IQBAL DAY AT CAIRO

Iqbal Day was observed in Cairo on November 28, 1967 with great enthusiasm. A meeting was held in the Abduhu Hall of the al-Azhar University, Cairo where the Rector of the University presided. Mr. Sajjad Haider, Pakistan's Ambassador to the U.A.R., delivered his address which is being reproduced below. Besides this, several articles on Iqbal's life and thought appeared in different journals of Cairo, like Akheri Saa (December 27, 1967), al-Mujallah (No. 133). We are reproducing only one of these below, viz : "Iqbal: The Philosopher and the Poet", by Mamoun Ghareeb.

IQBAL AND HIS PHILOSOPHY

by: Sajjad Haider

It is with a strange mixture of awe, humility and pride that I stand in this hall to talk about Iqbal. For Muhammad Abdou, whose distinguished name this hall bears, and Iqbal were kindred spirits. Along with Jamaluddin Afghani and Abdul Rahman Al-Kawakbi, they are great Muslim figures of this age. Muhammad Abdou and Iqbal devoted a great deal of their time to deep and serious meditation about the state of the Muslim nation in which they found it, and they both wielded their pens forcefully to alleviate some of the ills from which the Millat has been suffering for the past few centuries. However, there was one essential difference between them. Though reformists in their outlook and objective, their vehicle of expression was different. Whereas Muhammad Abdou chose prose to write a most learned and penetrating treatise, second only perhaps to Ibn Khuldun's Moqaddama, Iqbal expressed himself in verse.

Iqbal is not unknown in this country. His works have been studied and appreciated by some of your great thinkers. This is what Dr. Taha Husain had to say about him:

"It was Iqbal who invited and prompted us to know ourselves, to struggle for our rights and to strive for the cause of righteousness, good and beauty."

Mr. Ahmad Hassan-al-Zayyat said;

"If Hassan (Ibn Sabet) is the poet of Islam, Iqbal is the poet of the divine message. If Hassan had some rivals who vied for the honour of defending Muhammad, Iqbal has no rivals with pretentions to the honour of defending Muhammad's message."

Mr. Abbas Mahmoud A1-Aqqad:

"It is the duty of people in all ages to pay respect and homage to great men, and if it is the duty of the East to acknowledge the services of such people, then Iqbal is the man to be taken as an example."

And Dr. Abdul Wahab Azzam:

"We want every body to read Iqbal's poetry and philosophy. His philosophy depicts the dynamism of life and his poetry is Hudy of a toiling and struggling caravan on the march."

And finally, Dr. Mohammad Husain Haikal:

"Iqbal did not confine his message to his co-religionists in India. He addressed himself to the Muslims of the whole world. His message was universal for all peoples of the globe."

This last quotation perhaps sums up Iqbal and his works best. For Iqbal was not only a poet par excellence but a philosopher, a thinker, a preacher, a politician and a creator as well.

Before we go into all these, one by one, let us first cast a look at Iqbal's life. It is not without some importance in any evaluation of his achievements.

Iqbal was born in Sialkot on 22nd February 1873,[1] in a middle class Kashmiri family. His father, Nur Muhammad, a businessman, was a deeply religious man. He followed the established practice of starting off Iqbal's education in a mosque where he learnt the Holy Quran. Thereafter Iqbal went to a local school, where he came under the guidance of Syed Mir Hasan, an erudite scholar, who was quick to recognise the genius of Iqbal and gave him every encouragement. All through his life Iqbal felt beholden and peeply attached to his teacher. When the British Governor of Lahore once offered him a title, Iqbal said that it be given to his old teacher instead. This was done and the title of Shams-al-Ulama was conferred on Syed Mir Hasan.

Iqbal moved to Lahore at the age of 22, and obtained his M.A. in philosophy two years later. In Lahore, he came under the influence of Sir Thomas Arnold, Professor of Philosophy at the Government College. On Sir Thomas's advice Iqbal proceeded to Eurpose for higher studies in 1905. Before this, Iqbal, both as a student and later as a teacher, devoted a great deal of time to writing. By the time of his departure for Europe, his poetry had already made a name for him throughout the subcontinent. The very first verse that attracted instantaneous attention was as the one he read at a poetical symposium he attended as a young student. It went like this:

موتی سمجھ کر شان کریمی نے چن لیے

قطرے جو تھے میرے عرق انفعال کے

The Divine Power collected as pearls

The drops of contrition from my brow.

