He
is the sword of God, the hero of the prophets, he has no room
in the world of others until he brings forth
a new world,
he destroys his own world.”
The Muslim he dreamt of is the brilliant star for the destiny
of the world.
He is the model of trust in God and energy, yet this trust is
not blind acceptance of what ever that showers upon him from
fate, but is positive co-operation with God.
The true believer is the personification of mildness and goodness,
and from his personal strength emerges his tolerance .For him
tolerance is not an attribute of weakness but rather a respect
of creation of mankind. The powerful man does not adjust himself
to his surroundings, it is the surroundings that have to adjust
themselves to his temperament!
Iqbal considers the Self to be the criterion whereby all things
are measured.” The idea of personality “, he says,” gives
us a standard of value; it settles the question if good and evil”.
That which fortifies personality is good, that which weakens
is bad.
Art, religion, and ethics must be judged from the standpoint
of personality.
According to Iqbal, the ego “Has the quality of growth
as well as the quality of corruption.” It can expand to
absorb the elements of universe and the attributes of God. On
the other hand, it can also degenerate to the level of matter.
Iqbal looks upon personality as state of tension which can “continue
only if that state of tension is maintained; if the state of
tension is not maintained, relaxation will ensue. That which
tends to maintain the state of tension tends to make us immortal..” for
Iqbal it is of the utmost importance that is state of tension
be maintained, for it is only by the preservation and completion
of the personality that we can achieve” that awareness
of realty which Iqbal believed to be man’s ultimate goal
on earth, that awareness is Eliot has called the still point
of the turning world.” The chief of the factors which strengthen
the personality are:
Desire
Through Iqbal’s writings, great stress is placed on the
desire (designated by names such as saz, hasrat, justuju,arzu,ishtyaaq
and tamanna) as the spring from which the self draws sustenance.
Life can be viewed as dynamic only when it is imbued with restless
burning all that has been achieved is a product of desire:
‘ Tis desire that enriches life,
and the mind is child of its womb.
What are the social organizations, customs, laws?
What is the secret of the novelties of strength
And burst forth from the heart and took shape.
Man is man, according to Iqbal , because he has the capacity
for endless yearning. In his eyes, this capacity lifts man to
a station where he would not change his place even with God:
Priceless treasure is the agony and burning of desire,
I would not exchange my place as a man for the glory of God.
Love
Love is the active sense of positive desire. Iqbal lays a great
emphasis on the value of love for strengthening in the Self.
He uses this word in a wide sense, and means by it “ The
desire to assimilate , to absorb. Its highest form is the creation
of values and ideals and the endeavor to realize them.” As
peter Avery points out, Iqbal’s philosophy is essentially
a philosophy of love. Like Rumi he preached a philosophy of
dynamic love leading to the fulfillment of human destiny as
well as God’s purpose in creation.
For Iqbal, as for T illich , “life is being in actuality
and love is the moving player of life.
In man’s experience of love the nature of love becomes
manifest.the power of love is not something which is added to
an otherwise finished process, but
life has love in it self as one of its constitutive element.”
Love is the fundamental urge of being, its élan vital and its raison
d’etre. For Iqbal, as for Rumi, only love is an intrinsic value. Other
values are extrinsic and instrumental and are to be judged according to their
capacity for the realization of this primary values.
Love is the only categorical imperative and strikes no bargain with God or
man. He who denies love is an infidel:
I am never discovered well
Law’s way, and the wont thereof,
But know him infidel
Who denieth the power of love.
LOVE FOR PROPHET (SAW)
It is not possible for a person to be a Muslim with out the declaration of
the oneness of God and the prophethood of Muhammad (SAW).The prophet is quoted
as informing Umer ibn Khattab (RAA) that his faith would not be complete
until he loved the prophet more than his dearest ones and possessions. According
to Iqbal, it is not possible to be a Mard-e-Maumin with out the love of the
prophet (SAW).
Faqr
The words faqir(or its synonym Qalandar) and faqr(or istighna)
appear very frequently in Iqbal’s verse. Iqbal uses faqr
to denote an inner attitude of detachment and superiority to
material possession. it’s a kind of intellectual and
emotional asceticism which does not turn away from the world
as a source of evil and corruption, but uses it for the pursuit
of good and worthy ends.
A survey of Iqbal’s philosophical and theological thought
would go to reveal that there are four fundamental ideas in his
system:
1:Allah : the ultimate reality-the creator
2: Man : the lord of His creation and His vicegerent
3:Faqr: the two principle faculties vouchsafed to man
4:Universe:the field for his activities.
