A syllabus for "Marghdeen"

As suggested in a previous post, it appears that in every domain of knowledge the current perceptions are just the opposite of Iqbal's. In 2017: The Battle of Marghdeen, I have tried to make a list of five key differences, for those who may be interested.

My contention is that our perception of our world changes drastically if we adopt these changes. In my understanding, much of what has been written about the ideas of Iqbal has suffered from the fact that writers, especially after 1953, passively accepted the academically accepted premise in every domain of knowledge and attempted to interpret Iqbal accordingly. Whereas, I believe, Iqbal questioned those very positions.

Further details can be found in 2017, and the supporting evidence for these statements is abundantly available in my third biography of Iqbal recently published by Iqbal Academy Pakistan in Urdu. Each statement forms the main objective of an online course at Marghdeen Learning Centre.

1. History:

• We are usually told that the present times are an age of spiritual decline (a view which was originally articulated by Oswald Spengler and H.G. Wells during and after the First World War).
• We need to know that Iqbal believed the world to be already on the verge of “a great spiritual and cultural revolution” in 1923. He believed that Nature was “building up in the depths of life a new human being and a new world for him to live in” and therefore the spirit of modern times is fully consonant with spiritual advancement.

2. Art and Literature:

• We are usually told that pessimistic art and literature are more worthy of respect and attention than those products which present a desirable fantasy (an idea popularized by the French poet Charles Baudelaire in 1857, who called his poems The Flowers of Evil and described hypocrisy to be his ideal).
• We need to know that art and literature are collective dreams that come true, according to Iqbal. Therefore, they should present the world as it should be, and not as it appears to be.

3. Politics:

• We are usually told that democracy is against the spirit of Islam (a point of view popularized by scholars like A. J. Arberry, who pioneered an intellectual movement against Islam, Pakistan and Iqbal in 1953).
• We need to know that “Democracy, then, is the most important aspect of Islam regarded as a political ideal,” according to Iqbal, as he stated in a seminal paper in 1909 (all his political views, which he offered subsequently, were elaborations on this basic idea).

4. Religion and Science:

• We are usually told that religion and science are locked in a perpetual conflict.
• We need to know that Iqbal observed in 1930, “The day is not far off when Religion and Science may discover hitherto unsuspected mutual harmonies.” By that estimate, we should be able to discover those mutual harmonies now.

5. Education:

• We are usually told that education is either an end in itself or preparation for a career.
• We need to know that “Education, like other things, is determined by the needs of a community,” according to Iqbal. Chief among these needs is to achieve “a real collective ego” by passing on the common ideals of the society from generation to generation.

Nine Questions

Cover of a new
English translation of
Shabistri's book

In 1317 AD, a travelling Sufi posed seventeen questions to the masters in Tabriz, the city where Rumi's mentor Shams was supposed to have wandered around almost a century earlier. The questions were answered by a leading Sufi poet of the times, Mahmood Shabistri, in the 9000-line long poem which became a classic and a definitive text on Sufi doctrines: Gulshan-i-Raz, or The Garden of Mystery.

Allama Iqbal believed that this work went a long way into helping the Muslim world revive from the destruction it had faced at the hands of Mongol invaders not long before the publication. He compared the situation of the Muslim world in his own times to be not very different: European colonialism had once again played havoc. So, 610 years after Shabistri, Iqbal published 'Gulshan-i-Raz Jadeed', or The New Garden of Mysteries (or, as some may prefer to call it today: Garden of Mysteries Reloaded). It formed a part of Iqbal's fourth book of poetry, Zuboor-i-Ajam (1927), or Persian Psalms.

Iqbal's version clusters some of the original questions together while omitting some. The result is a compact set of nine questions with succinct answers, usually less than three pages each. I understand that Iqbal intended these to serve as a summary of his thought. Perhaps he also gave these as a key to unlock some of the "secrets and mysteries" which he claimed to be hidden in his work. In any case what he stated openly in that book was that these nine questions and his answers were meant to be the guiding light for wisdom in modern times.

There is something very interesting about these questions which I have found in the course of my investigations. I have found that this set of nine becomes interestingly compatible with some other sets of nine: such as the nine books of Iqbal's poetry, the nine symphonies of Beethoven and so on.

Iqbal wrote nine books of poetry and died while writing the last of those. In my online course Introduction to Iqbal Studies, I ask the participants to see if each of these books seems relevant for answering the corresponding question. The feedback given by the participants is mostly in the affirmative.

I do not mean to mystify the reader. In my opinion this has got less to do with supernatural and more to do with the possibility that in rearranging his questions, Iqbal could have arrived upon some natural order of the cognitive process of the human mind. In other words, he may have succeeded in representing some kind of a genetic code of the human thinking process through his nine questions.

It is often presumed that Iqbal did not present his philosophy in a systematic manner. I also used to believe it once but then I realized that this could be true only up to the extent that the "system" of Iqbal's thought was presented in a manner not similar to many Western thinkers. Othewrise, there have always been those who believed that Iqbal had a well-developed system of thought - his constant companion of the last days Syed Nazeer Niazi and the first director of Iqbal Academy Pakistan Dr. Muhammad Rafiuddin, to name just two. I am now of the opinion that the nine questions and answers comprising 'The New Garden of Mystery' (گلشنِ راز جدید) in Persian Psalms (زبورِ عجم) can be treated as a succint description of Iqbal's philosophy.

Those questions are being presented here (based on a translation by B. A. Dar) along with a brief summary of Iqbal's answers in my words. The original Persian text of 'The New Garden of Mystery' is also available online while the link to a complete translation of each answer in English is being provided with the summaries (courtesy: Iqbal Academy Pakistan).

1. THOUGHT

Q. First of all I am intrigued about my thought – what is it which we call thinking? What kind of thought is needed on the path, why is it sometimes a virtue and sometimes a sin?

Answer. According to Iqbal, our thinking has two dimensions: spiritual and material. Neglecting one at the cost of the other is harmful but neglecting both is sometimes a necessary phase in self-development.

