Iqbal

True Love
Does True Love Exist?

"I love you." These three little words might possibly be the most powerful statement one
can make to another person. In life, most yearn for the intimate affection that a certain
someone can provide them. Women dream of their Prince Charming to come and sweep
them off their feet, while men search for the love of their life that sets their heart on fire.
But what happens when love is thrown around without a second thought? Has this four
letter word become an overused cliché? Has love been replaced with lust? Is there such a
thing as true love? This last question has been asked throughout history, while many have
argued and debated over the final answer. We, as a society, have become a loveless, sex
crazed group of people with no concern for any emotion or attachment in our lives. So does
this mean that true love does not exist? No. This only shows that achieving the deepest of
feelings takes work that our fast-food eating, TV watching generation is not prepared to
handle.
I believe that true love does exist, but has merely been pushed
aside by convenience, superficiality, and apathy.
It seems that over the years, true love is expressed less and less.
We are bombarded with holiday cards filled with someone else's
words, and are practically forced to send our love in an email. How
often do we actually sit down and write out our feelings to the one
we love? "To My Dear and Loving Husband," however, is the
quintessential love letter. Anne Bradstreet shares her feelings to
her husband in such a loving way that could make anyone's heart
melt. According to BellaOnline, Bradstreet was, "married to
governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony and had eight children."
Even though her marriage might have become filled with routines
and lost a little passion, the poet never loses the love for her
husband. She states that the power of her "love is such that
rivers cannot quench"(Bradstreet, 7). Bradstreet expresses her
emotions to be so strong that not even... Nietzsche's Influence And
Reception
Nietzsche's writings have been interpreted very differently by different people, and cases even
exist of Nietzsche being used on both sides of an argument to support contradictory views. For
instance, Nietzsche was popular among left-wing Germans in the 1890s, but a few decades later,
during the First World War, many regarded him as one of the sources of right-wing German
militarism. Another example is around the time of the Dreyfus Affair. The French anti-semitic
Right levelled the accusation at Jewish and Leftist intellectuals, who were defending Dreyfus,
that they were Nietzscheans. The German conservative right-wing wanted to ban Nietzsche's
work under charges of subversion in 1894/1895, while Nazi Germany used a highly selective
version of Nietzsche to promote its idea of a revival of traditional German culture and national
identity. Many Germans read Thus Spoke Zarathustra and were influenced by Nietzsche's appeal
of unlimited individualism and the development of a personality.
During the interbellum,

