar until the end when he defends his act as based on envy, i.e. as a lover of God he is envious of man.

Rumi’s portrayal of Iblis depicts him as a lover of God. But a heartless being is incapable of loving, and here lies his deceit. Therefore when Iblis claims that all envy arises from love, for fear lest another becomes the chosen of the beloved, he is lying. In fact Rumi’s Iblis is nothing but reason (‘aql), the reverse of love (‘ishq). According to him Adam lapsed because of his stomach and sexual passion whereas Iblis was accursed because of pride and ambition engendered in him by reason. Rumi also shows to us that Iblis not only instigates man to commit sin, he sometimes persuades man to perform a virtuous act in order to deprive him from earning a higher reward.

In Goethe’s Faust the role of Mephisto is not that which is usually attributed to the Devil. He represents a spirit of nihilism, negation and contradictions, which is inimical to all life and higher forms of existence. Goethe first takes up the conflict of good and evil on a subjective plane and thereafter at the cosmic level. It is only when Faust rejects all pretensions of knowledge that Mephisto appears at Faust’s own craving. The events that follow take the reader through the problems of human innocence, suffering, love, hate, desire, appetite and ‑sin. It is the unique quality of Goethe’s genius that he picked up an ordinary legend and filled it with the experiences of the entire human race. According to Goethe, evil is a stepping-stone to virtue in a mysterious way, and this is conveyed through the words of Mephisto in Faust:

Part of that power, not understood,

Which always wills the Bad,

And always promotes the Good.

The pact that Mephisto made with Faust was to dissuade him from striving in life. He offered Faust all forbidden worldly pleasures that Faust readily accepted but his nature did, not change. He was only temporarily lulled to sleep. According to Goethe it is in the nature of man to move from lower to ever higher plane and from there to still higher planes, and it is only by constant striving that man can carve out his destiny. Faust went on striving Without regard to good and evil as, in the eyes of Goethe, to strive is an act of willing and an act of willing does not fall in the realm of freedom, but to that of nature. Mephisto used all his devices to lure Faust into accepting conditions which were not conducive to the fulfilment of the divine plan. It was not only striving for a virtuous life that ultimately won Faust the divine grace. But it were fear and hope which elevated him to forgiveness. He was delivered in the end and God’s faith in man was vindicated. Mephisto did not succeed in dragging Faust down to nihilistic depths of hell.

Thus restless activity in the nature of Faust did not hinder him in any manner even to wager his soul to the Devil:

To hear the woe of earth & all its joys,

To tussle, struggle, scuffle with its storms,

And not fearful in the crash of shipwreck.

In Goethe’s words, God himself has provided an explanation for the creation of the Devil. In the “Prologue in Heaven” He declares:

Of all the spirits that deny,

The Rogue (Devil) is to me least burdensome,

Man’s activity too easily run slack,

He loves to sink into unlimited repose

And so I am glad to give him,

A companion like the Devil, who excites,

And works and goads him on to create.

On the other hand, when the Devil confronts God in the “Prologue in Heaven”, he complains that Adam is not his match, but is only a “long‑legged grasshopper.” Mephisto sarcastically affirms:

My Lord! I find things there (on earth),

Still bad as they can be,

Man’s misery even to pity moves my nature,

I’ve scarce the heart to plague the wretched creature.

…………….

When a corpse approaches, close my house,

It goes with me as with the cat the mouse.

It is interesting to note that Goethe refrained from describing the nature of God. Faust only explains that He is All‑embracing and All‑preserving and therefore cannot be named. Faust says:

Call it Bliss! Heart! Love! God!,

I have no name thereof, feeling is everything,

The name is sound & smoke, only to obscure celestial fire
When Eckermann asked Goethe about the nature of relationship of the Divine with the Daemonic and the incompatibly of one with the other, he answered:

“Dear boy! What do we know of the idea of the Divine, and what can our narrow conceptions presume to tell of the Supreme Being? If I call him by a hundred names, like a Turk (Muslim), I should yet fall short & have said nothing in comparison to the boundlessness of his attributes.”

Iqbal was profoundly influenced by Rumi who is his spiritual guide. On the other hand he was also a great admirer of Goethe. Yet Goethe’s spirit, like the Urdu poet Ghalib’s, is that of a poet, whereas Iqbal’s spirit, following in the footsteps of Rumi, is more of a prophetic nature.

Iqbal is acknowledged as the poet of “Khudi” (Self/Ego). “Khudi” has many dimensions and forms. Therefore, Iqbal’s Satan is one of the forms of “Khudi”. Since Iqbal believed in the greatness of human ego and was a poet of action, he could not resist being attracted by the dynamic personality of the Devil.

Iqbalian Satan is a gigantic five dimensional figure. His first dimension is that no one can surpass his deceit, cunning, remarkable planning and constant striving for the realization of his objective. He is not evil incarnate. His self‑confidence, determination, pride and ambition are the qualities that make him a model of self‑hood (Khudi).

Like Rumi and Goethe, Iqbal believes in restless & feverish activity for attaining the goal. The goal itself has no significance to Iqbal. It is the striving for the goal, the energy for tireless effort, and the strength to always continue to remain a wayfarer that matters. Life is a chase after a goal, which must go on changing. Iqbal says:

In a spark 1 crave a star,

And in a star a sun.

My journey has no bourn,

No place of halting, it is death for me to linger.

In the same strain there is another verse:

‘When my eye comes to rest on the loveliness of a beauty,

My heart at that moment yearns for a beauty lovelier still.

Iqbal, like Rumi and Goethe, believes that evil is necessary for the development of man. Had there been no evil, there would have been no conflict, no struggle and no striving. Therefore, Iqbal emphasizes:

Waste not your life in a world devoid of taste,

Which contains God but not the Devil.

(Payām i Mashriq)

Iqbal does not want man to get involved in the controversy of virtue & vice or good and evil, but must only concentrate on striving for better destinations. Life which leads to paradise is a life of passivity, inactivity and of eternal death.

The second dimension of Iqbal’s Devil is his cheeky confrontation with God. Addressing God, he claims that he is no less than Him:

You bring stars into being,

I make them revolve,

The motion in your immobile

Universe is as I breathe my spirit into it.

You only put soul in the body

But the warmth of tumultuous activity

In life is from me.

You show the way to eternal rest,

I direct towards feverish activity and constant striving.

Man who is short‑sighted, clueless and ignorant,

Takes birth in your lap
Attains maturity only in my care.

