Allama Iqbal Part 2

1. Introduction
2. lqbal is unlike other Muslim scholars and seers
3. iqbal distinctive from western philosophy
4. lqbal demonstrates through his being
5. Mysticism of lqbal’s
6. Being a reformer of the society
7. His views on the conflict of free-will & determinism
8. His worldly views
9. His bi-dimensional Islamic school of thought
10. His views on our mutual differences
11. His concept of nationality
12. Conclusion

If one were to reconstruct the form of Islam, which has been made to degenerate over the course of history, re-assemble it in such a way that its spirit could return to a complete body, and transform the present disorientated elements of Islam into that spirit, as if the trumpet of Israfil were to blow in the 20th century over a dead society and awaken its movement, power, spirit, and meaning, it is then that exemplary Muslim personalities like Muhammad lqbal would be reconstructed and reborn.

Muhammad lqbal is not just a Muslim mystic who is solely concerned with mysticism or gnosis as were Ghazzali, Muhyi Din ibn Arabi, and Rumi. They emphasized individual evolution, purification of the soul, and the inner illuminated ‘self’. They only developed and trained a few people like themselves but, for the most part, remained oblivious to the outside world, having been almost unaware of the Mongol attack and the subsequent despotic rule and suppression of the people.

lqbal is also not like Abu Muslim, Hasan Sabah or Saladin Ayyubi and personalities like them who, in the history of Islam, are simply men of the sword, power, war, and struggle and who consider the exercise of power and the defeat of the enemy enough to effect reform and revolution in the minds of the people and in their social relationships. Nor is lqbal similar to those learned individuals like the Indian, Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, who imagined that no mailer in what situation Islamic society is (even if it is under the domination of a British viceroy), revived with modem scholarly interpretations century scientific logical commentaries on Islamic tenets and Qur’an verses, well as through profound philosophical and scholarly research.

lqbal is not among some Western people who consider science to be sufficient for human salvation, for evolution, and for curing anguish. He is not one of those philosophers who think meeting economic needs is tantamount to meeting all human needs. Nor is he like his fellow countrymen, that is, the great Hindu and Buddhist thinkers who consider peace of mind and spiritual salvation to be transmigration, or who consider the cycle of kanna to Nirvana to be the fulfillment of the mission of humanity, and who imagine that in a society where there is even one hungry person, where slavery, deprivation and disgrace exist, one can still develop pure, elevated spirits and disciplined, educated people who have attained wellbeing and even a sense of morality! No! lqbal demonstrates through his very being and through his School of Thought that thoughts which are related to Islam are thoughts which, while paying careful attention to this world and the material needs of humanity, also give the human being a heart. As he himself says, “I find the most beautiful states of life during the yearnings and meditations between daybreak and dawn.”

He is a great mystic, with a pure spirit, delivered from materialism and, at the same time, a man who respects and honors science, technological progress, and the advancement of human reason in our age. He is not a thinker who debases science, reason, and scientific advancement having had his emotions aroused by Sufism, Christianity, the religion of Lao Tzu, or Buddha. Neither is he a proponent of “dry” factual science like the science of Francis Bacon or Claude Bernard, which is limited to the discovery of the relationships between phenomena or material manifestations and the employment of natural forces for material life. At the same time, he is not a thinker who links philosophy, illumination, science, religion, reason, and revelation together in an incongruous way, as some have done. Rather, in his outlook and attitude towards this world, he regards reason and science in the very sense they are understood today as allies of love, emotion, and inspiration in the evolution of the human spirit, but he does not accept their goals.

The greatest advice of lqbal to humanity is: Have hearts like Jesus thought like Socrates, and a hand like the hand of a Caesar, but all in one human being, in one creature of humanity, based upon one spirit in order to attain one goal. That is, to be like lqbal himself: A man who attains the height of political awareness in his time to the extent that some people believe him to be solely a political figure and a liberated, nationalist leader who is a 20th century anti-colonialist.