Is this Essay helpful? Join OPPapers to read more and access more than 350,000 just like it!
various fragments of Nietzsche's work were appropriated by Nazis, notably Alfred Baeumler in
his reading of The Will to Power. During the period of Nazi rule, Nietzsche's work was widely
studied in German (and, after 1938, Austrian) schools and universities. The Nazis viewed
Nietzsche as one of their "founding fathers." They incorporated much of his ideology and
thoughts about power into their own political philosophy. Although there exist few, if any,
resemblances between Nietzsche and Nazism (see political views above), phrases like "the will
to power" became axioms of Nazi society.
The wide popularity of Nietzsche among Nazis was due partly to Nietzsche's sister, Elisabeth
Förster-Nietzsche, a Nazi sympathizer who edited much of Nietzsche's works. However,
Nietzsche disapproved of his sister's anti-Semitic views; in a Letter to his Sister, dated Christmas
1887, Nietzsche wrote:
You have committed one of the greatest stupidities for yourself and...
1
Al-Hikmat
Volume 27 (2007), pp. 1-36
IQBĀL’S APPROACH TO
ISLAMIC THEOLOGY OF MODERNITY
MUHAMMAD KHALID MASUD*
Abstract. This essay is a study of Iqbāl’s The Reconstruction of
Religious Thought in Islam as a continuation of Sayyid Ahmad
Khan’s quest for a framework to understand modernity from Islamic
perspective. Khan’s Jadid ‘ilm al-kalam defined his approach to
Islamic theology of modernity and later provided the basis for
‘Islamic modernism’. The essay argues that due to diverse
experiences of modernity objectifications of modernity changed
from science and nature in the nineteenth century to identity and
autonomy of self in the twentieth century in Iqbāl’s approach to
theology of modernity. The essay has three sections: the first
explains the origins of the Islamic theology of modernity; the
second offers an analysis of Iqbāl’s reconstruction of this theology,
and the third reviews recent critique of Iqbāl’s approach. The essay
concludes the discussion with an overview of contemporary
theologies of modernity in the Muslim world.
Islamic theology of modernity, also known jadid ‘ilm alkalam,
“new theology” and “Islamic modernism”, is usually
characterized as an apologetic approach to defend Islam against
modern Western criticism. This is probably because modernity
came to be known in the Muslim world in the wake of
colonialism when Muslims found themselves on the defensive.
To the Western colonial regimes, Islam was not compatible with
modernity and hence it was to be reformed and modernized or
else marginalized. Muslims, therefore, generally conceived
*Dr. Muhammad Khalid Masud is Chairman, Council of Islamic Ideology,
Government of Pakistan, Sector G-5/2, Islamabad (Pakistan).
This paper was delivered as Iqbāl Memorial Lecture at the Department of
Philosophy, University of the Punjab, Lahore-54590 (Pakistan).
2 M. K. MASUD
modernity, modernism and modernization not only as Western
and alien but also as hostile and threatening. Islamic theology of
modernity was not, however, entirely apologetic. It was
essentially an endeavor to develop an Islamic framework to
understand and respond to the questions that modernity posed to
Muslim cultural outlook in general and to Islamic theology in
particular. In this respect it defended Islam against particular
criticism but it also developed a theological framework to explain
how modernity was relevant and compatible to Islam.
Muslim responses to Western modernity range from call for
reform of to call for revival of Islam, and from total rejection of
either tradition or modernity to a reconstruction of Islamic
religious thought. Sayyid Ahmad Khan (d. 1898) was the first
Muslim to realize in 1870s the need for “jadid ‘ilm al-kalam”, a
new Islamic theology of modernity.1 Khan’s approach was also
called “Islamic modernism”.2 This approach became immediately
controversial. The Indian Ulama opposed it because to them it
symbolized modernity and westernization. Except for Khan’s
close associates, very few Muslim thinkers before Allāma
Muhammad Iqbāl (d. 1938) supported the Islamic theology of
modernity and its need. Iqbāl’s The Reconstruction of Religious
Thought in Islam that revived the movement for Islamic theology
of modernity in the twentieth century. Recent studies rightly pose
the question whether Iqbāl’s approach to Islamic theology of
modernity is a continuation of Sayyid Ahmad Khan’s ‘theology’
or not.
This essay studies this question in three sections. The first
section presents an overview of the origins of the Islamic
theology of modernity in Khan’s call for jadid ‘ilm al-kalam and
later development. The second offers a summary of what we may
call Iqbāl’s Islamic theology of modernity. The third analyzes the
debate on Iqbāl’s approach to this theology. The essay concludes
the discussion placing Iqbāl’s contribution in the broader context
of the debate about the movement for jadid ‘ilm al-kalam and
suggesting that Iqbāl’s approach is better understood as a quest
for a theological framework to understand modernity and to
interpret Islam accordingly than as a defense of Islam against
modern criticism.
Iqbāl’s Approach to Islamic Theology of Modernity 3
I. ISLAMIC THEOLOGY OF MODERNITY
Generally, Jamaluddin Afghani (d. 1897) and Mufti
Muhammad ‘Abduh (d. 1905) are claimed as the founders of
Islamic modernism, but to our knowledge, Sayyid Ahmad Khan
is the first Muslim thinker who stressed the need for jadid ‘ilm alkalam.
His theology of modernity differed from that of
Muhammad ‘Abduh (d. 1905) who remained largely faithful to
ancient Islamic theology. Khan’s interest in modernity was not
merely intellectual; he experienced the cruel and violent as well
as the liberating processes of modernity. He served the British
when the Ulama in Delhi also had close and friendly relations
with them. He remained loyal to them in the 1857 Indian revolt
and defended Muslims when the British generally believed that
Muslims could never be loyal to them.
William Muir, a devout Christian missionary and a secretary
in the Frontier province in India in the mid-nineteenth century,
characterized Muslim stories about Muhammad the Prophet and
his companions as legendary and ‘multitudes of wild myths’. He
contended that Prophet Muhammad’s marriages and wars were in
clear contrast to Christian moral values.3 Khan wrote in defense
of Prophet Muhammad refuting William Muir and other critics of
Islam. It was during these writings that he realized that the old
Muslim theology was not helpful in responding to the Western
criticism of Islam.
He rebutted William Hunter’s report (1871) on 1857 that
claimed that the tenet of Jihad obliged Muslims to rebel against
the non-Muslim rule, and to reject modern sciences and
education. Khan clarified that these were bad English governance
and mutual misunderstanding that caused the revolt, not the
Qur’ānic teachings on Jihad.
Sayyid Ahmad Khan perceived three threats to Islam in
nineteenth century India: missionaries, European prejudices
against Islam, and the doubts about Islam in the Muslim mind. 4 In
his address to the Anjuman-i Himayat-i Islam in Lahore in 1884,
Sayyid Ahmad Khan called for jadid ‘ilm al-kalam to respond to
these threats. In this speech Khan refers to two levels of this need:
one the need of a rational and critical framework to explain Islam,
4 M. K. MASUD
and the second the need for the restatement of Islam within that
framework. In order to understand the structure of his argument
let us summarize the main points of this speech.
Sayyid Ahmad Khan begins his address by stating that there
are two types of belief: unquestioned belief and critical belief. It
is the second type of belief that demands proof for the truth of
everything. During the Abbasid period when Greek sciences
became popular among Muslims, critical belief found
discrepancy between the tenets of philosophy, which they
acknowledged as true, and the contemporary teachings of Islam
about which they became doubtful. “The Ulama in that period
established three ways of protecting Islam. The first was to prove
that tenets of Greek wisdom and philosophy, which were against
Islamic teachings, were wrong. The second was to formulate such
objections to the propositions of [Greek] wisdom and philosophy
by which these tenets would become doubtful. The third was to
harmonize between the tenets of Islam and the tenets of wisdom
and philosophy. By pursuing this debate a new science originated
among Muslims which came to be known as ‘ilm al-kalam.”5
The science of kalam became part and parcel of Islamic
learning. It incorporated several tenets of Greek philosophy and
natural sciences that could be harmonized with Islam. Gradually,
however, these tenets came to be identified as tenets of Islam.
Today, a new wisdom and philosophy has emerged. The tenets of
this philosophy are entirely different from those of the Greek
philosophy whose erroneousness is an established fact now. The
‘ilm al-kalam that the ancient Ulama developed to confront Greek
philosophy had some success. But today it is “neither sufficient
for the firm believer, nor does it satisfy the mind of the doubter.” 6
Calling for jadid ‘ilm al-kalam, Khan said, “Today we need, as in
former days, a modern ‘ilm al-kalam by which we either render
futile the tenets of modern sciences or make them doubtful, or
bring them into harmony with the doctrines of Islam.”7 In the
latter part of his speech, he then states how tenets of Islam,
namely unity of God, prophesy, and so on can be rationally
explained because human nature corresponds with nature and the
teachings of Islam being words of God are not in contradiction
with nature being the work of God.
Khan’s call for new Islamic theology identified three
alternative options for the new framework: (1) to refute the
questions posed by modern science, (2) to question their
accuracy, or (3) to accept them.8 By the time he made this call,
Khan had begun developing a new framework for the
interpretation of the Qur’ān and a new method of reasoning in
1862. Khan wrote a commentary on the Qur’ān to resolve what
he regarded as conflicts between science and the Qur’ān.
In al-Taqrir fi usul al-tafsir (a written statement on the
principle of exegesis) published in 1892, he proposed fifteen
principles for the exegesis of the Qur’ān. As these principles
constitute Khan’s new theology, a brief analysis of these
principles is given below.
The first eight principles respectively are statements about
the unity of God, the prophesy of Muhammad, revelation, the
reality and true nature of the Qur’ān, and Divine attributes. The
ninth principle explains the relationship between the Qur’ān as
the “word of God” and nature as the “work of God”. “There is no
matter in the Qur’ān disagreeing with the laws of nature.” 9 He
clarifies that the Prophet did not claim any miracle, as evidenced
in the Qur’ān (18:110). Khan argued that miracles are not in
conformity with the laws of nature and concluded saying, “We
declare openly that there is no proof of the occurrence of anything
supernatural, which, as it is asserted, is the miracle.” 10 Explaining
why earlier scholars did not raise any objection to the irrationality
of some of these miracle stories, he wrote, “The natural sciences
had not progressed and there was nothing to draw their attention
to the law of nature and to make them aware of their mistakes.” 11
The principles from tenth to thirteenth respectively state
Khan’s position on the compilation and collection of the Qur’ān.
He rejects the traditional theory that some verses in the Qur’ān
were abrogated and no longer applicable. The Qur’ān does speak
about abrogation (naskh), but the meaning of the term has been
continuously debated. The doctrine of abrogation was used in old
theology to explain apparently contradictory statements in the
Qur’ān. The idea of abrogation also gained significance to justify
the claim that the revealed laws in the Qur’ān cancelled the
6 M. K. MASUD
validity of earlier revelations. Some scholars like Abu Ishaq al-
Shatibi (d. 1388) explained that abrogation in effect means
clarification, not cancellation of a verse. Shah Waliullah (d. 1762)
questioned the exaggerated number of abrogated verses claimed
by earlier generation of Muslim scholars.
Khan also rejected the idea of contradiction in the Qur’ān
and instead argued that these verses in fact mutually explained
each other. For him the Qur’ān is the most essential source that
overrides the sayings (hadith) and practice (Sunna) of the Prophet
and the jurist doctrines (fiqh), which were the decisive sources for
the orthodoxy. He also rejected the old Muslim theologians’
claim that according to the Qur’ān, the Bible and other revealed
books were corrupted and therefore abrogated. He explained that
Qur’ān spoke about the corruption of understanding the text, not
the corruption of the text itself.
The fourteenth and fifteenth principles elaborate the close
relationship between the Qur’ān and the created world (natural
phenomena) as the work of God and concluding that the work
overrides the word of God.12 The fifteenth principle develops the
hermeneutics dealing with the miracle stories in the Qur’ān. He
lays down seven criteria for interpreting the miracle verses. For
example, he says, “If there is any rational contradiction between
the dictionary [i.e., literal] meanings and the [metaphorical]
meanings determined in the light of reason, then the dictionary
meanings are not correct.”13 If a verse refers to an event or thing,
which is contrary to the laws of nature, we must regard the
statement a metaphor. For instance even ancient theologians did
not take statements about God sitting on the throne or about
God’s hand in their literal meaning.
Khan relied mostly on earlier Islamic sources in his
commentary. His biographer Altaf Husain Hali counts 52 points
where Khan differs with his contemporary Ulama in his
commentary, out of which in 41 cases he cited the traditional
sources to support his views. Only on 11 points he offered new
interpretations.14 It is significant to note that later Ulama like
Rashid Rida in Egypt and Muhammad Ali Lahori, Abu Said Abd
al-Rahman Farid Koti and many others in India interpreted these
verses similar to Khan.15
Khan also criticized Muslim beliefs and practices such as
slavery, polygamy, and wrote on other such controversial subjects
as relations with non-Muslims, especially consuming food
prepared by them. Out of the conventional four Sunni sources
(i.e. the Qur’ān, hadith, analogical reasoning, and consensus) he
questioned the authenticity of hadith and the authority of the
consensus. Khan rejected adherence (taqlid) to specific schools of
Islamic law in favor of Ijtihad (independent legal reasoning). His
views on abolition of slavery, rejection of polygamy, aggressive
jihad, and triple divorce became staple doctrines of Islamic
modernism.
Sayyid Ahmad Khan’s new theology generated a wide range
of debates. Mawlana Qasim Nanawtawi (d. 1879) of the School
of Deoband was probably the first among the traditional scholars
who developed a detailed argument against this new theology. 16
Shibli Nu’mani (d. 1914), a close associate of Sayyid Ahmad
Khan, and several traditional Ulama rejected even the need for a
new theology because for them the ancient theology was
scientific enough to dispel doubts created by the modern science.
Perhaps ‘rational’ and ‘scientific’ meant ‘logical’ in accordance
with the Greek logic and metaphysics. The bitterest opposition to
Khan and his theology came from the reformist Mawlana Ashraf
Ali Thanawi (d. 1943) who himself supported female education
and reform of superstitious practices. He issued in 1886 a long
fatwa in which he pointed out fifty heretic statements in the
various writings by Sayyid Ahmad Khan and his associates. 17 He
called them “heretic naturist sect” (firqa muhditha nechariyya).
He claimed that this sect was guilty of finding fault with the
Ulama. It corrupted the laws of Shari’a, ripped up its roots,
destroyed its branches, criticized the experts of Hadith and
accused the commentators of the Qur’ān for wrong
interpretations. He found Sayyid Ahmad Khan’s views close to
infidelity, but he cautiously declared him a heretic (mubtadi’).18
Jamaluddin Afghani was in India during 1879 to 1883, when
the Indian Ulama condemned Khan’s theology as naturism.
8 M. K. MASUD
Afghani believed that materialism had caused more damage to
humanity than anything else. According to him Darwin’s theory
of evolution deprived humans from dignity and sense of civility
that religion bestows on them. He wrote a strong refutation of
Khan’s theology, which was originally published in Persian in
1878 and was translated and published in Urdu in Calcutta in
1883. This refutation is more widely known outside India, than
Khan’s own writings.
Afghani called Khan’s theology nishariya (nechariya or
naturism), because it regarded nature as the measure of truth.
Naming them nechariya implied in common parlance also that
they worshipped nature. He ignored Khan’s explanation that to
him nature was God’s creation and not the Creator. Afghani’s
disciple Muhammad ‘Abduh (d. 1905) published an Arabic
translation of the above treatise in 1885 and developed Afghani’s
ideas further in his treatises Risala al-Tawhid,19 and Risala
Nasraniyya, both written in the classical tradition of theology.
Unlike Khan, who often opted for the rational arguments
provided by the Mu’tazila, Muhammad ‘Abduh stays largely
close to the Salaf and Ash’aris. The two treatises became very
popular in Egypt.
Like ‘Abduh, Shaykh Husayn al-Jisr’s (d. 1909) treatise al-
Risala al-Hamidiyya”20 also gained popularity in the Arab
world.21 It was translated into Urdu in 1897; the Urdu translation
had the title ‘Science and Islam’ with a sub-title: “jadid ‘ilm alkalam”.
22 The Ulama in India and elsewhere welcomed and
recommended its use as a textbook.23 Jisr was a Lebanese scholar
who had studied in al-Azhar and was familiar with modern
Western sciences through the writings of Reverend Isaac
Taylor,24 an English missionary whom he met in Lebanon in
1867.
Jisr explains miracles as natural phenomena and provides
justifications of miracles in modern scientific language. For
instance, he explains Prophet Muhammad’s miracle of splitting
moon (inshiqaq al-qamar) as an admissible physical phenomenon
according to modern physicists.25 According to him, modern
science does not refute the Islamic tradition; rather it upholds it.
Similarly, he rationalizes in modern terms the Muslim practices
of veiling (hijab), polygamy and slavery.26
Jisr refers frequently to natural phenomena, but he does not
propose nature and natural laws as standards and norms to define
the universality of Islamic beliefs and practices. He defined
nature as matter and naturism as materialist and atheistic belief
that posed nature as co-existent with God. He does not mention
Sayyid Ahmad Khan, but his refutation of Dahriyyun (the
naturists), as ‘those who regard matter eternal and uncreated and
who do not believe in God or Prophet’ may be read as repudiation
of Khan’s new theology.27
The Ulama in India opposed Sayyid Ahmad Khan’s modernism,
including his Aligarh movement for modern education. In
fact this whole period between Khan and Muhammad Iqbāl is
called by one historian as ‘a period of reaction to Aligarh’. 28 We
have mentioned above that in India, Shibli Nu’mani (1857-1914),
a close associate of Sayyid Ahmad Khan was disillusioned with
him and refuted his theology. He found the new generation at
Aligarh completely westernized with only emotional attachment
to religion. This ambivalence to Islam was probably due to the
fact that Khan did not introduce his theology into Aligarh
syllabus and let the Deobandi Ulama teach religion. It alienated
the young generation from a rational approach to Islam. It must
also be noted that while Aligarh approached the problem of
Muslim decadence by encouraging Muslims to pursue modern
education and to cooperate with the British, Deoband decided to
preserve Islamic tradition by isolating Muslims from the British
and modern institutions. The Ulama of Deoband termed Aligarh
approach materialistic and theirs as religious.
Shibli wrote a two part volume on ‘ilm al-Kalam arguing that
ancient Kalam was sufficient to encounter modernity; the
theological doctrines which were unable to defend Islamic beliefs
had been obsolete for a long time. Instead of new theology, he
called for a critical study of Islamic history to correct Western
misconceptions and distortions of Islam. According to him, the
modernists, i.e. those who graduated from Western institutions
were easily misled by the Western criticism of Islam because they
10 M. K. MASUD
lacked knowledge of the Islamic history and old theology.
Nu’mani wrote a detailed history of Muslim theology, providing
a summary of the major doctrines. He illustrated how most of the
issues raised in modern times were not new to Islamic theology.
Akbar Allahabadi (d. 1921), Suleiman Nadwi (d. 1953) and
Abul Kalam Azad (1958) played a significant role in opposition
to the movement for jadid ilm al-kalam. Akbar Allahabadi’s
poetry damaged Aligarh cause more than anything. He ridiculed
and mocked modernity and modern education and criticized
Aligarh for betrayal of Islamic tradition. Akbar’s critique of
Western education is quite pointedly reflected in Iqbāl’s poetry.
Iqbāl respected both Akbar Allahabadi and Suleiman Nadwi.
Suleiman Nadwi opposed the Aligarh movement meticulously,
including the trend introduced by Khan and Hali of using plain
Urdu language. Nadwi was essentially conservative and under his
editorship, Nadwa’s periodical Ma’arif, a very popular scholarly
periodical, became the loudest spokesman of Muslim
conservatism.29
According to Sheikh Ikram, in addition to some historical
events within and outside India, it is Abul Kalam Azad who
destroyed Khan and his movement successfully. 30 First, he revived
the passion for a flowery Urdu overtly decorated with Arabic
words and phrases. This style ended the trend of using language
as a means of communication and instead revitalized the trend of
enjoying language for its own sake. Second, Azad introduced a
type of ambivalence to modernity. He appreciated intellectual
activities in Europe but socially he remained opposed to it. In
order to refute Qasim Amin’s influential book on the freedom of
women, he translated into Urdu and published Farid Wajdi’s
book. Third, he eulogized Jamal al-Din Afghani, who was
committed to opposing the British, refuted vehemently Khan’s
jadid ‘ilm al-kalam and stood for freedom and nationalism.
Azad was strongly opposed to Sayyid Ahmad Khan’s new
theology. Refuting the need for a new theology, he observed,
“We must remember that the all groups of theologians failed
against ancient philosophy. They will also fail similarly against
the so-called new philosophy. At that time these were the people
of Hadith and those who followed the path of Salaf who were
successful. Today again only they are successful. None among
the jurists and the theologians ever won the day.” 31 Azad’s
opposition to jadid ‘ilm al-kalam, Aligarh and the Western
thought was so impactful that even Iqbāl had to rely on the style
and diction introduced by Azad.
II. IQBĀL’S THEOLOGY OF MODERNITY
Allāma Muhammad Iqbāl (1877-1938) delivered several
public lectures in 1920s on the issues posed by modernity. They
were later published in 1934 under the title The Reconstruction of
Religious Thought in Islam. In our view, the Reconstruction
offers a new Islamic theology of modernity in continuation to
Sayyid Ahmad Khan’s call for jadid ‘ilm al-kalam. As evident
from the publications still appearing in south Asia with the title
jadid ilm al-kalam, debate on the need for a new Islamic theology
continues, although the objectifications of modernity keep
changing in the formulation of these new theologies. 32
Several scholars have critiqued Iqbāl’s reconstruction of
religious thought and his interpretation of Islam. The purpose of
this essay is not to defend Iqbāl or to judge whose interpretation
is ‘authentic’; this essay limits itself to explore how this critique
defines the need for new theology and how far it agrees with
Iqbāl’s definition and methodology.
Muhammad Iqbāl’s Reconstruction follows the path of
Islamic theology of modernity initiated by Sayyid Ahmad Khan.
But it is significant to note that at the same time it marks a major
turning point in the growth of this theology. The Reconstruction
consists of a series of lectures that he wrote and delivered in
Lahore, Madras, Hyderabad and Aligarh between 1924 and 1930.
Iqbāl observed that the “concepts of theological systems, draped
in the terminology of a practically dead metaphysics” couldn’t
help the reconstruction of religious thought. “The only course
open to us is to approach modern knowledge with a respectful but
independent attitude and to appreciate the teachings of Islam in
the light of that knowledge, even though we may be led to differ
from those who have gone before us.”33 Iqbāl thus endorsed
12 M. K. MASUD
Sayyid Ahmad Khan’s call for a new theology by clearly
rejecting ancient metaphysics as a dead science.
Iqbāl sees the problem of religion and modernity as a
problem of impossibility of re-living the special type of inner
experience on which religious faith rests, which is vital to
assimilate the alien universe. It has become further complicated
for the modern man who has developed habits of concrete
thought and suspects that inner experience is liable to illusion.
Modern concrete mind, therefore, demands for a scientific form
of knowledge. The Reconstruction is an attempt to meet that
demand which takes due regard to Islamic philosophical tradition
and recent developments of human knowledge. He is encouraged
in this endeavor by the self-critical approach in the modern
sciences, especially in physics.
The seven chapters in Iqbāl’s book are organized
systematically to analyze and make religious experience
understandable to the modern man. The first chapter offers an
analysis of the religious experience as a source of knowledge.
The second chapter examines this experience philosophically, and
third puts the religious experience of prayer to pragmatic test. The
fourth chapter relates religious experience with modern and
Islamic theories of self and its freedom from the perspectives of
religion and philosophy. The fifth chapter explores prophesy as a
fundamental of Islamic culture that demonstrates how religious
experience transforms itself into a living world force. This
particular perspective is possible only by disregarding the Greek
classical metaphysical view of reason, matter and movement and
by adopting the Qur’ānic anti-classical approach to the universe.
The sixth lecture on Ijtihad illustrates how the dynamism within
the structure of Islamic thought was lost by the adoption of
classical methods of reasoning that led to taqlid and stagnation.
The concluding chapter comes back to the question “Is religion
possible?” to sum up the discussion in the book and to argue that
the religious and scientific processes involve different methods
but they are in a sense parallel to each other. In the scientific
process self stands outside and in the religious experience the self
develops an inclusive attitude. Both are descriptions of the same
world but from different stand points.
(1) Knowledge and Religious Experience
Iqbāl remarks that poetry, philosophy, and religion all three
are engaged with the questions about universe and man’s place in
it. The knowledge of reality that results from poetry is individual
and figurative. Philosophy is purely rational, free and critical. It
questions assumptions, which are uncritically accepted in religion,
and it may also deny the Ultimate Reality or the capacity of
pure reason to reach it. Science may ignore rational metaphysics.
The religious quest for knowledge is social and intuitive as it
aims at the transformation of man’s inner and outer life. It stands,
therefore, more in need of rational foundations of its principles
than science. Religion is not the product of pure rational
argument; philosophy must acknowledge the centrality of religion
in examining religious experience. However, intellectual thought
and religious experience are not opposed to each other; they have
common source and are, therefore, complementary to each other.
Islamic theology sought rational foundations but
unfortunately, it soon came to rely on Greek philosophy, logic as
well as metaphysics, which did not suit the message of the
Qur’ān. The Qur’ān is anti-classical as it stresses change; it does
not distinguish between material and spiritual, as its attitude is
empirical. Modern development in philosophical thought and
method has further exposed the limits of the ancient philosophy
in understanding universe and man. Modern scientific developments
have impacted human thought and therefore call for a restatement
of their worldviews.
Islam encourages critical examination of religious experience
because contrary to general assumption, ideal and real are not the
opposing forces that cannot be reconciled. Iqbāl observes that
mystic experience is as real as any other experience; it cannot be
rejected merely because it is not traceable to sense perception. He
finds this type of religious experience immediate, wholesome,
intimate, direct and timeless. Religious experience is essentially a
state of feeling with a cognitive aspect. It is, however, not merely
personal; it can be subjected to intellectual and pragmatic tests,
which respectively mean critical interpretation and judging by its
fruit.
14 M. K. MASUD
(2) The Intellectual View of the Religious Experience
In order to test religious experience intellectually, Iqbāl
examines the various theological and philosophical approaches
and scientific theories of the universe and religious experience.
First he analyzes the three types of arguments that theology
presents for the existence of God: cosmological, teleological and
ontological. He finds them as rational foundations of theology
open to serious criticism because they take a limited and
mechanistic view of things. Reviewing philosophical and
scientific methods of analysis, Iqbāl finds that there are three
levels of human experience: matter, life and consciousness, which
are subject matter of physics, biology and psychology
respectively. He explains how the classical frameworks of these
sciences failed to conceive reality due to their static and sectional
view of the universe. He particularity finds that theories of
materiality were either mere illusions or interpretations of the
evidence that observer receives. Modern science rejects the old
concept of matter and defines it in terms of relationship between
changing space and time. Further, objectivity of the observer is
also questionable because he is also part of that experience. Life,
on the other hand, is wholesome and in constant mobility, which
suggests existence in time. Iqbāl then examines modern
philosophical and scientific theories of space and time. He finds
that philosophical theories in fact come to agree with the religious
experience of the reality; both affirm that ultimate reality is a
rationally directed creative life. To Iqbāl, the reality is spiritual,
conceived as an ego and intellectually viewed as pantheistic.
Iqbāl, therefore, concludes that judgment based on religious
experience fully satisfies the intellectual test.
(3) Pragmatic View
For the pragmatic test, Iqbāl offers two sets of argument.
First, that even though rational augments are possible and
acceptable, they are not sufficient to appreciate religious
experience. He goes into a detailed analysis of the philosophical
and theological theories and explains that instead contemplation
of His attributes provides certitude. Divine perfection lies in His
creativity. Creation of man demonstrates the fact that Divine
creativity has a purpose. Human ego is by instinct exploring,
doubting and creating, which explain that that the essence of
existence contains a creative will, which may be described as ego.
The basic difficulty in discussions about Divine Creation lies in
treating the infinite creativity in terms of finite space and time.
God is absolute and living and being perfect, He is beyond the
limits of space and time. After an analysis of different perceptions
of time and time related concepts of creation and movement,
Iqbāl elaborates that by its nature Divine knowledge cannot be
separated from creativity. Man as a finite ego is bound by the
distinction between the subject and object of knowledge; this
distinction does not exist for God.
The second set of arguments makes the point that criterion of
reality is the consciousness of the self or ego. Man is a finite
individual ego that longs to relate to the Absolute ego but this
relationship is not possible through reason. It is possible through
prayer. Prayer is not difficult to understand. It is inductively
known on the basis of the daily experience of a large number of
humans. The Sufis have told us about their experiences of
discovering special effects of prayer and priceless discoveries
about themselves. Prayer takes diverse forms in various religious
communities. The Quran mentions this diversity but stresses on
the spirit of the prayer, which is purification of self, sincerity,
justice and mercy. Search for knowledge and study of nature are
also forms of prayer, because they express longing for Reality.
Prayer is a way for the searching ego to discover its own worth as
a dynamic factor in this universe. Prayer is an admission of
humility but it is also a source of strength.
(4) Human Ego
The Qur’ān underscores three objectives of the creation of
man: closeness to God, his position as His deputy on the earth,
and autonomy of the human self so that he can carry out his
duties and be accountable for his deeds. It has been very difficult
for Muslim theologians to define human self; they describe it as a
lighter form of matter or accident, which dies with body and will
be resurrected on the Day of Judgment. Apparently, this idea is
originally Zoroastrian. The Qur’ān mentions self as a source of
16 M. K. MASUD
knowledge besides history and nature. The Sufis, not the
theologians have pursued this source. Now modern psychology is
trying to explore this source.
In fact self is the centre of perception and its reality is too
deep for the intellect to appreciate. It is a unity different from that
of material things; its unity is neither structural nor time related.
It is not mechanical. Past, present and future exist together in self
in an indivisible manner of consciousness. Self is entirely private
and unique; it remains separate from other selves despite relations
with them.
The Qur’ān makes a distinction between creation and
direction; the self belongs to the realm of direction. It cannot be
explained by the duality between body and soul. It is difficult for
a natural scientist and a theologian to understand the autonomy of
the self; they either describe it in mechanistic terms or as a simple
illusion. In Islam, belief is not simply a function of tongue and
intellect, it is the name of that certitude which comes from
religious experience and influences the shaping of deeds.
Iqbāl analyzes two problems related to the autonomy of the
self: destiny and immortality. He alludes to certain historical
causes and to the wrong interpretation of the Qur’ānic verses that
complicated these issues. The Qur’ān speaks about the
resurrection of all beings after their death, and that self is finite.
Pantheistic Sufism is unable to explain the existence of finite in
the presence of infinite. In fact, resurrection is not an external
event; it is one of the destinations of self in its journey of
evolution.
(5) The Spirit of Muslim Culture
Prophecy is fundamental to the spirit of Muslim culture.
Iqbāl begins his discussion of the subject by explaining the
difference between the prophetic and mystic types of
consciousness. He explores the concepts of revelation and the end
of prophecy in Islam and argues that the latter is the core concept
of Islamic culture as it affirms the appearance of inductive reason
to guide humans to knowledge. It is complementary and not
contradictory to revelation. The Qur’ān stresses upon the study of
history and natural phenomena and therefore urges to note change
and diversity in the universe. The ancient theology, based on
Greek logic and philosophy, preferred fixed, mechanistic and
immutable ideas of universe. The progress that modern science is
making has been possible only after abandoning this mechanistic
view of nature. Muslim culture had recognised the principles of
movement and evolution and paved the way for Western
philosophy in this direction but the Zoroastrian ideas of duality of
good and evil and fatalism that permeated in it made the Islamic
culture stagnant.
(6) Ijtihad, the Principle of Movement
The principle of movement in the structure of Islam
according to Iqbāl is ijtihad, which means to form an individual
independent judgment on a legal question. The set of legal
principles received from the Qur’ān has great capacity of
expansion and development. Ever since the establishment of
schools, the law of Islam was “reduced to a state of immobility”
by the rejection of ijtihad which had a number of reasons. Firstly
there was fear that rationalism would destroy the foundation of
Muslim society. Secondly the need of organization felt by the
early scholars led to the exclusions of innovation in the Shari’ah
and took away the power of the individual. He argues that the
Qur’ān is not a legal code; its purpose is to awaken in man the
higher consciousness of his relation with God and his creations.
Similarly, the Sunna was meant for the people at that time and
place, and therefore, according to the author, is specific to that
people. The world of Islam according to Iqbāl should proceed to
the work of reconstruction before them.
(7) Is Religion Possible?
Iqbāl has categorized religious life into three stages, namely
faith, thought and discovery. The first stage involves acceptance
without reasoning. In the second stage reasoning follows
acceptance. In the third stage, religious life searches for a logical
view of the world with God as a part of that view. Iqbāl explains
that religion and science employ different methods to reach the
ultimate reality. The method of dealing with reality by means of
18 M. K. MASUD
concepts, he says, is not a serious way to deal with it. Religion is
the only way to deal with reality since religion is more anxious to
reach its final aim.
III. IQBĀL’S APPROACH TO THEOLOGY
OF MODERNITY
The critique of Iqbāl’s approach to the theology of modernity
in recent studies deals with the following themes: Iqbāl’s
interpretation of Islamic tradition and its sources, his
objectification of modernity, and the search for the framework of
this theology. Studies of Iqbāl’s theology of modernity have
mostly focused on the question of the authenticity of its contents.
That is why these studies restrict themselves mainly to exploring
whether Iqbāl’s particular interpretation of a Qur’ānic verse is
correct and acceptable or whether his notion of human ego is
pantheistic. Very few of them ask the question if there is a
pressing need for a reinterpretation of a verse or of the notion of
freedom and destiny. If there is a need then what should be the
possible framework for this reconstruction. The question whether
this framework is philosophical or theological is a question of
methodology, not of the objectives. The following is a brief
analysis of these recent studies.
Iqbāl’s Interpretation of Islamic Tradition
Iqbāl consulted his contemporary Ulama regularly when he
was working on the Reconstruction. Among them Mawlana
Suleiman Nadwi (d. 1953) is particularly notable because Iqbāl
corresponded with him frequently. Iqbāl relied generally on what
Nadwi wrote in answer to his questions, but sometimes he was
not satisfied and asked further questions. Nadwi mostly gave very
short but firm answers. As claimed by some close associates of
Mawlana Nadwi, he was the first critic of Iqbāl’s theology and
wished that the Reconstruction were not published.34 Apparently,
Nadwi had some reservations about Iqbāl’s interpretation of
Islamic tradition, but since we do not know exactly whether he
actually disapproved of the book and on what grounds, we cannot
go into details.
In 1971, Ali Abbas Jalalpuri wrote a very comprehensive
critique of Iqbāl’s theology of modernity. He faults Iqbāl for
selective and arbitrary interpretation of the Qur’ānic verses. To
him, ambivalence towards pantheism and Ibn Arabi (d. 1240) at
some places, his devotion to the pantheist Rumi, and his idea of
Absolute Ego make it clear that Iqbāl’s theology has deep roots in
pantheism.35
Altaf Ahmad Azami, presently Dean of the faculty of Islamic
and Social Studies in Jami’ah Hamdard, Delhi, published his
study of the Reconstruction in 1977.36 It is a detailed analytical
study of all the seven chapters. According to Azami, Iqbāl’s
theology is founded on pantheism, and there is no difference in
this theology between God and man. Citing Iqbāl’s poetry and
Ibn Arabi’s comments on the Qur’ān about man and God and the
state of certitude, he observes, “Iqbāl and Shaykh Muhy al-Din
Ibn Arabi totally agree with each other in the above views, which
are both contaminated by the filth of infidelity and idolatry. May
God forgive Iqbāl. These lectures contain mostly such views that
may be clearly declared infidel (kufr) and idolatrous (shirk).”37
Azami finds most of the discussions in the book unclear and
confused. He faults Iqbāl’s theology on three points. First, Iqbāl
studied Islamic theology in the light of Western thought. He
forgot that they couldn’t be changed because the source of
Islamic teachings is God. Scientific discoveries may be used to
support Islamic beliefs; they do not provide light to reconstruct
Islamic beliefs as Iqbāl claimed. Second, Iqbāl claims that
religious experience is a reliable means to perceive God. Azami
doubts the authenticity of religious experience without the
guidance of clear revealed text. Third, Iqbāl has interpreted the
Qur’ānic verses out of their context.38
While the above two studies note and refute Iqbāl’s
pantheistic framework of theology, others describe his approach
to Sufism positively modern. Katherine Ewing, an anthropologist
who studies Sufi practices notes that Iqbāl reinterpreted Sufism to
relate it to modern concerns of Islamic society. To her, Iqbāl
deals with the problem of Sufism from a positive and modern
point of view; he is critical of the spiritual role of the Sufis and of
20 M. K. MASUD
the institution of piri-muridi, for which he terms “Persian
mysticism”. Iqbāl distinguishes between the esoteric and exoteric
knowledge. Iqbāl’s Asrar Khudi connected his interpretation of
Sufism with the political action, necessary to create a new
Muslim community. Iqbāl opened new relationship between
Sufism and modernity.39
Suha Taji Farouki assesses Iqbāl’s treatment of Sufism on
similar grounds. Iqbāl combined philosophical Sufism and
modern European philosophy to address the problems of Muslim
adjustments to modernity. However, she finds that Iqbāl was
ambivalent in his attitude to Sufism as he was ambivalent in
modern thought.40
This last line of criticism about ambivalence is quite
common. In fact, it informed by a view of modernity that regards
Western modernity to be universal and ignores its other
objectifications.
Iqbāl’s Objectification of Modernity
Some recent studies criticize Sayyid Ahmad Khan that he
was entirely under the influence of nineteenth century British
writers and objectified their theories of nature as the true modernity.
41 Modernity is hard to define because its perceptions have
been changing with time. There were several reasons for it. One
main reason was continuing quest for one universally accepted
assumption or agreed norm in the definition of modernity on the
basis of which Islam could be defended as modern.
Objectifications of modernity, therefore, changed from science to
reason in the nineteenth century, and from development to
economic and social justice in the twentieth century. The other
reason was the search for an agreed idea or institution in the
Islamic tradition on which a modern Muslim community could be
founded. Objectification of modernity from this perspective
varied between those who wanted to root modernity in Islamic
tradition and who did not. Iqbāl turned to Sufism and his
philosophical analysis of religious and Sufi experience reflected
the first approach. Critics, as we have seen above, differ in their
appreciation of this approach.
J. R. Smart observes that Iqbāl refused the Sufi concept of
the annihilation of ego and propagated the development of
Muslim self, powerful and active through submission to the will
of God.42
Azzam Tamimi and John Esposito discuss Iqbāl’s theology
with reference to his analysis of the concept of time in Muslim
theology, Sufism and modern philosophy. They observe that one
of the problems of modernity/secularism is time-consciousness.
Secular philosophers define time to be moving only in one
direction and, therefore, perceive progress also to be
unidirectional. Time is, thus, conceived to be static and absolute,
which functions according to its own mechanistic rules. The timeconsciousness
of modernity has created a dilemma in the Muslim
mind because to a Muslim time is a meaningful and dynamic
dimension of relation between God, the Ultimate reality and
man’s ontological existence. Historical flow in this sense is not
static, mechanistic and unconscious unidirectionality; rather it is a
reflection of man’s perception of ultimate Reality in the direction
of time-consciousness. According to these authors, Iqbāl solved
this problem by differentiating between different experiences of
time, to which he was led by his understanding of a verse of the
Qur’ān.43 Iqbāl tried to restructure Muslim mind against the
challenges of Western civilization, resolved this dilemma of time
consciousness and ontological existence as follows. He said,
Personally, I am inclined to think that time is an
essential element in Reality. But real time is not serial
time to which the distinction of past, present, and future
is essential; it is pure duration, i.e. change without
succession, which McTaggart’s argument does not
touch. Serial time is pure duration pulverized by thought
— a kind of device by which reality exposes its
ceaseless creative activity to quantitative measurement.
It is in this sense that the Qur’ān says: “And of Him is
the change of the night and of the day.”44
Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal look at Iqbāl’s theology from
the perspective of religious identity, which found faith as a source
of individual autonomy. Colonial modernity had redefined
22 M. K. MASUD
Muslim identity in terms of traditional social affiliations and
other particularistic elements. According to Iqbāl, Muslims were
required to be accommodated within an enlightened view of anticolonial
nationalism. He spoke about a distinctive identity, which
couched his anti-colonialism in autonomy that derived itself from
“adherence to faith”.45
Terence Ball stresses the fact that Iqbāl analyzed the concept
of identity in nineteenth century much earlier than others and
defined it in terms of self-knowledge. He engaged himself with
the Western project of modernity and with the decadence of the
East. He was critical of both East and West. Iqbāl faulted west for
rejection of religion and for dehumanizing materialism. He
criticized east for abandoning inductive reason and privileging
religion. Iqbāl’s vision of the self is motivated by a quest for selfknowledge
that is achieved in communion with the Divine. True
self is achieved in Tawhid. Iqbāl’s idea of politics of authenticity
is still relevant for defining identity in the time of globalism.
Return to self is necessary for authentic identity against the West.
Ball concludes that Iqbāl finds an answer to the present tensions
about identity essentially as modes of being “in a concept of the
self as the essence of being”.46
The question of Muslim identity arose more critically than
before in the wake of industrial and capitalist modes of
modernity. According to Natini Nataranjan,47 Iqbāl is critical of
colonial and capitalist modernity. He turned to Islamic tradition
for the critique of colonial modernity and in search for alternative
modernity. Like Hali and Shibli, Iqbāl found textual legacy in
Islamic tradition responsible for decline. But he also discovered
dynamism in this tradition. Iqbāl questioned definition of
Muslims as a nation or community in the ordinary sense of
nationalism. He developed the idea of dynamic selfhood; khudi
that resisted as well as reformed the totalizing views of modernity
of the fatalistic decadent tradition. He called for will-rooted
ethical community. Iqbāl combined disparate elements in an
organized manner.
Iqbāl showed his independence by censuring the West and
the European thinkers. He rediscovered Indo-Islamic spiritual
tradition and gave it a new interpretation. He could admire both
Nietzsche and Rumi not because they belonged to the West or
East but because they were helpful in his quest for alternative
modernity.
Iqbāl used traditional ideas and forms to introduce new ideas.
First, he took the traditional form of poetry, which was a familiar
and popular form. Second, use of poetry for pedagogical reasons
was within the tradition. Third, he made Indo-Islamic poetic
tradition relevant to modern issues by enhancing its aesthetic
character. Iqbāl was innovative and pragmatic.48
Search for a Framework for an
Islamic Theology of Modernity
One of the questions with which a number of studies of
Iqbāl’s theology of modernity remain concerned is whether it is a
continuation of Sayyid Ahmad Khan’s jadid ‘ilm al-kalam.
Mustansir Mir does not consider Iqbāl a continuator of Khan.
According to him, Iqbāl’s view that a scientific mind can relive
religious experience, disagrees with Khan. 49 Bruce Lawrence, on
the other hand, believes that Sayyid Ahmad Khan was precursor
to Iqbāl. He explains that Khan welcomed the pragmatic values of
the British especially in governance and education to the extant
that modern science embodied the metaphysical values of
medieval Europe. However, he challenged its superiority and
countered with an alternative modernity based on the rigorous
retrieval of Qur’ānic values.50
Aziz Ahmad (d. 1978)51 and Fazlur Rahman (d. 1988)52
distinguish Khan’s theology from Iqbāl’s, characterizing the
former as intellectual and cultural and the latter as essentially
political. Rahman who wrote extensively on Islam and modernity,
and is regarded as one of the foremost Islamic modernists in the
twentieth century, describes these theologies as two phases of
Islamic modernism. He calls the latter ‘Iqbālian phase’ in which
paradox of Islamic modernism became clear when it rejected the
idea of allegiance to the West but continued admiring its
scientific achievements. According to Rahman this ambivalence
toward West hindered the progress of Islamic modernism,
because opposition and admiration do not go well together. The
24 M. K. MASUD
literature that romanticized Muslim contribution to science
remained apologetic because it did not critically study the history
of science and religion in Islam. It did not speak about the
continuous religious resistance to rational sciences. It also led to
overlook the defined boundaries between science and religion in
the West.53 Like Rahman, Charles Kurzman also finds ambivalence
in Iqbāl’s theology about West and its colonial civilizing
mission; he praised Turkey and castigated it for Westernization. 54
Sheikh Muhammad Ikram regards Iqbāl’s theology as a
continuation of Khan’s jadid ‘ilm al-kalam. However, he finds
that Iqbāl was largely influenced by what he terms as “reaction to
Aligarh”.55
Ali Abbas Jalalpuri also compares Iqbāl with Sayyid Ahmad
Khan but finds the former better versed in modern philosophy.
Iqbāl’s approach to life was philosophical in his early poetry and
during the writing of his doctoral dissertation, but in his later life
he adopted a revivalist approach to problems.56 Jalalpuri’s main
argument in his study, Iqbāl ka ‘Ilm al-Kalam (1971) is that Iqbāl
is a great poet but not a philosopher; he is a theologian because
his main objective was to defend religion. Modern philosophy,
according to him, recognizes three aspects of thought: Metaphysics,
critical or analytical philosophy and practical or dialectical
philosophy. Modern philosophy does not value metaphysics;
philosophy is a perennial, continuous and free intellectual effort,
which cannot be subjected to a creed or faith. Dialectical
philosophy too aims at a revolution in human societies. If rational
arguments are directed to support and verify a certain religious
belief it is called theology. Like Ghazali and Razi, Iqbāl is a
theologian who is reconstructing religious thought in the light of
modern intellectual thought and scientific discoveries.
Jalalpuri faults Iqbāl’s theology for the following elements:
Arian immanentist rather than Semitic transcendentalist concept
of God that led him to pantheism, his eclectic adaptation of
modern philosophical theories of Fichte’s (d. 1814) ego and
Bergson’s (d. 1941) theory of time, and selective and arbitrary
interpretation of the Qur’ānic verses.
Jalalpuri concludes his criticism of Iqbāl’s theology saying
that theology keeps Muslims attached and chained to their past. It
blunts their critical faculties and creativity, encourages misplaced
pride and romanticism, and more significantly it nurtures enmity
to reason. “Our theologians are fearful of philosophy and science
and believe that teaching these sciences is harmful. Largely, Iqbāl
is responsible for this trend.”57 He was by nature a poet, and
when he tried to construct philosophy on the basis of poetry, he
let subjectivity overcome objectivity.
Jalalpuri is right in describing Iqbāl’s work as theology, not
philosophy. It is, however, stating the obvious. No doubt it is a
theology of modernity in which Iqbāl argues that religious
experience is subjective but it is real; it can be intellectually
tested but the regular rational methods of objective investigation
are not sufficient to examine it. Iqbāl’s plea was to study self and
its autonomy and include religious experience as a source of self.
Jalalpuri explains Iqbāl’s theology from a very limited
perspective that he himself defined. He becomes very superficial
in his analysis of Iqbāl when he argues that Iqbāl was inimical or
dismissive of philosophy.58 Iqbāl’s theology of modernity was in
essence a plea for critical approach to the Western thought and
Islamic tradition.
Contrary to Jalalpuri, Azami does not find in Iqbāl a true
theologian. He defines the objective of ‘ilm al-kalam to affirm
Islamic beliefs and to remove the objections raised and the doubts
created by the opponents of Islam in a rational manner. This
science deals with the following subjects: God and His Attributes,
life and universe, human self, revelation, prophesy, resurrection,
free will and determinism, paradise and hell etc. Iqbāl’s book
may be counted as a book of theology because his lectures deal
with the traditional subjects of Kalam. However, he disagrees
with Iqbāl’s approach and, therefore, counts it among the books
on jadid ‘ilm al-kalam.59
Modern man is focused on concrete things, while the
ancients were interested in abstract thought. Religious beliefs
cannot be proven by the modern methods of observation and
experimentation. Iqbāl proposed mystic religious experience as a
26 M. K. MASUD
basis for scientific experiment; this experience offers common
ground for the science and religion. Iqbāl wrote these lectures to
make Islamic thought acceptable to modern Muslim mind, but,
according to Azami, it failed because his discussion of these ideas
is too complex and difficult to be understood even by experts in
the field, not to speak of the youth.
Azami’s critique is summed up in his following comments:
“In the writer’s view, the religion whose possibility Iqbāl discusses
is a philosophical interpretation of the nature of self; it is not a
real religion that man needs. Iqbāl’s argument of compatibility
between science and religion (higher mysticism) is fallacious.” 60
In Azami’s view scientific and religious experiences have nothing
in common. Further, scientific experiment is not limited to a few
persons as it is the case of religious experience. Iqbāl was misled
by his belief that Ultimate Reality exists in the material world.
The Qur’ānic view of the universe and nature does not agree with
that of higher mysticism. Contemplation of natural phenomena,
according to the Qur’ān, is only a first step to discover truth; it
cannot yield divine knowledge.
Whether in Sufism or philosophy, Iqbāl was searching for a
framework for the theology of modernity. It was a quest for
understanding modernity and its issues for Muslim society.
Clinton Bennet describes Iqbāl’s theology as the most modernist
interpretation of Islam. He defined “progress”, “movement”, and
“state” in Islamic thought. He was critical of the West.
Nevertheless, because of Iqbāl’s focus on Shari’a as the core
concept in Islam, Bennet finds Iqbāl as a precursor to the neotraditionist
Mawlana Mawdudi.61
The above summary of recent studies shows that like Sayyid
Ahmad Khan Iqbāl wanted to develop a framework to respond to
contemporary intellectual challenges. The two theologies,
however, differed with each other in the sense that while Khan
was concerned with challenges posed by the discoveries of
modern science, Iqbāl’s shifted emphasis to society and state, and
from theology to law.
Besides jadid ‘ilm al-kalam, Iqbāl also called for a “new
jurisprudence” to deal with the challenges of modernity. He
described Ijtihad as a core element in Islamic culture. This shift
needs to be analyzed for two reasons; first as a shift in
objectification of modernity, and second as a new Islamic
framework to understand and to respond to the new needs.
The political situation had changed between Khan and Iqbāl.
Iqbāl’s era was that of nationalist agitation, self-determination,
and mass politics. After the two world wars and the abolition of
caliphate Muslims were engaged in nationalist movements for
independence. Modernity in this era came to be objectified as
independence and national identity. The political focus of the
encounter with the colonial regimes, therefore, shifted the debate
from theology to law and state, from abstract to concrete and
from the mechanical to a dynamic worldview.
Iqbāl explained the need for this shift to Ijtihad as Islamic
theology of modernity by pointing out how certain events in the
classical period of Islamic history generated the fear of political
and social disintegration and arrested the growth of Islamic
jurisprudence. He pleaded for the institutionalization of Ijtihad
and Ijma’, not only to make them more effective but also to
channelize autonomy of the self. Iqbāl suggested that modern
Parliament could play this role. It was from this perspective that
he welcomed the abolition of Ottoman Caliphate by Ataturk. He
admired Turkish republican form of caliphate as it transformed
the caliphate from the authority of an individual to an institution
of governance. For the Muslims in India, he also proposed a state
or states, which would be independent enough to remove the
stamp of Arab imperialism on Islam. Iqbāl’s stress on the institution
of parliament must be seen as an extension of his theory of
self; it is the empowerment of self in a discursive manner where
several individuals come to consensus through discourse.
In Iqbāl’s jurisprudence, we also find a revival of the theory
of the Objectives of Shari’a, expounded by a Maliki jurist Abu
Ishaq al-Shatibi (d. 1388) founded on the notions of maslaha
(common good), huzuz (individual personal interests) and
universal objectives (maqasid) of Shari’a,62 which became
central to the Islamic modernist legal thought.63
28 M. K. MASUD
Iqbāl objectified modernity as an issue of autonomy of self
and called for empowering self. This doctrine, however, could not
gain popularity because pantheist Sufism prevalent in Indian
Muslim community insisted on elimination of ego and desire as
expressions of human will and self. The orthodox Ulama also
found the idea of khudi in conflict with the concept of total
surrender to God. This was despite the fact that almost all reform
movements stressed the role of individual. In these movements,
stress on education, including literacy for women, individual
obligation of preaching (da’wa) and on improving individual
lives through religious learning reflected the concerns of modernity
with self and individual. Tablighi Jama’at, a movement for
renewal of faith that emerged in India in 1930s and soon spread
worldwide, calls for reforming oneself in order to reform the
society. These movements, however, regard Western modernity
as a threat to Islam and religion and either reject modernity and
modernization or search for an Islamic alternative to it.64
IV. CONCLUDING REMARKS
The above overview of the movement for jadid ‘ilm al-kalam
and its opposition shows that the impact of Western modernity in
the Muslim world was felt slowly and diversely due to the
varying social, economic, political and religious conditions in the
Muslim world. Compared to Egypt and Iran, India was not
homogenous in religion, language and culture. Muslims, even
though a minority, had ruled there for a long period. Muslims
were not immediately challenged in early nineteenth century in
India by the Western impact because in the beginning Europeans
were fascinated with the oriental culture and its intellectual
tradition. Shah Abdul Aziz (d. 1824) a son of Shah Waliullah had
quite friendly relations with the English. Muslims felt no political
or intellectual threat from the English. Shah often outwitted
Christian missionaries in religious debates. In fact, he regarded
the English as intellectually weak because they were interested
more in science and technology than in metaphysics and
theology.65 Shah’s fatwa about India under the rule of East India
Company as dar al-harb, a country on war was issued to explain
the legal status of the Muslims in the country, not a declaration of
Jihad.66
It was after 1857 that impact of modernity came to be felt.
Consequently, Muslim communities objectified modernity differently;
also the focus of this objectification kept changing. The
contexts of modernity varied from colonial rule to nationalism to
nation state to cold war to globalism. Islamist theologies turned
into theologies of power. These trends weakened the movements
for jadid ‘ilm al-kalam, which gradually lost its credibility.
There were three major educational institutions established in
the nineteenth century India to respond to the Muslim educational
needs: Darul Ulum Deoband, Aligarh Muhammadan College, and
Nadwatul Ulama, founded respectively in 1867, 1875 and 1894
by Sayyid Ahmad Khan, Qasim Nanawtawi, and Shibli Nu’mani.
To Sheikh Muhammad Ikram, although Deoband and Nadwa
both opposed Aligarh college policies, yet Nadwa was in many
ways closer to Aligarh in its essential objectives of reform
through education. Its revisionary approach to modernity developed
in reaction to Aligarh’s experience in modern education.
Ikram argues that despite opposition, Aligarh was successful
but Khan’s call for jadid ‘ilm al-kalam failed because beliefs are
part of individual and personal experience, they are not derived
by theological reasons.67 The new theology remained more
concerned with rationalization and with objections raised by the
Western scholars and the Westernized Muslims. It failed to situate
the problem in the social and individual lives of the believers.
As historical evidence, he refers to the rationalist movement of
the Mu‘tazila that failed for the same reasons and persons like Ibn
Hanbal and Ibn Taymiyya became more popular.68
Islamist movements that claimed continuity with Ibn
Taymiyya’s ideas of revivalism and reform also opposed Islamic
theology of modernity, particularly as formulated by Sayyid
Ahmad Khan. They appear closer to Iqbāl in their focus on
Islamic law and state, but the Islamists reject Iqbāl’s ideas of
democracy, parliament and ijtihad.
30 M. K. MASUD
Sayyid Abu’l A`la Mawdudi (d. 1979) of Jama’at Islami in
Pakistan and, Sayyid Qutb (d. 1966) of Muslim Brotherhood in
Egypt, developed their political theologies of the modernity
focusing on the sovereignty of God and supremacy of Shari’a to
counter the idea of the sovereignty of the people and nation-state
but gradually demand for Shari’a let the concept of nation state
got rooted in this theology. They developed the new theology
opposing Islamic modernist views on Jihad, polygamy, status of
women and ijtihad and developed a political theology of power.
Mawdudi objectifies modernity as secularism, which he
translates as la diniyyat (denial of religion). To Mawdudi, Islamic
state is “Theo-democracy” (Ilahi Jamhuri hukumat) as opposed to
la dini jamhuriyyat (secular democracy). In Islam people are not
absolutely free to make their own laws. There are Divine limits
(hudud Allah) on freedom. Islamic ideology regulates economy
through principles of private property, and Divine laws about
taxes (zakat), usury (riba), and lottery. Divine laws govern family
life with laws of veil and segregation between men and women
(hijab), male supervision, rights and duties according to social
status, and laws about marriage, divorce, and a qualified
permission of polygamy. It also controls civil life through laws
about crime and punishment. Since these laws are given as Divine
revelation, there is no place for human legislation.
The movement for jadid ‘ilm al-kalam, as we have argued so
far, has also been critical of secular modernism. In fact, Sayyid
Ahmad Khan’s call for this new theology was caused by his
concern about the rise of secular modernism among the Muslim
elite. Iqbāl was also critical of secular modernists. Fazlur Rahman
held Islamists and the conservative Ulama along with secular
modernists responsible for misunderstanding Islam and
modernity. He insisted on the positive role of Islamic modernism
in keeping Islam relevant to the modern man. In his writings, the
term Islamic modernism fully replaces jadid ‘ilm al-kalam.
Rahman defined modernity with reference to specific forces,
which were generated by and were also responsible for the intellectual
and socio-economic expansion of the modern West. He
argued that although the impact of the West cannot be denied, the
Islamic modernism couldn’t be understood without placing it in
continuity with the reform movements in the eighteenth century.
Islamic modernism, in Rahman’s view, continues to confirm
the hold of religion in all aspects of life. Secular modernists find
life bifurcated into religious and secular in Muslim countries. For
Rahman, this separation is accidental because Islam is not yet
truly the basis of state; Islam has been applied only to a narrow
religious sphere like personal laws.69 Rahman holds not only the
Ulama but also the apologists for Islam responsible for the
imminent secularism in Muslim societies. According to him,
“Apologetic-controversial literature created a barrier against
further modernist development.”70 He concludes that “Unless
secularism can be made into an effective force for positive
progress, the only way for these countries seems to be to accept
religion as the basis of state and to find within their religions not
only adequate safeguards but formulas of genuine equality for
minorities with the majority communities. Otherwise sooner or
later, but probably in the predictable future these countries would
break up into racial and of linguistic unit on the pattern of
Europe.”71
Under Rahman’s influence, ideas of Islamic modernism
spread to Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia. His disciple
Nurcholish Madjid (1939-2005) made one of the most prominent
contributions in this regard. Madjid began his career as a student
leader in Masyumi. He distanced himself from Masyumi in 1970
and other reformist associations and began to speak about the
need for renewal of religious thought (pembaruan pemikiran
agama). He introduced to Indonesian youth the Indian reformists
Sayyid Ahmad Khan and Iqbāl. Similar influence appeared in
other Muslim countries.
During the last decade of the twentieth century, Islamic
modernism appears to have receded when the movements for
Islamization spread in almost all Muslim countries. Islamic revolution
in Iran, Islamization in Pakistan, Jihad and then Islamic
rule by Taliban in Afghanistan, called for complete Islamization,
rejecting Western modernity and returning to Shari’a. These
movements radicalized not only Muslim political thought, which
32 M. K. MASUD
led to militancy and bitter confrontation with the West but also
produced a significant new theology of Islamization of
knowledge. It called for expression of authentic Islamic values in
education, particularly in teaching of sciences that signified
objectivity. Total rejection of modernity and historicity of Islamic
tradition led Islamists either to align with orthodoxy or to
arbitrary construction of Islamic tradition. Islamic modernism
was refuted as a product of Orientalism, which was defined as
Western assault on Islam. Critical studies of Orientalism such as
by Edward Said were used to reinforce this definition.
Movements for authenticity and Islamization did not succeed in
achieving their objectives.
In the twenty-first century, globalization shifted the emphasis
to universal modernity of human rights. Discourses on human
rights, self, and gender equality have revived the focus on self
and its empowerment. This may be seen as a revival of Iqbāl’s
theology of modernity. This revival has impacted both the
modernist and traditionalist schools of thought. Progressive
Muslims, launched in 2004 in the USA, Tanwir (Islamic
enlightenment) in Egypt, Islam Hazari (Malaysia), Enlightened
Moderation (Pakistan), and Islamic Dialogue (Iran) appeared as
ideas of jadid ‘ilm al-kalam, or theology of modernity to defend
Islam against the Western depiction of Islam as a religion of
terrorism and violence. The focus on the autonomy of self has
also influenced the quest of the traditionalist Muslim thought for
a middle ground between Islamism and Islamic modernism.
Groups of scholars who share such views are known by different
names: Wasatiyya in Egypt,72 and Islahiyyun in Saudi Arabia.73
These groups consist of mostly scholars who were earlier
associated with the Islamist movements. They call for rethinking
of Shari’a in the modern context. In Egypt, Shaykh al-Ghazali
(1917-96) published a very erudite critique of the Sunna as a
source used by the jurists. Javed Ghamidi in Pakistan calls for
examination of penal laws because they are not coherent with the
structure, spirit and the meaning of the Qur’ān. 74
To conclude, Iqbāl’s approach jadid ilm al-kalam has been
usually studied from the perspective of authenticity, i.e. whether
it correctly corresponded with orthodox theology or modern
philosophy. Its contribution as an attempt to define modernity,
and to develop a framework to interpret Islam was not given due
attention. It is especially important to note that Iqbāl’s focus on
the autonomy of self, which was generally ignored in the
nineteenth century, has re-emerged in the twenty first century.
NOTES AND REFERENCES
1 For an English translation of this lecture, see Christian W. Troll, Sayyid
Ahmad Khan: A Reinterpretation of Muslim Theology (New Delhi: Vikas
Publishing House, 1978), pp. 307-32.
2 Ignác Goldziher, Die Richtungen der islamischen Koranauslegung an der
Vorlesungen (Leiden, Brill.1920), p. 324.
3 William Muir, The Life of Mahomet (London: Smith, Elder and Co.,
1861), 4:308.
4 Ikram, 1992, p. 156.
5 Troll, 1978, p. 311.
6 Troll, 1978, p. 313.
7 Troll, 1978, p. 313.
8 Ikram, 1992, p. 159.
9 Aziz Ahmad, Muslim Self-Statement in India and Pakistan 1857-1968.
(Wiesbaden: Otto Harrasowitz, 1970), p. 30.
10 Ahmad, 1970, p. 31.
11 Ahmad, 1970, p. 35.
12 Ahmad, 1970, p. 34.
13 Ahmad, 1970, p. 35.
14 Ikram, 1992, p. 160.
15 Ikram, 1992, p. 161.
16 For an English translation of Nanawtawi’s Tasfiyatul ‘aqa’id, see Aziz
Ahmad and G. E. von Grunebaum, Muslim Self-Statement in India and
Pakistan 1857-1968 (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrasowitz, 1970), pp. 60-76.
17 Ashraf ‘Ali Thanawi, Imdadul Fatawa (Karachi: Darul Isha’at, 1992), 6:
166-185.
18 Thanawi’s criticism of the modernists is best illustrated by his address in
1909 to the students of Aligarh College, founded by Sayyid Ahmad
Khan. Thanawi argued that Muslims who were educated in institutions
like Aligarh found themselves weaker in defense of Islam than the
traditional Ulama because they lacked the necessary knowledge of Islam.
He delineated three deficiencies in Aligarh graduates. (1) They do not
consult the Ulama when they are in doubt about Islam. Doubt is like an
34 M. K. MASUD
illness and the Ulama are the only physicians who can treat this illness.
(2) Modern education gives them false confidence about themselves. (3)
They doubt that the religious matters can be explained rationally. The
modern educated do not understand Ulama’s language. They cannot do
so because they do not learn the traditional sciences, which the Ulama
have mastered (Thanawi 1976, 6). For Thanawi, the solution to modern
challenges lied in the restoration of tradition and the authority of the
Ulama.
19 Muhammad ‘Abduh, Risala al-Tawhid (Cairo, 1934).
20 Husayn al-Jisr al-Afandi, Kitab al-risalat al-Hamidiyya fi haqiqat aldiyanat
al-Islamiyya wa haqiqat al-shari’at al-Muhammadiyya (Beirut:
Majlis Ma’arif, 1889), p. 35.
21 The Risala was very well received in the West as well as in the Muslim
world. To most scholars of modern Islam, the treatise signified a change
in Muslim attitude toward the West, particularly to non-Muslims.
Malcolm Kerr calls Jisr “an enlightened and moderately progressive
sheikh”. In Egypt, Rashid Rida published extracts of the Risala in al-
Manar (VIII, 456, 1, 2), and in Turkey Midhat Pasha published its
translation in his journal Tarjuman Haqiqat.
22 Muhammad Ishaq Ali (Transl.), Sa’ins awr Islam (Lahore: Idara
Islamiyyat, 1984)
23 Muhammad Ishaq Ali, Sa’ins awr Islam, Preface.
24 Rev. Isaac Taylor studied Islam and Christianity comparatively and found
very few differences. Taylor also refuted other European authors.
Referring to Africa, he lauded Islam’s efforts to bring civilization to
primitive peoples. There was a lively debate on Islam. In England, a
mosque was established and an Arabic journal was launched. The editor
invited the scholars in Lebanon for contributions.
25 Jisr, 1889, p. 35.
26 Jisr, 1889, p. 113, 120.
27 Jisr, 1889, p. 138.
28 Sheikh Muhammad Ikram, Mawj-i Kauthar (Lahore: Institute of Islamic
Culture, 1992), 212 ff.
29 Ikram, 1992, p. 244.
30 Ikram, 1992, p. 250.
31 Ikram, 1992, p. 262.
32 A recent example is Muhammad Shahab al-Din Nadwi, Jadid ‘Ilm Kalam
(Karachi: Majlis Nashriyat Islam, 1994).
33 Muhammad Iqbāl, The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam
(Lahore: Institute of Islamic Culture, 1986), p. 78.
34 For a detailed discussion of the above claim and Iqbāl’s reliance on
Nadwi, see Muhammad Khalid Masud, Iqbāl’s Reconstruction of
Religious Thought (Islamabad: Islamic Research Institute, 1996).
35 Ali Abbas Jalalpuri, Iqbāl ka `ilm-i- kalam (Lahore: Takhliqat, 2003).
36 Altaf Ahmad Azami, Khutbat-i Iqbāl ek Mutala’a (Lahore: Dar al-
Tadhkir, 2005).
37 Azami, 2005, p. 13.
38 Azami, 2005, pp. 14-17.
39 Katherine Pratt Ewing, Arguing Sainthood: Modernity, Psychoanalysis
and Modernity (Duke: Duke University Press, 1997), p. 69.
40 Suha Taji Farouki, Islamic Thought in the Twentieth Century (I B Tauris,
2004), p. 120.
41 Zafar Hasan, Sir Syed awr Hali ka Nazriyya Fitrat (Lahore: Institute of
Islamic Culture, 2003).