A simpler answer could be that thinking is one of the functions through which the ego strives for perfection. Since the life of an ego is defined by ideals (and the collective ideals tend to be greater than an individual’s), thinking is helpful when it leads us to discovering and creating greater ideals and becomes an impediment when it prevents us from pursuing ideals, as Iqbal says in Urdu:

سمجھتا ہے تُو راز ہے زندگی
فقط ذوقِ پرواز ہے زندگی

Read translation of complete answer in English

2. KNOWLEDGE

Q. What is this ocean whose shore is knowledge? What is that pearl which is found in its depth?

Answer. Life is the ocean and the pearl to be found in its depth is selfhood (خودی). Knowledge is just the shore, as Iqbal says in his Urdu verses:

دمادم رواں ہے یمِ زندگی
ہر اک شے سے پیدا رم زندگی
خودی جلوہ بدمست و خلوت پسند
سمندر ہے اِک بوند پانی میں بند

Read translation of complete answer in English

3. UNION

Q. What is the union of the contingent and the necessary? What are near and far, more and less?

Answer. The universe may be constantly expanding and therefore boundless. It still has boundary, which lies within because at the centre of the universe is the Reality which never changes. Therefore, anyone who gets connected with the Ultimate Reality, i.e. God, can also grasp the entire universe including parts that are yet to be born – as Iqbal says in his Urdu verses:

خودی سے اِس طلسمِ رنگ و بُو کو توڑ سکتے ہیں
یہی توحید تھی جس کو نہ تُو سمجھا نہ میں سمجھا
نِگہ پیدا کر اے غافل تجلی عینِ فطرت ہے
کہ اپنی موج سے بیگانہ رہ سکتا نہیں دریا

Read translation of complete answer in English

4. SEPARATION

Q. How did the temporal and eternal separate so that one became the world, and the other God? If the knower and the known are one pure essence, what are the aspirations of this handful of earth?

Answer. Since God is the Ultimate Ego, He creates more egos which are the human beings. An ego cannot dissolve into its source, and hence the human beings cannot “annihilate” themselves in God (فنا) but they can witness their true splendour by connecting with the Creator, as Iqbal says in his Urdu verses:

یہ وحدت ہے کثرت میں ہر دم اسیر
مگر ہر کہیں بے چگوں، بے نظیر
پسند اس کو تکرار کی خُو نہیں
کہ تُو میں نہیں اور میں تُو نہیں

Read translation of complete answer in English

5. SELF

Q. What am I? Tell me what ‘I’ means. What is the meaning of ‘travel into yourself’?

Answer. “I” identifies an ego: you are an ego if you can say “I”. These egos are like sparks shedding from a great fire, which is Life. You travel into yourself by conquering the material and spiritual dimensions of the worlds, and when you return from a meeting with God in such a manner that you have Him in your heart and are holding His world in your hands, as Iqbal says in Urdu:

خودی کا نشیمن ترے دل میں ہے
فلک جس طرح آنکھ کے تِل میں ہے
بڑھے جا یہ کوہِ گراں توڑ کر
طلسمِ زمان و مکاں توڑ کر
خودی شیرِ مولا جہاں اس کا صید
زمیں اس کی صید، آسماں اس کا صید

Read translation of complete answer in English

6. SELFLESSNESS

Q. What is that part which is greater than its whole? What is the way to find that part?

Answer. Ego is a part of the apparent world but is also greater than it. We reach it through the inner dimension of Life. In more practical terms, we reach the ego by submitting our individual self before the collective ego, as Iqbal says in his Urdu verses:

خودی کیا ہے؟ رازِ درون حیات
خودی کیا ہے؟ بیداریء کائنات
ازل اس کے پیچھے، ابد سامنے
نہ حد اس کے پیچھے نہ حد سامنے

Read translation of complete answer in English

7. COMPLETION

Q. Of what sort is this traveler who is the wayfarer? Of whom shall I say that this person has attained completion?

Answer. Our journey is from ourselves to ourselves: there is no end to it because our goal is to see the signs of God, and the eyes cannot get tired of visions – there will always be more for us to seek and behold. Therefore, the “perfected one” (کامل) is a person who has witnessed the signs of God and is therefore aware of the destiny of nations (the same concept was presented in the Allahabad Address as, “By leaders I mean men who, by Divine gift or experience, possess a keen perception of the spirit and destiny of Islam, along with an equally keen perception of the trend of modern history.”), as he also stated in his Urdu verses:

زندہ دل سے نہیں پوشیدہ ضمیرِ تقدیر
خواب میں دیکھتا ہے عالم نَو کی تصویر
اور جب بانگِ اذاں کرتی ہے بیدار اُسے
کرتا ہے خواب میں دیکھی ہوئی دنیا تعمیر
بدن اس تازہ جہاں کا ہے اُسی کی کفِ خاک
رُوح اس تازہ جہاں کی ہے اُسی کی تقدیر

Read translation of complete answer in English

8.  ‘I AM THE CREATIVE TRUTH’

Q. What point does the claim, ‘I am the Creative Truth’ imply? Do you think that this mystery was mere nonsense?

Answer. For centuries, Eastern heart and intellect were getting trained to perceive the world as illusion. What Hallaj said was just the kind of thing needed for awakening such a society. Iqbal elaborated this point further in his next book Javid Nama, where the spirit of Hallaj was presented as saying, “I saw a people who were turning away from life, so I decided to wake them up. They said they believed in God and yet they didn’t believe in themselves. How can you have faith in the Almighty without having faith in yourself?” It would be interesting to note that Iqbal saw his own mission as somewhat similar to that of Hallaj, as he says in his Urdu verses:

فردوس میں رومی سے یہ کہتا تھا سَنائی
مشرق میں ابھی تک ہے وہی کاسہ، وہی آش
حلاج سے لیکن یہ روایت ہے کہ آخر
اِک مردِ قلندر نے کیا رازِ خودی فاش