The third dimension of Iqbal’s Devil is that he is the first lover (of God’s Unity). He unhesitatingly accepted God’s wrath and separation by his disobedience. But even in the state of negation he fulfilled the inner will of God. While introducing Iqbal to Satan in Javīd Nāmah, the crucified Sufi Manṣūr Ḥallāj says:

Since Satan is the first lover,

Preceding all others,

Adam is not familiar with his secrets.

Tear off the garb of imitation,

So that you may learn the lesson

Of “Tawīd ” (God’s Unity) from him.

The fourth dimension of Satan that fascinated Iqbal is his pride and rivalry with his adversary, man. Here Iqbal follows Rumi by affirming that satanic reason is the basis of the Devil’s entire activity. Therefore, Iqbal says:

If reason remains under the command of heart, it is Godly.

If it releases itself, it is Satanic.

Iqbal’s Satan mocks at Gabriel’s cloistered piety and declares proudly:

In man’s pinch of dust my daring spirit

Has breathed ambition,

The Warp and Woof of mind and reason,

Are woven of my sedition.

The deeps of good & evil you only see from land’s verge,

Which of us it is, you or 1, that dares tempest’s scourge?

Ask this of God, when next you stand alone within his sight,

Whose blood is it has painted Man’s long history so bright?

In the heart of Almighty like a pricking thorn I live

You only cry forever God, Oh God, Oh God, most high!

Iqbal’s Devil like Goethe’s, shows his disgust for the weakness of his rival. His Satan’s complaint to God in Javīd Nāmah sounds very much like that of Mephisto:

O Lord of good & bad! Man’s company

And commerce has degraded me. Not once

My bidding dares he to deny; his “self’

He realizes not. And never feels

His dust the thrill of disobedience,

His nature is effeminate

And feeble his resolve, he lacks the strength

To stand a single stroke of mine.

A riper rival I deserve. Reclaim

From me this game of chaff and dust,

For pranks and impish play

Suit not an aged one.

Confront me with a single real man

May I perchance gain bliss in my defeat!

The fifth dimension of Iqbalian Devil is political i.e., how he, on national and international planes, carves out earthly devils in the form of political leaders who through their strategies lead to war, decease, misery and destruction of mankind. In his poem, “Satan’s Parliament” (Armaghan i Hijaz) Iqbal’s Devil prophesises that since he himself is the founder and protector of capitalism, he is not afraid of the communist revolution of tomorrow.

But Iqbal’s Devil is as miserable as man in this world full of complexities. In one of his quatrains Iqbal says:

From me convey the message to Iblis,

How long he intends to flutter,

Twist and scuffle under its net?

I have never been happy with this world,

Its morning is nothing but a prelude of the evening.

On another occasion Iqbal entreats the Devil for cooperation. If divine help is not forth coming, why not ask the Devil:

Come! Let us cooperate and lead the life of harmony.

Our mutual skills can transform

This wretched planet into a paradise

Under the skies, if we together

Disseminate love and healing,

And banish jealousy, hatred, disease & misery.

To sum up, good without evil amounts to the passivity of paradisal rest. Therefore it is disapproved by the three poets as against the divine plan. Man’s destiny lies in constant creative activity. Iqbal is categorical when he asserts:

When act performed is creative,

It’s virtuous, even if sinful.

The crux of the message of the three poets is that the creation of Adam is not a “‘wasteful effort. It must be clearly understood that under the divine plan man is still in the state of becoming. Rumi says man has taken millions and millions of centuries to evolve, from insect to plant, from plant to animal, and from animal to man. The evolution continues and through man’s ceaseless efforts he is bound to cross higher stages of life and presumably go beyond angels. Goethe also lays emphasis on the achievement of higher forms of life by man. Iqbal through the constant strengthening of “ego” expects man to become a co‑worker or rather a counsellor of the Divine Being in creating a more perfect universe. He hints that man would perhaps eventually democratize the arbitrary divine system, so much so that if a destiny is to be changed, action would be taken by God in consultation with and according to the will of man.

However, this indeed would be the man of distant tomorrow, the aspiration of the triangular poets, who, with the assistance of the Devil, could go beyond good and evil. But he justifiably cannot be found today, as Rumi in his famous quatrain asserts:

An old man carrying a lamp,

Was seen wandering in the streets.

When asked: “What are you looking for?”

Replied: “I am sick and tired of the beasts,

And look for a real man.”

I said: “You can’t find him

Our search was in vain.”

“This is what I look for” he said,

“That which can’t be found.

by Dr. Javid Iqbal

Iqbal had a vision of a new Muslim Society. It was for realizing this objective that he advanced the concept of a separate Muslim state to be carved out from the territories in North West India where the Muslims constituted majorities. The separate Muslim state was created in the shape of Pakistan by Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. But what are the possibilities of implementing some of Iqbal’s ideas for bringing into being the new Muslim society in Pakistan.

Iqbal’s Perception of Islam

Iqbal has not defined Islam as a theologian but as a philosopher. In his view:

Islam is not a religion in the ancient sense of the word. It is an attitude – an attitude, that is to say, of freedom and even of defiance of universe. It is really a protest against the entire outlook of the ancient world. Briefly, it is the discovery of man. (Stray Reflections, p. 139)

From the historical prospective, he argues that religion in the primitive times was national. Judaism affirmed that it was racial. Christianity preached that it was personal. But Islam teaches us that religion is neither national, nor racial, nor personal, but purely human.

Iqbal further points out that as a culture Islam has no specific country, no specific language, no specific script and no specific mode of dress. (Statements and Speeches ed. by A.R. Tariq, p.131)

In the light of these observations it is evident that Iqbal’s perception of Islam was humanistic and egalitarian. Any interpretation of Islam which approved feudalism and discriminated between man and man, was not acceptable to him.

Iqbal’s Concept of Islamic State

Like many other political scientists Iqbal has criticized democracy because of its defects as a political system. But since there was no other acceptable alternative to it, he regarded the establishment of popular legislative assemblies in some Muslim countries as a return to the original purity of Islam. According to him the Caliphate, Imamate or Sultanate were the outmoded Muslim forms of rulership of the past. He believed that the essence of TauÁâd (Unity of God) as a working idea, was human equality, human solidarity and human freedom. For him the state, from the Islamic standpoint:

“is an endeavour to transform these ideal principles into space-time forces, an aspiration to realize them in a definite human organization.” (Reconstruction, Lectures p.154).