42 J. R. Smart, Tradition and Modernity in Arabic Language and Literature
(Surrey: Curzon Press, 1996), p. 171.

43 Azzam Tamimi and J. L. Esposito, Islam and Secularism in the Middle
East (London: Hurst, 2002), p. 195.

44 Iqbāl, Reconstruction, p. 47.
45 Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal, Modern South Asia, History, Culture and
Political Economy (Routledge, 1998), p. 241.

46 Terence Ball, ed., The Cambridge History of Twentieth Century Political
Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), p. 586.

47 Natini Nataranjan, (ed.), Handbook of Twentieth Century Literature of
India (Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 1996), p. 337.

48 Natini Nataranjan, p. 337.
49 Mustansir Mir, Iqbāl (London: I B Tauris, 2006)
50 Bruce Lawrence, The Qur’ān and Biography (London: Atlantic Books,
2006), p. 12.
51 Aziz Ahmad, Islamic Modernism in India and Pakistan 1857-1964
(London: Oxford University Press, 1967).
52 Fazlur Rahman, “Islamic Modernism: Its Scope, Method and
Alternatives”, International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Volume 1
(1970), pp. 317-373.

53 Rahman, 1969, p. 258.
54 Charles Kurzman, Modernist Islam 1840-1940: A Sourcebook (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 8.

55 See above note 27.
56 Jalalpuri, 2003, p. 19.
36 M. K. MASUD
57 Jalalpuri, 2003, p. 211.
58 Jalalpuri, 2003, p. 205.
59 Azami, 2005, p. 5.
60 Azami, 2005, p. 266.
61 Clinton Bennet, Muslims and Modernity: An Introduction to the Issues
and Debates (London: Continuum, 2005), p. 22.

62 Iqbāl, 1986, p. 134.
63 For a detailed discussion, see Muhammad Khalid Masud, Shatibi’s
Philosophy of Islamic Law (Islamabad: Islamic Research Institute, 1996).
64 Muhammad Khalid Masud, Travellers in Faith, Studies of the Tablighi
Jama’at as a Transnational Movement for Faith Renewal (Leiden: Brill,

2000).
65 Muhammad Khalid Masud, “The World of Shah Abdul Aziz (1746-
1824)”, in Jamal Malik (ed.), Perspectives of Mutual Encounters in South
Asian History 1760-1860 (Leiden: Brill, 2000), pp. 298-314.
66 See for a detailed analysis, Muhammad Khalid Masud, “The World of
Shah Abdul Aziz (1746-1824)”, in Jamal Malik (ed.), Perspectives of
Mutual Encounters in South Asian History 1760-1860. (Leiden: Brill,
2000), pp. 298-314. South Asia
67 Sheikh Muhammad Ikram, Mawj-i Kauthar (Lahore: Institute of Modern era
Islamic
Culture, 1992), pp. 156-344.
68 Ikram, 1992, p. 164.
69 Fazlur Rahman, “The Impact of modernity on Islam”, Edward J. Jurji
(ed.), Religious Pluralism and World Community, Interfaith and
Intercultural Communication (Leiden: Brill, 1969), 253.
70 Rahman, 1969, p. 252.
71 Rahman, 1969, p. 259.
72 See, Raymond William Baker, Islam without Fear, Egypt and the
New
Islamists (Massachusetts, and London: Cambridge, 2003).
73 Stéphane Lacroix, “Between Islamists and Liberals: Saudi Arabia’s
New
“Islamo-Liberal Reformists”, Middle East Journal, Volume 58 (2004),
No. 3, pp. 345-65.
74 Masud, “Rethinking Shari‘a: Javed Ahmad Ghamidi on Hudud”, Die
Welt des Islams, Volume 47 (2007), Numbers 3-4, pp. 356-

375.Iqbal, Muhammad Name: Sir Muhammad
Previous (Muhammad Ali Pasha the Great) Iqbāl
Next (Muhammad Jinnah) Urdu spelling - ‫محمد‬
Sir Muhammad Iqbāl (Urdu:‫( )محمد اقبال‬November 9, 1877 – April ‫اقبال‬
21, 1938) was an Indian Muslim poet, philosopher and politician, Birth: November 9,
whose poetry in Persian and Urdu is regarded as among the greatest 1877
in modern times.[1] Also famous for his work on religious and
Death: April 21, 1938
political philosophy in Islam, he is credited with first proposing the
idea of an independent state for Indian Muslims, which would School/tradition: Sunni
inspire the creation of Pakistan. He is commonly referred to as Main interests
Allama Iqbal (Urdu:‫)علمہ اقبال‬, where Allama means Scholar.
poetry, history,
After studying in England and Germany, Iqbal established a law metaphysics, Islam
practice, but he primarily concentrated on religious and Notable ideas
philosophical subjects, writing scholarly works on politics,
economics, history, philosophy and religion. He is best known for his Two-Nation Theory
poetic works, which include the Tarana-e-Hind (Song of India), Influences Influenced
Asrar-e-Khudi (Secrets of Self), in honor of which he was knighted
Rumi;
by George V, Rumuz-i-Bekhudi (Secrets of Selflessness), and the
Johann
Bang-i-Dara (Caravan Bells). Iqbal was also the author of many
Wolfgang
political, philosophical and historical commentaries. He is known as
von Pakistan
Iqbal-e-Lahori (Persian: ‫)اقبال لوهوری‬, (Iqbal of Lahore) in
Goethe; movement
Afghanistan and Iran where he is highly praised for his Persian
Thomas
works.
Walker
Arnold
Iqbal was a strong proponent of the political and spiritual revival of
Islamic civilization across the world, but specifically in India; a
series of famous lectures he delivered to this effect were published as The Reconstruction of
Religious Thought in Islam. One of the most prominent leaders of the All India Muslim League,
Iqbal encouraged the creation of a "state in northwestern India for Indian Muslims" in his 1930
presidential address.[2] Iqbal encouraged and worked closely with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and he
is known as Muffakir-e-Pakistan ("The Thinker of Pakistan"), Shair-i-Mashriq ("The Poet of the
East"), and Hakeem-ul-Ummat ("The Sage of Ummah"). He is officially recognised as the
"national poet" in Pakistan. The anniversary of his birth (Yom-e-Viladat-e-Muhammed Iqbal, ‫یوم‬
‫ )ولتدت محمد اقبال‬on November 9 is a holiday in Pakistan. His dynamic interpretation of Islam
posited that no generation should be bound by the interpretations of previous generations but
should be free to solve their own problems. Above all, he wanted humanity to partner God in
God's continuing work of creation so that God might actually 'rest' from the 'toil and weariness
of Godhood' [3].
Contents
[hide]
 1 Early life
 2 Literary career
o 2.1 Works in Persian
o 2.2 Works in Urdu
 3 Political career
o 3.1 Revival of Islamic polity
o 3.2 Relationship with Jinnah
 4 Death
 5 Criticism
 6 Notes
 7 References
 8 External links
 9 Credits
Early life
Sheikh Muhammad Iqbal was born in Sialkot, Punjab (British India - now part of Pakistan); the
eldest of five siblings in a Kashmiri family. It is believed that Iqbal's family were originally
Hindu Brahmins, but became Muslim following his ancestor Sahaj Ram Sapru's conversion to
Islam, although this version is disputed by some scholars.[4][5] Iqbal's father Shaikh Nur
Muhammad was a prosperous tailor, well-known for his devotion to Islam, and the family raised
their children with deep religious grounding.
Muhammad Iqbal in 1899