Iqbal's three years' stay abroad was divided between Cambridge, Munich and London. He studied philosophy at Cambridge, obtained his doctorate on The Development of Metaphysics in Persia from Munich, and was called to the Bar in London.

On his return, Iqbal joined the Government College, Lahore as a part-time Professor of Philosophy and English Literature, and at the same time began his practice. But after some time he resigned his Professorship and concentrated on Law. However, his main pre-occupation continued to be his poetry and other writings. His greatest works both as a Poet and as a Philosopher were products of this period.

In 1927 his friends persuaded Iqbal to stand for the Punjab Legislative Assembly to which he was elected. The same year he was invited by a British Commission of Inquiry to give evidence in connection with their proposed reforms for the sub-continent. In 1930 he was selected to preside at the annual session of the Muslim League. It was in his presidential address to the Muslim League at Allahabad that Iqbal first put forward his scheme for the solution of the political deadlook in the Indo‑ Pakistan sub-continent. In 1932 Iqbal presided at the annual session of the Muslim Conference.

Although Iqbal gave up active teaching he continued to maintain close associations with the academic world throughout his life. For many years he remained the Dean of the Faculty of Oriental Studies.

Iqbal's last five years saw the progressive decline of his health, but his creative powers remained unimpaired. He died on 21st April 1938. Half an hour before his death he recited these verses:

The melody that is departed may or may not return again;

A breeze from Hedjaz may or may not blow again;

The days of this Faqir have come to an end;

another knower of secrets may or may not come.

A little earlier he had said:

I tell you the sign of a Momin:

When death comes there is a smile on his lips.

Iqbal's works are spread over 11 books, 10 in verse and 1 in prose. These are:

1.       Asrar-i-Khudi or the Secrets of the Self. It was published in 1915 and contains Iqbal's philosophy of the Ego.

2.       Rumuz-i-Bekhudi, published in 1918, is a continuation of Asrar-iKhudi. In it Iqbal goes from self to its identification with communal and national interests.

3.       Payam-i-Mashriq, published in 1922, is in reply to Goete's Dewani-Maghreb.

All three of these works are in Persian.

4.       There was a great demand for a collection and publication of Iqbal's Urdu verses. Accordingly, Bang-i-Dara was put out in 1924.

5.       The next collection of Persian poems came out in 1927 under the title of Zabur-i-Ajam. It consists of two parts: (i) couplets and Ghazals, (ii) Two Mathnavis, called Ghulshan-i-Raz-i-Jadid and Bandagi nama.

6.       In 1930 Iqbal published his lectures at Madras, Hyderabad and Aligarh. In these lectures Iqbal discusses the fundamental principles of Islam in the context of modern thought and scientific knowledge.

7.       Javed Nama, published in 1932, is a reply to Dante's Divine Comedy.

8.       Bal-i-Jibril was published in 1935. After Bang-i-Dara it was the second collection of Iqbal's verses in Urdu. This book is thought to be the best Iqbal's Urdu poetry has to offer.

9.       Pas Che Bayed Kard e Aqwam-e-Sharq, published in 1936, is a long Mathnavi in which Iqbal explains to the people of the East the ways of religion and politics in the modern world.

10.    Zarb-i-Kalim, also published in 1936, is another collection of Urdu verses in which Iqbal tackles in the most direct way some of the problems confronting Islam and Muslims.

11.    Armughan-i-Hedjaz, published posthumously in 1938, is a collection of Iqbal's Persian as well as Urdu verses. These contain many tributes to the Holy Prophet.

The first point to note about Iqbal's poetry is that Iqbal was absolutely opposed to the concept of art for art's sake. According to him the aim of all art should be to provide guidance to humanity. His own poetry was shaped by a desire to enrich human life. For Iqbal the two powerful impulses to artistic expression were his faith in the capacity for limitless development and man's unique position in the universe.

Therefore his poetry and his theme are always closely linked and parallel to each other. Of course, as Iqbal's ideas matured so did his chosen vehicle for the expression of these ideas. This does not mean that Iqbal's early works are devoid of any poetic merit. On the contrary there is a continuing sense of solemnity, earnestness and quest for the secrets of reality and existence throughout his works. However, the essential difference between his early and later works is that from an ornate and Persianised style they became austere, precise and simple. They became precise as did his thoughts.

