IQBALIANA ABSTRACTS

Serial No. 1

ARTICLES ON IQBAL AND HIS THOUGHT

Published in

PAKISTAN TIMES, Lahore

Compiled by

Rihana Anwar Siddiqui

ART & LITERATURE

Abdullah, S. M., "Iqbal on Fine Arts", Pakistan Times, Lahore, April21, 1962, page 7.

Iqbal's theory of Aesthetics can be summed up as follows :

a.      Art is a means of communication through self-realisation. It must serve life, not only by giving pleasure but by effecting social improvement.

b.     Art is an expression of personal emotion. It has social association and implications also.

c.      Real art is the one which arouses a sense of power and dignity, and interprets beauty in terms of strife, not only for existence but also for the  reater evolution of mankind.

Iqbal's theory of Art is just a mixture of several conceptions of M. Partly, it resembles the theory of Plato inasmusch as he ' Wens that beauty is at one with truth. He also seems to be in *cement with Tolstoy or Ruskin who considers Art to be a universal Image which should be understood by all and used for ethical purposes. Iqbal is also not far away from Croce, whose first principle d Arts rests on his definition of `Art as Intuition'.

Iqbal was an exponent of Islamic tradition of aesthetics. Art, acccording to the Muslims, is not an end in itself, but a means to an end, largely of a practical or useful nature. Mere `pleasure-seeking'

never been the aim of or incentive for the Muslim artist or his ice.

Muslims took more interest in geometrical arts than in represen­t arts, because the Arabs believed in the presence of a geometri‑

Ow in all life because they thought harmony, through which perception of beauty is possible, depends on geometrical laws. Iqbal has classified the Arts in two kinds:

I. The Arts of the free people.

2. The Arts of the slaves.

According to lqbal, Art is a means, not only of perception but also of realisation of self.

He stresses the moral side of the Arts and desires to effect a compromise between religious and aesthetic ideals. He is a modern exponent of the Islamic values of Art.

Iqbal's theory of Arts is linked up with his theory of Khudi. The doctrine of Khudi is linked up with life-serving ends.

Iqbal does not believe in mere idealisation.

Realistic art, however, is discouraged by him because its sub­jects must naturally be portraitures of the ugly, the ignoble, the diseased, the low and the sordid.

The Greeks hold tragedy as the greatest art but for Iqbal tragedy is just a process of life. There is nothing in tragedy which may be regarded as something "extraordinary" and worthy of special interest.

Iqbal opposed Naturalistic Doctrine so far as Fine Arts are concerned.

Iqbal does not believe in the theory of imitation. The Artist should perfect and supplement what already exists; he should not merely copy; he should create. The artist would re-interpret nature, not in terms of physical appearance, but in the light of his own esoteric experience.

According to Iqbal, imitative naturalism is bound to destroy the originality and the individuality of an artist. Iqbal condemned Fro-deans also who interpret the whole life in terms of sex behaviour. According to Iqbal, Absolute Beauty exists as an Ideal for which efforts should be made. Iqbal's leanings are more towards the abstract arts, more to the geometrical arts of Islamic pattern. His preference in Arts seems to be in the following order:

Poetry — is a dignified medium for thought emotionalised.

Music — is the most abstract art and also it lifts one's soul on the path of higher existence.

Architecture—is a symbol of solidity and solemnity.

Painting—is a method of presenting beauty.

Iqbal is not against Artistic activity but he is certainly against the indulgence or over-emphasis on arts as against religious experience.

***

Zafar, Yusuf; "Iqbal as An Artist", Pakistan Times, Lahore, April 21, 1955, page 5.

Iqbal, like all great Artists, has ideas to lodge and know whereto lodge them. The depth of his feeling, the beauty of expression, the richness of his experience, the profundity of his philosophy and the & charm of his eloquence all combine to create a world absolutely and nascinatingly his own.

To bring home his thoughts, he employs all the ways known to art. He creates an enchanted atmosphere and completely captivates his readers. At the extreme pitch of his artistic excellence, he uses idles and metaphors which always fit his feelings and emotions and viviny the situation he wishes to explain.

Iqbal's images are as vivid as in actual life but pregnant with new, hitherto unapprehended meaning. This command of expression and poetic insight has in fact made Iqbal the "Poet of the East".

His imaginative powers, coupled with a mastery of words, create an atmosphere which would be beyond the reach of a painter, a musician and a scupltor to put into one. If we look deep into his art, we find that from the very outset there was a dramatist working within him. He brings before us characters whom history has paid the most glowing tributes, and they all chant his verses and bequeath the same neeling and inculcate the same spirit for which he resurrected them.