Treatment of Minorities

In his Allahabad Address of 1930 when he presented his concept of a Muslim state, Iqbal categorically proclaimed:

“I entertain the highest respect for the customs, laws, religious and social institutions of other communities. Nay, it is my duty according to the teachings of the Qur’«n, to defend their places of worship.” (Statements and Speeches, Ed. A.R. Tariq p.10)

This assertion of Iqbal respecting the responsibility of a Muslim state for safeguarding the rights of the minorities is based on Surah 20: Verse 40 of the Qur’«n in which God commands:

“If Allah had not created the group (of Muslims) to ward off the others from aggression, then churches, synagogues, oratories and mosques where Allah is worshipped most, would have been destroyed.”

In the early stages of Islamic history this Quranic verse was interpreted as a legal provision for the protection of the places of worship of the “People of the Book” (Jews and Christians). But after the conquest of Iran this protection was extended by the jurists to the Zoroastrians who were considered as “like the people of the Book” (Ka-mithl-Ahle-Kitab) The same protection was made available to the Hindu temples in the times of the Mughal emperors in India after Humayun.

Iqbal’s View on Separate or Joint Electorates

According to Iqbal the provision of separate electorates for the Muslims was necessary for the protection of the rights of the Muslim community before Partition. Otherwise the maintenance of separate electorates was not sacrosanct in the eyes of Iqbal. He stated:

The Muslims of India can have no objection to purely territorial electorates if provinces are so demarcated as to secure comparatively homogeneous communities possessing linguistic, racial, cultural and religious unity. (Discourses of Iqbal, ed by S. H. Razzaqi, pp. 65-66).

Therefore Iqbal had no doubt in his mind that the maintenance of separate electorates was not a requirement or a religious obligation of Islam but merely a device for the protection of the Muslims’ rights in undivided India. If in Pakistan the non-Muslims do not demand the provision of separate electorates and want joint or mixed electorates, then, according to Iqbal, the Muslims may have no objection to it.

Iqbal’s View on Territorial Nationalism and Patriotism

Despite Iqbal’s criticism of territorial nationalism and patriotism in his poems on philosophical grounds, he was of the view that Islam had no quarrel with nationalism in Muslim majority countries. Similarly readiness to lay down one’s life for his country was a part of a Muslim’s faith. He maintained:

In Muslim majority countries Islam accommodates nationalism for there Islam and nationalism are practically identical; but in Muslim minority countries (if the community has majority in a viable territory) it is justified in seeking self-determination as a distinct cultural unit. …..Patriotism in the sense of love for one’s country and even readiness to die for its honour is a part of the Muslim’s faith. (Statements and Speeches, Ed. A.R. Tariq, p.136)

Thus according to Iqbal the development of Pakistani nationalism must not be considered as something in conflict with Islamic ideology.

Iqbal’s View on Secularism

In the contemporary world the Western civilization has developed two types of “Secularism” as an essential part of its political philosophy. Secularism adopted in the capitalist democracies is based on the principle of “indifference towards religion.” This thinking is the product of market societies which are mainly interested in the sale of their merchandise. Therefore, the type of secularism evolved by these societies is a means to serve their own materialistic ends.

The other variety of secularism was evolved by the socialist countries which meant the imposition of atheism as a state policy. However after the collapse of the Soviet Union this form of secularism has ceased to exist, and at present the Russian Federation and the other former socialist countries have adopted the capitalist version of this doctrine.

Iqbal, as a deeply religious man, advances the argument that the discoveries of modern physics, particularly respecting matter and nature, are very revealing for the materialists and the secularists. His argument proceeds like this:

The ultimate reality, according to the Qur’«n, is spiritual and its life consists in its temporal activities. The spirit finds its opportunities in the natural, material and the secular. All that is secualr is therefore sacred in the roots of its being. The greatest service that modern thought has rendered to Islam and as a matter of fact to all religions, consists in its criticism of what we call material or natural, a criticism which discloses that the merely material has no substance until we discover it rooted in the spirit. There is no such thing as profane world. All this immensity of matter constitutes a scope for the self-realization of the spirit. All is holy ground. (Reconstruction, Lectures, p.155)

In the light of the above analysis and in Iqbalian terms to consider secularism as profane is a Christian way of talking and not Islamic. Therefore, the Muslims are not justified to regard “secularism” as something bad, wicked, profane or anti-God.

Separation of the Department of Religion

Iqbal takes pains in explaining that the division of the religious and the political functions of the state in Islam must not be confounded with the Western idea of the separation of church and state. According to Iqbal in a Muslim state it is only a division of functions whereas in the other case the division is based on the metaphysical dualism of spirit and matter or sacred and profane. Since a separate religious organisation (as church organization) cannot be contemplated, Iqbal recommends the establishment of a separate Ministry of Religious Affairs which should, among other things, control the mad«ris (institutions of religious instruction) and mosques. It should appoint qualified Imams and Preachers (KhaÇâbs) for them. He also recommends that no one should be permitted to preach in the mosque without holding a licence from the state. When a reform to that effect was implemented in modern Turkey by Kemal Ataturk, Iqbal hailed it in the following words:

As to licentiate the Ulema, I will certainly introduce it in Muslim India if I had the power to do so. The stupidity of the average Muslim is largely due to the inventions of the myth making Mullah. In excluding him from the religious life of the people, Ataturk has done what would have delighted the heart of an Ibn Taimiyah or Shah Waliullah. There is a tradition of the Holy Prophet reported in the Mishk«t to the effect that only the Amir of a Muslim state and the persons appointed by him are entitled to preach to the people. I do not know whether the Ataturk ever knew this tradition, yet it is striking how the light of his Islamic conscience has illuminated the zone of his actions in this important matter. (Statements and Speeches, Ed. A.R. Tariq, pp 131-132).

This contention is supported by the history of Islam. Even when the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad was at its lowest ebb, the Caliph retained the power of appointing the Qadis (Judges) and the Mosque Imams (preachers). As for the objection that the introduction of this measure in a modern Muslim state would amount to the control of thought, it should be realized that that was a method which the Islamic polity in the past had adopted for curbing those who were inclined to dissiminate sectarian hatred among the Muslims. Therefore, the enforcement of such a provision today cannot violate any fundamental right.

Legislation of Islamic Laws

Iqbal is of the considered view that Ijtih«d should be adopted as legislative process in modern times in the elected Assemblies. This is the form which Ijm«‘ (Consensus of the Community) can take in a modern democratic Muslim state. It is interesting to note that according to Maulana Shibli Naum«nâ,s decision in Ijm«‘ on the majority principle was recognized as correct during the times of Caliph Umar.