He begins by talking about himself, about his love, about his grief and about his loneliness. Then from himself he progresses to the Muslim Community in India and then to the Millat-i-Islam. In this his thoughts turned first and foremost to his Arab brethren. In a poem addressed to the Holy Prophet, he says:

حضور! دہر میں آسودگی نہیں ملتی

تلاش جس کی ہے وہ زندگی نہیں ملتی

ہزاروں لالہ و گل ہیں ریاض ہستی میں

وفا کی  جس میں ہو بو وہ کلی نہیں ملتی

مگر میں نذر کو اک آبگینہ لایا ہوں

جو چیز اس میں ہے جنت میں بھی نہیں ملتی

جھلکتی ہے تری امت کی آبرو اس میں

طرابلس کے شہیدوں کا ہے لہو اس میں

(B. D., 218-19)

Sir, there is no peace in the world;

Life I search for is nowhere to be found;

The Garden of the universe is teaming with tulips and roses;

But, alas, none smells of love.

I have brought this mirror as a humble present ;

It holds what is nowhere to be found in paradise ;

It holds the blood of martyrs of Tripoli

And reflects the honour of your Millat.

From the Millat-i-Islam he goes further to mankind and from mankind to the Universe. This progression in Iqbal’s thought and poetry will illustrate the quotations from Dr. Taha Husain, Dr. Abdul Wahab Azzam and Dr. Mohammad Husain Haikal cited earlier.

Now let us look at some of the salient points in the evolution of Iqbal’s thought. He started off by expressing his sensations, perceptions and personal experiences. By the time he was ready to leave for Europe, he had already become aware of the fact that the Muslim Community in the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent had been left behind in the race for material progress. I shall revert to this point, in its proper context, later. At the moment, I am only confining myself to the evolution of Iqbal’s thought. After a long and painful appraisal of his community’s down troddenness, he formulated certain positive views, which were subsequently to lead to the creation of Pakistan.

However, for the moment Iqbal went deeper into the basic causes of this Muslim downfall in the sub-continent and elsewhere. When he cast a glance over the state of Muslims the world over, his heart bled. He found them under subjugation of one kind or another every where. The Millat was in an abject state of decadence. He traced it to two reasons: (i) intellectual, political and cultural _berrations of the past, and (ii) the sense of lethargy which a certain kind of mysticism, blind to actual realities of life, had enervated the people and steeped them in all kinds of superstitions. Iqbal was not opposed to mysticism as such. He was a great admirer of Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi and drew much inspiration from him. His view was that mysticism had fallen from a high state of spiritual education into mere exploitation of ignorance and credulity. As Iqbal found the Millat a prey to Western Imperialism, he raised a lament. In doing so, he went as far as to join issue with God, who appeared to have abandoned the faithful. It is this Shikwa and Jawab-iShikwa from which Umm Kulsoom sang, so beautifully, a few verses earlier this year You will be pleased to learn that the President of Pakistan has decided to confer the title of Sitara-i-lmtiaz, one of our highest awards, on her for this. Now listen to some other verses from the same Shikwa and think:

بت صنم خانوں میں کہتے ہیں مسلمان گئے

ہے خوشی ان کو کہ کعبے کے نگہبان گئے

منزل دہر سےاونٹوں کے ہدی خوان گئے

اپنی بغلوں میں دبائے ہوئے قرآن گئے

خندہ زن کفر ہے احساس تجھے ہے کہ نہیں؟

اپنی توحید کا کچھ پاس تجھے ہے کہ نہیں

(B. D., 181-2)

The idols in the temple say: Muslims are gone;

And they rejoice that the guardians of Kaaba are no more;

They say: "The world's stage is clear of the camel drivers ;

They have fled with their Quran in their armpits."

The worshippers of many gods laugh at us ;

Have you no feeling?

Have you no regard for your Unity?

Iqbal, however, did not despair and addressed himself to the task of finding where exactly lay the reason for our past errors. He found that it was the Hellenic ideas imported into the cultural and intellectual world of Islam which lay at the root of all subsequent aberrations to which I have already referred. Under the impact of Greek influence, Islam had undergone a transformation from its dynamic positivism to passive meditative creed which in its turn led to pessimism and fatalism. He denounced Plato and launched an attack on Sufism which was responsible for the doctrine of Wandatul Wujud, the pantheistic belief that God is immanent and the entire universe is a mere emanation.