In his hands, meters and forms look like clay, ready to take any norm that he would give them.

Iqbal did not attain this perfection in a day. At the outset he talked of the Himalayas and sang of a brook and in the end he visualised the entire span of existence and non-existence, the universe and the hereafter all through the compass of a mosque.

***

KNOWLEDGE

Ajmal, Mohammad; "The Poet's Attitude towards Knowledge", Pakistan Times, Lahore, April 21, 1953, page 5.

Iqbal's attitude towards knowledge is based upon his revolutionary conception of the nature of man which manifests itself in his relation to environment. Iqbal holds that man's struggle with environment is not to adopt himself to it but to bend the forces of nature to his will.

According to Iqbal, thought is not finite which cannot capture the infinite i. e. ultimate reality but is dynamic and unfolds its eternal infinitude in time and reveals reality to us.

Iqbal holds that Idea is a necessary element of mystical experience (mystical experience is outside the ken of understanding).

Iqbal puts forth intellectual and pragmatic proofs of the existence of God. He holds that man has the capacity to experience the ultimate reality in the same way as he possesses the capacity to feel a tree, to build a bridge and to change the course of rivers.

Iqbal holds that man is an ultimate being and is the fount of all values.

According to Iqbal, thought is based upon `sense perception' and knowledge is `sense perception' elaborated by understanding.

Iqbal regards, `sense perception' as a passive process in time and again refers to `sense - data' as forming the substratum of sense perception.

He assumes that in sense-perception, the relation between the perceiving agency and the thing perceived is characterised by a `veritable otherness'.

Iqbal accepts the theory of sense-data by Bertrand Russel and G.E. Moore. He characterises science as "empirical" in its technical sense. He refers to observation as the basis of scientific knowledge and scarcely refers to experience.

He holds that knowledge and action mutually exclude each other.

***

Rafiuddin Mohammad; "Iqbal's Contribution to Knowledge". Pakistan Times, Lahore, April 21, 1962, page 1.

The general conception is that sensation and reason are the No fundamental capacities of man by which he acquires knowledge.

But, to be true, he has only one fundamental capacity by which he acquires all knowledge whether scientific or philosophic and that is; Intuition. His senses and reason are both servants of his intuition. Our knowledge is organised merely out of our intuitive concepts of beliefs and its validity or otherwise depends wholly on the validity or otherwise of these beliefs.

Everything in the universe, that we can possibly know of, is in the form of a whole or a unity. The function of reason is to find out the relationship of the various wholes discovered by intuition in order to enable intuition to discover a bigger unknown whole consistent with these wholes and of which these wholes are parts, or to discover smaller wholes which are consistent with and form part of a bigger known whole. The former process is known as synthesis and the latter as analysis.

The scientists and all of us do make assumptions and create intuitive hypothesis in our daily life, that is, we frequently resort to belief in the unseen in regard to many a concept. Every fact that we believe in is originally a hypothesis and, subsequently, the discovery on newer data goes to strengthen this hypothesis and it goes on assu­ming the shape of a `fact' for us so much so that our faith in it becomes unshakable.

The need of forming intuitive assumptions felt by the scientist is also due to the fact that a number of minor unities go to make a major one and we are forced by the nature of the universe, as also by our own nature, to know and comprehend facts as unities.

The philosopher also explains the facts of the universe with the help of some universal intuitive concept.

Both the scientist and the philosopher operate in the same sphere on knowledge and both depend for their knowledge and investigation on the same human capacity, Intuition.

The knowledge, aided by the true concept of reality, proceeds onwards, smashing its own idols, towards its natural destination of truth. Iqbal points to this when he says, "Knowledge which is intimate with the heart and the intuition is Abraham for its own idols".

It would be rather difficult to elucidate Iqbal's views in regard to the phenomenon of prophethood. The first and the most valuable Oft of a prophet to mankind is his true concept of the Reality of the universe which is known as the concept of God. The last of the prophets who gave the perfect concept of Reality to mankind is the Holy Prophet Mohammad. Iqbal was the first philosopher who made this perfect concept of Reality received through the agency of perfect prophethood, the basis of his philosophy in this age of the progress of science. The perfect concept which organises the scientific data of the age according to the perfect concept of Reality is the concept of 'Self' (Khudi). According to Iqbal, Khudi or self is that concept of reality which is true and which integrates all the known facts of the 'universe into a single unity. This single unity is the concept of God.

Iqbal further holds that it is only the love of God which can form the basis of a true philosophy of man and the universe, and the source on this love is perfect submission to the prophet.

This union between philosophy and prophetic teachings is a landmark in man's intellectual progress and it has ushered in a new on whose pioneer and herald is Iqbal.