Read translation of complete answer in English

9. AWARENESS

Q. Who was it that at last became familiar with the secret of Oneness? Who is the wise one that has true awareness?

Answer. Complete awareness is to know that everything declines and dies in the temporal world but the ego can attain immortality through God, as Iqbal says in his Urdu verses:

ہوا جب اُسے سامنے موت کا
کٹھن تھا بڑا تھامنا موت کا
اُتر کر جہانِ مکافات میں
رہی زندگی موت کی گھات میں
سمجھتے ہیں ناداں اسے بے ثبات
اُبھرتا ہے مِٹ مِٹ کے نقشِ حیات

Read translation of complete answer in English

Further reading: see my book The Republic of Rumi: A Novel of Reality (2007) for a demonstration of how the "Nine Questions" contribute to the internal coherence in the poetical works of Iqbal. An updated online version is also available for free.

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan according to Iqbal

Today is the 114th death anniversary of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-1898)

The influence of Syed Ahmad Khan remained on the whole confined to India. It is probable, however, that he was the first modern Muslim to catch a glimpse of the positive character of the age which was coming. The remedy for the ills of Islam proposed by him, as by Mufti Alam Jan in Russia, was modern eduction. But the real greatness of the man consists in the fact that he was the first Indian Muslim who felt the need of a fresh orientation of Islam and worked for it. We may differ from his religious views, but there can be no denying the fact that his sensitive soul was the first to react to the modern age. The extreme conservatism of Indian Muslims which had lost its hold on the realities of life failed to see the real meaning of the religious attitude of Syed Ahmad Khan.

(Excerpt from 'Islam and Ahmadism', an article by Iqbal published in January 1936; included in Writings, Speeches and Statements of Iqbal compiled by Latif Ahmad Sherwani and published by Iqbal Academy Pakistan)

An Outline of History

The following is an outline of the framework which is being used in ‘The DNA of History’, the online course offered at Marghdeen Learning Centre.

History may be divided into three phases: (a) Input (ancient world); (b) Transition (the advent of Islam); and (c) Output (the world since then). Since the transitional phase is less than two centuries, it can be more conveniently counted with either of the other two, leaving us with two broad phases of history: ancient and modern. 

The Ancient World

This phase may be divided into seven stages (based on the first chapter of Javid Nama).

THE AGE OF INQUIRY: PRE-HISTORY (Adam/the Cave of Vishvamitra). In whatever manner the human beings appeared on this planet, they are likely to have been preoccupied at first with finding the means of survival. That involved the ability to become acquainted with the inner nature of things.

THE AGE OF DISCOVERY: PRE-HISTORY TO C.2000 BC (Noah/the Music of Sarosh). Once the survival was ensured, the humanity may have found time to appreciate things beyond their utility and to enjoy interacting with them for their own sake. This may have given birth to art and music, and helped aesthetics by triggering the functions related to the right brain.

THE AGE OF TRANSCENDENCE: C.2000 BC TO C.1300 BC (Abraham/the Poetry of Sarosh). Aesthetics puts us in touch with our higher self. “If I can become acquainted with the nature of things, invent tools, give birth to civilizations and even enjoy the beauty of Nature as well as artifact, why should I bow down before stars and planets?” This theme persists through the ages in the most popular masterpieces of literature – an activity associated with the left brain. 

THE AGE OF FREEDOM: C.1300 BC TO 559 BC (Moses/the Tablet of Buddha). Ancient rulers derived authority by claiming to be gods or descendants of gods, and subjugated the people in the name of these gods. Such kingdoms and empires could not remain legitimate once the belief in false gods had been questioned: internal freedom means external freedom too. 

THE AGE OF ACTION: 559 BC TO 4 BC (Zulqarnayn/the Tablet of Zarathustra). Civilization tends to move towards unification of humanity. Once it became impossible to create empires in the names of false gods, Zoroastrian visionaries from Persia found ways of building empires by giving religious freedom to those who believed in the Unity of God (such as Jews, Hindus and Buddhists) and fighting those who ascribed partners to God – such as Egypt, Greece and Rome.

THE AGE OF EXPANSION: 4 BC TO 610 AD (Jesus/the Tablet of Jesus). Before the unification dreamed by some visionaries could become a reality, the humanity needed to undergo a phase of wonderment – a stage when it should learn to “give unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar and unto God what belongs to God.”

THE AGE OF CREATION: 610 AD TO 750 AD (The Prophet/the Tablet of the Prophet).  The Prophet of Islam seemed to stand between the ancient and the modern world: the source of his revelation belonged to the ancient world, the spirit of his revelation belonged to the modern world. The birth of Islam was the birth of inductive intellect: prophecy reached its perfection in discovering the need of its own abolition, in order to achieve full self-consciousness, the humanity must finally be thrown back on its own resources.

The Modern World

This phase may be divided into three stages so far (based on various observations found in the writings of Iqbal).

THE PERSIAN REBIRTH: 750-1258 (The Wisdom of Adam/God is Eternal). 

• Literature was usually aimed at entertaining through stories of highly inspirational nature – this was the heyday of epic stories placed in historical settings but drawing freely on mythology and folklore. Examples: Arabian Nights, Beowulf, Ferdowsi, Nezami, Attar
• The Persian model of delegating maximum authority to regional governments under a liberal center was restored. Small kingdoms gradually became important and eventually autonomous. Examples: Abbasids, Ghaznavids, William the Conqueror, Fatimids, Saljuqs, Khwarism.
• Inductive reasoning came to dominate all sciences: experiment replaced pure speculation and ancient superstitions began to fade out. Examples: Ibnul Haitham, Az-Zahravi, Ibne Sina
• Sufi masters emphasized that everything in the world is subject to decay and annihilation: God alone is eternal. Examples: Hasan Basri, Rabia Basri, Junaid Baghdadi, Mansur Hallaj, Ali Hajveri, Ibn Arabi

THE CHINESE REBIRTH: 1258-1747 (The Wisdom of Angels/God is Powerful).