As a boy, Iqbal was educated initially by tutors in languages and writing, history, poetry and
religion. His potential as a poet and writer was recognized by one of his tutors, Sayyid Mir
Hassan, and Iqbal would continue to study under him at the Scotch Mission College in Sialkot.
The student became proficient in several languages and the skill of writing prose and poetry, and
graduated in 1892. Following custom, at the age of 15 Iqbal's family arranged for him to be
married to Karim Bibi, the daughter of an affluent Gujarati physician. The couple had two
children: a daughter, Mi'raj Begam (born 1895) and a son, Aftab (born 1899). Iqbal's third son
died soon after birth. The husband and wife were unhappy in their marriage and eventually
divorced in 1916.
Iqbal entered the Government College in Lahore where he studied philosophy, English literature
and Arabic, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree, graduating cum laude. He won a gold medal for
topping his examination in philosophy. While studying for his Masters degree, Iqbal came under
the wing of Sir Thomas Arnold, a scholar of Islam and modern philosophy at the college. Arnold
exposed the young man to Western culture and ideas, and served as a bridge for Iqbal between
the ideas of East and West. Iqbal was appointed to a readership in Arabic at the Oriental College
in Lahore, publishing his first book in Urdu, The Knowledge of Economics in 1903. In 1905
Iqbal published the patriotic song, Tarana-e-Hind (Song of India).
At Sir Thomas's encouragement, Iqbal traveled to and spend many years studying in Europe. He
obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Trinity College at Cambridge in 1907, while
simultaneously studying law at Lincoln's Inn, from where he qualified as a barrister in 1908.
Iqbal also met a Muslim student, Atiyah Faizi in 1907, and had a close relationship with her. In
Europe, he started writing his poetry in Persian as well. Throughout his life, Iqbal would prefer
writing in Persian as he believed it allowed him to fully express philosophical concepts,and it
gave him a wider audience.[1] It was while in England that he first participated in politics.
Following the formation of the All-India Muslim League in 1906, Iqbal was elected to the
executive committee of its British chapter in 1908. Together with two other politicians, Syed
Hassan Bilgrami and Syed Ameer Ali, Iqbal sat on the subcommittee which drafted the
constitution of the League. In 1907, Iqbal traveled to Germany to pursue a doctorate from the
Faculty of Philosophy of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität at Munich. Working under the
supervision of Friedrich Hommel, Iqbal published a thesis titled: The Development of
Metaphysics in Persia.[6]
Literary career
Muhammad Iqbal, in London 1908

Upon his return to India in 1908, Iqbal took up assistant professorship at the Government
College in Lahore, but for financial reasons he relinquished it within a year to practice law.
During this period, Iqbal's personal life was in turmoil. He divorced Karim Bibi in 1916, but
provided financial support to her and their children for the rest of his life.
While maintaining his legal practice, Iqbal began concentrating on spiritual and religious
subjects, and publishing poetry and literary works. He became active in the Anjuman-i-Himayat-
i-Islam, a congress of Muslim intellectuals, writers and poets as well as politicians, and in 1919
became the general secretary of the organization. Iqbal's thoughts in his work primarily focused
on the spiritual direction and development of human society, centered around experiences from
his travel and stay in Western Europe and the Middle East. He was profoundly influenced by
Western philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Henri Bergson and Goethe, and soon became
a strong critic of Western society's separation of religion from state and what he perceived as its
obsession with materialist pursuits. He was especially influenced by Alfred North Whitehead,
whom he frequently cited, adapting his process thought to interpret Islam in dynamic terms and
to describe Muslims as always progressing towards 'ever-fresh illuminations from an Infinite
Reality' that 'every moment appears in new glory' (1930: 123). Muslims, said Iqbal, are destined
to become 'co-workers with God' provided that they 'take the initiative' within the eternal
"process of progressive change" (1930: 12).
The poetry and philosophy of Mawlana Rumi bore the deepest influence on Iqbal's mind. Deeply
grounded in religion since childhood, Iqbal would begin intensely concentrating on the study of
Islam, the culture and history of Islamic civilization and its political future, and embrace Rumi
as "his guide." Iqbal would feature Rumi in the role of a guide in many of his poems, and his
works focused on reminding his readers of the past glories of Islamic civilization, promoting a
pure, spiritual focus on Islam as a source for socio-political liberation and greatness. Iqbal
denounced political divisions within and among Muslim nations, frequently alluding to the
global Muslim community, or the Ummah.[7]
Works in Persian
Iqbal's poetic works are written mostly in Persian rather than Urdu. In 1915, he published his
first collection of poetry, the Asrar-i-Khudi (Secrets of the Self) in Persian. The poems delve into
concepts of ego and emphasize the spirit and self from a religious, spiritual perspective. Many
critics have called this Iqbal's finest poetic work.[8] In Asrar-i Khudi, Iqbal explains his
philosophy of "Khudi," or "Self," arguing that the whole universe obeys the will of the "Self."
Iqbal condemns self-destruction. For him the aim of life is self-realization and self-knowledge.
He charts the stages through which the "Self" has to pass before finally arriving at its point of
perfection, enabling the knower of the "Self" to become the viceregent of Allah.[7]
Muhammad Iqbal, with his son Javid Iqbal 1929

In his Rumuz-i Bekhudi (Hints of Selflessness), Iqbal seeks to prove that the Islamic way of life
is the best code of conduct for a nation's viability. While not refuting his earlier belief that a
person must keep his individual characteristics intact, he nonetheless adds that once this is
achieved he should sacrifice his personal ambitions for the needs of the nation. Man cannot
realize the "Self" apart from society. Also in Persian and published in 1917, this group of poems
has as its main themes the ideal community, Islamic ethical and social principles, and the
relationship between the individual and society. Although he is true throughout to Islam, Iqbal
recognizes also the positive analogous aspects of other religions. The Rumuz-i-Bekhudi
complements the emphasis on the self in the Asrar-i-Khudi and the two collections are often put
in the same volume under the title Asrar-i-Rumuz (Hinting Secrets), addressed to the world's
Muslims. Iqbal sees the individual and his community as reflections of each other. The
individual needs to be strengthened before he can be integrated into the community, whose
development in turn depends on the preservation of the communal ego. It is through contact with
others that an ego learns to accept the limitations of its own freedom and the meaning of love.
Muslim communities must ensure order in life and must therefore preserve their communal
tradition. It is in this context that Iqbal sees the vital role of women, who as mothers are directly
responsible for inculcating values in their children.
Iqbal's 1924 publication, the Payam-i Mashriq (The Message Of The East) is closely connected
to the West-östlicher Diwan by the famous German poet Goethe. Goethe bemoaned that the West
had become too materialistic in outlook and expected that the East would provide a message of
hope that would resuscitate spiritual values. Iqbal styles his work as a reminder to the West of
the importance of morality, religion and civilization by underlining the need for cultivating
feeling, ardor and dynamism. He believed that an individual could never aspire to higher
dimensions unless he learns of the nature of spirituality.[7] An admirer of the liberal movements
of Afghanistan against the British Empire, he made his first visit, presenting his book "Payam-e
Mashreq" to King Amanullah Khan. In 1933, he was officially invited to Afghanistan to join the
meetings regarding the establishment of Kabul University.
The Zabur-i Ajam (Persian Psalms), published in 1927, includes the poems Gulshan-i Raz-i
Jadid (New Garden of Secrets) and Bandagi Nama (Book of Slavery). In Gulshan-i Raz-i Jadid,
Iqbal first poses questions, then answers them with the help of ancient and modern insight,
showing how it effects and concerns the world of action. Bandagi Nama denounces slavery by
attempting to explain the spirit behind the fine arts of enslaved societies. Here, as in his other
books, Iqbal insists on remembering the past, doing well in the present and preparing for the
future, emphasizing love, enthusiasm and energy to fulfill the ideal life.[7] Iqbal's 1932 work, the
Javid Nama (Book of Javed) is named for his son, who is featured in the poems, following the
examples of the works of Ibn Arabi and Dante's The Divine Comedy, through mystical and
exaggerated depiction across time. Iqbal depicts himself as Zinda Rud ("A stream full of life")
guided by Rumi, "the master," through various heavens and spheres, and has the honor of
approaching divinity and coming in contact with divine illuminations. In a passage re-living a
historical period, Iqbal condemns the Muslim traitors who were instrumental in the defeat and
death of Nawab Siraj-ud-Daula of Bengal and Tipu Sultan of Mysore respectively by betraying
them for the benefit of the British colonists, thus relegating their country into the shackles of
slavery. At the end, by addressing his son Javid, he speaks to the young people as a whole,
providing guidance to the "new generation."[7]
Works in Urdu
Muhammad Iqbal, 1933, in Spain.
Iqbal's first work published in Urdu, the Bang-i-Dara (The Call of the Marching Bell) of 1924,
was a collection of poetry written by him in three distinct phases of his life.[7] The poems written
prior to 1905, the year Iqbal left for England, including the Tarana-e-Hind (The Song of India)
popularly known as Saare Jahan Se Achcha, imbibe patriotism and imagery of the landscape.
The second set of poems, which date from between 1905 and 1908 when Iqbal studied in
Europe, dwell upon the nature of European society, which he emphasized had lost spiritual and
religious values. This inspired Iqbal to write poems on the historical and cultural heritage of
Islamic culture and Muslim people, not from an Indian but a global perspective. Iqbal urges the
global community of Muslims, addressed as the Ummah to define personal, social and political
existence by the values and teachings of Islam. Poems such as Tulu'i Islam (Dawn of Islam) and
Khizr-i-Rah (The Guided Path) are especially acclaimed.
Iqbal preferred to work mainly in Persian for a predominant period of his career, but after 1930,
his works were mainly in Urdu. The works of this period were often specifically directed at the
Muslim masses of India, with an even stronger emphasis on Islam, and Muslim spiritual and
political reawakening. Published in 1935, the Bal-i Jibril (Wings of Gabriel) is considered by
many critics as the finest of Iqbal's Urdu poetry. It was inspired by his visit to Spain, where he
visited the monuments and legacy of the kingdom of the Moors. It consists of ghazals, poems,
quatrains, epigrams and carries a strong sense religious passion.[7]
The Pas Cheh Bay ed Kard ai Aqwam-i Sharq (What are we to do, O Nations of the East?)
includes the poem Musafir (Traveller). Iqbal again deploys Rumi as a character. The texts
provides an exposition of the mysteries of Islamic laws and Sufi perceptions. Iqbal laments the
dissention and disunity among the Indian Muslims as well as Muslim nations. Musafir is an
account of one of Iqbal's journeys to Afghanistan, in which the Pashtun people are counseled to
learn the "secret of Islam" and to "build up the self" within themselves.[7] Iqbal's final work was
the Armughan-i Hijaz (The Gift of Hijaz), published posthumously in 1938. The first part
contains quatrains in Persian, and the second part contains some poems and epigrams in Urdu.
The Persian quatrains convey the impression that the poet is traveling through the Hijaz in his
imagination. The Urdu portion of the book contains some categorical criticism of the intellectual
movements and social and political revolutions of the modern age. Although Iqbal admired Sufi
poets and thinkers he was outspokenly critical of Sufi Islam. Sufis Islam, by stressing baqa
(unity) with God "took people mistakenly along the radius to the center" while "the human task,"
according to Iqbal "is to concentrate on the circumference" and it is within the created order that
"self-realization" will occur. [9]
Political career
Iqbal, third from left, front row, with Muslim political activists.
While dividing his time between law and poetry, Iqbal had remained active in the Muslim
League. He supported Indian involvement in World War I, as well as the Khilafat movement,
remaining in close touch with Muslim political leaders such as Maulana Mohammad Ali and
Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He was a critic of the mainstream Indian National Congress, which he
regarded as dominated by Hindus. He was disappointed with the League when during the 1920s,
it was absorbed in factional struggles between the pro-British group led by Sir Muhammad Shafi
and the centrist group led by Jinnah.
In November 1926, with the encouragement of friends and supporters, Iqbal contested for a seat
in the Punjab Legislative Assembly from the Muslim district of Lahore, defeating his opponent
by a margin of 3,177 votes.[10] He supported the constitutional proposals presented by Jinnah
with the aim of guaranteeing Muslim political rights and influence in a coalition with the
Congress, working with the Aga Khan and other Muslim leaders to mend the factional divisions
and achieve unity in the Muslim League.
Revival of Islamic polity

Iqbal's second book in English, the Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (1930), is a
collection of his six lectures which he delivered at Madras, Hyderabad, India and Aligarh; first
published as a collection in Lahore. These lectures dwell on the role of Islam as a religion as
well as a political and legal philosophy in the modern age. In these lectures Iqbal firmly rejects
the political attitudes and conduct of Muslim politicians, whom he saw as morally-misguided,
attached to power and without any standing with Muslim masses. Iqbal asserted that secularism
as a guiding principle for government was a mistake and must be abandoned by the Muslim
polity.[11][12] Iqbal expressed fears that not only would secularism weaken the spiritual
foundations of Islam and Muslim society, but that India's Hindu-majority population would
crowd out Muslim heritage, culture and political influence. In his travels to Egypt, Afghanistan,
Iran and Turkey, he promoted ideas of greater Islamic political co-operation and unity, calling
for the shedding of nationalist differences. He also speculated on different political arrangements
to guarantee Muslim political power; in a dialogue with Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Iqbal expressed his
desire to see Indian provinces as autonomous units under the direct control of the British
government and with no central Indian government. He envisaged autonomous Muslim
provinces in India. Under an Indian union he feared for Muslims, who would suffer based on
their separate identity as Muslims.[10] Sir Muhammad Iqbal was elected president of the Muslim
League in 1930 at its session in Allahabad, in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh as well as
for the session in Lahore in 1932. In his presidential address on December 29, 1930, Iqbal
outlined a vision of an independent state for Muslim-majority provinces in northwestern India:
Iqbal front, center, with Choudhary Rahmat Ali and other Muslim activists.
"I would like to see the Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sind province (1936-1955) and
Baluchistan (Chief Commissioners Province) amalgamated into a single state. Self-government
within the British Empire, or without the British Empire, the formation of a consolidated
Northwest Indian Muslim state appears to me to be the final destiny of the Muslims, at least of
Northwest India."[2]
In his speech, Iqbal emphasized that unlike Christianity, Islam had a specific set of "legal
concepts" with "civic significance," and its "religious ideals" were inseparable from social order:
"therefore, the construction of a policy on national lines, if it means a displacement of the
Islamic principle of solidarity, is simply unthinkable to a Muslim."[11] Iqbal stressed not only the
need for the political unity of Muslim communities, but the undesirability of blending the
Muslim population into a wider society not based on Islamic principles. He thus became the first
politician to articulate what would become known as the Two-Nation Theory — that Muslims are
a distinct nation and thus deserve political independence from other regions and communities of
India. However, he would not elucidate or specify whether his ideal Islamic state would
constitute a theocracy, even as he rejected secularism and nationalism. The latter part of Iqbal's
life was concentrated on political activity. He would travel across Europe and West Asia to
garner political and financial support for the League, reiterating his ideas in his 1932 address.
During the Third Round-Table Conference (1931-1933), he opposed the Congress and proposals
for transfer of power without considerable autonomy or independence for Muslim provinces. He
would serve as president of the Punjab Muslim League, and would deliver speeches and publish
articles in an attempt to rally Muslims across India as a single political entity. Iqbal consistently
criticized feudal classes in Punjab as well as Muslim politicians averse to the League.
Relationship with Jinnah
Iqbal, in his final years.

Ideologically separated from Congress Muslim leaders, Iqbal had also been disillusioned with
the politicians of the Muslim League owing to the factional conflict that plagued the League in
the 1920s. Discontent with factional leaders like Sir Muhammad Shafi and Sir Fazl-ur-Rahman,
Iqbal came to believe that only Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a political leader capable of
preserving this unity and fulfilling the League's objectives of Muslim political empowerment.
Building a strong, personal correspondence with Jinnah, Iqbal was influential in convincing
Jinnah to end his self-imposed exile in London, return to India and take charge of the League.
Iqbal firmly believed that Jinnah was the only leader capable of drawing Indian Muslims to the
League and maintaining party unity before the British and the Congress:
"I know you are a busy man but I do hope you won't mind my writing to you often, as you are
the only Muslim in India today to whom the community has right to look up for safe guidance
through the storm which is coming to North-West India and, perhaps, to the whole of India."[13]
There were significant differences between the two men — while Iqbal believed that Islam was
the source of government and society, Jinnah was a believer in secular government and had laid
out a secular vision for Pakistan where religion would have "nothing to do with the business of
the state."[14] Iqbal had backed the Khilafat struggle; Jinnah had dismissed it as "religious
frenzy." And while Iqbal espoused the idea of partitioning Muslim-majority provinces in 1930,
Jinnah would continue to hold talks with the Congress through the decade, only officially
embracing the goal of Pakistan in 1940. Some historians postulate that Jinnah always remained
hopeful for an agreement with the Congress and never fully desired the partition of India.[15]
Some historians have speculated that Iqbal's close correspondence with Jinnah was responsible
for Jinnah's embrace of the idea of Pakistan.[16] Iqbal elucidated to Jinnah his vision of a separate
Muslim state in his letter sent of June 21, 1937:
"A separate federation of Muslim Provinces, reformed on the lines I have suggested above, is the
only course by which we can secure a peaceful India and save Muslims from the domination of
Non-Muslims. Why should not the Muslims of North-West India and Bengal be considered as
nations entitled to self-determination just as other nations in India and outside India are."[10]
Iqbal, serving as president of the Punjab Muslim League, criticized Jinnah's political actions,
including a political agreement with Punjabi leader Sir Sikandar Hyat Khan, whom Iqbal saw as
a representative of feudal classes and not committed to Islam as the core political philosophy.
Nevertheless, Iqbal worked constantly to encourage Muslim leaders and masses to support
Jinnah and the League. Speaking about the political future of Muslims in India, Iqbal said:
"There is only one way out. Muslims should strengthen Jinnah's hands. They should join the
Muslim League. Indian question, as is now being solved, can be countered by our united front
against both the Hindus and the English. Without it, our demands are not going to be accepted.
People say our demands smack of communalism. This is sheer propaganda. These demands
relate to the defense of our national existence. ... The united front can be formed under the
leadership of the Muslim League. And the Muslim League can succeed only on account of
Jinnah. Now none but Jinnah is capable of leading the Muslims."[13]
Iqbal's version of Islam was more open to re-interpretation than that of Sayyid Abul Ala
Maududi, but Iqbal saw an ally in the young scholar and invited him to join him in the Punjab in
1938. Maududi was a staunch supporter of the concept of an Islamic state and of a separate
homeland for Muslims. After the creation of Pakistan, nine years after Iqbal's death, Jinnah and
other League politicians would publicly credit Iqbal as one of the visionaries and founders of the
new state.
Death
The Mausoleum of Muhammad Iqbal, next to Badshahi Masjid, Lahore, Pakistan
In 1933, after returning from a trip to Spain and Afghanistan, Iqbal's health deteriorated. He
spent his final years working to establish the Idara Dar-ul-Islam, an institution at which studies
in classical Islam and contemporary social science would be subsidized, and advocating the
demand for an independent Muslim state. Iqbal ceased practicing law in 1934 and he was
granted pension by the Nawab of Bhopal. After suffering for months from a series of protracted
illnesses, Iqbal died in Lahore in 1938. His tomb is located in the space between the entrance of
the Badshahi Mosque and the Lahore Fort, and an official guard is maintained there by the
Government of Pakistan.
Iqbal is commemorated widely in Pakistan, where he is regarded as the ideological founder of

the state. His Tarana-e-Hind is a song that is widely used in India as a patriotic song advocating
communal harmony. His birthday is a national holiday, annually commemorated in Pakistan as
Iqbal Day. The actual date of his birth remains disputed, with many believing February 23 to be
the date of Iqbal's birth.[17] On February 1, 1974 a Pakistani government committee officially
declared Iqbal's date of birth to be November 9.[18] Iqbal is the namesake of many public
institutions, including the Allama Iqbal Open University and the Allama Iqbal International
Airport in Lahore — the second-busiest airport in the nation. Government and public
organizations have sponsored the establishment of colleges and schools dedicated to Iqbal, and
have established the Iqbal Academy to research, teach and preserve the works, literature and
philosophy of Iqbal. His son Javid Iqbal has served as as a justice on the Supreme Court of
Pakistan. Iqbal spent almost everything he earned on promoting his vision and died almost
penniless. He once said that he would consider the best memorial to him to be the endowing of a
chair at a university. His memory is honored by the Joint University of Cambridge-Pakistan
Allama Iqbal Fellowship.
Criticism
Interior of Iqbal's tomb.
Some intellectuals have criticized Iqbal for embracing Nietzsche's concept of Übermensch,
reflected in Iqbal's descriptions of ego, self, and renewal for Muslim civilization. He has also
been criticized for his advocacy of Islamic political revival and rejection of Western scientific
and cultural influences.[19] Several scholars have called his poetic descriptions of the true practice
of Islam impractical and wrongly dismissive of diverse societies and cultural heritages.[11] While
remembered as a great poet, some of Iqbal's Urdu poetry and later works are criticized as weaker
than his early Persian works, lacking in inspiration, energy and style.[20]
While credited and admired as the conceptual founder of Pakistan, Iqbal is criticized by some
historians and scholars for implicitly endorsing the incompatibility of Muslims with other
religious communities. Some historians and Indian nationalists criticize Iqbal's vision for a
Muslim state as specifically implying the denunciation of Hindus and Hinduism, as well as the
peaceful co-existence of Hindus and Muslims.[11][12] Iqbal was also strongly criticized for
advocating, on occasion, the division and fragmentation of India. Critics also point to the civil
war that led to the secession of East Pakistan in 1971, as well as recent sectarian and religious
conflict in Pakistan to suggest that Iqbal's notion of a natural Muslim nation and of Islam as a
political, unifying identity was inherently flawed and fanciful.[11] Despite this criticism, Iqbal is
widely credited for his work in encouraging the political rejuvenation and empowerment of
Muslims, and as a great poet not only in India and Pakistan, but also in Iran and Muslim nations
in the Middle East.
Notes
This article contains Indic text. Without proper rendering
support, you may see question marks or boxes, misplaced vowels
or missing conjuncts instead of Indic text.
1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Bhatti, Anil (2006-06-28). Iqbal and Goethe (PDF). Yearbook of the Goethe
Society of India. Retrieved 2006-06-28.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Sir Muhammad Iqbal’s 1930 Presidential Address (HTML). Speeches, Writings,
and Statements of Iqbal. Retrieved 2006-12-19.
3. ↑ cited by Rajmohun Gandhi, Understanding the Muslim Mind, (London and New Delhi:
Penguin, 1998 ISBN 9780140299052) 60
4. ↑ "Sir Allama Muhammad Iqbal - an Ideologist, a Poet-Philosopher and a Spiritualist",

Pakistan Times, 2004-11-09. Retrieved 2006-06-03.
5. ↑ (Kak 1995)
6. ↑ Iqbal's "Development of Metaphysics in Persia" Ph.D. thesis Retrieved August 14,

2007.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 Allama Iqbal - Biography - Iqbal's Works (PHP) (2006-05-26).
Retrieved 2006-12-19.
8. ↑ Official website, Allama Iqbal Academy. "Asrar-i-Khudi". Retrieved 2006-05-30.
9. ↑ Bennett, Clinton "Muhamamd Iqbal and Islam" in Brown, Laurence et al Modern

Spiritualities, 127-143, Amherst, NY: Prometheus. 1997 ISBN 1573921122 page 136
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Allama Iqbal - Biography - Iqbal and Politics (PHP) (2006-05-26). Retrieved
2006-12-19.
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 Naipaul, V. S.. Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the Converted
Peoples, 250-52.
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Iqbal's political views (PHP) (2006-05-26). Retrieved 2006-05-26.
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Iqbal and Pakistan Movement
14. ↑ Official website, Government of Pakistan. "The Governor General". Retrieved 2006-
04-20.
15. ↑ Ayesha Jalal, The Sole Spokesman, pp. 14
16. ↑ Official website, Government of Pakistan. "The Statesman: Allama Iqbal's Presidential
Address at Allahabad 1930". Retrieved 2006-04-20.
17. ↑ Khurram Shafique, Chronicle of Pakistan (2006-09-07). Date of birth (PHP). Retrieved
2006-05-26.
2006-05-26.
19. ↑ "Criticism of Muhammad Iqbal societal influence", Dr. Sebanti Retrieved August 14,
2007.
20. ↑ Talib, Gurbachan Singh. Indian P.E.N., 6-9.
References
 Naipaul, V. S. Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples, Random
House Inc., 1998. ISBN 0375501185
 Ayesha Jalal. The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for
Pakistan, Cambridge University Press, 1994. ISBN 0521458501
 Munawwar, Muhammad. Iqbal-Poet Philosopher of Islam, ISBN 9694160618
 Mir, Mustansir. Iqbal, ISBN 1845110943
 Ram Nath Kak. Autumn Leaves: Kashmiri Reminiscences, India: Vitasta, 1995. ISBN
8186588000
 Iqbal, Muhammad The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 1930
External links
 "Iqbal — Poet – Philosopher of Pakistan", Iqbal Academy of Pakistan, observed
February, 17, 2007.
 "Allama Iqbal Urdu Cyber Library", Iqbal Cyber Library, observed February 17, 2007.
 "Allama Mohammad Iqbal Poems & Works", YesPakistan.com, observed February 17,
2007.
Credits
New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in
accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative
Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper
attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World
Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation.
To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier
contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:
history
 Muhammad_Iqbal (Dec 22, 2006)
Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.
Research begins here...

Categories: Writers and poets | Philosophers | Politicians and reformers | Credited
 Article
 Feedback
 Menu
 Categories
Search
 This page was last modified on 2 April 2008, at 09:36.