Iqbal also held that the claim of the modern Muslim liberals to re-interpret that foundational legal principles of Islam, in the light of their own experience and the altered conditions of modern life, was perfectly justified. He was convinced that the world of Islam was confronted and effected by new forces set free by the extraordinary development of human knowledge in all its directions. Therefore, he suggested that each and every generation of Muslims, guided but unhampered, by the work of its predecessors, should be permitted to solve its own problems. He maintains:

The growth of a republican spirit and the gradual formation of legislative assemblies in Muslim lands constitutes a great step forward to transfer the power of Ijtih«d from individual representatives of Schools to a Muslim legislative assembly. This is the only possible form which Ijm«‘ can take in modern times. It will secure contributions to legal discussion from laymen who happened to possess a keen insight into affairs. In this way alone we can stir into activity the dormant spirit of life in our legal system and give it an evolutionary outlook (Reconstruction, Lectures, pp 163, 173-176).

In answer to the question as to how the present legislators, with no knowledge of Islamic law, would interpret and make laws without committing grave mistakes, Iqbal recommended that a Board of Ulema should be nominated to form part of the Muslim legislative assembly, helping and guiding free discussion on questions of law-making, but without any power to vote. This measure can be adopted only temporarily. The effective remedy for the safeguard against erroneous interpretation was to reform the present system of legal instruction, to extend its sphere and to study the conventional Islamic Fiqh in the light of modern jurisprudence.

It is unfortunate that the bulk of the so-called Islamic provisions have been enforced in Pakistan arbitrarily by the military dictator and without a discussion in any legislative assembly. The crux of Iqbal’s message on this point is that Islamic law is to be interpreted and legislated by each generation of the Muslims in the light of their own needs and requirements and the changed conditions of modern life. Thus it is evident that the prevalent islamization of laws in Pakistan which the democratic assembly was coerced to adopt is not what Iqbal would have liked to see.

The Ultimate Aim of Iqbal’s Islamic State

Iqbal maintains that the real object of Islam is to establish a “spiritual democracy”. He talks of “spiritual slavery” and also of “spiritual emancipation”. He was the first Muslim in the subcontinent to define the state in Islam as a spiritual democracy. It is a pity that no indepth study has been undertaken on Iqbal in Pakistan and no Iqbal scholar has attempted to explain as to what he meant by these terms. The contention of Iqbal is as follows:

In view of the basic idea of Islam that there can be no further revelation binding on man, we ought to be spiritually one of the most emancipated people on earth. Early Muslims emerging out of the spiritual slavery of pre-Islamic Asia were not in a position to realize the true significance of this basic idea. Let the Muslim of today appreciate his position, reconstruct his social life in the light of ultimate principles and evolve out of the hitherto partially revealed purpose of Islam that spiritual democracy which is the ultimate aim of Islam.” (Reconstruction, Lectures, pp. 179-180).

It is a passage of Iqbal which requires careful examination as it is apparently based on an unconventional approach to Islam. An orthodox Muslim may not readily accept this contention of Iqbal. From where did Iqbal pick up this idea? Would it be correct to say that he picked up the idea of “spiritual democracy as the ultimate aim of Islam” from Surah 5 Verse 58 of the Qur’«n? He does not say so. In the said verse Allah addressing mankind commands:

For each of you We have given a law and a way (of life) and if Allah hath willed He would have made you one religious community. But (He hath willed it otherwise) so that He may put you to the test in what He hath given you. Therefore compete with one another in good works. To Allah will ye be brought back. And He will inform you about that wherein ye differed.

If this verse of the Qur’«n was in the mind of Iqbal when he advanced the idea of “spiritual democracy” then the question arises as to how should it be established in practical terms? He probably contemplated that state as genuinely Islamic in which all religions were equally free, authentically tolerated, respected and accepted. Such an ideal state would certainly be superior to the two known varieties of secularism.

Fifty years have passed since Pakistan came into being, but owing to the dearth of intellectually imaginative and actively courageous leadership, the ideas of Iqbal have not been implemented. The result is that Iqbal’s dream of the creation of a new Muslim society in this country remains unfulfilled and we continue to drift as an “undisciplined mass of believers” (Hujëm-i-Mominân).

Dr. Abdur Rashid Bhat
IQBAL REVIEW
Journal of the Iqbal Academy Pakistan
April 2004 – Volume: 45 – Number: 2

Introduction

Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi (1564-1624) and Allama Iqbal (1877-1938) are regarded as the two seminal personalities of Indian subcontinent. Both were deeply rooted in the Shari‘ah knowledge, understood their times, its crisis and put forward their remedies to it in their own ways. Sirhindi belonged to late medieval times when the Muslim empire in India apparently seemed stable but religiously it was witnessing a serious decline under Akbar’s innovation of ‘Din-i-illahi’ the situation was inherited by his successor, Jahangir and the Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi through his keen and constant efforts of religious reformation ultimately affected a positive change in the society. Allama Iqbal belonged to the twentieth century milieu when India was under the British rule and its natives in general and the Muslims in particular were witnessing a heavy onslaught of the imperialism. Iqbal, thus, on the one hand, attempts at devising the means to obtain the freedom from the foreign subjugation and, on the other, explains keenly the truth of Islam and the richness of Muslim heritage in India throughout his poetry, prose writings and speeches. It is in this context that Iqbal is concerned with the great Sufi thinker and revivalist of Islam, Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi who is also called mujadid alaf-i thani (the revivalist of the second millennium). Iqbal not only pays tribute to the Shaykh but also illustrates the profundity and vitality of his religious thinking and seeks inspiration from him.