• Literature was mainly focused on depicting the principles of personal development as well as the relationship between the individual and the society. Examples: Rumi, Saadi, Ameer Khusrau, Chaucer, Hafez, Jami, Urfi, Shakespeare.
• The Chinese model of centralized empires was followed almost universally. This led to strong emperors who very often had absolute power. Examples: Kubla Khan, Ottomans, Safavids, Mughals, Tudors, Louis XIV
• In science, revolutionary steps were taken for discovering the principles operating in the universe. Example: Francis Bacon, Galileo, William Harvey, Newton.
• Sufi masters formulated rules for the relationship  between mentor and disciples, and hence distinct schools appeared. Examples: Abdul Qadir Jilani, Mueenuddin Chishti, Mujaddid Alf Sani

THE AFGHAN REBIRTH: Since 1747 (The Wisdom of the Soul: God is Knowing).

• Literature acceptable to entire societies has invariably shown tendencies to “think globally, act locally”: reflecting universal principles through distinctly regional forms. Examples: Bhittai, Mir Taqi Mir, William Cowper, Wordsworth, Robert Burns, Goethe, Charlotte Bronte, Iqbal, Ibne Safi.
• The Afghan model of nation state invented by Ahmad Shah Abdali is being visible almost everywhere – states are based on common ideals and/or shared ethnic traits, and rulers are required to abide by custom or constitution.
• In science, the focus has shifted from principles to potential: the heyday of inventions leading to such times when the virtual has become as important as the real. Examples: James Watt, Michael Faraday, Morris, Graham Bell, Edison, Einstein and latter inventors.
• Masters widely accepted as representatives of spiritual wisdoms in their own societies have been encouraging dissemination of this wisdom among the masses and also its fusion with politics and science. Examples: Shah Waliullah, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, Jamaluddin Afghani, Iqbal

Further reading: the revised edition of Topline Secondary Social Studies written by me is now available in Pakistan. It is a series of three textbooks for secondary schools.

A Personal Request

This is Coventry Transport Museum:
a scene which I see several times
every week, as it is just opposite
the main bus station.
Picture from Coventry Travel Guide

I shifted to UK in October last year and I am likely to remain here for a few more months. This period has been very formative in my life in ways that I had not expected. Being away from my own society provided me an opportunity to sort out my thoughts "in isolation" and without "influences". Hence I am writing this post in a personal voice to share a few conclusions upon which I have arrived in these few months, and some plans which I have made for myself.

I am now convinced that the root of all our problems in Pakistan is that we do not know our history. To some extent this is also the major problem for the whole world. Things happened so fast after the Second World War that the academic world failed to keep pace with the changes that were taking place. Well-known words changed their meanings quickly and the result was that things which meant something else yesterday suddenly came to mean something very different the next day. 

I shall give only one example: democracy. In the days of Iqbal (1877-1938), it had two meanings. In the first instance, democracy meant a government chosen by the people (as it means now). In this sense of the word, Iqbal considered democracy and Islam to be almost the same thing - in practically every prose writing from 1908 onwards, Iqbal praised democracy and went to the extent of saying that the British Empire in 1909 was the greatest Muslim state because it was fulfilling the Islamic ideal of promoting democracy!

However, the other meaning of the same term was a state who follows its territorial interests as its only ideal and defines itself by its territory rather than by any higher ideal. This connotation of democracy was due to the historical evolution of democratic governments in Europe where secularism, territorial nationalism and democracy evolved simultaneously and very often it was difficult to separate one from the other. This was the concept which Iqbal found unacceptable and criticized it unrelentingly. In this criticism, he often used the word "democracy" to mean all these negative things, but this usage was usually restricted to his Urdu poetry (and I think that this was because his Urdu readers were more "aware" of the democratic ideals of Islam than the readers of his English writings).

Consider this example, and then see how in Pakistan and elsewhere Iqbal has come to be seen as someone who was opposed to the idea of democracy! What can we say to such confusion? Has it been created deliberately by people who knew too much, or has it been spread by mediocre scholars who didn't know what they were talking about? I am afraid that the answer lies in those pages of recent history which have never been presented before the public.

So, the first major aim which I have now adopted for myself is to complete my six books of Iqbal's biography in Urdu. Books One and Two have already been published by Iqbal Academy Pakistan. Book Three is now ready and I hope that it is going to be published by Iqbal's death anniversary this year on April 21. I am now working on books Four and Five, and I hope to finish them within a few months.

These books are more than a biography of Iqbal. I hope to make them nothing less than a history of the Pakistani nation - as never told before. I shall be writing more about this subject on this blog.

The second major aim which I have for this year is to expand the outreach of those online courses in Iqbal Studies which started last year. The response from participants of these courses has been so encouraging that I am compelled to believe that this is an area in which we should all combine our efforts: the courses have not only interested Pakistani audience but even so many from abroad. This is also something about which I shall be writing more - but quite possibly on the other blog, Marghdeen Learning Centre, which has been set up for these courses.

These are my two aims for now: to present a comprehensive history of Pakistan through the biography of Iqbal and related works, and to expand the outreach of online courses in Iqbal Studies. 

I request all my friends and well-wishers to support me and join me in this effort.

The World of Quran

The great Muslim reformer
Syed Jamaluddin Afghani.

Lesson 3.4 in the online course 'Self-Development through Iqbal' is about "the World of Quran" as explained by Syed Jamaluddin Afghani in the second chapter of Iqbal's Javid Nama (1932). Quite understandably, participants like it very much: they all seem to like the notion that a world of Quran is coming into being in our times, and so on.