This quest finally led Iqbal to his theory of Khudi or 'Self', which opens with the following verses from Rumi:

دی شیخ با چراغ ہمی گشت گرد شہر

کز دام و دو ملولم و انسانم آرزوست

زین ہمرہان سست عناصر دلم گرفت

شیر خدا و رستم دستانم آرزوست

گفتم کہ یافت می  نشود جستہ ایم ما

گفت آنکہ یافت می  نشود آنم آرزوست

Last night a Shaikh went round the town with a lamp in his hand;

Muttering: I am fed up with the motley crowd

Of beasts like people around me and look for a "man" ;

He found his fellows slow and elements tiresome;

He was looking for a man like Ali or Rustam of Dastan;

I told him: We have looked also but could not find ;

He said: My desire is to find what cannot be got.

In Asrar-i-Khudi Iqbal laid emphasis on the 'Self', the centre of all activity and action, the core of personality, the ego. He held that man should do everything possible to develop his self and bring it to perfection. "The moral and religious ideal of man is not self-negation but self-affirmation," he asserted. "And he who attains to this ideal becomes more and more individual, more and more unique. The Prophet said: Takhallaqu b' akhlaq Allah. Thus man achieves more and more uniqueness." According to Iqbal, life is individual and it is the highest form of Khudi in which the individual becomes a self-contained exclusive centre ; but he is not yet a complete individual. The greater his distance from God, the lesser his individuality. He who goes nearest to God is a complete person. Not that he is finally absorbed in God. On the contrary he absorbs God into himself. The true individual cannot be lost in the world: it is the world that is lost in him.

کافر کی یہ پہچان کہ وہ افلاک میں گم ہے

مومن کی یہ پہچان کہ گم اس میں ہیں افلاک

The unbeliever is one who is lost in the Universe ; A believer is one in whom the Universe is lost.

This process of perfection and development of the self is to take place not outside time and space but through struggle and strife in the world of time and space. Life for Iqbal is a forward assimilative movement. It removes all obstructions in its march by assimilating them. Its essence is a continual creation of desires and ideals and for the purpose of its preservation and expansion it has invented or developed out of itself certain instruments such as senses and intellect, which help it to assimilate obstructions. The greatest obstacle in the way of life is matter or Nature, and yet nature is not evil, since it enables the inner powers of life to unfold themselves. The ego attains freedom by the removal of all obstructions in its way. It is partly free, partly determined; and reaches fuller freedom by approaching the Being who is most free—God. In one word life is an endeavour for freedom, a need for creativity in place of passivity. One of the utterrances of Iqbal placed in the mouth of God is:

ہر کہ او را لذت تخلیق نیست

پیش ما جز کافر و زندیق نیست

He who does not possess power of creativity

Is naught but an Infidel and Zindiq.

This philosophy of dynamism, this ideal of the development of the Self, was precisely the intellectual and spiritual stimulus which Iqbal thought was most needed by the Millat.

According to Iqbal, to fortify the self, the following factors were required:

(1)                               Love,

(2)                               Faqr,

(3)                               Courage,

(4)                               Tolerance,

(5)                               Kasb-e-Halal,

(6)                               Taking part in original and creative activities.

Of these I would like to touch briefly upon only one, namely, courage. Iqbal believes that courage, physical and moral, is essential for man to achieve anything really important in this world. Progress means encountering obstacles which only serve to draw the best out of those possessing courage. It is only the weaker ones who succumb to obstacles. Courage does not consist merely in facing physical dangers manly, but also in not losing faith in one's standard of values when things go wrong. And here I would like to quote some of Iqbal's verses on Khudi which are specially addressed to the young:

خود کو غلامی سے آزاد کر

جوانوں کو پیروں کو اُستاد کر

تڑپنے پھڑکنے کی توفیق دے

دل مرتضیٰ سوز صدیق دے

جوانوں کو سوز جگر بخش دے

مرا عشق میری نظر  بخش دے

(B. J., 168-9)

O Lord, free the intellect from slavery,

And make the young teachers of their elders;

Bestow on them the power to pulsate with life,

The Heart of Ali and the love of Siddiq;

Give the young my anguish of heart,

My love and my insight.

Again:

سوچا بھی ہے اے مرد مسلماں کبھی تونے

کیا چیز ہے فولاد کی شمشیر جگردار

اس آیت کا یہ مصرع اول ہے کہ جس میں

پوشیدہ چلے آتے ہیں توحید کے اسرار

ہے فکر مجھے مصرع ثانی کی زیادہ

اللہ کرے تجھ کو عطا فقر کی تلوار

قبضے میں یہ تلوار بھی آ جائے تو مومن

یا خالد جانباز ہے یا حیدر کرار

(Z. K. 21)

O Muslim! hath thou ever pondered over

What is the shining sword of steel?