Content is available under Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License;
additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details.
 About New World Encyclopedia
 Disclaimers
Gabriel’s Wing: Dr. Annemarie Schimmel’s Masterpiece

on Iqbal
by Rumi Inspired Iqbal on Friday, April 16, 2010 at 6:23am
Gabriel’s Wing: Dr. Annemarie Schimmel’s Masterpiece on Iqbal

By Dr. Ahmed S. Khan
Muhammad Iqbal (18771938) was one of the great thinkers of the 20th century. Dr. Iqbal was an
amalgam of an oracle, a seer, a poet, a philosopher and a thinker. Dr. Ali Shariati describes him
as “a man of religion and a man of this world, a man of faith and knowledge, a man of intellect
and emotions, a man of philosophy and literature, a man of God and people. A devotee during
the night and a lion during the day”. He further states that “Iqbal is considered to be a
contemporary thinker and philosopher of the same rank as Bergson in the West or the same level
as Ghazali in Islamic history”.
The message and the writings of Iqbal have many dimensions: literary, religious, political,
social, educational, and economic. Iqbal’s poetry and philosophy are aimed at humanizing the
world. The central theme of Iqbal's philosophy is the concept of “Khudi or Selfhood”. It is the
source of feeling and knowing one’s inner capabilities and potential through contemplation,
introspection, selfcognition, selfrealization and determined action. It is the sense of human
identity in the individual as well as the society. In the words of Iqbal:
When ‘self’ embraces the energy of life
The stream of life is transformed into an ocean
According to Iqbal science, culture, poetry, literature, and law – everything is the product of
human aspirations actualized through continuous struggle.
Dr. Annemarie Schimmel (1922-2003) was an internationally acclaimed scholar who dedicated
more than fifty years of her life to explain Islam to the West. Her interest in Iqbal dates back to
her student days at the University of Berlin. She says, “My long lasting love of Iqbal has let me
to publish a number of works which are more or less relevant for a study of his contribution to
Muslim thought… In many articles I have tried to show Iqbal in context of Islamic modernism,
or deal with his imagery”. Her scholarship served as a bridgebetween East and West, cultures
and religions. Dr. Schimmel was an avid scholar of the poetry and philosophy of Iqbal and
Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi. She considered Iqbal as one of the greatest poets of the East. Dr.
Schimmel served as the professor of religious studies at the University of Ankara, Turkey (1954-
59). During her stay in Turkey her translation of Rumi’s poetry furthered her interest in Iqbal.
On the insistence of her Turkish friends she translated ‘Jawednama’ into Turkish. This led to her
first visit to Pakistan in 1958, which opened a new door in her scholarship and inquiry that
ultimately took her to the Harvard University. During her tenure at Harvard (1967-1992) as
professor of IndoMuslim culture, she authored volumes of articles and dozens of books covering
a wide spectrum of topics and issues related to Islamic studies, Sufism, Iqbal and Rumi. Dr.
Schimmel wrote her first article on Iqbal in 1954, and later she wrote on Iqbal in various
languages and on different aspects of his message and philosophy.
But her book Gabriel’s Wing – A study into the Religious Ideas of Sir Muhammad Iqbal (E.J.
Brill, Leiden, Netherlands, 1963 & 1989) is considered a superb example of her scholarship and
insight in Equal studies. In the foreword(1962)ofGabriel’s’ Wing Dr. Schimmel writes, “During
the 25 years which have passed since the death of Muhammad Iqbal, hundreds of books and
pamphlets, articles and poems in honor of the poetphilosopher of Muslim India have been
published, most of them in Pakistan, the country which is proud of calling him a spiritual father.
In the West, too, his fame has spread perhaps more than that of any other modern Muslim thinker
and poet”. Commenting on the approach and the style of the books, she states that “although it
would be easy to quote to a larger extent from earlier publications I have tried to avoid that,
making rather Iqbal himself speak than his commentators. Since only part of his work is
available in translation, full quotations were considered useful. I simply want to give a picture of
Iqbal’s way of thinking, arguing, suffering, and again finding mental peace in the security of his
religion suspending judgment as far as possible though the book will be, in any case, an account
of any personal experience with Iqbal’s work”.
Gabriel’s Wing has five parts. In the first part she provides the historical background of
Muhammad Iqbal, his life, the aesthetic side of his work, and his religious motives. In the
second part she discusses Iqbal’s interpretation of the five pillars of faith. In the third part she
expounds on Iqbal’s interpretation of the essentials of faith. In the fourth part she presents some
glimpse of Western and Eastern influence on Iqbal’s thought, and on his relation to mystics and
mysticism. And in the final and fifth part she sums up her work on Iqbal by synthesizing the
poet’s message and philosophy. She regards Iqbal the spiritual father of Pakistan and the best
example of a modern interpretation of Islam. His poetry was on everyone’s lips in India in the
1930s, for the largely illiterate masses could be reached only by the poetical word which could
be memorized easily. She believes that Iqbal had tried under the influence of Goethe and Rumi,
to postulate a dynamic Islam; he was aware that the human being is called on to improve God’s
earth in cooperation with the Creator, and that one should exhaust the neverending possibilities
of interpreting Qur'an in order to survive changing circumstances.
Dr. Schimmel further observes that Iqbal also taught that one should never rely exclusively upon
intellect, as much as modern technology and progress can be admired, and that man is called on
to participate in it. In a central poem of Iqbal “Message of the East” (his answer to Goethe’s
“Divan”) Iqbal writes that science and love, that is critical analysis and loving synthesis, must
work together to create positive values for the future. Regarding the status of Iqbal, she states:
“Iqbal has been praised – to quote only one instance – by a leading Pakistani as ‘the triumphant
missionary, the high priest of humanity’ (A. K. Bokhari, Iqbal Rev. April 1961) and one of the
first authors in this field has held that if the peacock throne is the cause of pride for Iran, and the
Koohinoor means glory and dignity for British crown, then is Iqbal, of necessity, the decoration
and ornament of poetical court of very country”.
In response to Iqbal's critics regarding the difficulty in his expressions, Dr. Schimmel tells the
story that after her publication of the Turkishprose translation of the Javednama, she received a
letter, in very bad Turkish orthography, revealing that the letter writer was an unlearned man; but
he expressed his admiration for Iqbal's work, and asked her for more books of his in Turkish
translation. Dr. Schimmel writes that “the person wrote that he was a bearer in a restaurant in a
small town of Eastern Anatolia – that seems to be sufficient proof for Iqbal's unquestionable
appeal to simple minds too, who do not grasp properly the philosophical implications of his
poems but are moved just by the energy they feel, even through the medium of a translation.”
Commenting on the background of his philosophy, she writes: “No doubt, Iqbal cannot be
understood without the religious background of his homeland. He’s firmly rooted in the
prophetical tradition of Islam, and in the mystical thought of India. He has struggled against
whatever he thought wrong in this mysticism and has rediscovered the personal, dynamic God of
Prophetic revelation who is described best not in the abstract philosophy of the lectures but in
the poet’s deep and pathetic prayers”.
Discussing the nature of Iqbal’s philosophy, she observes that “as to the question of this
philosophy, one should not forget that a difference exists between a scientific philosopher and a
prophetic philosopher. Iqbal was certainly of the second type, endowed with an extraordinary
capacity for assimilation, and for synthesizing seemingly divergent facts into a new unity that
may look, at the first glance, surprising enough, but has, in any case, proved as stimulating
formative of the Weltanschauung of Pakistan. Sometimes one gets the impression that his study
of European philosophy leads him, in the course of his life, more and more to the conviction that
all the good and appropriate ideas launched by Western philosophers had been expressed
centuries ago in a somewhat more ideal from by Islamic thinkers”. As he writes in 1916:
Yesterday I saw the Mathnawi of Rumi: Every thought devours another though, one idea grazes
upon another idea – God gracious! In a special chapter he has put this idea that every being
besides God Almighty is devouring and being devoured and has brought into consideration so
beautifully Shakespeare’s philosophy that Shakespeare’s spirit itself would tremble!
Dr. Schimmel observes that “this way of interpretation provided him with new possibilities of
combining harmoniously Islamic tradition with the most recent scientific research. Only thus, he
thinks, Muslims can become interested in Western science and discover that Europe is indebted
to Islam, and that therefore the adopting of recent scientific results from the West does not do
any harm to primacy of Islamic thought”. As Iqbal has said, “If Muslim scholars were aware that
Einstein’s most thrilling ideas are already existent in Islam, they would like to take more interest
in them and study them carefully”.
Einstein granted Iqbal the proof for his view concerning the relation of God and universe, that
the universe is limitless but finite, and his theory of relativity has impressed Iqbal’s theories of
time and space. Thus, the European philosophy and scholarship becomes, in Iqbal’s reading, a
medium for leading back the Muslims to the sources of their own culture, and giving them the
feeling that these conceptions are nothing but their own heritage. Interpreted in this way,
European civilization is no longer a danger for the Muslims but a stimulant for their awakening.
Dr Schimmel states that Iqbal has tried to answer in poems the claims of different philosophers
and political leaders during the different periods of his life, and the nasqshifrang (the picture of
Europe) in the fourth part of PayamiMahriq (message of the West) contains short poetical
sketches, skillfully characterizing thinkers and poets of the West. The philosophers whose names
have occurred most in Iqbal’s prose and poetry are Hegel, Bergson, and Nietzsche.
In the concluding pages of Gabriel’s Wing Dr. Schimmel remarks, “Whether or not the Muslim
or nonMuslim readers will approve of Iqbal’s ideas, or his way of expressing them, they will
have to acknowledge that Iqbal, to quote Kenneth Cragg, was ‘the spokesman of something deep
within the contemporary soul…The age the must have felt its need of him.’ Dr. Schimmel
compares this sentence with Iqbal’s words which he used to characterize the prophetic
revelation: ‘The worldlife intuitively sees its own needs, and at critical moments defines its own
direction. This is what, in the language of religion, we call prophetic revelation.’
Dr. Schimmel observes that “the similarity of the two sentences springs light in the eyes. It is
this very kind of representing the needs of an age of a society which can be witnessed in Iqbal
whose whole personality tended to a prophetical interpretation of religion. Nobody will assert
that he was a prophet, but we may admit that he has been touched by Gabriel’s wing”. Gabriel’s
Wing is a comprehensive study on Iqbal’s thought and philosophy. It is an illuminating and
fascinating read for all seekers of truth and wisdom. Today, the world needs people like Dr.
Schimmel who can build intellectual bridges to promote global peace, harmony and coexistence.
Dr. Ahmed S. Khan (khan@dpg.devry.edu) is a senior Professor in the EET dept. at DevVry
University, Addison, Illinois. He is the athor of The Telecommunications Fact Book and the
coauthor of Technology and Society: Issues for the 21st Century and Beyond. (©
http://www.pakistanlink.com/Opinion/2007/June07/22/05.HTM)
IQBAL AND SUFISM

Dr. KHALID ALAVI
Every spiritual community has somehow faced the challenge of the existing world and
worldly desires and worked out reconciliation on practical and intellectual levels. Among the
spiritual communities of the world, perhaps, the Hindu masters and thinkers were the most
perceptive and practical people. They divided religion into two categories and introduced
practices on two levels:
i Religion of the common folk,
ii Higher religion of the intellectuals.
Common man kept himself busy worshipping idols, celebrating events, performing rituals
and offering sacrifices, building temples, believing in myths and practicing magic. But the
intellectuals always developed thinking on higher subjects such as; human soul, the Supreme
Being, God’s will etc. Various areas of pantheistic thought have been a great heritage of Indian
philosophy. Individual piety, personal communication with God, spiritual purification and
devotional life have’ been very important aspects of religious life throughout human history.
Every great thinker or religious scholar has, in some way, expressed his opinion on this subject. I
will be sharing with you this afternoon one or two points of Iqbal’s view on Sufism in the light
of his book the Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam.
Iqbal, being one of the great modern minds, has tried to work out a solution for the problems
faced by modern Islam, and has given an outline for further thinking. He says:
“…I propose to undertake a philosophical discussion on some of the basic ideas of Islam, in
the hope that this may, at least, be helpful towards a proper understanding of Islam as a message
to humanity; also with a view to give a kind of ground outline for further discussion.”[1]
Being a philosopher and poet, he has the capacity to under-stand and explain the nature of
intellectual and poetic experience. Equipped with philosophical insight and poetic vision, he
tried to provide a framework for the reconstruction of religious thought in Islam. He says:
“…God, human beings and the universe are common issues of religion, philosophy and
higher poetry…[2]” Religion, in its more advanced forms, rises higher than poetry. It moves
from the individual to the society. In its attitude towards the ultimate reality it is opposed to the
limitations of man. It enlarges his claims and holds out the prospect of nothing less than a direct
vision of reality.[3]
History of religious thought has presented two methods of explaining religious ideas, viz,
scholastic and mystic. Iqbal, to my knowledge has not dealt with both approaches separately.
However, he has generally reviewed the development of Muslim thought, and a student of Iqbal
would find frequent references to mysticism in his works.
Mysticism, or the Muslim term Tasawwuf, according to Shaykh Junayd, is “that your
devotion to God is not for any purpose.”[4] To some, it is the code of the heart (Fiqh-al-batin) or
the purification of the soul (Tazkiyah-al-Nafs) or the feelings of God’s presence (al-lhsan).[5] A
definition adopted by Shaykh Sirhindi is that “Walayah means the effacement (Jana) of man in
God and his survival (baqa) in Him.”[6] Qushayri has reported a statement of Shaykh Junayd
which could be the basis of this definition. He said, “Tasawwuf is that God make you die to
yourself and live by Him.”[7] Is Tasawwuf an experience, or piety and devotion? Is it an ascetic
practice, or knowledge? Opinions vary on this issue. As for Iqbal, we find references to both
experience and knowledge. In his Sixth Lecture he says, “The rise and growth of ascetic sufism
which gradually developed under influences of a non-Islamic character, a purely speculative
side, is to a large extent responsible for this attitude.”[8] Elaborating it furthermore he asserts,
“On its speculative side, which developed later, sufism is a form of free thought and in alliance
with rationalism. The spirit of total other-worldliness in later sufism obscured men’s vision of a
very important aspect of Islam as a social polity, and offering the prospect of unrestrained
thought on its speculative side it attracted and finally absorbed the best minds in Islam.”[9]
Looking at the Reconstruction, it appears that Iqbal is inclined to accept mysticism as an
experience. Discussing the nature of religious experience and its being a source of knowledge,
he re-marks, “The revealed and mystic literature of mankind bears ample testimony to the fact
that religious experience has been too enduring and dominant in the history of mankind to be
rejected as mere illusion[10] “and cannot be ignored merely be-cause it cannot be traced back to
sense perception.”[11] Iqbal’s view of mystic experience becomes clear when, comparing Kant
and Ghazali, he says, “Ghazali, finding no hope in analytic thought, moved to mystic experience
and there found an independent content for religion. In this way he succeeded in securing for
religion the right to exist independently of science and metaphysics. But the revelation of the
total infinite in mystic experience convinced him of the finitude and inclusiveness of thought
and drove him to draw a line of cleavage between thought and intuition.”[12] He gives a new
name to mysticism when he says, “In religious psychology, by which I mean higher sufism, the
ideal revealed is the possession and enjoyment of the infinite.”[13]
It is the nature of mystic experience which has always been a point of discussion among the
scholars and sufis. Pantheistic sufis have talked of unity and complete fana. Iqbal has taken
notice of pantheistic doctrine and gave a new meaning to `Hallaj’s utterance.’ Explaining the
cultural background of Islamic thought he says, “This culture, on the whole Magian in its origin
and development, has a structurally dualistic soul picture which we find more or less reflected in
the theological thought of Islam. Devotional sufism alone tried to understand the meaning of the
unity of inner experience which the Quran declares to be one of three sources of knowledge, the
other two being history and nature. The development of this experience in the religious life of
Islam reached its culmination in the well known words of Hallaj -- “I am the creative truth.” The
contemporaries of Hallaj, as well as his successors, interpreted these words pantheistically …
The true interpretation of his experience, therefore, is not the drop slipping into the sea, but the
realization and bold affirmation in an undying phase of the reality and permanence of the human
ego in a profounder personality.”[14]
Iqbal is aware of the danger of an independent mystic experience because our Sufi literature
is full of Shatahat of the Sufis. According to him prophetic experience is complete and a safe
one. It is constructive and useful. Giving a definition of a Prophet, Iqbal says, “A prophet may be
defined as a type of mystic consciousness in which `unitary experience’ tends to overflow its
boundaries, and seeks opportunities of redirecting or refashioning the forces of collective
life.”[15] At the start of his fifth lecture he elaborates the difference between a mystic and a
Prophet by quoting a saint of the sub-continent:
“Muhammad of Arabia ascended to Heaven and returned. I swear by God that if I had
reached that point I should never have returned.” Iqbal says, “In the whole range of sufi
literature it will be probably difficult to find words which, in a single sentence, disclose such an
acute perception of the psychological difference between the prophetic and mystic types of
consciousness. The mystic does not wish to return from the repose of “unitary experience”; and
even when he does return, as he must, his return does not mean much for mankind at large. The
Prophet’s return is creative. He turns to insert himself into the sweep of time with a view to
control the forces of history, and thereby to create a fresh world of ideals. For the mystic the
repose of “unitary experience” is something final; for the Prophet it is the awakening, within
him, of world-shaking psychological forces, calculated to completely overhaul the world of
concrete fact. The desire to see his religious experience transformed into a living world force is
supreme in the Prophet.”[16]
Iqbal’s treatment of mysticism is two fold. He accepts mystic experience as a source of
knowledge and a useful way of approaching reality. Since his concept of Islam is not of a
monastic order, and he perceives Islam as a unifying force between the spiritual and temporal
world, so he does not accept a passive attitude. To him “the function of sufism in Islam has been
to systematize mystic experience; though it must be admitted, that Ibn-i-Khaldun was the only
Muslim who approached it in a thoroughly scientific spirit.”[17] He believes in action because
his concept of personality is different from common concept. He says, “Thus my real personality
is not a thing, it is an act. My experience is only a series of acts mutually referring to one
another, and held together by the unity of purpose.”[18] We, therefore, find him criticising
certain attitude and activities of the mystics. But we also find a sense of appreciation and
gratitude even in his criticism. He remarks, “Mysticism has, no doubt, revealed fresh regions of
the self by making a special study of this experience. Its literature is illuminating, yet its set
phraseology shaped by the thought form of a worn-out metaphysics has rather a deadening effect
on the modern mind.”[19]
Iqbal has a critical view of myticism. His criticism is on two different bases. He believes
that life is activity, and a person having communication with God cannot be a passive individual.
A human being coming in touch with the Supreme Being is illuminated. He becomes a moving
spirit in the society. It seems that such an individual is having a burning fire within him and he is
part of God’s activity in this world. To him a sufi is a creative and active agent of Divine will.
He criticises those who cause passivity and create inactiveness among the Muslims. He says:
‫خوتد گیری و خوتدتداری و گلبانگ اناالحق‬
‫آزاتد ہہو سالک تو ہہیں یہ اس کے مقامات‬
‫محکوم ہہو سالک تو یہی اس کا ہہمہ اوست‬
‫خوتد مرتدہ و خوتد مرقد و خوتد مرگ مفاجات‬
([20])
“If a devotee is free, his spiritual stations are self-restraint, self-respect and a shout of joy
that “I am the creative truth”. But if he is subjugated and enslaved, his pantheism shows that he
is dead, he himself is a grave, and also a sudden death.”
Iqbal differentiates between Faqr and Rahibi and condemns monasticism (Rahbaniyya).
He says:
‫ہے شاید تیری مسلمانی‬ ‫کچھ اور چیز ہ‬
‫ہے ایک فقر و رہہبانی‬ ‫تیری نگاہ میں ہ‬
‫ہے بیزار‬‫سکوں پرستی راہہب سے فقر ہ‬
‫ہے سفینہ ہہمیشہ طوفانی‬
‫فقیر کا ہ‬
([21])
“Your Islam is something else, because in your view Faqr and monasticism are the same
things. (The fact is) that Faqr is disgusted with monasticism’s love for peace and tranqui-
lity. Faqir’s ship is always in the storms and commotion.”
His message to the sufis is very clear:
‫نکل کر خانقاہہوں سے اتدا کر رسم شبیری‬
‫ فقط اندوہ و تدلگیری‬،‫ہے‬
‫کہ فقر خانقاہہی ہ‬
‫ہے بوئے‬ ‫ترے تدین و اتدب سے آرہہی ہ‬
‫رہہبانی‬
‫ہے مرنے والی امتوں کا عالم پیری‬ ‫یہی ہ‬
([22])
“Come out of the monasteries and follow the example of Shabbir (Martyrdom); for the
monastic life is just grief and affliction. Your religion and morality show signs of
monasticism. This is the state of decay which is the symptom of every dying nation”
The other basis of criticism is the establishment. Sufi orders and religious institutions were
the sources of inspiration for the masses. These orders provided refuge to socially dislocated and
mentally disturbed people. As place for spiritual training and purification, Khanqah has lost its
role. Sufi orders collaborated with the political establishment and became the source of
exploitation and caused disintegration of the social cohesiveness of the Muslim community. It is
this aspect of the mysticism which has been rightly criticised by Iqbal. He says:
‫رمز و ایما اس زمانے کے لیے موزوں نہیں‬
‫اور آتا بھی نہیں مجھ کو سخن سازی کا فن‬
‫ے جو رخصت ہہوئے‬ ‫'قم باذن اللہ' کہہ سکتے تھ‬
‫خانقاہہوں میں مجاور رہ گئے یا گورگن‬
([23])
“Allusive and suggestive expression is not suitable for this age, and I do not know the art
of eloquence. Those who could say, “Stand up with God’s permission” have gone. Living
in the monasteries now is only the attendants or the grave-’ diggers.”
On religious leadership his views are also very clear. He says:
‫ہے امامت اس کی‬
‫فتنہ ملت بیضا ہ‬
‫جو مسلماں کو سلطیں کا پرستار کرے‬
“The leadership which persuades Muslims to obey the (sultan) is a mischief and sedition
in the Muslim community.”
For Iqbal sufism is an activity and a “source of inspiration; but the unworthy occupants of
spiritual seats have destroyed its image and spoiled its usefulness.
NOTES
[1]
Sir Mohammad Iqbal, The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, p. 8.
[2]
Ibid, p. 1.
[3]
Al-Risalah, p. 552.
[4]
Tasawwuf Kiya Hay, (Lucknow 1978), pp. 24, 33, 65.
[5]
Nafahat al-Uns, 4 (Maktubat, v. 1:35 308 1097) p. 241.
[6]
Risalah, p. 551.
[7]
The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, p. 210.
[8]
Ibid., p. 211.
[9]
Ibid., p. 21.
[10]
Ibid., p. 29.
[11]
Ibid., p. 7.
[12]
Ibid., p. 184.
[13]
Ibid., p. 174.
[14]
Ibid., p. 96.
[15]
Ibid., p. 174.
[16]
Ibid., p. 178. See for further comments, pp. 22-29.
[17]
Ibid., p. 144.
[18]
Ibid. p. 125.
[19]
Kulliat-e-Iqbal, (Urdu) p. 680.
[20]
Ibid., p. 152.
[21]
Kulliat-e-Iqbal, (Urdu) p. 680.
[22]
Ibid., p. 453.
[23]
Ibid., p. 512.
Speech is of three kinds; the first comes from the desire of the self, the second from reason and
the third from love. Speech which arises from desire is troubling and insipid, giving neither
pleasure to those who speak, nor profit to those who listen.That which arises from reason is
accepted by the wise and gives pleasure to the listener and the speaker, and speech that arises
from love
enraptures those who listen and those who speak.
Excerpt from the Menaqib al-Arifin, words of Mevlana Rumi from The Stories of the Wise of
the Mevlevi Tradition, #414,
***
The Living Mevlevi Tradition
A talk given by Shaikh Kabir at this year' s Urs celebrations in Konya.
"No development of intellectual mind, no matter how much information it contains, can operate
on the same level as love. Our tradition has great intellectual resources, and we are grateful for
this intellectual knowledge. But the thinking mind is incapable of perceiving the world as Love
perceives. The beauty of Mevlana’s Way is its faithfulness to seeing the world with the eyes of
Love. What makes Mevlana, Our Prophet and the Quran so precious is the power of Rahmet: the
Divine Generosity, Mercy and Love."
Sufism is the application of spiritual principles to achieve full spiritual development for oneself
in synergy with one’s community. Sufism is an applied science that derives from a knowledge of
all the subtleties of human energy, faculties of perception, states of consciousness, and levels of
reality.
The Living Tradition:
A Conversation with Imam Feisal Rauf,
Founder of the Cordoba Initiative
& "Cordoba House at 51 Park Place"
(infamously called the "Ground Zero Mosque")
with Daisy Khan, Kabir & Camille
Garrison Institute, October 2009
In this discussion Imam Feisal asks: "What do we mean when we say we love God? And to love
God with all of our hearts and minds and to love our fellow human beings? It involves different
actions and different time and different context. It also involves responsibilities that we have.
The love of a father towards a son, may manifest differently in some situations than love of a
mother towards the son, or towards the child. And how do we express our love, both in terms of
protection, education, discipline, all of those dimensions are part of our obligation in terms of
people who are creatures of the Creator, who were created from a portion of the divine breath."
Time as Spiritual Practice

Kabir Helminski
Most people these days, it seems, are running from time, or battling with time. Yet, it is possible
to reconcile the self with time by opening the way to timelessness within time. While the
practice of salaat (ritual prayer) has coordinates in time (in relation to sunrise, noon, sunset, etc.),
the actual practice is the stopping of time and full attention on Being. During salaat or zhikr we
enter into a timeless state of presence where we experience a “time” free from the pressures of
time.
Time as it is experienced these days, especially under the domination of clock time, Gregorian
calendar time, is mechanical, quantitative, and artificial. Our spiritual time, which is governed by
the cycles of the moon, and the proportions of the solar day is an altogether different kind of
time. Then, within those proportions and rhythms are the moments when the portals to
timelessness are marked and we enter the presence of the Divine.
In such a time, the presence of the breath becomes very real. We live our lives in breaths not in
minutes or seconds. (I shaped him and breathed My spirit into him. 38:72). Awareness of our
breathing brings us into a different, more organic quality of time—a human, rather than a
mechanical time. Our spiritual practice takes place in this quality of time.
Time Profane and Sacred
Profane time is the state of feeling as if we have no time. Profane time is the time governed by
fragmented attention and colored by the negative emotions of haste and anxiety.
Sacred time is a state of presence that brings with it the possibility of undistracted attention,
direct relationship, patience, and openness. We can learn to enter that state of timelessness at
will. Perhaps the first step is slowing down and consciously entering the present moment. The
next step is more subtle—it is experiencing and living the moment with awareness of the loving,
nurturing, guiding presence of the Divine.
***
500 Most Influential Muslims in the World
FYI, Several close friends of Threshold Society have been included in this recently published
document by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre in association with Georgetown U.
Download the 3.8 meg pdf.
***
Dervishhood & Adab,