1. The predicament of Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi’s Times

Although the early two rulers of the Mughal empire were not strict followers of the Shari‘ah yet they did not even made any direct attack on it that would harm the Muslims.[1] It was during the reign of Akbar that the royal court deviated from the true beliefs and principles of Islam and it got replaced by the heretic beliefs in the form of ‘Din-i-Ilahi’. It is said that Akbar earlier held true beliefs but it was in his later period of his life that he turned to the wrong beliefs and deviated from the actual path of religion[2]. For this some pseudo ulama are held responsible. The historians say that though he himself was illiterate yet sincere and allowed the ulama to have discussions in the court on various faiths and religions[3]. The scholars belonged not only to religion of Islam but also to other religions like Hinduism and Christianity. Mullah Abdullah Sultanpuri (Mukhdum al Mulk) and Maulana Abdul Nabi (Sadru Sadur), no doubt, were given high religious status but both betrayed him in fulfilling their responsibility truly[4]. Decrees about the non offering of hajj and non-payment of zakah were issued by them and encouraged corruption and economic exploitation. The two sons of Mullah Mubarak, Faizi and Abu Fazl although men of great talent but their liberal religious thought influenced Akbar to declare himself imam and mujtahid [5]. On the instance of Abul Fazl, Ibadat Khana was established for polemic discussions on religions and which ultimately led the foundation to his new religion, Din-i-Ilahi[6]. Syed Abul Hasan summarizes the substance of this religion thus:

Usury, gambling, wine and pork were made lawful by the new religion, slaughter of cows was banned, the laws relating to marriage were amended, purdah and circumcision were forbidden, prostitutes were settled in a separate ward and rules were made for the trade of flesh and religious form of the burial was change’. In short, a new Indian religion was devised which, like the religions of old, met halfway the passions and desires of carnal nature and made it a handmaid of personal and political interests of the king[7].

This was the predicament of Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi’s times which he witnessed himself. Akbar’s successor, Jahangir too was brought up in this environment. Sirhindi himself, a man of great stature and well versed in both esoteric and exoteric sciences of Islam gathered his energies to combat this predicament. Through initiating the disciples in great number at Sirhindi and Lahore, he sent his deputies to the various quarters of India and abroad to have moral regeneration of the people[8]. Due to his constant efforts the Shaykh gained fame and even his influences reached the royal army[9]. Although, Jahangir had no pure picture of Islam before him yet was not inimical to it and initially he did little care for the special esoteric views of the Shaykh, propounded in his letters Maktubat[10]. However, it is said that people of vested interests among the nobles of the court motivated Jahangir that the Shaykh’s endeavours are politically motivated rather than his own understanding of the letters led him to say that they contain the views which ran counter to the true Islam. On this Sirhindi was imprisoned in Gwalior jail by Jahangir for one year. The release of the Shaykh, was however, due to displeasing of religious minded courtiers and even Jahangir’s own feeling of regret for the act[11].

2. The Guardian of the Millah

Allama Iqbal himself had keen interest in esoteric of Islam–the inner dynamism of the individual self–side by side with his poetic creativity and the philosophical thinking. Out of this devotion for spirituality of Islam he visited the grave of Nizam ud Din waliya in Delhi in 1905 before he left for England for higher studies. In 1935, i.e. after the return from England and during the later of his life, Iqbal visited the grave of Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi. What impressions he gathered from his visit to Sirhindi’s grave Iqbal expresses them in the context of the Indian Muslims heritage in his poem entitled, Punjab kay Peerzadun kay Naam. The poem is the symbolic expression of Shaykh Ahmad’s great personality of religious learning and `dynamism. Among other things Iqbal describes him as the guardian of the Muslim millah in India:

He the guardian of the estate of millah in India

Whom Allah awakened at the right time.[12]

As mentioned above the 17th century witnessed the deterioration of Islamic faith and tenets in India due to the maneuvering of the pseudo-ulama of the court and the king’s own crisis in understanding the religions. Of course true religious faith and tenants serve as the chief properly of the millah ‘(sarmaya-i millat). During the times of Shaykh this estate was being exploited wrongly and heresy (ilhad) and the views tending to apostasy were propounded openly. By explaining the truth of Tawhid and Prophethood and the moral values of Islam, Sirhindi safeguarded the ‘property’ (Din) of the Muslim community in India. To Iqbal, this defense of religion by the Shaykh took place at its right time when the Shaykh was made aware about the loss by Almighty Allah[13].

According to Iqbal Sirhindi was adequately God-conscious and bold which did not allow him to offer prostration in Jahangir’s court. He took this risk even at the cost of the severe resentment of the king. At the same time, the warmth of iman within his heart (self), says Iqbal, represents the vigour and dynamism of change and freedom. It excites the energies of the men of freedom:

The one who did not bow his head to Jahangir.

Whose warm breath lends heat to the freemen.[14]

3. Faqr and Its Truth

Faqr is the other theme which Iqbal treats in the poem vis-à-vis the Shaykh ’s achievements. Some scholars are of the opinion that faqr is the foundation of sufi path. The men of saluk who propound the spirituality of life and ignore materialism are led to uphold faqr not as the negative entity of life but to distant themselves from the other (ghayr) than Allah. It means the withdrawal from ones attributes and return to Allah alone.[15] It is these traits of faqr and zuhd which bestow upon the seeker of the sufi path contentment in life and recognition of the triviality of this mundane world. This is also described as the special station of the path.[16] Iqbal has devoted a whole poem to faqr. It illustrates truth and meaningfulness of faqr as compared to rational and philosophical knowledge. He says that the very existence of the two are different. The blessings of faqr become possible only when a man develops a living and conscious mind in him:

The miracles of faqr are the crown, the throne and the soldiery

Faqr is the leader of the leaders, it is the king of kings

The end of knowledge is the purity of reason and intellect

The end of faqr is sanctity of heart and vision.[17]

While describing Sirhindi as the man of secrets-one who has undergone through various religious experiences and ecstasies-Iqbal seeks from him the blessings of faqr. It is because the latter is conscious of his own limitation who describes himself as merely a man of sight and not a man of the vision.

My eyes do see things but they lack the wakeful sight.[18]

The last part of the poem, Punjab kay Pirzadaun kay Nam, touches upon the Shaykh’s response to Iqbal’s request. This is an admonishing response which indicates the resentment of the Sufi and religious mentors, over the deeds of the present day Muslims.[19] The Shaykh explains to Iqbal that the order of faqr is closed due to the mentors’ indignation against the people of Punjab. In the symbolic way the truth of faqr is illustrated here through the message of Sirhindi. To him the mentors abode is not the nation that will misuse the status of faqr for the worldly gains. The reality of faqr lies in the vigour of religious truth (al-haq) and not in subordinating oneself to the petty government. The message is, therefore, a lesson to the people of Punjab and through them the whole nation of India that the spiritual blessings of faqr are attainable only when the seeker follows the true path of Tawhid and strives to safeguard it from the contamination of greed and worldliness.