It is the first hemistich of this verse

Which comprises the full essense of Tauhid.

But I am thinking more of the second hemistich;

May God grant you the sword of Faqr.

If this Sword too comes into the hands of a believer;

He becomes Khalid the brave or Haider the Impetuous.

But the ultimate essence of Khudi is:

خودی کا سر نہاں لا الہ الا اللہ

خودی ہے تیغ فساں لا الہ الا اللہ

یہ نغمہ فصل گل و لالہ کا نہیں پابند

بہار ہو کہ خزاں لا الہ الا اللہ

The Hidden essence of Khudi is that there is no god but God;

Khudi is sword; its whetstone is: there no god but God;

This song is not dependent on a season of flowers;

Spring or Autumn, say: There is no god but God.

Iqbal's dynamism is best reflected in his religious thoughts. Deeply imbued with the teachings of Islam, Iqbal was greatly concerned with the impact of modern western thought on Islam. But he was not unappreciative of the contribution made by the West. He said, "The task before the modern Muslim is therefore immense. He is to re-think the whole system of Islam without completely breaking with the past. The only course open to us is to approach the modern knowledge with a respectful but independent attitude and appreciate the teachings of Islam in

the light of that knowledge, even though we may be led to differ from those who who have gone before us."

Iqbal's major contribution in this field was a series of lectures delivered at Madras, Hyderabad and Aligarh. What is the theme of these lectures, called The Reconstruction of Religious Thoughts in Islam? In these lectures Iqbal discussed the fundamental principles of Islam in the light of modern thought and scientific knowledge and made a searching analysis of its basis. He reinterpreted Islam as a dynamic rather than static religion, and a liberal rather than a reactionary force. In Iqbal's view Islam would cease to be Islam if its fundamentals were not living enough to allow a continuous process of fresh experiments and new judgements to change its Society.

According to Iqbal the Idealism that Europe claims to have, was not among the self-generating and animating factors which had their impressions on its existence. On the contrary, Europe had produced strange and conflicting concepts which resulted in a lost Self. Europe is still struggling in the quest which it finds only in democracies, which in turn know no tolerance.

Iqbal's philosophy is centered in the idea that Prophet Muhammad was the essence of the spirit of Islamic culture. The Great Prophet unites the ancient with the modern world. From the ancient world came his message, and, in the present time, his spirit is still prevailing. Life, according to the Prophet, is to be led according to the prevailing trends. The revival of Islam should therefore be based on intellect, logic, and reasoning. To Iqbal religion is not a partial thinking nor is it abstract thinking, feeling or action; it is the expression of a man as a whole. Therefore when philosophy studies religion, it must acknowledge its main position. There is no doubt that religion has an essential role to play in resolving all other factors and elements through reason and thinking.

Iqbal's idea in this regard is the sound extension of al-Ghazali's thinking on religion and philosophy. Iqbal thinks that religious beliefs and notions have their metaphysical basis, but they are not interpretations of the bases of experience which constitute the subject of natural sciences. From this Iqbal goes on to say that the Holy Prophet wanted to create a wakeful and conscious community. Iqbal maintains that Muslim nation did not lag behind or resort to fatal negation until after its political decay and infiltrations into it of certain foreign influences. To Iqbal religion, more than science, can lead man to the eternal truth through the correct path which does derive its strength from religion. He believes that after taking successful scientific studies, the modern man is no more taking interest in the spiritual life. A modern man is indulging in dynamic realities ignoring everything about spirit. With matter, man's activities are paralysed and from this both East and West suffer. Truth in Islam is based on spirit and it can be reached only through man's endeavours. A material man will have no reality unless he develops spirit within himself.

To Iqbal the universe had not been created in vain. There is a mission to be carried out in the universe and it is on the earth that this mission is undertaken. Man is destined to play his part in fulfilling the universe's mission, and he is properly to determine his destiny and that of the universe as well. Iqbal believes that the highest that the Self aspires to is not to see something but to become something. Efforts made by the Self to become something provide good chances for the achievement of subjectivity and in creating the complete Self. The evidence of the reality of the Self is not in saying 'I think', as Descartes had maintained, but in Kant's 'I can' and before him in al-Ghazali's 'I will'.