A man who, in philosophical thought, rises to such a high level that he is considered to be a contemporary thinker and philosopher of the same rank as Bergson in the West today or of the same level as Ghazzau in Islamic history.

Sufism says “As our fate has been pre-determined in our absence, if it is not to your satisfaction, do not complain”. Or, “If the world does not agree with you or suit you, you should agree with the world”. But lqbal, the mystic, says “If the world does not agree with you; arise against it!”. “The world” means the destiny and life of human beings. The human being is a wave, not a static shoreline. His or her being and becoming is in motion. What do I mean? It is to be in motion. In the mysticism of lqbal, which is neither Hindu mysticism nor religious fanaticism, but Qur’an mysticism, the human being must change the world. Qur’an Islam has substituted Heavenly fate?’ in which the human being is nothing, with “human fate” in which the human being plays an important role. This is the greatest revolutionary, as well as progressive and constructive principle which Islam has created by its world view, philosophic of life, and ethics.

At the same time, he is a man we regard as being a reformer of Islamic society, who thinks about the conditions of human and Islamic society, a society in which he himself lives and for which he performs jihad (i.e. struggles nobly in the way of God) for the salvation, ‘awareness, and liberation of Muslim people. His efforts are not fust casual and scientific or of the kind that Sartre called Intellectual demonstrations of political, pseudo-leftists” but rather of the kind exhibited by responsible individuals. He struggles and strives and, at the same time, he is also a lover of Rumi. He journeys with him in his spiritual ascensions and bums from the lover’s flames, anguishes, and spiritual anxieties. This great man does not become one-dimensional, does not disintegrate, and does not become a one-sided or one-dimensional Muslim. He is a complete Muslim. Even though he loves Rumi, he is not obliterated by him.

But what do we mean when we say lqbal was a reformer? Can reform really save a society from all of its misfortunes, anguish, and difficulties? Must not a sudden, severe, deep-rooted revolution take place in thought and in relation to society? When we say lqbal was a reformer, those present that are familiar with the expressions prevalent among the educated class think “reform” means something which is the opposite of “revolution” in a socio-political sense. Most often when we say “reform” we mean gradual change or change in the superstructure, and when we say “revolution”, we sudden, abrupt change in the infrastructure, a total collapse and then total reconstruction. But when in these changes we say that lqbal was a reformer, we are not referring to slow and gradual change in society.

Our intention is not gradual change or external reform, but we use this word in its general sense which also includes the meaning of “revolution”, When we say lqbal was a reformer or that the great thinkers after Sayyid Jamal are known for being the greatest reformers of the century in the world, it is not in the sense that they supported gradual and external change in society. No! They were supporters of a deep- seated revolution, a revolution in thought, in views, in feelings; an ideological and cultural revolution. lqbal, Sayyid Jamal, Kawakibi, Muhammad Abduh, lbn Ibrahim and members of the Maqrib IJlama Association are great men who shook the East in the last one hundred years. Their reforms or, still better, “reforming revolutions”, stand upon this principle, for they.

Believe that individual reform is no longer an answer. It is an altogether different matter if reform affects society. A person can no longer think and live in a way which he has chosen for himself, nor accept any influence from his age or his society, and still develop himself into a pure and real human being in a corrupt age and in a degenerate society, for if this were to be possible, then “social responsibility and commitment” would make no lqbal goes to Europe and becomes a philosopher. He comes to know the European Schools of philosophy and makes them known to others. Everyone admits that he is a 20th-century philosopher, but he does not surrender to Western thinking. On the contrary, he conquers the West. He lives with a critical mind and the power of choice in the 20th century and in the Western civilization. He is devoted to and a disciple of Rumi to an extent that does not contradict and is not incompatible with the authentic dimensions of the Islamic spirit.

The greatest criticism that humanism and liberal intellectuals have leveled and continue to level against religion is that religious beliefs have been interpreted as being founded on absolute determinism or Divine Will, and thus the absolute subjugation of human will, so the human being is logically reduced to being weak in terms .