The relation between these realities that Allah has created
the man with a definite aim in view:
“
I am about to appoint a vicegerent in earth and his vicegerency
demands that he should bring this universe under his sway and
he would achieve this purpose by means of Faqr and having conquered
the elements he would rule over the earth in the name of Allah
and establish His kingdom therein”.
From this statement, the importance of faqr shines forth like
the mid-day sun.
The Khudi is there, but without the aid of faqr, it is of no
value. Allah has endowed man with faculties viz reason or intellect
and love so that he may be able to conquer this universe; and
these facilities are the component parts of Faqr.
In the other words, Faqr is the highest honor that a Muslim can
earn by his individual effort.
Faqr literally means the breaking of the back, then it came to
mean “want”, penury and poverty or being in possession
of nothing.
Faqr teaches man to believe that all he possesses,(his soul,
wealth) is not his, but Allah’s , therefore , a faqeer
is one who, in spite of all worldly riches which he possesses,
regards himself utterly destitute; and having nothing , he will
naturally go to Allah for all his wants. He possesses everything,
but out of his own free will, gives away everything, and accepts
the status of faqeer so that he may grasp the hand of Allah and
His apostle firmly.
Sayyadi
Literally, Sayyadi means hunting, and sayyad is a hunter. In
Iqbal’s thought sayyadi come to denote a kind of heroic
idealism based on daring, pride of honour. The sayyad is most
often symbolized by the lion, and falcon “shaheen”
Suffering
Suffering is included in the concept of Faqr and is associated with all the
factors strengthening the self, but it needs special emphasis. Since “all
the result of individuality, of separate selfhood, necessarily involve pain
of suffering “. Iqbal was right in observing that “suffering
is the gift from the God in order to make man see the whole of life”
Rumi often uses the symbols of rue and aloe-wood exhaling sweet perfumes when
burnt
. Iqbal too wishes to be “burnt”—to be pride by fire—so
that his heart can be perfected:
Tongue-tight though art in pain;
Cast thyself upon fire like rue!
Like the bell, breaks silence at last and from every limb
Utter forth a lamentation
Thou art fire, fill the world with thy glow!
Make others burn with thy burning
Forbearance
“
the principle of ego-sustaining deed is respect for the ego in
my self as well as others”,
said Iqbal. He was a great believer in forbearance and tolerance.
E.M. Foster points out about Iqbal that “ what ever his
opinion, he was no fanatic, and he refers to Hindus and Christians
with courtesy and respect.”
Courtesy
While stressing that one must always be hard with one-self, Iqbal
does not forget to say,not once but repeatedly that a leader
of men must be kind and courteous in speech and manner. The
full grown ego must poses “Husn-i-ikhlaq” (beauty
of disposition).
This makes Iqbal’s perfect man as worthy of affection
as he is of obedience his heart winning ways supplementing
his world
winning ways.
Obstructions
Like Rumi, Iqbal considers evil to be extremely important in
the development of man’s personality. “ Evil is
the inevitable condition of good; out of darkness was created
light. From this standpoint it posses a positive value; it
serves the purpose of God, it is relatively good”. The
spirit of obstruction symbolized by Satan, directs man’s
energies to newer channels. It offers a challenge to his spirit
and is one of the forces behind his evolution , leading him
on from conquest to conquest.
Just as the self is open to growth , so it is open to decay.
Amongs the factors which weaken Khudi, the following are the
most important;
Sawal
Literally Sawal means asking, but in Iqbal’s thought it has a wide connotation
and refers to any action which degrades a self respecting ego. One of the commonest
of sawal is “taqleed” (imitation ). Iqbal’s most powerful
and most moving attack on all form of “asking” comes in the Ramooz-e
Baikhudi” when he lashes out against his co-relgionists who have lost
all senses of selfhood and have submerged all their pride and dignity in a
life of superficiality and spiritual bankruptcy.
Despair , grif and fear
Iqbal has devoted one whole section of ramooz-e-baikhudi to the
theme that despair , grief and fear are the sources of all
the evil and destroys life.
Servitude
Iqbal was a passionate believer in freedom, which has considered
to be “the very breath of vital living “. In the “Bandagi
nama” he speaks in details about the attitude and mentality
of slaves—those who live in spiritual bondage. A slave
pays a real homage to man made gods and mere lip service to
eternal god for the sake of his body he sells his soul.
With the sadness of the biblical verse;”for what is a
man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his
own
soul and what should a man give n exchange of his soul?”
Iqbal says:
A slave holds both religion and knowledge in light esteem,
He gives away his soul so that his body may live
Through the munificence of kings, his body thrives,
while his pure soul feeble like a spindle.
Nasb parasti
It means pride in one’s lineage or cast. It is to be discouraged
in all forms , as it is in opposition to one of the fundamentals
of Islamic policy—namely the equality and brother hood.
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