Iqbal believes that any Muslim can define his position, rebuild his life and reorientate his social life in the light of ultimate principles. From the principles of his religion, a Muslim can discover spiritual values which is the last and final goal of Islam. This then is the essense of Iqbal's philosophy.

I shall now turn, as I promised earlier, to the question of Iqbal's role as a politician and a creator. It may sound strange that in this century Poet can fulfill these two arduous tasks with success, but Iqbal did, and in that lies his ever lasting greatness. As a starting point, we may briefly refer to the advent of Islam into the sub-continent of India andPakistan.

Islam first came to India with Muhammad bin Qasim, who led an expedition from Iraq into what is now West Pakistan. However, the impact of this arrival, as we all know, was a short lived one. The next arrival was that of Mahmud Ghaznavi, who led an expedition into the subcontinent from the North West in the 10th Century. From then on the Muslim rule in India extended in varying extents over a period of 600 years. However, with the disintegration of the Mughal Empire, following the death of Emperor Aurangzeb in 1707, and the ascendency of the British in the subcontinent, the Muslims went into a period of decline.

There were two reasons for it. First, the new rulers did not trust the community from whom they had taken over the reins of power. Secondly, the war of liberation in 1857 was fought round the person of the last Muslim ruler of Delhi. Clear and recorded accounts exist of the cruel barbarities to which the Muslim community was subjected by the British after this war. There were summary hangings, shootings, economic oppression and discrimination. Not content with that, the British made it their policy to keep the Muslim community down by all possible means at their disposal. Muslims suddenly found themselves not only bereft of all power and authority but also bereft of their fortunes and many other things that they valued besides. Persian was dislodged as an official language. Muslim Criminal Law was scrapped and the Shariat Law amended. Muslims were deprived of their customary places in the administration of the country. And in Iqbal's words "The Englishman took a Muslim for a beggar."

This led the Indian Muslims to react in a variety of ways, not always calculated in their best interests. They would not cooperate with the new rulers, forbade their children to learn their language and engagd themselves in all manner of opposition and hostilities, which did nothing except bring down further displeasure on their heads. The resultant mood of depression and incompatibility with the new environment from which the Muslims suffered was manifested in their attitude towards religion. For their broken spirits religion provided a solace and no longer a guide to action. No more was it the instrument to establish the kingdom of God on earth, but an escape to the Kingdom of God in Heaven. It is at this stage that the question of relations between the Muslim and the Hindu communities came up.

To understand this point, we must go back once again. From their advent into and to the end of their power in the sub-continent, there was such a phenomenon as the impact of Islam on the predominant Hindu Community. I can do it no better than describe it in the words of an eminent Hindu historian, Mr. K. M. Pannikar, who in his Survey of Indian History says, "The main social result of the introduction of Islam as a religion into India was the division of society on a vertical basis. Before the thirteenth century, Hindu society was divided horizontally, and neither Buddhism nor Jainism affected this division. They were not unassimilable elements and fitted in easily with the existing divisions. Islam, on the other hand, split Indian society into two sections from top to bottom and what has now come to be known in the phraseology of today, two separate nations came into being from the beginning. It was two parallel societies vertically established on the same soil. At all stages they were different and hardly any social communication or intermingling of life existed between them."

Once this point is firmly grasped the rest of what I am about to say will become clear, and any doubts that you may have had about why it was necessary to divide the sub-continet into India and Pakistan will no longer continue to assail you.

The process of adjustment in the majority community after the British rise to power in India was much easier, and more profitable. However, the Muslims found any compromise with the British tantamount to further humiliation. The Muslim community therefore behaved very much like China which after the incursion of the Western Powers both before and after the Opium Wars, turned its face against modern aggressive civilisation and withdrew into its own shell, while the Hindus reacted very much like the forward looking warrior class of Japan after Comdr. Perry's bombardment. Unlike China or the Indiam Muslims who refused to face the realities of life, the Samurais of Japan turned to master the new techniques and industrial technology which their superior invaders had and ended up by beating them at their own game of industrial and technological achievements. The majority community in India followed the same path of hard-headed realism.

Having reached the dead-end, a way out had to be found for the Muslims of India. The Aligarh movement was the first step in this direction. Sayyid Ahmad, the great Muslim Reformer of modern India, opened the first college for the Muslim youth, where they could learn modern languages and sciences. In this pursuit Sayyid Ahmad concerned himself Only with his own movement, in which he thought the salvation of his community lay.