4. Significance of the Religious Experience in Sirhindi

In his famous lecture entitled “Is Religion Possible?” which forms the seventh chapter of his classic work, The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam; Allama Iqbal discusses the two ways of understanding reality. One is the scientific way and the other is the religious way and considers the latter better and vital one. At the outset, of his discussion, Iqbal says that religious life may broadly be divided into three periods ‘Faith,’ ‘Thought’ and ‘Discovery’.[20] The first period appears as a form of discipline where command (hukm) is accepted without rational understanding of its ultimate meaning and purpose. The second is the period of perfect submission which is through the rational understanding of the discipline and its ultimate source of authority.[21] In this period religious life seeks its foundation in a kind of metaphysics a logically consistent view of the world with God as a part of that view. In the third period metaphysics is replaced by psychology and religious life here develops an ambition to come into direct contact with the Ultimate Reality.[22] Now religion becomes a matter of personal assimilation of life and power and the man ‘achieves a free personality, not releasing by the fitters of law but by discovering the ultimate source of the law within his own consciousness.’ Iqbal emphasizes that he uses religion in this very sense and this meaning of it is known by ‘unfortunate Mysticism’ which is termed as life and fact denying attitude and radically opposed to empirical out look of the modern times. To Iqbal higher religion is actually a search for a larger life and is an experience and Religion (Islam) had recognized experience’ as its foundation long before science learnt to do it.[23]

It is in this context of the richness of religious experience that Iqbal refers to Sirhindi in the lecture. He holds that the highest stage of religious life is the discovery of the ego (self) and in the individual’s contact with the Most Real (God) that the ego can discover the ‘uniqueness, its metaphysical status and the responsibility of improvement in that status’.[24] But the experience due to which this discovery is attained is not, says Iqbal ‘conceptually manageable intellectual fact, it is a vital fact’. It is not accessible in logical categories. While referring to the discoveries of modern psychology. Iqbal mentions that it has only come to recognize that some ‘unknown phenomenon of the mind’ exists.[25] He directly refers to C. G. Jung ( 1875-1961) and indirectly to William James(1842-1910)and Sigmund Freud(1856-1939). James though gives place to transcendental or mystical experience but does not recognize it as an independent entity but a function of particular experiences.[26] On the other hand, Freud’s theory of unconscious is related to the hidden causes or processes of mind over which man has no control. To him instincts are the principle motivating forces in this realm.[27] Jung in his response to Freud, gives large place for intuitive contact with the majestic and divine in his theory.[28] However, these researches of analytical psychology fail to recognize the truth of the religious experience. To Iqbal, they have missed the whole point of higher religious life. Some moral restraints to the ego are not its goal but the preliminary stage of evolution to move in a direction far more important to the destiny of the ego than the moral health of the social fabric. The forward movement of religious life is described by Iqbal in terms of ‘the unity of ego, his liability to dissolution, his amenability to reformation and the capacity for an ampler freedom to create new situations in known and unknown environments’.[29] To Iqbal, modern psychology has not yet touched the outer level of this richness and variety of religious-experience. It is in this domain of religious experience that Iqbal considers Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi’s contribution highly commendable. Iqbal says that the Shaykh developed a new technique of Sufism which got popular not only in India but in Afghanistan and Asiatic Russia. He discovers in this Shaykh the true understanding of religious experience (religious psychology in modern terminology) which is developed in the atmosphere of different culture’.[30] He quotes one of the letters of Shaykh in which is the latter’s reply to the experience of Abdul Mumin. This was described to the Shaykh as following:

Heavens and the Earth and God’s Thorne and Hell and Paradise have all ceased to exist for me. When I look round I find them nowhere. When I stand in the presence of somebody I see nobody before me: nay even my own being is lost to me. God is infinite. Nobody can encompass Him; and this is the extreme limit of spiritual experience. No saint has been able to go beyond this.[31]

On this the Shaykh gives him the following reply:

The experience which is described has its origin in the ever varying life of the Qalb; and it appears to me that the recipient of it has not yet passed even one-fourth of the innumerable “Stations” of the Qalb. The remaining three-fourths must be passed through in order to finish the experiences of this first “station” of spiritual life. Beyond this “station” there are other stations” known as Ru h, Sirr-i-Khafi, and Sirr-i-Akhfa, each of these four “Stations” which together constitute what is technically called’ Alam-i-Amr has its own characteristic states and experiences. After having passed through these “stations” the seeker of truth gradually receives the illuminations of the Divine Essence.[32]

This letter of the Shaykh thus provides a better illustration of the religious experience as well as its significance. It gives the idea of inner experience of the individual what so ever the grounds of distinctions of its various stations (maqamat) it depicts. To reach the stage of the unique experience it is essential to pass first through the Alam-i amr (the world of directive energy).

Conclusion

The above discussion, thus, brings out that Allama Iqbal pays tribute to Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi for the latter’s keen insight into the Shari‘ah sciences (ulum) and the spiritual experiences of life which made him to visualize the grave crisis of his times and led him to success in combating it. The Shaykh’s constant struggle for moral and social reformation, according to Iqlal, safeguarded the real estate (Din) of the millah of the subcontinent. The truth of faqr and the prerequisites for its acquisition are elaborated vis-à-vis the uniqueness and purposefulness of religious experiences by Iqbal in the context of Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi’s achievements. This tribute, on the one hand, highlights the Shaykh’s seminal contribution to the religious thought and, on the other, explores the possibility of understanding religion in terms of the new developments in modern philosophical, psychological and scientific thought.

Notes and References

[1] See Fazlur Rehman, Islam, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, p. 201.

[2] Maulana Sayyid Abul Hasan Nadvi, Tarikh Dawat wa Azimat, part, IV, Majlis Tahqiqat wa Nashriyat Islam, Luknow, 1980 p.70, 82-86.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid pp. 88-91.

[5] Ibid p. 103.

[6] Darah Ma‘arif Islamia, vol.1, Punjab University Pakistan, pp. 889-890.

[7] M.Sayid Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi, op.cit. p. 107.

[8] Ibid pp. 154-155.

[9] Ibid pp. 157.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ibid. 159.

[12] Iqbal, Kulliyat-i Iqbal, Markazi Maktaba Islami, Delhi, 1993, p. 375.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Dr. Ubaidullah Farahi, Tasawwuf:Aik Tajziyati Mutalah, Idarah Tahqiq wa Tasnif, Aligarh, 1991, p. 26.

[16] Ibid. p. 31.

[17] Supra. n. 12.

[18] Ibid. p. 302.

[19]Ibid. p. 375.

[20] Sir Muhammad Iqbal, The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, Kitab Bawan, Delhi, p. 181.