I seriously wonder if they would still like it if they knew what it actually meant. To begin with, the text says that the World of Quran lies in the hearts of Muslims. In our times we have come to presume that "Muslim" in this sense only refers to "practising Muslims" or perhaps only those Muslims which fit our definition of what a good Muslim is, and they would be very few at least by our standards. The rest of the Muslim nation, or at least the majority of Muslims in any case, are not deserving of the label "Muslim" according to us, and therefore the World of Quran does not exist in their hearts.

Quite the contrary. Iqbal's usage of the word "Muslim" in this sense included the sinners and the deluded too. Throughout his life he insisted that the consensus of the Muslim community should be binding on all its individuals - and he did not exclude any Muslim from this as long as they believed in the Unity of God and the finality of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him).

In 1931, when he was leaving for the Round Table Conference, he was asked by a journalist what would he do if all Muslims gave up separate electorates and decided in favour of join electorates. Now, Iqbal believed that giving up separate electorates would mean the end of Islam in India but his answer was that although he is quite sure that Muslims would never give it up, but if they do, then he would happily follow the unanimous decision of his nation.

Can we expect any of our religiously-inclined politicians to say this? Or our liberals and progressives? No, the irony is that the leadership which emerged soon after the birth of Pakistan, whether religiously inclined or secular, has been insisting that its own ideas are the best and whoever doesn't agree with them is either misinformed or dishonest and their opinions should not be regarded.

As long as we take this position, no new ideal can be discovered because we are essentially imposing our pre-discovered ideal on the nation rather than giving it a chance to show us something which we do not already know: a "new world" emerging out of the hearts of those who, whether saints or sinners, are chained together by the love of their Holy Prophet (peace be upon him).

I thought it was important that I highlight this fundamental difference which exists between our perception of things and Iqbal's. To him, the personal opinion of any scholar, whether religious or secular, could not overrule the consensus of the nation - and he was himself ever-ready to change his position if dictated by the consensus of his nation. The interview from which I have quoted above is just an example. Other examples are too numerous to be quoted here, but a detailed exposition of this philosophy occurs in 'Mysteries of Selflessness' (رموزِ بیخودی), the second part of Secrets and Mysteries. The same idea is summed up in countless verses, such as this most famous one where he says that individuals have no existence of their own, just as waves cannot be conceived outside the sea:

فرد قائم ربطِ ملت سے ہے تنہا کچھ نہیں
موج ہے دریا میں اور بیرونِ دریا کچھ نہیں

Young people often ask me how they should start if they want to follow Iqbal. In my humble opinion the first step is to acknowledge this difference which exists between Iqbal's perception and our own. You do not have to change your position at once. Give it a thought and even feel free to reject it. But at least know that this difference exists. That is the first step, or else you would be rowing your boat in a mirage: you were born in a veil and would die without ever having lifted it.

Action as contemplation

It is not merely by receiving and intellectually shaping the impressions, but mainly by moulding the stimuli to ideal ends and purposes that the total self of man realizes itself as one of the greatest energies of nature. In great action alone the self of man becomes united with God without losing its own identity, and transcends the limits of space and time. Action is the highest form of contemplation.

Excerpt from 'Self in the Light of Relativity', an article by Iqbal, published in Crescent, Lahore, 1925

The central proposition of Islam

"The central proposition which regulates the structure of Islam,
 then, is that there is fear in nature,
and the object of Islam is to free man from fear." (Iqbal)
Illustration from Tabassum Khalid.
Courtesy: Iqbal Academy Pakistan

Excerpt from 'Islam as a Moral and Political Ideal', a paper delivered by Iqbal in April 1909 at the anniversary of Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam, Lahore.

The truth is that Islam looks upon the universe as a reality and consequently recognises as reality all that is in it. Sin, pain, sorrow, struggle are certainly real, but Islam teaches that evil is not essential to the universe; the universe can be reformed; the elements of sin and evil can be gradually eliminated. All that is in the universe is God’s, and the seemingly destructive forces of nature become sources of life, if properly controlled by man, who is endowed with the power to understand and to control them.

These and other similar teachings of the Quran, combined with the Quranic recognition of the reality of sin and sorrow, indicate that the Islamic view of the universe is neither optimistic nor pessimistic. Modern psychometry has given the final answer to the psychological implications of Buddhism. Pain is not an essential factor in the constitution of the universe, and pessimism is only a product of a hostile social environment. Islam believes in the efficacy of well-directed action; hence the standpoint of Islam must be described as melioristic – the ultimate pre-supposition and justification of all human effort at scientific discovery and social progress. Although Islam recognises the fact of pain, sin and struggle in nature, yet the principal fact which stands in the way of man’s ethical progress is, according to Islam, neither pain, nor sin, nor struggle. It is fear, to which man is a victim owing to his ignorance of the nature of his environment and want of absolute faith in God. The highest stage of man’s ethical progress is reached when he becomes absolutely free from fear and grief.

The central proposition which regulates the structure of Islam, then, is that there is fear in nature, and the object of Islam is to free man from fear.

Demystifying Islam

I propose to look at Islam from the standpoint of the critical student. But I may state at the outset that I shall avoid the use of expressions current in popular Revelation Theology; since my method is essentially scientific and consequently necessitates the use of terms which can be interpreted in the light of every-day human experience. For instance, when I say that the religion of a people is the sum-total of their life-experience finding a definite expression through the medium of a great personality, I am only translating the fact of Revelation into the language of science. Similarly, inter-action between individual and universal energy is only another expression for the feeling of prayer, which ought to be so described for purposes of scientific accuracy. It is because I want to approach my subject from a thoroughly human standpoint, and not because I doubt the fact of Divine Revelation as the final basis of all religion, that I prefer to employ expressions of a more scientific content. Islam is, moreover, the youngest of all religions, the last creation of humanity. Its founder stands out clear before us; he is truly a personage of history and lends himself freely even to the most searching criticism. Ingenious legend has weaved no screens round his figure; he is born in the broad day-light of history; we can thoroughly understand the inner spring of his actions; we can subject his mind to a keen psychological analysis. Let us then, for the time being, eliminate the supernatural element and try to understand the structure of Islam as we find it.