Transcript of a recent conversation
With Khadim Chishti, Kabir, & Friends
***
Framework for Service

Within the Threshold Society we have been working with the “Bashi” system of service. “Bashi”
means “head” or “chief.” There is a “Chai Bashi” in charge of tea; a “Meydan Bashi” in charge
of the sacred meeting space, etc. This work cultivates beauty of character and deepens our
capacity for service. It is an essential aspect of a mature dervish. With this in mind we have
created a framework where those participating in this work have a structure toreflect upon their
service. (Read more)
***
Rumi & Hard Times, September, 2008
The Wednesday night before (9/24/2008), in the midst of the current financial crisis, we were
gathered to read Mevlana's Mathnawi, III, 1721. . . It's interesting how Mevlana addresses
worldly concerns from the perspective of the deepest spiritual understanding.
"When I come to Love, I am ashamed of all

that I have ever said about Love."
-- Rumi
The substance and meaning of Sufism

The substance of Sufism is the Truth and the meaning of Sufism is the selfless experiencing and
actualization of the Truth.
The practice of Sufism

The practice of Sufism is the intention to go towards the Truth, by means of love and devotion.
This is called the tariqat, the spiritual path or way towards God.
The definition of the Sufi
The sufi is one who is a lover of Truth, who by means of love and devotion moves towards the
Truth, towards the perfection which all are truly seeking. As necessitated by love's jealousy, the
sufi is taken away from all except the Truth.
The Truth of Sufism
Sufism is a school for the actualization of divine ethics. It involves an enlightened inner being,
not intellectual proof; revelation and witnessing, not logic. By divine ethics, we are referring to
ethics that transcend mere social convention, a way of being that is the actualization of the
attributes of God.
To explain the Truth is indeed a difficult task. Words, being limited, can never really express the
perfection of the Absolute, the Unbound. Thus, for those who are imperfect, words create doubt
and misunderstanding. Yet:
If one cannot drink up the entire ocean,

one can drink to one's limit.
Philosophers have written volumes and spoken endlessly of the Truth, but somehow their efforts
have always fallen short. For the sufi, philosophers are those who view the Perfection of the
Absolute from a limited perspective; so all they see is part of the Absolute, not the Infinite in its
entirety. It is indeed true that what philosophers see is correct; nevertheless, it is only a part of
the whole.
The Blind Men and the Elephant

One is reminded of Rumi's well-known story of a group of men in India who had never seen an
elephant. One day they came to a place where an elephant was. In complete darkness they
approached the animal, each man feeling it. Afterwards, they described what they thought they
had perceived. Of course their descriptions were different.
The one who felt a leg, imagined the elephant to be a pillar. The one who felt the animal's ear,
described the elephant as a fan, and so on. Each one of their descriptions with respect to the
various parts they had experienced was true. However, as far as accurately describing the whole,
their conceptions had all fallen short.
If they had had a candle, the difference of opinions would not have come about. The candle's
light would have revealed the elephant as a whole.
The Light of the Path
Only by the light of the Spiritual Path and the mystic way can the Truth be discovered. In order
for one to truly witness the Perfection of the Absolute, one must see with one's inner being,
which perceives the whole of Reality. This witnessing happens when one becomes perfect,
losing one's (partial) existence in the Whole.
The Drop and the Ocean

If the Whole is likened to the Ocean, and the part to a drop, the sufi says that witnessing the
Ocean with the eye of a drop is impossible. However, when the drop becomes one with the
Ocean, it sees the Ocean with the eye of the Ocean.
How is it possible to realize Perfection?

Human beings are dominated by the self's desires and fears. Those who are ensnared in these
habitual impulses are out of harmony with the Divine Nature, and thus are ill. As a result of this
illness, feelings become disturbed and, accordingly, thoughts and perceptions become unsound.
Thus, one's faith as well as one's knowledge of the Truth strays from what is real.
In order to follow the way to perfection, one must first rectify these incorrect thought processes
and transmute one's desires and fears. This can only be accomplished by coming into harmony
with the Divine Nature. This way of harmony (the spiritual path) consists of spiritual poverty,
devotion, and the continuous, selfless remembrance of God. In this way, one comes to perceive
the Truth as it really is.
Asceticism and Abstinence in Sufism

In order to travel the path, the sufi needs strength supplied by proper bodily nourishment. It has
been said that whatever the sufi eats is transformed into spiritual qualities and light. However,
the food of others, since it but serves their own desires and fears, only strengthens their selfish
attachments and takes them further away
from the Truth.
This one eats and only

stinginess and envy result.
While that one eats and there is but
the light of the One.
This one eats and only
impurity comes about.
While that one eats and all becomes
the Light of God.
--Rumi
It is clear, that Sufism is not based upon ascetic practices such as abstinence from food. In our
school, the traveler on God's Way is only instructed to abstain from food when he is sick or
entangled in excessive desire or fear. In this case, the master or spiritual guide permits one to
refrain from eating for a brief period of time, and instead directs one to concentrate on spiritual
practices. In this way, the excess is transmuted and the seeker's inner being becomes
harmonious. Then, the dervish will be enabled to continue on the dangerous ascent to the
Infinite.
Some have thought that by fasting the strength necessary for purification is attained. On the
contrary, in Sufism abstinence alone is not enough to purify the self. It is true that asceticism and
abstinence give one a certain spiritual state, and in this state one's perception may be clarified.
But if the self is likened to a dragon that by fasting becomes powerless, it is certain that when
the fast is broken and enough food is eaten, the dragon will revive, and stronger than ever will
go about attempting to fulfill its desires.
In Sufism, it is by the tariqat (spiritual path) that the self is gradually purified and transformed
into Divine Attributes, until there is nothing left of one's commanding self. Then all that remains
is the Perfect, Divine Self. In such extensive and precise work, asceticism and abstinence are
virtually worthless.
The Spiritual Path
The tariqat (spirtual path) is the way by which the sufi comes into harmony with the Divine
Nature. This way is comprised of spiritual poverty (faqr), devotion and the continuous, selfless
remembrance of God (dhikr), which are represented by the cloak of the dervish (khirqah).
Spiritual Poverty
This is both the feeling of being imperfect and needy, and the desire for perfection. The Prophet,
Muhammad has said in this regard, "My honor is from spiritual poverty. I have been honored
over and above all prophets by being graced with spiritual poverty." And God revealed to the
Prophet, "Say, God increase my true knowledge of You." As this saying indicates, even though
Muhammad was given the honor of Prophethood, it was still necessary that he feel his poverty
and desire to be nearer to the essence of God.
The Cloak of the Darvish

The khirqah is the darvish's garment of honor and devotion. It symbolizes the Divine Nature and
Attributes. Some people have mistakenly imagined that the cloak actually possesses these
properties and that if one was to wear such a cloak, one would become a saint. However,
wearing spiritual clothing does not make one spiritual. A sufi wears what he or she likes while
being in harmony with what is socially approved. 'Ali said, "Wear those clothes that neither
cause you to be looked down upon nor admired and envied." Thus, it is not the clothes that make
the sufi; rather, it is the sufi's actions and inner being.
Recline on the throne of the heart,

and with purity in manner be a sufi.
-- Sa'di
The cloak is sewn with the needle of devotion and the thread of the selfless remembrance of
God. One who wishes to be honored by this cloak of poverty must, with devotion, surrender to a
spiritual guide. True devotion draws one's heart towards the Beloved. It involves continuous
attention to the Truth and constant effort to let go of attention to the self. This includes
unquestioned obedience to one's spiritual guide.
The guide, by spiritual means, penetrates to the depths of the disciple's soul, transmutes his or
her negative qualities, and brings to nothing the impurities of the world of multiplicity. In other
words, the guide takes the needle of devotion from the disciple's hand and with the thread of the
disciple's selfless remembrance of God, sews the sufi cloak upon the disciple. Then, by the grace
of this cloak of Divine Names and Attributes, the disciple will become a perfect human being.
Continuous, selfless remembrance of God

Contained in Absolute, Infinite Unity are forces which emanate and become manifested as
created beings. Each being, according to its nature, receives grace from these forces. In the realm
of words, the manifestations of these forces, or truths, are expressed by Divine Names.
Examples are: the Living (al-Hayy), meaning the life of creation is directly connected with Him;
and the Transcendent (al-'Ali), meaning the force of the universe is with Him.
The Divine Names, in the continuous, selfless remembrance of God (dhikr), are prescribed by
the master of the spiritual path, in order to cure disciples of the disease of the self and its desires
and fears. But this remembrance is of no value unless all of one's senses come to be fully
centered on the meaning-reality of the respective Names. It is only by full acknowledgment and
love of the reality of these Divine Names that attention to the self falls away. Then, the self
becomes purified and adorned by the Divine Attributes.
For so long did the Beloved

face my open heart
That except for His Attributes and Nature,
nothing remained of that heart.
-- Maghrebi
Only in such a fashion can the repetition of the Divine Names be called the selfless
remembrance of God (dhikr).
The disciple is like a machine whose energy comes from devotion. This machine, by means of
the selfless remembrance of God, transmutes all of the self's desires and fears into Divine
Attributes. Gradually, the disciple's self passes away and the Divine Nature becomes manifest;
then the disciple truly becomes the recipient of the sufi cloak, and the heart and soul become
illuminated by the grace of the Divine Attributes. At this point the disciple is worthy of entering
the spiritual feast of the sufis, which takes place in the "Tavern of Ruin" (kharabat>. This is the
spiritual state of 'passing away of the self in God' (fana). Here, the sufi directly perceives the
secrets of the Truth. As is said in the Koran,
"Only the purified experience It (the Truth)."
These purified ones, in Sufism, are called perfect human beings
The Manifestation of the Divine

Since words are the manifestations of objects, concepts, and truths, sufis feel that by continuous
and complete attention to the meaning and reality of remembrance of God, they becomes the true
manifestation of that remembrance. That is to say, with continuous, selfless remembrance, a
Divine Attribute comes to predominate in the sufi's being.
The sufis consider that there is a particular Divine Attribute that dominates the being of every
prophet and saint, such that each can be said to be the incarnation of that attribute. For example,
sufis feel that Moses is the manifestation of the transcendent aspect of Reality because of his
ability to speak with God without an intermediary. In the Koran, the Lord said to Moses, "Do not
fear, because you are transcendent." Jesus is the manifestation of prophethood. While an infant
he cried, "God gave me the book and placed me as a prophet."
All of the prophets are manifestations of the Divine Unity and Perfection, but Muhammad is its
supreme manifestation. His name is the most exalted of the Divine Names, containing all the
Names within it. That is, Muhammad is the spiritual incarnation and manifestation of all of
God's Names. Muhammad himself said, "What God first created was my light."
In addition, each prophet is the manifestation of one of the Divine Attributes, and all of the
Attributes are contained in the most exalted Name. Also, Muhammad is the manifestation of the
Great Name. So, due to the fact that his manifestation is inclusive of all the Names, he
hierarchically comes before all other created things, and for the same reason said, "I was a
prophet while Adam was still between water and earth."
Sama
If you are not one with the Beloved
Seek!
and if you are in Union,
Rejoice!
--Rumi
The musical and ecstatic aspect of Sufism is called sama. The sufis, while being spiritually
enraptured, give all the attention of their hearts to the Beloved. Often with special and
rhythmical music, they engage themselves in the selfless remembrance of God. In this state, the
sufi is a drunken lover who becomes unaware of everything but God. With all their faculties the
sufis are attentive to the Beloved, and have totally given up and forgotten themselves.
Not all disciples engage in sama. It is only given as a practice to some by their spiritual guide,
who determines whether it is appropriate for them or not. Sama can be likened to a medicine; it
is sometimes prescribed and sometimes prohibited.
Sainthood
Earlier, we have said that the aim of Sufism is the cultivation of perfect human beings who are
mirrors reflecting the Divine Names and Attributes. In Sufism, a perfected human being is also
called a wali (saint), a word that literally means 'sincere friend'. All who have been prophets
have also been saints. The spiritual degree of sainthood is a station indicating the condition of
one's inner being, while the rank of prophethood reflects one's mission as a divine messenger in
the world.
The prophetic mission of Muhammad was both Absolute Sainthood and Prophecy. 'Ali, while
not among the prophets, attained to this same Absolute Sainthood. Mohammed said, " 'Ali and I
are of the same light," and 'Ali said, "Spiritually, I have been with all the Prophets."
The saints, each according to his or her own capacity, have drunk from the fountain of Truth.
Because they are known only by God, only God can truly know the differences between their
spiritual stations. In a prophetic tradition (hadith), God says, "My friends (saints) are under my
banner; no one knows them but me."
Most people do not have the patience necessary to know the saints. One who is encompassed
cannot truly know what encompasses him. True knowledge of the saints comes from knowing
their reality through one's inner being.
A common misunderstanding is the thought that by going into seclusion one can become a saint.
However, in the way of the sufi, one must live in society. Being a recluse and retreating from
contact with people has no lasting spiritual value.
Mohammed said, "The faith of a believer is not perfect unless one thousand sincere people give
witness to his 'infidelity'." He meant that the divine knowledge of a perfect believer is beyond
the level of thinking of most people. Those who hear such a perfected being speak, since they
can not perceive the truth of what he is saying, will call him or her an unbeliever.
A true believer, a sufi, must live in, serve and guide society, and be a vehicle by which society
receives Grace. It is for this reason that conforming to and being in harmony with society, being
at peace with all, is a quality of a perfected being.
Purification and its Stages
The stages of purification are:
1. self becoming emptied
2. self becoming illuminated
3. self becoming adorned
4. self having passed away (fana)
These stages occur in the course of the selfless remembrance of God (dhikr). The first stage,
becoming emptied, entails letting go of negative qualities, the desires which originate from the
self. The second stage of becoming illuminated involves polishing the heart and soul of the
tarnish of belief in and attachment to the self. In the third stage, one's inner being becomes
adorned by Divine Attributes. Ultimately, the being of the disciple becomes completely filled by
the Attributes of the Truth, to the extent that there is no sign of his own limited existence. This
fourth stage is called "self-having passed-away" (fana).
I thought of You so often

that I completely became You.
Little by little You drew near,
and slowly but slowly I passed away.
The disciple, through these stages of purification, travels the inner way, the spiritual path
(tariqat). Having traveled this path, the disciple becomes a perfect being and arrives at the
threshold of the Truth (haqiqat). Muhammaad said, "The shari'at is my speech, the tariqat my
actions, and haqiqat my states."
One could liken the journey within the haqiqat, within the Truth, to training in a divine
university, known in sufism as the "Tavern of Ruin" (kharabat). In this true center for higher
education there are no professors, one's only guide being Absolute Love. Here one's only teacher
is love, one's books are love, and one's being is love.
Before a perfected being enters this university, he or she can be defined. However, upon entering
the Truth, one is indefinable, beyond the realm of words.
Footprints but come to the Ocean's shore.

Therein, no trace remains.
-- Rumi
If you ask his name, like Bayazid, he answers, "I lost him years ago. The more I seek him, the
less I find." If you ask of his religion, like Rumi, he answers:
The way of a lover is not among the religions.

The church and state of lovers is God.
If you ask who he is, like Bayazid, he answers, "There is nothing under my cloak but God."
If he speaks, like Hallaj, you may hear him sing, "I am the Truth."
Such words can truly come only from perfected beings who have lost their 'selves' and become
the manifestation of the Divine Nature and Divine Mysteries. Their selves have departed and
only God remains.
Initiation into the Sufi Path

Do not enter the ‘Tavern of Ruin’
without observing its manners,
for the dwellers at its door
are the confidants of the King.
—Hafiz
The Five Ghusls*

Before being initiated into the world of spiritual poverty (faqr), those who seek to travel towards
God must first perform niyat ** and then five ghusls * in the manner described below:
1. Ghusl of Repentance (tuba)

With this ghusl, the seeker repents from his or her former misdoings and strayings. He or she
also apologizes, when becoming joined to the worship of God, for the previous sin of self-
worship.
2. Ghusl of Submission (taslim)

In the ghusl of submission, the seeker makes a vow (niyat) to submit to God. This means that in
every moment of his life, the seeker is content with whatever situation he finds himself and
considers it to be God’s Will.
3. Ghusl of Initiation into Spiritual Poverty (faqr)

To enter into the world of spiritual poverty, one must be pure both outwardly and inwardly. Thus,
one performs a ghusl outwardly and cleanses the outer being so that the inner being will also
incline towards purity:
Purify thyself: then proceed to the ‘Tavern of Ruin’

that it not be polluted by you.
—Hafiz
4. Ghusl of Pilgrimage (ziyarat)

It is a tradition when visiting people deserving of respect in the world to cleanse one’s body and
put on clean clothes. Similarly, when making a pilgrimage to the Perfected One, or ‘Master of
the Path’ (pir-i †ariat), one should be cleansed and purified in the same manner.
First become purified, and then

Look upon that Pure One.
—Hafiz
For this reason, the seeker performs a ghusl cleansing the outer being and puts on clean clothes
before approaching the master to acquire the orders of the Path.
5. Ghusl of Fulfillment (qadha-yi Hajat)

Since the ‘supplication’ (niyaz) of the seeker in traveling along the Path is to reach the rank of
the Perfected One, a ghusl for the fulfillment of this aim is performed before coming into the
master’s presence.
The Five Symbols of Spiritual Poverty

After the seeker has performed the five ghusls, he or she prepares five objects which are taken
into the master’s presence and given to the master so that the seeker on the path of the travelers
toward Unity may be accepted and guided. These five objects are: a few yards of white cloth, a
whole nutmeg, a ring, a coin, and some rock candy. Each of these objects is symbolic of a certain
commitment made by the one who seeks to travel towards God. These commitments are
represented by objects so that they will remain fixed in the traveler’s mind and never be
forgotten.
1. White Cloth (chilwar)

The white cloth taken into the master’s presence represents the traveler’s shroud and indicates
that the traveler, like a dead body in the hands of a ghassal (one who washes the dead), has
become surrendered fully to God. In doing so, he or she considers the master’s orders as God’s
orders and obeys them without ever questioning ‘how’ or ‘why’.
2. Whole Nutmeg (juz)

Juz represents the head of the traveler. In presenting juz to the master, the traveler consents to
never reveal the Divine secrets that are confided in him or her. That is, even if threatened with
decapitation, one should not reveal such secrets. In other words, the traveler’s head is
symbolically presented to the master here as a hostage for God’s secrets.
3. Ring (angushtar)
The ring given to the master upon entering the world of spiritual poverty represents the band
worn by slaves in olden times and signifies the traveler’s devotion to God. In presenting this ring
to the master, the traveler vows to become devoted solely to God and to give up the desire for
anything else.
4. Coin (sikka)
The coin symbolizes the wealth and riches of the world. The traveler, in presenting this coin to
the master, promises to empty the heart of any desire for the wealth of the world. Here, it should
be noted, the object is to have no attachment to wealth. If the sufi is rich one day, then poor the
next, he or she remains unaffected by either condition. In the state of richness, the sufi should be
generous; in the state of poverty, joyful and patient.
5. Rock Candy (nabat)

Nabat represents the candy given as an offering at the second birth of the seeker. Whereas the
seeker’s first birth is from his or her mother, the second birth comes upon entering the domain of
spiritual poverty. With this re-birth, the seeker steps into the realm of Spirituality, Truth, and
Unification, being born from the mother of nature and multiplicity into the world of love (‘ishq),
loving-kindness (muhabbat), and Unity (tawhid).
In presenting this rock candy, the traveler also comes to realize that the Path should be traveled
with peace of mind and gladness, not with depression and displeasure.
The Five Commitments

Before entering into the circle of spiritual poverty, the seeker makes five commitments to the
master. It is only when the seeker accepts and understands the significance of these
commitments that the master comes to guide him or her along the straight path of Unity of the
Nimatullahi Order.
1. Submission to God (taslim)

The seeker, upon entering the world of the sufis, makes a vow (niyat) to submit to God
wholeheartedly and with utmost sincerity. Submission (taslim) means that the seeker is
surrendered fully to God’s Will, both outwardly and inwardly, and contented with whatever God
desires.
2. Kindness towards God’s Creatures

With this commitment, the sufi vows never to bother any of God’s creatures and to be kind and
friendly towards all of them while traveling the Path. Here, the sufi should constantly put into
practice the words of Sa‘di’s poem which states:
I am joyful and content in the world,

for the world is joyful and content from God.
I am in love with all of creation,
for all of the creation belongs to God.
3. Preservation of the Secrets of the Path

At the beginning of traveling on the Path (suluk), the sufi makes a commitment not to reveal to
anyone the secrets he or she is told—regardless of whether that person is a stranger, friend or
fellow darvish. These secrets consist of the remembrance and contemplation he or she is given,
as well as all discoveries and revelations witnessed in the world of Unity.
Such secrets should be spoken of to no one but the master. In this way, the secret will not fall
into the hands of one unable to keep it.
That friend from whom the top of the gallows became honored
was the one accused of revealing the secrets.
—Hafiz
4. Service on the Path

From the beginning to the end of traveling on the Path, the sufi must undertake to accept and
obey with heart and spirit, and without questioning ‘how’ and ‘why’, every order and service
that is given by the master.
The sufi should know that acting carelessly in such service will only cause one to stray from the
path of devotion. So effective is such service that it can be said, “Whatever the sufi finds, he or
she has found from service.”
Sa‘di presents a beautiful illustration of service in his poem from the Bustan about Sultan
Mahmud and Ayaz, the Sultan’s servant. The poem begins with someone criticizing Mahmud by
saying, “What wonder this is! Ayaz, his favorite, has no beauty. A flower without color, without
any smell, how strange then is the nightingale’s attraction!” When told of these words, Mahmud
replies, “Truly my love is for his virtue, and not for his form or face.”
Sa‘di then proceeds to recount the story of how in a royal procession a camel laden with jewels
and pearls once stumbled and fell, spilling its precious stones. Sultan Mahmud, being generous,
gave permission for his followers to plunder the jewels and hastily rode away. All of the
followers broke rank and rushed to gather the jewels, neglecting the King for this wealth. Only
Ayaz ignored the jewels and followed after the King.
When Mahmud saw him following, he called out, “O Ayaz, what has thou gained of the
plunder?” In reply, Ayaz declared, “I sought no jewels, but followed my King, for how can I
occupy myself with your gifts when all I seek is to serve?”
Sa‘di then concludes:
O friend, if you come near to the throne,

neglect not the King for his jewels;
For on this path, the saint never asks
anything of God but Him.
So know if you seek but the grace of the Friend,
you’re entangled in your prison, not His.
5. Dig-jush
Upon entering the world of spiritual poverty, the sufi declares inwardly, “I have come in order to
sacrifice myself for the Friend.”
To demonstrate this, just as Abraham by God’s command sacrificed a sheep instead of Ishmael,
the sufi (with the master’s or shaikh’s permission) should have a special meal prepared from a
sheep in accordance with the adab and traditions of spiritual poverty and distribute it among the
darvishes. The food so prepared is called dig-jush.
This text is adapted from The Path, By Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh. Copyright 2002 and 2006.
* ghusl: the act of ablution—the washing of one’s body in a prescribed manner for the purpose
of purification.
** niyat: a vow or declaration of one’s intention to perform a particular devotional act as in,
most commonly, namaz (or daily prayer).
“WHAT IS TASAWWUF (SUFISM)?”
By A. A. Godlas
What is Tasawwuf?
What is Tasawwuf? Good character and awareness of God.
That’s all Tasawwuf is. And nothing more.
What is Tasawwuf? Love and affection.

It is the cure for hatred and vengeance. And nothing more.
What is Tasawwuf? The heart attaining tranquility–

which is the root of religion. And nothing more.
What is Tasawwuf? Concentrating your mind,

which is the religion of Ahmad (pbuh). And nothing more.
What is Tasawwuf? Contemplation that travels to the Divine throne.
It is a far-seeing gaze. And nothing more.
Tasawwuf is keeping one’s distance from imagination and supposition.

Tasawwuf is found in certainty. And nothing more.
Surrendering one’s soul to the care of the inviolability of religion;

this is Tasawwuf. And nothing more.
Tasawwuf is the path of faith and affirmation of unity;

this is the incorruptible religion. And nothing more.
Tasawwuf is the smooth and illuminated path.

It is the way to the most exalted paradise. And nothing more.
I have heard that the ecstasy of the wearers of wool

comes from finding the taste of religion. And nothing more.
Tasawwuf is nothing but shari’at.

It is just this clear road. And nothing more.
An Anonymous Persian Poem –

Translated by A. A. Godlas
A Commentary on “What Is Tasawwuf?”