[21] Ibid.

[22] Ibid.

[23] Ibid. p. 182.

[24] Ibid. p. 184.

[25] Ibid p. 191.

[26] See his Varieties of Religious Experiences.

[27] See his Psychopathology of Everyday Life.

[28] See his Psychology of Unconsciousness.

[29] Supra n. 25.

[30] Ibid .p. 193.

[31] Ibid

[32] Ibid. Maktubat-i Rubbani, Nawal Kishur edition, Letter no.253, p. 276.

Dr. Javid Iqbal
IQBAL REVIEW
Journal of the Iqbal Academy Pakistan
Volume: 39 Number: 3

When the European Colonial Powers penetrated the Muslim world, the Ulema in different Muslim countries resisted them. But their resistance could not stop the advance as the Ulema were totally unaware of the advancement made by human knowledge as well as science and technology in Europe. They fought against the long-range of the imperialists with timeworn rifles and swords. Subsequently when the reformers like Syed Jamal-uddin Afghani, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan etc. preached that in order to know the secret of Western power one had to acquire the new knowledge, they opposed them as Westernized Muslims. It was in this background that in the conflict between the “conservatives” and the “liberals”, the liberal Muslim reformers regarded the conservative Ulema as a hinderance in the material progress of the Muslim nations.

The problem of “conservatism” was handled in two ways in Turkey and Muslim India. In Turkey Kemal Ataturk eliminated the Ulema completely from the religious life of the Turks. But in Muslim India, Iqbal tried his best during his life time to educate and train the Ulema so as to create among them a group of new Ulema to provide a new motivation for Islam to the new Muslim society which he thought of bringing into being.

Iqbal found the Muslim society suffering from numerous ailments. He has drawn a portrait of it in one of his Urdu articles titled “Qaumi Zindagi” (National Life) which appeared in the journal Makhzan in 1904. He observes:

“This unfortunate community has been deprived of political, industrial as well as commercial power. Now unconcerned with the demands of times and smitten by stark poverty, it is trying to survive with the help of the useless staff of contentment. Leaving aside other matters, it has so far not been able to settle its religious disputes. Every other day a new sect is brought into being which considering itself exclusively as the heirs of paradise declares the rest of mankind as fuel for hell. This form of sectarianism has scattered the Muslims in such a manner that there is no hope for unifying them as a single community. The condition of our Maulvis is such that if two of them happen to be present in one city, they send messages to each other for holding a discussion on some controversial religious issues, and in case the discussion starts, which usually does, then it ends up in a deplorable brawl. The width of knowledge and comprehension which was a characteristic of the early Ulema of Islam does not exist any more. But there exists a list of “Muslim infidels” in which additions are being made daily by their own hand. The social scene of the Muslims is equally distressing. Their girls are illiterate, their boys are ignorant and jobless. They are scared to try their luck by working as industrial labourers, they consider taking up vocational jobs as below their dignity. The number of dissolution of marriage cases in their families is rising. Similarly the crime among them is on the increase. The situation is quite serious, and there is no solution of the problem except that the entire community should direct its mind and soul completely towards reforming itself. God does not change the condition of a community unless it changes itself.”

According to Iqbal one of the most important factors for the establishment of a new Muslim society was the reform of Islamic culture, and it was in this connection that he felt the need for educating and training the Ulema. He argues:

“The question of cultural reform among the Muslims is in fact a religious question, because there is no aspect of our cultural life which can be separated from religion. However, because of the occurance of a magnificent revolution in the conditions of modern living, certain new cultural needs have emerged. It has therefore become necessary that the decisions made by the old jurists, the collection of which is generally known as the Islamic Sharâ‘ah, require a review. The decisions delivered by the former jurists from time to time on the basis of the broad principle of the Quran and the Tradition, were indeed appropriate and practical for those specific times, but these are not completely applicable to the needs and requirements of the present times. If one reflects deeply on the conditions of modern life, one is forced to arrive at the conclusion that just as we need the elaboration of a new Ilm-i-Kal«m for providing a fresh religious motivation, we likewise need the services of a jurist who could by the width of his vision stretch the principle so widely as to cover all the possible situations of the present cultural needs. As far as I am aware, the Muslim world has not yet produced any such great Jurist, and if one were to consider the magnitude of this enterprise, it would appear that perhaps it is a job for more than one mind to accomplish, and it may require at least a century to complete the work.”

Iqbal wanted to establish an Islamic university for the education of the new Ulema. This was necessary for the realization of many objectives, and one of them, as explained by Iqbal was:

Who does not know that the moral training of the Muslim masses is in the hands of such Ulema and preachers who are not really competent to perform this duty. Their knowledge of Islamic history and Islamic sciences is extremely limited. In order to persuade the people to adopt in their lives the moral and religious values of Islam, it is necessary for a preacher of today to be not only familiar with subjects like history, economics and sociology, but must also have complete knowledge of the literature and modes of thinking of the community.”

The Islamic University was not created. However, in the thirties the Aligarh Muslim University thought of introducing a new faculty of Islamic studies, and accordingly Aftab Ahmed Khan, Chancellor of the university wrote to Iqbal seeking his advice. Iqbal wrote a long letter to him which is a very important document. Some of the extracts of the same are given below:

“Our first and formost object should be to create Ulema of proper qualities who could fulfil the spiritual needs of the community. Please note that alongwith the change in the outlook of the people their spiritual requirements also undergo a change. The change in the status of the individual, his freedom of thought and expression, and the unimaginable advancement made by the physical sciences, have completely revolutionized modern life. As a result, the kind of Ilm-i-Kal«m and the theological understanding which was considered sufficient to satisfy the heart of a Muslim of the Middle Ages, does not satisfy him any more. This is not being stated with the intention to injure the spirit of religion. But in order to re-discover the depths of creative and original thinking (Ijtihad), and to emphasize that it is essential to reconstruct our religious thought. Like many other matter, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s far sightedness made him also look into this problem. As you may know he laid the foundations of his rationalism on the philosophical doctrines of an ancient and bygone age for the resolution of this problem. I am afraid, I do not agree with your proposed curriculum of Islamic studies. In my view the revival of the faculty of Islamic studies on the old lines is totally useless. As far its spiritual significance one can say that it is based on stereotype ideas, and as far its educational significance it is irrelevant in the face of the emerging new problems or the new presentation of the old problems. What is needed today is to apply ones mind in a new direction and to exert for the construction of a new theology and a new ‘Ilm-i-Kal«m. It is evident that this job can be accomplished by those who are competent to do it. But how to create such Ulema? My suggestion so that if you desire to keep the conservative element of our society satisfied, then you may start with the school of Islamic studies on the old lines. But your ultimate objective should be to gradually bring forward a group of such Ulema who are themselves capable of independent and creative thinking (Ijtih«d-i-Fikr) in accordance with my proposed scheme …. In my view the dissemination of modern religious ideas is necessary for the modern Muslim nations. A struggle has already commenced in the Islamic world between the old and new methods of education as well as between the upholders of spiritual freedom and those monopolizing religious power. This movement of independence of human thought is even influencing a conservative country like Afghanistan. You may have read the speech of the Amir of Afghanistan in which he has attempted to control the powers of the Ulema. The emergence of numerous such movements in the other parts of the Muslim world makes one arrive at the same conclusion. Therefore in your capacity as the Head of a Muslim university, it is your duty to step forward in this new field with courage.”