Excerpt from 'Islam as a Moral and Political Ideal', a paper delivered by Iqbal in April 1909 at the anniversary of Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam, Lahore.

The lion and you

The following is my re-telling of a parable from the second volume of the Masnavi of Maulana Rumi. 

Think of Jesus whom God gave the gift of reviving the dead, and know it that your soul can also bring back those who have departed from the world. Once upon a time, you will come across a carcass rotting in the wilderness, and you may ask your soul to revive it.

“O God, what’s the matter with this person!” Your soul will say about you. “This person is worse than a corpse, but doesn’t want to be revived and is so much concerned about the corpse of a stranger!”

Well, this is how destiny works: you choose it. Therefore, please do not be too pleased with this story just yet: my wisdom might be the very corpse which you are trying to resurrect at the cost of your own!

Yes, your soul will revive that carcass, which will turn out to be that of a ferocious lion. It will kill you on the spot but it will not eat you.

“Why did you do this?” Your soul may ask the lion, and the lion will reply: “This is a punishment for those who irritate their souls with their foolishness.”

“Why didn’t you eat this prey?” Your soul may ask, and the lion will reply: “I wouldn’t have died in the first place if there were any more food in my destiny.”

My dear child, the lion who will kill even when he isn’t going to eat the prey will be a mere reflection of yourself if you go around acquiring knowledge which you do not need. The Sufi’s book is not composed of ink and letters: it is not but a heart white as snow. The scholar’s possession is pen-marks. What is the Sufi’s possession? Foot-marks!

DU PREL: The Philosophy of Mysticism

It is not always the business of philosophy to split hairs, and to devise subtle problems. The weightiest problems are just those which are hidden by their every-day character, or behind unwarranted presuppositions, of which we are unconscious, only because we are continually making them.

Such a problem it is which I would suggest in the following work—the questions whether our Ego is wholly embraced in self-consciousness. The affirmative answer to this question, the most proximate and constant of human problems, is evidently a mere presumption, and not less so because carried on through our whole life. Moreover, this presumption is not only logically unjustified, but is also – as will be shown – erroneous. Analysis of the dream-life leads to a negative answer to the question propounded; it shows that self-consciousness falls short of its object, that the Ego exceeds the self-consciousness.

If, however, we are more than that of which our self-consciousness informs us, and indeed not in the sense of a pantheistic dissolution, but with preservation of individuality, then it is evident that the question of the soul has been falsely stated. Instead of succession of the here and the beyond, we have their simultaneity, that is, the simultaneity of two Persons of our Subject.

[Excerpt from Carl Freiherr du Prel, The Philosophy of Mysticism (1889). The work was mentioned by Iqbal in his paper 'The Doctrine of Absolute Unity' (1900).]

Marghdeen Learning Centre

Marghdeen Learning Centre has been established online for offering certificate courses in Iqbal Studies under patronage of Iqbal Academy Pakistan, which also issues certificates for the courses. The courses are promoted internationally by DISNA (Dr. Iqbal Society of North America) and in Pakistan by Topline Publishers.

The idea behind the main website of Marghdeen Learning Centre is that it should be an ideal starting point for those interested in Iqbal Studies: make it your home page for a few days, and you are likely to end up learning something about Iqbal and about the world from his perspective, without much effort.

http://marghdeen.blogspot.com/

Take a look, and let us know what you think about it.

WILL DURANT: Knowledge and the common person

For, if knowledge became too great for communication, it would degenerate into scholasticism, and the weak acceptance of authority; mankind would slip into a new age of faith, worshiping at a respectful distance its new priests; and civilization, which had hoped to raise itself upon education disseminated far and wide, would be left precariously based upon a technical erudition that had become the monopoly of an esoteric class monastically isolated from the world by the high birth rate of terminology.

The quotation is from the preface to the 1933-edition of The Story of Philosophy (1926) by Will Durant. The picture is from the website of Will Durant Foundation, which is a good place for finding out more about the American philosopher.

Durant was quoted by Iqbal (not the excerpt given here) in the article 'Islam and Ahmedism' published in January 1936 in reply to a series by Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru.

What is the Republic of Rumi?

The Republic of Rumi: a Novel of Reality (2007) was a book in which I attempted a new approach to Iqbal Studies. Since then, I have realized that the idea can be developed further. 

In short, it means two things:

• The message of Iqbal is relevant today. It can be helpful in finding solutions which can be acceptable to the masses and not just the experts - quite possibly in many cultures of the world.
• Iqbal's message is a reinterpretation of the message of Rumi for our times.

The promise

What will be gained? The benefits can be at the national level as well as international.

At the national level, a society which adopts the ideals presented by Iqbal may discover "Marghdeen", the ideal world proposed by Iqbal where no one is needy or destitute, where knowledge is not used for exploitation and where a unity exists between spirit and matter. Iqbal presented this ideal world in his epic Javid Nama (1932), and from a careful study it may be realized that this is not just another utopia. It is achievable, provided that we are willing to reconsider some of our perceptions about things:

جہانِ تازہ کی افکارِ تازہ سے ہے نمود

کہ سنگ و خِشت سے ہوتے نہیں جہاں پیدا

Internationally, the message of Iqbal holds the promise of peace and harmony with better understanding between the masses and the educated elite, and between societies in the world. In Iqbal's own words:

The object of my Persian poems is not to make out a case for Islam; my aim is simply to discover a universal social reconstruction, and in this endeavor, I find it philosophically impossible to ignore a social system which exists with the express object of doing away with all the distinctions of caste, rank and race; and which, while keeping a watchful eye on the affairs of this world, fosters a spirit of un-worldliness so absolutely essential to man in his relations with his neighbors. This is what Europe lacks and this is what she can still learn from us.

(In my book, I tried to imagine this “universal social reconstruction” through an allegory, ‘A Parable Never Told’).