By directly addressing the nature of Tasawwuf, this anonymous Persian poem, “What is
Tasawwuf?” contains a number of essential concepts that are helpful in gaining an understanding
of Tasawwuf. Direct statements about the nature of Tasawwuf (also known as Sufism) are an
important aspect of Sufi literature. The renowned scholar Abu Nu‘aym al-Asbahani (Isfahani) (d.
430/1038) included one-hundred and thirty-four such assertions (often in rhymed prose) in his
encyclopaedic biographical collection, the Hilyat al-awliya’. The great English scholar of
Sufism, Nicholson, collected and translated seventy-eight of these sayings. Most recently, Tamar
Frank has devoted an article to studying Abu Nu‘aym’s sayings of this kind. The poem that is the
object of this study, in answering the question “What is Tasawwuf?” makes a number of pithy
assertions about the central concepts of Tasawwuf by means of its technical vocabulary.
Consequently, in this article we have sought to explain those concepts that may not be obvious
even to the educated reader. In explaining these terms, we have relied mainly upon authoritative
Islamic sources such as the Qur’an, hadith, and highly regarded Sufi authors.
Good character (akhlaq)

The word akhlaq, translated here as “good character,” is at best an inexact translation denoting
virtuous behaviour that is an outgrowth of spiritual refinement. Hujwiri (d. ca. 465/1072),
informed us that Abu al-Hasan al-Nuri (d. 295/907-8) stated, “Tasawwuf is not composed of
practices (rusum) and sciences (‘ulum), but it is akhlaq.” Hujwiri explained that what Nuri
meant was that akhlaq should not be thought of as simply good comportment or good character
in an ordinary sense. Akhlaq as used by Sufis consists of virtuous behaviour that derives from
the fact that the inner being of the Sufi has become cleansed and his or her heart has become
purified. How such a Sufi behaves, then, is not so much the product of effort as it is the cresting
of a wave, the origins of which is God. Hujwiri, in explaining Nuri’s remark went on to say,
If it [Tasawwuf] consisted of practices, it could be acquired by effort (mujahadat), and if it

consisted of sciences, it could be gained by instruction (ta’allum); but it is akhlaq and it is not
acquired until you demand from yourself the requirements (hukm) of akhlaq, conform your
actions to them, and do justice to them. The distinction between practices (rusum) and akhlaq is
this, that practices are contrived (bi-takalluf) actions proceeding from particular motives (asbab),
such that their “outer form” (zahir) is at variance with their “inner truth” (batin); they are actions
devoid of essence (ma’na). Akhlaq, on the other hand, are non-contrived praiseworthy actions
not proceeding from particular motives. Their outer form is in harmony with their inner truth;
they are actions devoid of pretension.
Awareness of God (ihsan)

The phrase “awareness of God,” is my translation of the word ihsan, which literally means
“doing what is beautiful.” I have rendered it as “awareness of God” in view of the sound hadith
in which the angel Gabriel asked the Prophet (pbuh), “What is ihsan?” He replied, “Ihsan is that
you should worship God as if you see Him; and if you do not see Him, [you should know that]
He sees you.” The concept of ihsan, with particular attention to its Qur’anic roots, occupies an
entire chapter in what is arguably the best book in English on basic Islamic concepts, Murata and
Chittick’s Vision of Islam.
The first Sufi to compose a compendium on Tasawwuf, Sarraj (d. 378/988-89), linked ihsan to
“vigilant awareness” (muraqaba). He stated, “Vigilant awareness is for a servant who indeed
knows and is certain that Allah is aware of and knows what is in his heart (qalb) and
consciousness (damir). So he stays vigilantly aware of despicable thoughts that [would
otherwise] preoccupy the heart and keep it from remembering his Master. Qushayri (d.
465/1072), like Sarraj, saw ihsan to be related to “vigilant awareness” (muraqaba). Specifically,
he referred to the aspect of ihsan mentioned in the part of the hadith, “If you do not see him
[know] that indeed he sees you” as alluding to “vigilant awareness” because “vigilant
awareness” “is the servant’s knowledge of the Lord’s constant awareness of him.”
Love (‘ishq)
The lexicographer Jawhari (d. 453/1061), a contemporary of Qushayri defined ‘ishq, literally, as
“being excessive in love (al-hubb). While the Qur‘an speaks of love using a variety of words, it
does not use the word ‘ishq or any words derived from it. Nevertheless, we do find a derivative
of ‘ishq being used in the hadith. Ghazali (d. 505/1111) noted a hadith in which the Prophet
(pbuh) spoke of “intense love” (‘ishq): The Messenger of God (pbuh) stated, “Whoever feels
intense love, is virtuous, keeps his love hidden, and then dies, he will indeed die as a martyr.”
In a strikingly ecstatic passage in his Alchemy of Happiness (Kimiya-yi sa‘adat), al-Ghazali

considers ‘ishq as that which arises in the fourth and final stage of practicing the remembrance
of God (dhikr). This fourth stage occurs when
the object of the remembrance dominates the heart (and that object is God-Haqq – not the
remembrance)…. This is the result of one-pointed love (mahabbat-i mufrad), which is called
“intense love” (‘ishq). The heart of the lover who is burning with love (‘ashiq-i garmraw) is
always with the Beloved (ma’shuq). It might even occur that on account of the intense degree of
preoccupation of the heart with the Beloved, the name of the Beloved may be forgotten. When
one becomes so drowned and forgets one’s self and everything – except God (Haqq) –one
reaches the beginning of the path of Tasawwuf. Sufis call this condition “passing away” (fana’)
and “not existing” (nisti); meaning that as a result of the remembrance of God, everything has
become non-existent; and such a person also has become non-existent, namely the one who has
forgotten his or her self.
Mawlana Rumi (d. 672/1273), in his collection of ecstatic poetry, the Divan-i Shams-i Tabrizi,
exclaims in praise,
This love is so fine, this love that we have is so fine, O God!

So exquisite, so good, and so beautiful, O God!
Zihi ‘ishq zihi ‘ishq, kah ma rast khudaya,

Chi naghz ast u chi khub ast chi zibast khudaya.
While Divine Love might appear to some to be completely distinct from human love, for many
Sufis such as Ahmad al-Ghazali (d. 520/1126), Ruzbihan (d. 606/1209), Ibn ‘Arabi (d.
638/1240), Rumi, and ‘Iraqi (d. 688/1289), there was a continuum from human love to Divine
love that the aspiring lover of God could follow. By learning how to love through love of a
person, the sincere Sufi could – in principle – transform his or her love of a person into love of
Allah. The contemporary scholars Chittick and Wilson, in the introduction to their translation of
‘Iraqi’s Lama’at, discussed this relationship of human love and Divine love. Speaking of ‘Iraqi’s
understanding of love, they stated, “There is no irreducible dichotomy between divine and
human love…There is a gradation from the love of forms, which is “apparent love” (‘ishq-i
majazi) to the love of God, which alone is ‘real love’ (‘ishq-i haqiqi). The lower form of love can
be, and for the Sufi is, the ladder to Divine Love.”
Affection (mahabba)
The word mahabba is derived from the word hubb, both of which commonly mean love and
affection. In the Qur’an, both words occur, although hubb is more common. The verbal form of
these words, however, is used numerous times in the Qur’an. Two ayas involving love that Sufis
frequently quote are “God will bring a people whom He loves and who love Him” [Q 5:54], and
“Say, if you love God, follow me [namely, the Prophet (pbuh)]; God will love you” [Q 3:31]. A
hadith qudsi in which mahabba is mentioned was included in the highly regarded Muwatta of
Imam Malik (d. 179/795) on the authority of Abu Idris al-Khawlani (d. 80/699-700). He
transmitted the following narrative, which contains this hadith qudsi as transmitted by Mu’adh
ibn Jabal (d. 18/639):
“Indeed, I heard the Messenger of God (pbuh) saying, ‘God said, “My love (mahabbati)
necessarily belongs to those who love one another (mutahabbina) for My sake, sit together for
My sake, visit one another for My sake, and give generously to one another for My sake.”’ ”
From the Qur’anic examples that we have cited, in addition to this hadith, it should be clear that
mahabba (affection and love) is an important Islamic principle. In Sufi literature, along with an
emphasis on the terms ‘ishq (passionate love), we also often see the terms hubb and mahabba
(affectionate love).
The Heart Attaining Tranquility (itminan-i qalb)

On six occasions the Qur’an links together the roots of the words itminan and qalb. In particular,
one aya that is frequently cited by Sufis is in surat al-Ra’d, “Know that hearts find peace through
the remembrance of God” [Q 13:28]. The emphasis in Tasawwuf on the practice of the
remembrance of God is directly linked with the Qur’anic assertion that hearts become tranquil
and find peace by means of remembering and meditating on God. A certain shaykh quoted in the
Qur’anic commentaries of Sulami and Ruzbihan said, “Hearts find peace in it [the remembrance
of God], because they did not find other than God to be a place for intimacy (uns) and comfort
(raha).” Another shaykh quoted by both Sulami and Baqli stated, “The hearts of the folk of
gnosis only find peace through God and only are tranquil through Him, because their hearts are
the place where He looks (mahal nazarihi). Thus, Sufis, as lovers of God, only find peace in their
hearts through God and the remembrance of God.
Concentrating Your Mind (jam’-i khatir)

The Sufi technical term jam’ that I have translated by the word “concentration” is more literally
translated as “the state of being gathered” or “collected,” sometimes even being rendered as
“union.” It is often used in contrast to the term tafriqa (separation). Concerning them Qushayri
wrote, “Affirming created existence (khalq) comes about through ‘separation;’ and affirming
God (Haqq) derives from ‘concentration’ or ‘gatheredness’. The servant must have both
‘concentration’ and ‘separation.’ Whoever has no ‘separation’ has no servanthood; and whoever
has no ‘concentration,’ has no gnosis (ma’rifa).’” Thus “concentrating one’s mind,” as we find in
the poem, is more than simply the kind of concentration that one uses in one’s day to day
activities in the world. “Concentrating one’s mind” for the folk of Tasawwuf implies the
transcendental knowledge of God that is called gnosis (ma’rifa).
The Religion of Ahmad (din-i Ahmad) (pbuh)

The religion of Ahmad (pbuh) is none other than Islam, since Ahmad (pbuh) is one of the names
of the Prophet (pbuh), as confirmed in both the Qur’an and hadith. In surat al-Saff we read, “…
Jesus, the son of Mary, said: O children of Israel, Indeed I am the messenger of God sent to you
to confirm the truth of what is present of the Torah and to convey to you glad tidings of a Divine
messenger who will come after me, whose name is Ahmad” [Q 61:6]. Both Bukhari and Muslim,
in their authoritative collections of hadith, reported that the Prophet (pbuh) stated, “I am
Muhammad and I am Ahmad; and I am the effacer (mahi) who effaces disbelief. And I am the
gatherer (hashir), who will gather people behind me [on the day of resurrection]; and I am the
final one (‘aqib) [after whom there will be no other prophets].
Contemplation (fikr)
Contemplation (fikr or tafakkur) is an important aspect of the methodology of Islam in general
and Tasawwuf in particular. In both the Qur‘an and the sunna, people are instructed by God to
contemplate. In surat al-Nahl, God states, “And we have revealed to you this [revelation as a]
reminder (al-dhikr), so you will make clear for humankind what has been revealed to them and
so that they will contemplate [Q 16:44]. Similarly, in surat Al ‘Imran, we read, “Indeed, in the
creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the succession of night and day, there are indeed
signs for all who possess [awakened] hearts, those who remember Allah when they stand, sit,
and lie down and contemplate the creation of the heavens and the earth” [Q 3:190-91]. One
hadith that clearly expresses the significance of contemplation in the sunna was cited by Ghazali,
“An hour’s worth of contemplation is better than a year’s worth of worship.” Contemplation is
so important in the Qur’an, sunna, and Tasawwuf that Ghazali devoted an entire “book” (kitab)
in his Revival of the Religious Sciences to it.
Certainty (yaqin)
The classical Sufi doctrine of certainty involved three degrees: the knowledge of certainty (‘ilm
al-yaqin), the eye of certainty (‘ayn al-yaqin), and the reality of certainty (haqq al-yaqin).
Hujwiri (d. ca. 465/1072) discussed them in the following manner:
“By ‘ilm al-yaqin the Sufis mean knowledge of (religious) practice (mu’amalat) in this world
according to the Divine commandments; by ‘ayn al-yaqin they mean knowledge of the state of
dying (naz’) and the time of departure from this world; and by haqq al-yaqin they mean the
unveiling (kashf) of the vision (of God) that will be revealed in Paradise, and of its nature.
Therefore, ‘ilm al-yaqin is the rank of religious scholars (‘ulama’) on account of their correct
observance of the divine commands, and ‘ayn al-yaqin is the station of gnostics (maqam-i
‘arifan) on account of their readiness for death, and haqq al-yaqin is the annihilation-point of
lovers (fana’gah-i dustan), on account of their rejection of all ‘existent beings and things’
(mawjudat)”
In these three degrees of certainty, one clearly sees a hierarchy of states of consciousness, one
which corresponds to a three-fold hierarchy of human identity: the scholars, the gnostics, and at
the highest degree, the lovers.
According to a later Sufi, Najm al-Din Razi (d. 654/1256), “certainty” arises when one strives to
become aware of the spiritual world, while living in accordance with shari’a. If one simply tries
to use one’s rational mind, one will fall into mere philosophy and unbelief. The key to certainty
is the practice of shari’a, which leads to the awareness that everything is a manifestation of an
attribute of God. In the following passage, Razi discusses the nature of certainty:
But [in contrast to the mere philosopher and the heretic] …the possessor of true felicity
nourish[es] the seed of the spirit in accordance with the law of Shari’at until all his senses attain
perfection. He will then perceive, through his outer and inner senses, all the three hundred and
sixty thousand realms that constitute the material and spiritual worlds (mulk va malakut)…He
sees every atom in each of these worlds to be a manifestation of one of the divine attributes
containing within it one of God’s signs; he removes the veil from the face of the manifestations,
and the beauty of God’s signs is displayed to him. [As the poet Abu al-‘Atahiya stated,]
In every thing is a sign (aya) of His

pointing to the fact that He is One (ahad).
This is the threshold of the world of certainty (iqan)…Then the pure essence of God may be
known in its unity, and the attributes (sifat) of divinity may be contemplated with the eye of
certainty (‘ayn al-yaqin).”
Razi makes it very clear: in order to follow the path that leads to certainty and the awareness of
the very “essence of God,” one must discipline and perfect one’s senses by means of shari’a, and
one must be aware that there is nothing in existence that does not derive from an attribute of
God.
The Most Exalted Paradise (khuld-i barin)

Khuld is one of the many terms in Islamic languages for paradise, which can be spoken of as
consisting of various degrees. The highest degree of paradise is sometimes referred to as khuld-i
barin. Some writers of Sufi literature – such as the author of the poem about which we are
remarking – have seen Tasawwuf as a path to the highest degree of paradise, a path that is more
certain than that offered by Islam in general, since Tasawwuf is more demanding and rigorous,
going beyond the minimum degree of conformity to God’s will required in Islam. Other Sufi
writers have used terms for paradise as metaphors alluding to aspects of Tasawwuf or to
experiences encountered on the Sufi path. In this way, Sufis bring paradise into this life or,
conversely, they raise up to paradise an aspect of this life. An example of such a metaphorical
usage is expressed by the Persian poet Hafiz, who has written perhaps the best known couplet
using the term “the most exalted paradise” (khuld-i barin):
Rawda-yi khuld-i barin khalvat-i darvishanast

Maya-yi muhtashimi khalvat-i darvishanast
The garden of the most exalted paradise is the retreat of solitude of the dervish.
The substance of magnificence is the retreat of solitude of the dervish.
Ecstasy and “finding” (wajd)

Literally, the word wajd means “finding,” but for the Sufis it also means a moment of ecstasy in
which one experiences an unveiling – and hence a “finding” - of some aspect of God’s reality.
Ruzbihan (d. 606/1209) defined wajd as, “The heart’s perceiving the sweetness of contact with
the light of “eternality before time” (azaliyat), the purity of witnessing, and the delight of the
[Divine] address. Wajd is often portrayed as the intermediary stage of a three-stage process
consisting of tawajud, wajd, and wujud. Qushayri defines tawajud as “willfully seeking to have
wajd; one in this state does not actually possess true wajd.” Concerning wajd itself, Qushayri
wrote, “Wajd is that which encounters your heart, entering [it and coming] over you, without
will or effort on your part.” Abu al-Husayn al-Nuri stated, “For twenty years I have gone
between wajd (ecstatic finding) and faqd (loss). Namely, when I find my Lord, I lose my heart;
and when I find my heart, I lose my Lord.” Qushayri defined the third stage, wujud, as being that
which occurs “after one progresses beyond wajd;” [it is truly realized only] “after the cessation
of human qualities (khumud al-bashariya), because human qualities cannot remain present
during the manifestation of the sovereignty of the Truth (sultan al-haqiqa).” A succinct summary
of each of these three stages was expressed by Qushayri’s shaykh and father-in-law, Abu ‘Ali al-
Daqqaq: “Tawajud necessitates the rebuking of the servant; wajd necessitates the drowning of
the servant; and wujud necessitates the annihilation of the servant.” Hence, as one advances from
tawajud to wajd and wujud, one experiences a progressive dissolution of one’s egocentricity and
a surrendering of one’s identification with one’s self.
Wearers of Wool (suf pushan)

In Persian the literal meaning of the word sufi would be translated as “suf push” (wearer of
wool). Hence the phrase in the poem “wearer of wool” is synonymous with Sufi. It is generally
agreed that the first Sufis were pious, ascetic Muslims who were called Sufis because they wore
clothes of coarse wool (suf) rather than more refined garments. Some scholars have pointed to a
Christian influence upon this practice. Nevertheless, these early Sufi ascetics were following the
example of the Prophet (pbuh), who (as reported by Ibn Sa’d [d. 230/845] through reliable
transmitters) was known to wear woollen garments. Moreover, the great hadith scholar Bayhaqi
(d. 458/1066), in his Shu’ab al-iman, includes numerous reports about the virtues of wearing suf.
In one report the Prophet (pbuh) states “You should wear clothes of wool (suf). [In so doing,]
you will find the sweetness of faith in your hearts.” In spite of the criticism leveled against this
and other reports that the Prophet (pbuh) wore wool, the isnad of Ibn Sa’d’s report mentioned
above was not criticised and appears to be flawless. Hence in wearing wool the Sufis were not
departing from the record of the sunna of the Prophet (pbuh).
Taste (dhawq)
Generally, one’s spiritual proclivity or capacity is referred to by the term “taste” (dhawq). More
specifically, Qushayri (d. 465/1072) hierarchically defined dhawq (tasting) along with shurb
(drinking), and a less commonly used term riyy (being quenched). He stated,
These terms denote the fruits of ‘theophany’ (tajalli), the results of unveilings (kushufat), and the
appearances of inrushes (waridat) that they [meaning the Sufis] experience. The first of these is
‘tasting,’ then, ‘drinking,’ and then ‘being quenched.’ One who is characterized by dhawq
(tasting) tries to be intoxicated (mutasakir). One who is characterized by shurb (drinking) is
intoxicated (sakran). And one who is characterized by riyy (being quenched) is sober (sah).
The sense of the term “taste” in the poem “What is Tasawwuf?” seems to have both the general
meaning and the more specifically Sufi sense as noted by Qushayri. The general meaning is
conveyed in the expressions the “taste for religion,” where the sense is that the Sufis’
“appreciation” for religion is the basis for their ecstasy. The more specific meaning of which
Qushayri speaks is alluded to in the poet’s linking together these two hierarchical states of
consciousness (“taste” and ecstasy”). The poet states that “ecstasy” is derived from “taste,”
implying that Sufi ecstasy only comes about after a firm foundation in the appreciation of and
commitment to following the religion (namely Islam). Hence the poet says, “I have heard that
the ecstasy of the wearers of wool (suf) comes from finding the taste for religion".
Tasawwuf is nothing but shari‘at

A problem that arises in the final couplet of “What is Tasawwuf?” is that in equating Tasawwuf
and shari’a, the poet brings up and then resolves an apparent tension between Tasawwuf and
shari’a. Such a tension, however, exists only to the degree that one defines these two terms as
being mutually exclusive. While various extremists persist in excluding one from the other, we
do have many inclusive statements - such as that of the poet of “What is Tasawwuf?” – in which
Tasawwuf and shari’a are interwoven, similarly defined, or equated. Qushayri (d. 465/1074), for
example, defined “shari’a” as “assiduous observance of servanthood.” Defining Tasawwuf in a
comparable fashion, Abu al-Hasan al-Shudhili (d. 656/1258) stated: “Tasawwuf is training the
self (nafs) through servanthood and subjecting it to the commands (ahkam) of Lordship.”
Supporting the close relationship between Tasawwuf and shari‘a, the Sufi Abu Yazid al-Bistami
(d. 260/874) asserted that observing the shari‘a was a touchstone for judging a person’s spiritual
degree: “Were you to see a man who performs miracles such that he ascends into the air, do not
be deceived by him. Instead, observe how well he is following the Divine commands, abstaining
from what is prohibited, keeping within the limits set by God, and observing the shari‘a.”
Similarly, Abu al-Husayn al-Warraq (d. before 320/932), asserted the futility of trying to reach
God without conforming one’s actions to shari‘a and the sunna: “A servant will only reach Allah
through Allah and by being in harmony with his loved one [the Prophet (pbuh)] through his laws
(shari’a). And whoever believes that he can follow a path without emulating (al-iqtida) [the
Prophet (pbuh)] will become lost, on account of imagining that he is being guided.”
Undoubtedly, for all but a minority of Sufis throughout history, carefully observing the shari’a
has been a crucial and on-going component of their spiritual practice.
One way of understanding the interrelationship of Tasawwuf and shari’a was expressed by the
Kubrawi Sufi, Najm al-Din Razi (d. 654/1256). Using the term tariqa (path) to denote Tasawwuf
– as Sufis commonly do – he clarified its relationship to shari’a: “The shari’at has an outer
(zahiri) and an inner (batini) aspect. Its outer aspect consists of bodily deeds… The inner aspect
of the shari’at consists of deeds of the heart (qalbi), of the inner mystery (sirri), and of the spirit
(ruhi) and is called the tariqat.” Hence, for Razi, the tariqa (or Tasawwuf) is not separate from
shari‘a, it is, rather, its inner dimension. In summary, it should be clear, then, that in spite of
extremist views that see Tasawwuf and shari’a as mutually exclusive, the author of “What is
Tasawwuf?” – like most Sufis – bridges the false dichotomy between Tasawwuf and shari‘a.
Conclusion
The poem “What is Tasawwuf?” provides answers to a question that has perplexed people since
the term first began to be used, over 1200 years ago. Its answers to this question involve
technical terms referring to many of the key concepts of Tasawwuf (or Sufism, as it is commonly
called today). In this commentary we have not discussed the more obvious phrases and answers
expressed by the poet, phrases such as “faith” (iman) and “the affirmation of unity” (tawhid).
The terms that we have addressed are the following: good character (akhlaq), awareness of God
(ihsan), love (‘ishq), affection (mahabba), the heart attaining tranquillity (itminan-i qalb),
concentrating one’s mind (jam’i khatir), the religion of Ahmad (din-i Ahmad) (pbuh),
contemplation (fikr), certainty (yaqin), the most exalted paradise (khuld-i barin), ecstasy (wajd),
wearers of wool (suf pushan), taste (dhawq), and the close relationship between Tasawwuf and
shari’a. From this study, it should be evident that there are numerous dimensions of Tasawwuf,
including actions in the world, consciousness of God, spiritual states and practices, and shari’a.
And nothing more – nor less.
Sufi Poets and Sufi Poetry

Sufism and the encounters that Sufism facilitates --encounters with God, love, and the deepest
aspects of human consciousness-- have evoked feelings in Sufis that have poured out through
their ravaged hearts onto their lucid tongues, providing us with some of the most beautiful and
profound poetry ever written.
Some of the most prominent of the Sufis who wrote poetry were Rumi, Attar, and Hafez (in
Persian), Hallaj and Ibn al-Farid (in Arabic), and Yunus Emre (in Turkish). Today Sufi poetry
continues in both traditional Islamic languages and also with English languages poets such as
Coleman Barks and Daniel Ladinsky --whose poetic dances with Rumi and Hafez (respectively)
have become well known-- and Daniel 'Abd al-Hayy Moore (aka Daniel Moore), an American
Sufi whose poetic roots draw sustenance from both the poetry of his friends of the "beat
generation" such as Allen Ginsburg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti as well as from his ecstatic
decades of drinking from the cup of Sufism via its cupbearer, Muhammad Rasulullah (sallallahu
'alayhi wa-sallam).
Sufi Poetry in Translation and the Original Languages

Sufi Poets who wrote in Persian
Collections of Classical Persian Poetry This is a searchable treasury of 34 of the most important
collections (divan) of classical Persian poetry.
Attar
 Farid al-Din 'Attar an article by Iraj Bashiri
 Introduction to the Conference of the Birds is an article summarizing some of the main
teachings of Attar's most famous poetical work, the Mantiq al-tayr. It includes a few couplets in
translation.
 The ILahi Nama (The Divine Book) is a lesser known but nevertheless important poetical
work of 'Attar. This link contains 'Attar's introduction and two chapters in translation.
 Memorial of the Saints is a translation of part of a prose work by 'Attar consisting of
hagiographies of various early Sufis; translated by the well-known scholar, A. J. Arberry. This is
in PDF format.
 The Mantiq al-tayr and Divan (Collected lyric poetry) of 'Attar, searchable and in Persian.
Rumi
 Dar al-Masnavi a comprehensive website on Rumi and his works, by Dr. Ibrahim Gamard.
This contains links to both translations and Rumi's works in Persian.
 Coleman Barks' Website Coleman, a retired professor of English at the University of
Georgia, singlehandedly has practically turned Rumi into a household name in the United States.
 Masnavi and Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi (fixed July 11, 2006), searchable and in Persian. The
Masnavi was Rumi's massive 6 volume book of didactic poetry and the Divan-e Shams is his
collected lyric poetry.
Hafez
 Hafiz-e Shirazi contains numerous translations by Shahriar Shahriari from the lyric poetry of
Hafiz as well as a the Persian texts of the translated poems and a biographical article, among
other things.
 Divan-e Hafiz, searchable and in Persian
Sufi Poets who wrote in Turkish
 Yunus Emre's Poetry