However, the younger section of the Community persued an anti-British policy because they found British imperialism pitted against Islam every where in the world. This is how Edward Thomson and G. T. Garrat, two Englishmen, sum up the situation: "British policy during the pre-war years added to Muslim discontent. One Muhammadan Country after another was being absorbed by European Powers and the British were either privy to the arrangement, as in Morocco and Persia, or made no protest, as in Tripoli. The Balkan Wars of 1912-13 were considered part of a general attack upon Islam. Meanwhile, the younger Indian Muhammadans were increasingly affected by the racial nationalism of the educated classes and their co-religionists in other countries. Money was collected for the Turkish Red Crescent Fund."

Therefore when Nationalism overtook India at the turn of the century, the ways of the two communities started to part. Their goals became different. Small differences led to bigger ones, and the question of Hindu-Muslim unity, about which you have already heard, became a live issue. Now strange though it may seem, both Iqbal and Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah began their political lives by throwing themselves wholeheartedly into the struggle for bringing the two communities together. While Iqbal said, "India is better than the whole world put together", Quaid-i-Azam came to be known by his Hindu Congress colleagues as the Ambassador of Hindu Muslim unity. But their efforts were in vain. The gulf between the two communities kept on widening. As Mr. Pannikar has correctly described, there was no common meeting ground between the two. Communal disturbances — that is bloody fights between the two communities — became a daily feature of life in the subcontinent.

It was in this atmosphere that Iqbal delivered his presidential address at the Muslim League session in Allahabad in 1930. He said:

"The units of Indian society are not territorial as in European countries. India is a continent of human groups belonging to different races, speaking different languages and professing different religions. Their behaviour is not at all determined by a common race-consciousness. The principle of European democracy cannot be applied to India without recognising the fact of communal groups. The Muslim demand for the creation of a Muslim India within India is therefore perfectly justified... Personally, I would like to see the Punjab, North West Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan amalgamated into a single State. Self-Government within the British Empire or without the British Empire, the formation of a solid North West Indian Muslim State appears to me to be the final destiny of the Muslims. Nor should the Hindus fear that the creation of an autonomous Muslim State will mean the introduction of a kind of religious rule in such a State. I have already indicated to you the meaning of the word religion as applied to Islam. The truth is that Islam is not a Church. It is a State conceived as a contractual organism long before Rousseau ever thought of such a thing, and animated by an ethical ideal which regards man not as an earth-rooted creature, defined by this or that portion of the earth but as a spiritual being understood in terms ofsocial mechanism, and possessing rights and duties as a living factor in that mechanism."

If you examine this dispassionately in the light of subsequent developments, you will see that Iqbal was rendering service both to Islam and India. However. few thought at the time that his foresight would lead to the creation of the independent and sovereign State of Pakistan. Presiding over the session of Muslim Conference in 1932, Iqbal elaborated the programme for the Muslims of the subcontinent if they desired to lead an honourable life and free to follow their ideals:

"These phenomena, however, are merely premonitions of a coming storm, which is likely to sweep over the whole of India and the rest of Asia. This is an inevitable outcome of a wholly political civilisation which has looked upon man as a thing to be exploited and not as a personality to be developed and enlarged by purely cultural forces. The peoples of Asia are bound to rise against the acquisitive economy which the West has developed and imposed on the nations of the East. Asia cannot comprehend modern Western Capitalism with its undisciplined individualism. The faith which you represent recognises the worth of the individual and disciplines him to give away his all to the service of God and man. Its possibilities are not yet exhausted. It can still create a new world where the social rank of man is not determined by his caste or colour, or the amount of dividend he earns, but by the kind of life he lives ; where the poor tax the rich, where human society is founded not on the equality of stomach but on the equality of spirits, where an untounchable can marry the daughter of a king, where private ownership is a trust and where capital cannot be allowed to accumulate so as to dominate the real producer of wealth. This superb idealism of our faith, however, needs emancipation from the medieval fancies of theologians and legists. Spiritually we are living in a prison-house of thoughts and emotions which during the course of centuries we have woven round ourselves. And be it further said to the shame of us— men of older generation— that we have failed to equip the younger generation for the economic, political and even religious crises that the present age is likely to bring. The whole community needs a complete overhauling of its present mentality in order that it may again become capable of feeling the urge of fresh desires and ideals.