Iqbal Studies

A better understanding of the work of Iqbal is the way to begin. Marghdeen Learning Centre (MLC) has been added with the support of Iqbal Academy Pakistan.

An online certificate course, ‘Introduction to Iqbal Studies’, is offered four times a year at MLC. The course is certified by Iqbal Academy Pakistan. It is promoted internationally by Dr. Iqbal Society of North America (DISNA) and in Pakistan by Topline Publishers.

A new syllabus

I am convinced that the complete scope of Iqbal Studies can be realized only if we readjust our understanding of five areas to the vision of Iqbal. These areas are history, literature, political science, religion and science (together) and education.

Hence, the next step may be the development of a new syllabus in which various subjects are approached with the help of the guidance provided by Iqbal.

It might be more desirable to start introducing this new syllabus through informal and non-formal education. Marghdeen Learning Centre has also started offering courses in some of these areas. Self-Development through Iqbal is a certified course which offers a new introduction to literature with special focus on Javid Nama but also includes sections on Nezami, Attar, Rumi, Shakespeare and Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai. Another course, History According to Iqbal, is likely to be offered in January 2012.

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From Rashid Minhas, with love

P.A.F. Academy
Risalpur
29/10/69

Dear Ratti Jimmy,

I’ve been thinking for a long time about this letter for you. It’s finally today that I got down to writing it. By the way it’s your turn also by the merit system.

I’m doing fine out here. Maybe you’re interested in what I’m doing here. Life is fast but because of the routine, happy! Settled in a way that is. Studies are there mainly of all sorts of things about aircraft – the fuel systems, communications, navigation, aerodynamics, engines, and all sorts of other systems.

We also do a bit of procedures – what you do when you get lost without radio and such like things. Besides that we have GIT (ground combat training). We learn all about guns, fire them and so on (ground guns only: light weapons like rifles, light machine guns, sten, pistol, grenade). We’ve done the M-I and the Bren (LMG). It’s real fun at the range – real noisy too! The chatter of the automatics and the steady song of the rifles make it sound like doomsday! It’s just like the movies – the firing I mean; the sound is surely a lot more (usually we stuff our ears with cotton). Of course we’ve had our share of sore shoulders (the rifles kick!) The LMG of course does not kick, it just sort of vibrates.

Then there’s gliding – for sport. It’s fun though you hardly ever go up above 1000! I’ve done a take off and tried my hand at landing too but the thing just doesn’t go straight! (If there’s even a slight breeze it carries the thing with it!) So that’s all I’m doing here – next time insha Allah I’ll be learning to fly T-6G’s (Harvards to you). Maybe then you’ll hear more nice stories.

So much for that. Now let me know what you are doing? Studies, the usual bore? But cheer up! They’ll soon be over, honestly, I’m telling you – you won’t know it and the day will be there when you are free. You’ll be surprised by it, I can assure you.

At this stage maybe I should pore out my lecture to you as an elder brother – at least I’m supposed to, it’s only that I’ve no lecture for you but just a piece of advice more as a friend than as an elder brother.
I don’t ask you to do anything for me, for yourself or for anybody for that matter, for I can’t ask you – It’s your life, your wish, your will, your mind, your world. I am sure you know best and you do your best for the best for your aims. Believe me, when I say that I have the fullest confidence in you, I know you both better than anybody else – at least I can claim too! And I can also say with the fullest confidence that you are both, fortunately or unfortunately, bright characters. I know for certain that you are not kids for all your actions you have reasons – as all grown ups have. You like to play cricket because you want to become cricketers – that’s that! You don’t like to go to parties – You must be having your reasons (I had mine too!) but then I wasn’t confident as you and hardly ever refused. They seem stupid and meaningless, don’t they? People behave in a silly manner or so it seems. You feel out of place and stupid as well! They are simply suffocating! But now I like to go to parties. Why? You know as well as I do!

So as I was saying you must have a reason for everything – you do have, isn’t it? Nothing in this world is meaningless, if we just stop and think about it. I’m sure you know that already and I’m sure you never let things pass. Only fools do that. It follows from all this that everything, every person, belief, action has a reason, isn’t it? But then there are so many things we never think about – we never bother because we think we are too busy, don’t you think so? Have you ever thought of why you go to school? Why do we have education at all? Why do the astronauts go into space? Land on moon? Millions of dollars spent on a trip which at first sight seems to be just a good ride, isn’t it? Just think, millions of dollars! I still think it’s not a waste, there’s an excellent reason for it! Imagine people working, and working, for humanity to progress – why? Why can’t we be like animals? You must be knowing already that it is just because man wants to know the truth, the truth about himself, about the world, about everything. This is what they call the eternal quest for truth or truth through knowledge.

Of course religion gives it all to you in a concise form but it does not stop you from finding out for yourself and strengthening your belief. That is how it must be with you. You must find out the truth yourself. Satisfy your self. The books just give you the thing how it happens. People can just advise you. How? And Why? You must answer yourself. Think it out. It’s just like geometry, your reasoning, use it! Try to find for yourself what happens around you and why? Wake up! (That’s what the drill instructor says!) Whatever appeals to you, think over it and come to your own conclusions about it. You have every right to.

Similarly with other things. Do you know why the car runs? Or why the plane flies? How the astronaut reaches the moon? Find out! So many delicious secrets to be known by you, so many worlds to conquer – all yours! How does your body work? Why doesn’t the roof come down? Where does the picture come from in the TV? What makes a fast bowler’s ball “swing” and a spinner’s “turn”? Why is the ball red in cricket and white in hockey? Why do they have cinemascope screen on the oval? Why they call a cricket field an oval?

Then you must also ask questions about yourself to yourself. What will happen? What am I to do? What is “good,” what is “bad”? And then you’ll find so many strange things in this world – discover them. You’ll find more oddities than you can imagine. Standing on the earth you are traveling at 900 nautical miles an hour (even more rather much more than that! Why?)