These educational reforms proposed by Iqbal were never implemented. Even a couple of months before his death on 21 April, 1938, an attempt was made by one of his devotees to establish a D«r-ul-‘Ulëm according to the specifications of Iqbal, and for this purpose a correspondence started between Iqbal and Al-Mar«ghâ, the Rector of Al-Azhar University of Egypt through Maulana Maudoodi, but the Egyptians could not produce an Arabic instructor satisfying Iqbal’s requirements.

There are many old and new Islamic educational institutions operating in Pakistan today. But it is difficult to say what kind of impact the duly qualified Ulema of these institutions have on spiritual life of the Muslims of Pakistan. The fact remains that neither Iqbal’s new Muslim society could be brought into being in this country nor new Ulema could be trained on the lines suggested by him for disseminating among the Muslim faith, unity and discipline so that they could collectively face the challenges of the new world.

Man, in this world of seven hues,
lute-like is ever afire with lamentation;
yearning for a kindred spirit burns him inwardly
teaching him threnodies to soothe the heart,
and yet this world, that is wrought of water and clay—
how can it be said to possess a heart?
Sea, plain, mountain, grass–all are deaf and dumb,
deaf and dumb heaven and sun and moon;
though the stars swarm in the selfsame sky
each star is more solitary than the other,
each one is desperate just as we are,
a vagrant lost in an azure wilderness—
the caravan unprovisioned against the journey,
the heavens boundless, the nights interminable.
Is this world then some prey, and we the huntsmen,
or are we prisoners utterly forgotten?
Bitterly I wept, but echo answered never:
where may Adam’s son find a kindred spirit?
I have seen that the day of this dimensioned world
whose light illuminates both palace and street
came into being from the flight of a planet,
is nothing more, you might say, than a moment gone.
How fair is the Day that is not of our days,
the Day whose dawn has neither noon nor eve!
Let its light illuminate the spirit
and sounds become visible even as colours;
hidden things become manifest in its splendour,
its watch is unending and intransient.
Grant me that Day, Lord, even for a single day,
deliver me from this day that has no glow!
Concerning whom was the Verse of Subjection revealed?
For whose sake spins the azure sphere so wildly?
Who was it knew the secret of He taught the names?
Who was intoxicated with that saki and that wine?
Whom didst Thou choose out of all the world?
To whom didst Thou confide the innermost secret?
O Thou whose arrow transpierced our breast,
who uttered the words Call upon me, and to whom?
Thy countenance is my faith, and my Koran:
dost Thou begrudge my soul one manifestation?
By the loss of a hundred of its rays
the sun’s capital is in no wise diminished.
Reason is a chain fettering this present age:
where is a restless soul such as I possess?
For many ages Being must twist on itself
that one restless soul may come into being.
Except you fret away at this brackish soil
it is not congenial to the seed of desire;
count it for gain enough if a single heart
grows from the bosom of this unproductive clay!
Thou art a moon: pass within my dormitory,
glance but once on my unenlightened soul.
Why does the flame shrink away from the stubble?
Why is the lightning-flash afraid to strike?
So long as I have lived, I have lived in separation:
reveal what lies beyond yon azure canopy;
open the doors that have been closed in my face,
let earth share the secrets of heaven’s holy ones.
Kindle now a fire within my breast-
leave be the aloe, and consume the brushwood,
then set my aloe again upon the fire
and scatter my smoke through all the world.
Stir up the fire within my goblet,
mingle one glance with this inadvertency.
We seek Thee, and Thou art far from our sight;
no, I have erred-we are blind, and Thou art present.
Either draw aside this veil of mysteries
or seize to Thyself this sightless soul!
The date-tree of my thought despairs of leaf and fruit;
either despatch the axe, or the breeze of dawn.
Thou gavest me reason, give me madness too,
show me the way to inward ecstasy.
Knowledge takes up residence in the thought,
love’s lodge is the unsleeping heart;
so long as knowledge has no portion of love
it is a mere picture-gallery of thoughts.
This peep-show is the Samiri’s conjuring-trick;
knowledge without the Holy Ghost is mere spellbinding.
Without revelation no wise man ever found the way,
he died buffetted by his own imaginings;
without revelation life is a mortal sickness,
reason is banishment, religion constraint.
This world of mountain and plain, ocean and land—
we yearn for vision, and it speaks of report.
Grant to this vagrant heart a resting-place,
restore to the moon this fragment of the moon.
Though from my soil nothing grows but words,
the language of banishment never comes to an end.
Under the heavens I feel myself a stranger:
from beyond the skies utter the words I am near,
that these dimensions, this north and this south,
like to the sun and moon in the end may set,
I shall transcend the talisman of yesterday
and tomorrow, transcend the moon, sun, Pleiades.
Thou art eternal splendour; we are like sparks—
a breath or two we possess, and that too borrowed.
You who know naught of the battle of death and life,
who is this slave who would emulate even God?
This slave, impatient, conquering all horizons,
finds pleasure neither in absence nor in presence.
I am a momentary thing: make me eternal,
out of my earthiness make me celestial.
Grant me precision both in speech and action:
the ways are clear- give me the strength to walk.
What I have said comes from another world;
this book descends from another heaven.
I am a sea; untumult in me is a fault;
where is he who can plunge into my depths?
A whole world slumbered upon my shore
and saw from the strand naught but the surge of a wave.
I, who despair of the great sages of old,
have a word to say touching the day to come!
Render my speech easy unto the young,
make my abyss for them attainable.