"The Indian Muslim has long ceased to explore the depths of his inner life. The result is that he has ceased to live in the full glow and colour of life, and is consequently in danger of an unmanly compromise with forces which he is made to think he cannot vanquish in open conflict. He who desires to change the inevitable environment must undergo a complete transformation of his inner being. God changeth not the condition of a people until they themselves take the initiative to change their condition by constantly illuminating the zone of their daily activity in the light of a definite ideal.

"Nothing can be achieved without a firm faith in the independence of one's own inner life. This faith alone keeps a people's eye fixed on their goal and saves them from perpetual vacillation. The lesson that past experience has brought to you must be taken to heart. Expect nothing from any side. Concentrate your ego on yourself alone, and ripen your clay into real manhood if you wish to see your aspirations realized. Mussolini's maxim was: 'He who has steel has bread'. I venture to modify it a bit and say: 'He who is steel has everything'. Be hard and work hard. This is the whole secret of individual and collective life. Our ideal is well defined. It is to win, in the coming constitution, a position for Islam which may bring it opportunities to fulfil her destiny in this country. It is necessary in the light of this ideal to rouse the progressive forces of community and to organise their hitherto dormant energies. The flame of life cannot be borrowed from others; it must be kindled in the temple of one's own soul, This requires earnest preparation and a relatively permanent programme. What then shall be our future programme? I am inclined to think that it should be partly political, partly cultural."

I earnestly beg you all to read this passage again and again. Its import will then become clear. It applies as much today as it did 35 years ago, for the battle is not yet over.

In a letter to the Quad-i-Azam, Iqbal wrote in 1931: "After a long and careful study of Islamic Law, I have come to the conclusion that if this system of Law is properly understood and applied, at least the right to subsist, is secured to everybody. But this enforcement and development of Shariat of Islam is impossible in this country without a free Muslim State or States. This has been my honest conviction for many years and I still believe it to be the only way to solve the problem of bread for Muslims as well as to secure a peaceful India.

"For Islam, the acceptance of social democracy in some suitable form and consistent with the legal principles of Islam is not a revolution but a return to the original purity of Islam. The modern problems therefore are far more easy to solve for the Muslims . . . But as I have said above in order to make it possible for Muslim country to solve these problems, it is necessary to redistribute the community and to provide one or more Muslim States with absolute majority." The basis of Pakistan was thus not only religious but also political and even more economic. It was toprovide daily bread and equality of opportunity to every one.

In yet another letter to the Quaid-i-Azam in 1937, Iqbal said, "You are the only Muslim in India today to whom the community has a right to look up for safe guidance through the storm which is coming to North-West India, and perhaps to the whole of India. . . . A separate Federation of Muslim provinces reformed on the lines suggested is the only course by which we can secure a peaceful India and save Muslims from domination of the non-Muslims. Why should not the Muslims of North-West India and Bengal be considered as a Nation entitled to self-determination just as other Nations in India and outside are?"

These lengthy quotations will show you why and how Pakistan came into existence. Iqbal not oniy saw in Pakistan the only solution of the political, social and economic problems of Muslims living in the subcontinent, but he also chose the man who alone could achieve it. The people of Pakistan owe a debt to Iqbal which can never be repaid. All we can do is to work hard for the ideals which he cherished and set before us. Iqbal himself enunciated these ideals in his address to the Muslim League in 1930 in the following words:

"One lesson I have learnt from the history of Muslims. At critical moments in their history it is Islam that has saved Muslims and not vice versa. If today you focus your vision on Islam and seek inspiration from the ever vitalising idea embodied in it, you will be only reassembling your scattered forces, regaining your lost integrity and thereby saving yourself from total destruction. One of the profoundest verses in the Holy Quran teaches us that the birth and rebirth of the whole humanity is like the birth and rebirth of a single individual. Why cannot you, who as a people, can well claim to be the first practical exponent of this superb conception of humanity, live and move and have your being as a single individual? I do not wish to mystify anybody when I say that things in India are not what they appear to be. The meaning of this, however, will dawn upon you when you have achieved the real collective ego to look at them. In the words of the Quran, 'Hold fast to yourself; no one who earth can hurt you, provided you are well guided.' Here is something for you to ponder again."

Iqbal has been dead these 30 years. But he lives in our hearts. He will live as long as Pakistan lives, and Pakistan will live as long as does this world.

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