I hope I’m not getting boring? It also follows from all that I’ve said that you also in this world enter with some purpose, some reason for being here – and now it is up to you to accomplish it. It is for you to decide where you fit in the giant machinery of our world. Soon, very soon, people will look up to you as the man – maybe the nation’s leader; do not let them down (You can be anything; it’s all up to you). You owe it to your family, to your country, to the world to be something and to prove as good for it. You owe it to yourself! Great men are not born; they make themselves great. Be a man so that the people are proud of you like Rafiqui, Maj. Aziz Bhatti, Dr. Barnard, Churchill, Gandhi, the Quaid. Wouldn’t you like them to be? I’m sure you would!

Never be mean, selfish, or tricky to accomplish your aims – I mean to say never lose the good quality you both have: straightforwardness. If you’ve done something wrong you’ve done it, what can anyone do about it? If you are sorry, say so. If you think it’s nothing to be sorry about, forget it!

3rd Nov 69. Continuing my lecture: Being straightforward on the other hand does not give you the passport to be careless – you must not have that in mind, for it will show that you know you are wrong and you don’t do anything correct yourself. Isn’t that so? As a mater of fact it should (being straightforward) help you realize your mistakes and limitations (you have these – no man is free of them.) But once you realize yourself your mistakes try to correct them, take pains to do it. Honestly, you’ll like the way you work on yourself. You’ll be a better person – No I don’t mean you’re bad; you are both good chaps and for good chaps the aim should be to become exceptional fellows.

Now you will ask what will I get by becoming good? Why should I be good at all! That is one question and statement which no one has been able to answer satisfactorily because you get very little, by doing good, naturally. Then the only plausible answer left is that you get the satisfaction and mental peace, you get rewarded in a later stage of your life. Personally I’d answer the question in a different manner altogether. You being unselfish never do anything for yourself – (I hope you take me seriously; it sounds silly, doesn’t it?) But you do it for others. Why? Because as I said you owe it to them – it is their right! How? It is their right because you are their son, their brother, uncle, cousin. As your parents they’ve brought you up for what? They’ve put up with all your wishes and whims, stayed up nights when you were ill, fed you, clothed you and what is more, they have never claimed what is their right on you. (“Why?” is another question I’d like you to think about). Even though they never told me that I owe them anything, I know that I do. I know too that I’ll never be able to return all that I’ve got from them (I’m not talking of material things). I am what they made me. You must understand this.

Besides this I’m sure you have great ambitions to become something really fantastic. You must prove to yourself these ambitions are not mere dreams (I can tell they are not if you just work hard enough). You want to be a hotrod army officer – commando chap? Go ahead plan your work that way, play that way so that you are fit for the job. You want to go to USA on scholarship to become a rocket and spaceship designer? Work for it. You want to rise like Napoleon (I wish you’d read his biography – by Emil Ludwig)? Think and plan in his style.

In short concentrate your energies in one direction do not waste them. I’m sorry I am not able to give all this advice emphatically for I myself suffer from a lot of drawbacks. Nevertheless you would learn from your and others’ mistakes and do well.

One more bit before I wind up: please do read. Read anything – comics, autobiographies, novels, anything but do read with a clear mind; never just for the heck of it; and then try to find out what is it that appeals to you. In this connection, Rukhsana and Farzana will be in a better position to advise you than I am but then I can tell you a few good books. Little Men by Luisa M. Alcott. In biographies, Churchill’s and Napoleon’s are the best. Of course you may come across some exceptional ones just by fluke. Personally I liked war books better Reach for the Sky (Paul Buckhill) and Dam Busters – then of course Alistair Maclean’s HMS Ulysses – are the ones I read the earliest. They are very absorbing. (The underlined books are in my shelf you can have them).

So then I hope you did not mind very much the long lecture. In any case I’ve spent five hours on it. It is all up to you how you take it. Do write to me. Anytime you want to know anything – anything – you let me know and I’ll send you a précis like this. Any time you feel stuck anywhere, let me know. Do let me know your views about the happenings around you as well. If there are any questions, do not hesitate – if you want confidential answers that too could be arranged! Anything that interests you, any book, anything you’d like to try your hands at and dad doesn’t approve of, let me know – maybe I’ll convince him. When I get a reply to this letter maybe by then I’ll have completed my second dose to you.

Khuda Hafiz
Rashid

P.S. Vol. 2 will not be so general. I’ll talk of one topic, in science maybe.
P.S. Keep Vol. I so that I can read and laugh when I get to Karachi. Rashid.
P.S. Tell Ma, Pa, I’m fine

Sheikh Ahmad Sirhindi

Sheikh Ahmad Sirhindi (1564-1624), popularly known as Mujaddid Alf-i-Sani (the Renovator of the Second Millenium), was a great Sufi who defied the religious experiments initiated by the Mughal emperor Jalaluddin Akbar and emphasized the uniqueness of the Muslim nation. In a famously quoted anecdote he is said to have refused to bow down before Akbar’s successor, the Emperor Nuruddin Jahangir (1569-1621), himself a precursor of Muslim nationalism in his own way.

Sirhindi’s crucial role as a supporter of Muslim nationhood is mentioned by Iqbal in the poem ‘To the Sufi Masters of Punjab’ in Gabriel’s Wing (see Chapter 90 in A Novel of Reality). The poem was apparently based on an actual visit to the tomb of the saint in the late 1920s, in which Iqbal’s son Javid, a little child at that time, also accompanied him.

Yet another dimension of the work of Sirhindi is introduced in the seventh lecture of the Reconstruction, ‘Is Religion Possible?’ Here, he is described as:

…a great religious genius of the seventeenth century… whose fearless analytical criticism of contemporary Sufism resulted in the development of a new technique. All the various systems of Sufi technique in India came from Central Asia and Arabia; his is the only technique which crossed the Indian border and is still a living force in the Punjab, Afghanistan, and Asiatic Russia. I am afraid it is not possible for me to expound the real meaning of this passage in the language of modern psychology; for such language does not yet exist.