 Ahmet Yesevi's Poetry
Sufi Poets who wrote in Arabic
 Diwan Mansur al-Hallaj

 Diwan 'Umar ibn al-Farid
 Diwan Muhiy al-Din Ibn al-'Arabi
Coleman Barks was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and was educated at the
University of North Carolina and the University of California at Berkeley. He taught poetry and
creative writing at the University of Georgia for thirty years. He is the author of numerous Rumi
translations and has been a student of Sufism since 1977. His work with Rumi was the subject of
an hour-long segment in Bill Moyers's Language of Life series on PBS, and he is a featured poet
and translator in Bill Moyers's poetry special, "Fooling with Words." Coleman Barks is the
father of two grown children and the grandfather of four. He lives in Athens, Georgia.
Sufiism and Hinduism resemble each other very closely

By Dr K Prabhakar Rao - Posted on January 16th, 2009
Tagged:
 Din Elahi
 sufi
 ulema
 Wahdat al wajud
Sufiism and Hinduism resemble each other very closely
Prof Dr Colonel (Retired) K Prabhakar Rao
Key Words
Tabeyaks, Suf, Sufi, Guru, Rishi, Ulema, Mysticism, Brahman, Wahadat al Wajud, Dargah,
Muni, Rajput, Din Elahi, Chistie, Baba, Atma Bodha, Bhakti Marga
ABSTRACT
Sufism emerged from Islam and it preached universal love and renunciation of desires,
seclusion, silence, non violence and devotion to God apart from mysticism and they believed
that Allah was the real being while all of us are his manifestation. Their preaching was akin to
Hinduism having been influenced by Hindu theology and Buddhist thought. The fundamentalist
Muslims considered Sufis as heretics and persecuted them and many were put to death. However
Sufism helped in reducing tensions between Islam and other religions. Sufism thus resembles
very closely to Hinduism.
Like any world religion, Islam too suffered fissures and different schools of thought emerged
after death of the prophet Mohammed (PBUH) of it’s founding. Sufism is a branch of Islam and
has suffered much at the hands of fundamentalist Muslims. There is a difference of opinion
about the evolvement of word Sufi. It is believed that the word Sufi was derived from word
‘Suf’ that was a loose woolen gown like garment worn by the followers of this sect. Others claim
that it was derived from a Greek word meaning knowledge and wisdom. Brishtu Ibn Ali defined
that Sufi is that person whose heart is clean and pure (1). Some define that Sufi is one who has
denounced worldly pleasures. It is believed that some Muslims at the time of Prophet
Mohammed (PBUH) derived immense pleasure in devoting themselves to Allah and went into a
state of ecstasy. Disciples of such men were called Tabeyaks. After the death of the prophet,
Muslims gave more importance to the spread of Islam than the devotional pursuits. Tabeyaks
went into oblivion. It is also believed that Sufism was developed a century after Islam was
founded. They derive great inspiration from the Prophet Mohammed ( PBUH) devotional path)
and renouncing the worldly pleasures that is ascetic way of life. The fundamental difference
between Sufism and main branch of Islam is that it is based on devotion to God while the main
branch is dependent on Shariat, the religious law (2). Denouncing of materialistic comforts and
bodily pleasures, maintaining silence, remorse for acts of one’s mistakes, to show love towards
all beings and immense faith in Allah are the tenets of Sufism. These are very similar to
Hinduism that preaches devotion to God (Bhakti Marga i.e. Sufism teaches that a person must
overcome worldly pleasures and purify his soul and attain devotional bliss (3). It also explains
how one could conquer the desires and cleanse his soul. Sufism is a path to salvation. The Sufis
also lay great deal of stress on meditation and reflection (muraqibah) which drew them closer to
Indian traditions. But unlike Indian tradition, they did not practice complete renunciation. In
Hinduism too only few renounced the world. But many Rishis were married and led pious lives
in hermitages and attained bliss. Rishis like Agastya, Vashista, Gautama, and many more were
married and led illustrious lives and are highly revered even today. The Sufis married and had
children as per the practice (sunnah) of the Prophet (PBUH) but never went near the power
centre. Sikhism has drawn greatly from this which does not stress on renunciation. Sikh Gurus
married and had children. Sufis kept their distance from power centers. The Ulema though not
all were generally drawn close to power centers and often did their bidding. Religion for these
Sufis was not a means for acquiring power and influence, but it was meant for their spiritual
needs. This is a very important feature of Sufism. This is the most important feature of Sufism
that has been admired by the Hindus and they accepted them into the fold. Mysticism which is a
Sufi trait means direct intuitive experience of the ultimate reality, by an individual. This reality
could be God or self. In the Indian context, religious freedom and mystical experience go hand-
in-hand. Persons who are able to achieve, direct intuitive experience with God or Supreme spirit
are greatly Venerated. Mysticism is not allowed or recognized in Christianity, Islam and
Judaism. Absolute faith in the prophets who founded these religions followed by morality are
considered supreme. Those who do not accept superiority of the teachings of their prophets or
'non believers' are denied salvation, and are condemned to go to hell.
Sufi saint Muhi al-Din Ibn-i-Arabi was a distinguished saint and maintained his doctrine that
Allah is the real being and all of us are his manifestations. This is known as Wahdat al Wajud.
This was opposed vehemently by the other Muslim sects. This is the Hindu preaching which
says Brahman is one and all of us are his manifestations. This is evident from the following
verse in Atma Bodha of Adi Sankaracharya (4):
Ornaments of gold are varied and many exist in this world
But all are made of only gold whole and sole
All the things in the world are of various names
These are nothing but the forms of the eternal mighty soul (Atma Bodha- Verse 9)
Sufis never asked any one to convert and believed in universal love. Therefore, India has
absorbed Sufism and many Sufi saints flourished in India. They lived in seclusion and gave up
all worldly pleasures and comforts and led devotional lives and thus they resembled Indian
Rishis (ascetics) or Buddhist monks who renounced world and led lives in devotion to God
(Buddhists however had nothing to do with God) They were highly revered by Hindus too and
people flocked to them to seek blessings. Even today, the graves of the Sufi Saints have been
turned into holy sites and are visited by all sections of people in India with very great respect
and reverence irrespective of religious denomination. This it is an indication of the acceptance of
Sufi thought and life by the Hindus. The Sufi Saints never condemned other religions and
respected every one. They also did not pass any judgments on religious issues. They also
respected adherence of past Hindu customs in case of those who converted voluntarily to Sufi
Islam. Thus we find some Muslims celebrating Diwali (Festival of lamps and lights signifying
victory of virtue over evil) and other Hindu festivals apart from celebrating Muslim festival Eid.
This is very opposing to the Islam of main stream that states that once one is converted to Islam,
he has nothing to do with his past links. Their ancestors are not to be worshipped as they were
Kafirs and inhabitants of hell.This are evident from following (5):
“ It is not allowed unto the prophet, nor those who are true believers that they pray for idolaters,
although they may be kin after it became known in to them that they are inhabitants of hell”
( Holy Qur’an) As per Sufis, Jami was the foremost propagationist of Sufism and he was from
Iran. He was followed by Manson of Egypt who was the disciple of Malok I anan. The teachings
of Manson were recorded by Janaid of Baghdad. These teachings were given wide publicity by
Abu bakr of Khurasan and this resulted in strength to spread of Sufism. Shimble was next to Abu
Bakr who propagated Sufism. The teachings of Shimble were recorded in Rasni Rasail, a treatise
(6). These Sufis belonged to 9th and 10 th centuries. Sheikh Moinuddin Ibnul Arag gave clear
directions to tenets of Sufism followed by Iman Fazal who gave a scientific outlook to it. It
found a place in religious books of Sunni sect. These Sufis belonged to 12 century. Till 8 century
Islam did not allow any deviation. Sufism was born in 9 century. In 12 century it became a full
force to reckon with. It is believed that influence of Zorostrar, Buddha, Christ and Hindu saints
had influenced development of Sufism by influencing Islam. Sufism prescribes a guide or peer
who would guide individuals to the path of divinity. This is similar to Guru (Teacher) in
Hinduism. Sheikh Baba Farid of Chistie order was the well known Sufi and his verses in Punjabi
language were included in the holy scripture of Sikhs i.e. Adi Granth by the Sikh Gurus. Baba
Farid was a scholar in Persian language and Arabic. But he wrote in Punjabi, the Indian
language. Thus, he identified with common people. Baba Farid propagated non- violence for
peaceful coexistence in the society and believed that universal love was the most universal
requirement in the society. He felt that non- violence was a strong man’s tool than of a weak
person. However in society today people think differently. MK Gandhi (Proclaimed Father of
Indian Nation and given title Mahatma meaning great soul) probably had a clue from Baba Farid
and Lord Jesus and practiced non violence during Indian freedom movement that was considered
as a weakness and incompetence by the Muslims who took advantage of it and wrecked the
country (A sour fact difficult to digest and swallow for Gandhi admirers) Nizamuddin Awlia was
a great Sufi saint of Chistie order who lived during the period of Sultanate in Delhi. His Dargah
(pious grave) still exists in Delhi and is greatly revered. He preached Sul hi kul i.e peace with all
and he kept away from the power centers. Once he saw some Hindu women worshipping Sun
God at river Jamuna and speaking to his disciple Khusraw, he said that the women were
worshipping Allah in their own way and they should be respected. In this context, he quoted
from the holy Qur’an. It said: “ To Each is a goal to which Allah turns him; then strive together (
as in a race) towards all that is good. Wheresoever ye are, Allah will bring you together. For
Allah hath power over all things” ( Holy Qoran 2:148) Hamiduddin Nagauri who was a sufi
saint from Nagaur, Rajasthan and disciple of Shiekh Moinuddin Chisthi of Ajmer. He became
strict vegetarian and also reared a cow. He in fact lived like a Hindu peasant. Hamiduddin
Nagauri wrote a code of conduct for Sufis with the approval of his master. Some of the salient
points of the code are as under: 1. one should not earn money; 2. one should not borrow money
from others; 3. one should not reveal to anyone nor seek help from anyone if one has eaten
nothing for seven days; 4. if one gains plenty of food, money, grain or clothing, one should not
keep anything until the following day and 5. having fulfilled these conditions one should
regularly fast during the day and pray during the night. It is noticed that this is very close to
practices of Hindu seers, Buddhist bhikus and munis. They did not condemn practices of others
as the orthodox ‘Ulema did describing them as practices of infidels. Khwaja Hasan Nizami in his
valuable book "Fatimi Da‘awat-e-Islam" has given numerous examples of Sufis adopting the
local customs, rituals and traditions. The Imamshahi sect even projected Ali, the Prophet’s son-
in-law as the 10th incarnation of Vishnu. He quotes various instances of certain sects of Islam
like the Niazaris and others even adopting the symbol of Om as when written in Sanskrit with
slight variation it resembles Ali, as written in Arabic. The Imamshahi sect even projected Ali, the
Prophet’s son-in-law as the 10th incarnation of Vishnu. (See Khwaja Hasan Nizami, Fatimi
Da‘wat-e-Islam, Delhi, 1338 A.H.) (7). Rumi, the mystic, thought God as the only Reality. "The
world was His shadow". He believed in the pre-existence of the soul, which passed through
different stages, to unite finally with God. He had a good number of disciples and Sufism spread
in other Islamic countries wherein music and dance found place as spiritual ways to attain
intuitive communication with God. Pre existence of soul is a strong Hindu concept. Going
through different stages of lives by the soul is nothing but incarnation of souls is succession of
lives as believed in Hinduism. Music and dance propagated by Sufism as taught by the famous
Rumi is identical to the one practiced by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu of 16 century which was further
popularized by His divine grace Swami AC Bhakti Vedanta Prabhupada Swamy of International
Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKON) in the last century. Unfortunately, the humble and
noble Sufis were persecuted, harassed, imprisoned, exiled, murdered and even executed by the
fundamentalist Muslim rulers in the past and many dubbed them as non Muslims or heretics.
Such rulers were guided by orthodox Mullahs. Their Hindu oriented theology could not be
digested by the other main sects of Islam who led a hate campaign against Sufis. Though
Mysticism was not recognized in Islam, many mystics appeared in India, and Mansur-Al-Haiiaj
(858-922 C.E) was the greatest among them. He was born in Persia and took to wandering at a
young age visiting places and ascetics. He used to have mystical experiences. He finally came to
India. Islam had not taken deep roots at that time and he was greatly influenced by Hindu
mysticism. On his return, he settled down in Baghdad and started preaching his new found
ideas.The most famous quote of his is 'ana'l-haqq' or 'I am the Reality'. This is similar to Hindu
Vedantic principle. 'I am Brahman' or Thou Art I, The orthodox Muslim clergy could not
swallow this 'heresy'. Hallaj was arrested, tortured and executed in a barbarous way. But his
teachings left a lasting influence. Divinity of the soul and the possibility of attaining oneness
with the supreme soul was a novel concept to persons who were far above the materialistic world
(8). All this was something very strange to the other Muslims who did not reconcile to the
concept of Allah that Islam stood for. The teachings of Sufi Islam were fundamentally opposite
to basic Islam and thus non Sufis were naturally deadly against Sufis and considered them to be
non believers. The sad fate of Prince Dara Shikoh in the Indian History is the classical example
of hatred towards Sufis by the fundamentalist Muslims. Dara was no ordinary person. Dara
Shikoh was the eldest son of 6 th Emperor Shahjehan (1628-1658) of Mughal dynasty, one of the
mighty monarchs of the world that ruled India and he was a great Sufi admirer and was a scholar
of Sanskrit and Persian by himself. He was a distinguished and learned man in Upanishads and
other Hindu scriptures. He translated many Upanishads in to Persian language. These are
considered as master pieces in literature. His disposition was not liked by the fundamentalist
Sunni Muslims who awaited his disaster. To the greatest tragedy of saner world, the illustrious
Prince was put to death by his cruel younger brother Emperor Aurangzeb ( 1658-1707) after the
war of succession in which Prince Dara was defeated, captured, publicly disgraced and tried by
the religious court of Ulema for his unislamic conduct and was sentenced to death. At imperial
orders, the executioners killed Dara Shikoh in prison in dark hours by stabbing him and they cut
off his head. Aurangzeb was a staunch fundamentalist Sunni Muslim who banned dance, art,
sculpture and music from the court. His hatred towards these disciplines have deprived the world
some of the finest art treasures in the palace of Bijapur Kings in South India ( Deccan ) that were
white washed at the orders of the Aurangzeb after the defeat of Bijapur’s Adil Shahi Sultan
against the Mughal forces in 17 century. Bijapur ( Now in Karnataka state ) was also a center for
Sufis in those turbulent years. What other example is required to prove the point of hatred
towards Sufis within Islam itself? The Sufi disposition of Prince Dara Shikoh was most hated by
Aurangzeb and his coterie of Mullahs. His trial and sentence for execution was a fore gone
conclusion, once Dara was captured after his defeat in the war of succession. With the death of
Dara Shikoh, Indian history took an entirely different turn and for the next 50 years, India
suffered Muslim fundamentalism and persecution of Hindus at the hands of religious bigot,
cruel, mean and sadist Aurangzeb. It is an irony of fate that in world history, there are many
incidents which have completely transformed the history more towards the worst. Execution of
Dara Shikoh is one among them. Probably Dara would have survived the calamity had he stayed
away from the power politics after the death of Emperor Shahjehan like a true ascetic and Sufi.
In fact all true Sufis stayed away from the positions of power and stayed away from comforts
and love and lived lives of renunciation.
There are nearly 15 sects of Sufis, the details of which are (9 ) :
VARIOUS SECTS OF SUFISM
Sect Founder Date ( Hijri) Muslim calendar
1. Ajmia Hajmi 156

2. Teipulia Ibn Asa 160
3.Adhamia Ibrahim 161
4.Zania Abdul wahid 177
5.Imadia Iyad 187
6.Karkia Marush Karji 207.
7.Sakatia Narb sakat 253
8.Huberia Habairal 287
9.Jana Idia Albun 297
10.Chistia Khajul 298
11.Garja Ronia Garjalni 426
12.Lusia Aluddintusi 560
13.Khadiria Khadira Jilasi 561
14.Suhravadhia Najib 562
15.Firdesia Najimuddin 612
These sects were practiced in Persia, Iraq and Arabia. In India of course Chistia sect became
very popular. It spread widely during 12 th -16 th centuries. Slave sultanates and Mughals ruled
during the period. It spread mostly in areas such as Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Sindh and
Multan (now in Pakistan), Gulbaraga, Bidar and Hyderabad. Baba Moinuddin, China baba
Parad, and Bamaruddin were famous Sufi saints. Nizamuddin Awliyah was one of the great Sufi
saints of India during the sultanate period and he saw the reigns of several sultans but did not
pay court to anyone. When he consistently refused to go to the court, Sultan Jalaluddin Khalji
sought an interview with Nizamuddin Awliya, which was politely refused. The Sultan then
thought of visiting the khanqah (hospice) without informing the Shaikh (i.e. Nizamuddin). "My
house has two doors," remarked the Shaikh. "If the Sultan enters by one, I will make my exit by
the other." (10).Baba Khaja Banda Nawaz of Gulbaraga in South India and Baba Moinuddin
Chisthi of Ajmer in North India were widely respected Sufi saints. Their Dargahs (revered
graves) draw millions of devotees from all walks of life seeking blessings. Sects such as
Suhrawardia and Khadiri also entered India, but they did not progress much. Sufism declined in
India by the time Emperor Akbar (1556-1605) rose to power. However in the company of his
able friends and ministers Abul Fazal, Faizee and Latif Akbar patronized Sufism. It is believed
that Prince Salim [(Later Emperor Jehangir (1605- 1627)] was born out of blessings from a Sufi
Saint Salim Chistie and Emperor Akbar developed great veneration towards Sufism. Abul Fazal
and Faizee brothers were well known Sufis and once they entered Akbar’s court, greatly
influenced the emperor. Under their influence, he developed religious tolerance and controlled
Ulema and fundamentalists. Finally he established his own religion Din E Ilahi which of course
had not many takers except few courtiers and close friends. It died soon with Akbar unsung (11).
Sufism that evolved owing to the interaction with other world religions has mellowed down the
strict aspects of Islam to some extent. It can not be said that it has transformed the orthodox
clergy and fundamentalists during the bye gone years. It has not removed it or transformed the
fundamentalists. Sunnis being in majority always had the edge that persecuted others without
any restraint. In India, Sufis played great role in influencing the Muslim rulers some of whom
developed tolerance towards other religions. This helped in reducing religious tensions in the
society to some extent.Akbar was one of the greatest examples although in the initial stages of
his rule, Akbar was not above the board. There are many allegations against his conduct and
incidents of persecution against Rajputs (Martial clan in Hindus) after victory at Chittorgarh in
Rajasthan after a bitter battle in which he ordered massacre of all Hindu inmates of the fort that
was conquered are leveled against him. It is believed nearly 30000 Rajput men, women and
children were massacred at the instance of his orders . Sufism helped in development of
Hindustani culture that is typical to India. But as Sufis were always out of power centers as a
principle, they made only indirect influence and other sects such as Sunni and Shia controlled
the State. In spite of presence of saner Sufis, Atrocities under Muslim rule continued as majority
of Muslims were Sunnis that constitute nearly 90 % Muslims. Even in today’s world, the Sunni
and Shia conflicts are regular affair and Sufi Islam keeps away from such conflicts. Islamic
terrorism in the form of misguided Jihad propagated by Sunni Wahabi sect goes unabated paying
least consideration to the noble Sufi thought with in Islam. Wahabi Sunni consider all others as
heretics who do not subscribe to their fundamentalist Jihadi philosophy. Thus Sufi Islam is
unable to influence the fundamental Muslims from the main stream to see reason and desist from
violence, hatred and terrorism. This is the tragedy in Islam today. However in India, it helped to
reduce religious tensions between Muslims and Hindus. It also resulted in emergence of Sikhism
by virtue of their tolerant theology and universal peace and love. Purity of mind and sadhana
(self-disciplined meditation) and guidance of guru became more important, than study of
scriptures; in both religions. Infact all religions preach universal love, compassion, tolerance,
and sacrifice. But Sufism has been identified separately by virtue of their devotion to God,
secluded and withdrawn lives, renunciation of desires and non violence apart from the aspect of
being away from power politics. Its concept of God and soul are akin to Hinduism and therefore
won laurels of Hindu theologians and common people in India.
Bibliography
1. Richard Maxwell, Sufis of Bijapur, Social roles of Sufis in medieval India, Princeton
University press, New Jercy, USA, 1978
2..Asghar Ali Engineer, On Sufi approach to Islam, http://www.dawoodi-
bohras.com/perspective/sufi.htm as retrieved on 27 Dec 2007 11:50:23 GMT.
3. 3.M Hanumanth Rao, KC Babu Rao,, Indian dynasties and heritage ( Bharateeya Sanskriti and
varasatwamu in Telugu), Vikram book links, Vijaywada, AP, India, PP 216,
4. Adi Sankaracharya, Atma Bodha (A treatise on the knowledge of Atma (Soul), Translation
(English poetry) Part I by Prof Dr Colonel (Retired) K Prabhakar Rao, www.faithcommons.org, ,
November 12, 2007, O8:38
5.Sale, Holy Koran translation into English, Chapter IX, Page 196 as cited in medieval culture,
AL Srivatsava, Shrilal Agarwal, and Coy, Edn Publishers, Agra-3, Edition II, 1971
6. M Hanumanth Rao, KC Babu Rao,, Indian dynasties and heritage ( Bharateeya Sanskriti and
varasatwamu in Telugu), Vikram book links, Vijaywada, AP, India, PP 223-227
7.Asghar Ali Engineer, On Sufi approach to Islam, http://www.dawoodi-
bohras.com/perspective/sufi.htm as retrieved on 27 Dec 2007 11:50:23 GMT.
8. Dr. Jyotsna Kamat, Sufism and Indian Mysticism, On line Sept 21, 2006
9 .Prof Dr Colonel ( Retired) K Prabhakar Rao, Strategic studies into Muslim fundamentalism ,
its rise in India and its growing threat to India across the borders, Ph D Thesis in strategic
studies, The International University, TIU, USA, Independence, Missouri, USA, PP 127-128
10 Khaliq Ahmad Nizami, Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya, Delhi, 1991, pp-105 as
Cited in serial 2 above. 11. Prof Dr Colonel ( Retired) K Prabhakar Rao, Strategic studies into
Muslim fundamentalism , its rise in India and its growing threat to India across the borders, Ph D
Thesis in strategic studies, The International University, TIU, USA, Independence, Missouri,
USA, PP 98 General Reference
1. Holy Qur’an, Translation into English with Arabic text, Translated by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Al
Ittihad publications PVT Limited, B 35 , Basement, Opposite Mogra Guest House, Nizamuddin
west, New Delhi, India
Bookmark/Search this post with:

 Delicious
 Digg
 StumbleUpon
 Reddit
 Facebook
 Technorati
 Dr K Prabhakar Rao's blog
 Login or register to post comments
With all due respect, Sufism
Submitted by Karen on Fri, 2009-01-16 12:58.
With all due respect, Sufism in India and Hindusim may have similar appearances and forms, but
Sufism has many very different forms throughout the world. Having studied both for many
years, other than a few poets like Kabir and various local practices, I fail to see the fundamental
similarities in theology.
Pakistan celeberates Allama Iqbal’s death anniversary on April 21 with the usual lip-service. The
key messages of Iqbal seem to have been lost in the maze of officialdom. This is further
exacerbated by the hijacking of Islam and politics by vested interests.
Iqbal opposed Mullahism, emphasised the principle of movement in Islamic thought and
highlighted “Ijtehad” (re-interpretation) of Islamic teachings through a modern parliamentary
framework. Alas, all of that is nearly forgotten.
I read a thought-provoking piece by Suroosh Irfani, a professor of culture studies who urges the
country (and by default much of the Islamic world) to reclaim Iqbal and Rumi’s messages of
dynamic sufism and adoption of reason in national affairs. Ifrani states:
”Pakistan urgently needs to reclaim Rumi and Iqbal’s message for stemming the slide into the
home-grown swamps of aspiring suicide bombers, who are threatening to set the country ablaze
in the name of Islam and Sharia
The 13th-century mystic Maulana Rumi and the 20th-century poet-philosopher Iqbal have a
common message for Muslims: de’dan day’gar amuz, shan’idan day’gar amuz (learn to see and
think in a new way). The message sums up an outlook of life as a forward assimilative
movement, even as one remains rooted in an Islamic heritage. Indeed, the message arose in a
historical context when old certainties were crumbling and the new were struggling to be born:
Rumi lived at a time when the Muslim world was traumatised by Mongol invasions, while
Iqbal’s was a time of awakening of the colonised masses that eventually led to the independence
of India and Pakistan.”
This article is based on a paper that was written for a Seminar on Contemporary Relevance of
Rumi and Iqbal, recently held in Lahore. It is a deft summation of some critical thought
processes common to Rumi, Iqbal and Dr Ali Shariati.
Thanks, Mr Irfani for enlightening us. Hope this piece is read widely.
The writer is Imam and Director of Islamic Studies, Masjid Dar-ul-Qur’an, Long
Island, New York (USA).
Dimensions of Iqbal
Iqbal, the Sufi Epistemology,
and the End Of History
Imran N. Hosein
e attempt in this paper to examine the appearance of an
epistemological paradox in the thought of Dr. Muhammad
Iqbal.
There was that knowledge which he imparted to his
native people that touched their very souls and fired them with a
scorching reaffirmation of commitment to Islam. It was communicated in
Urdu and Persian. Had it been communicated in English, the European
world of scholarship would have rejected it and sneered at it. Iqbal would
have suffered a loss of status amongst his European peers. And then
there was that other knowledge which he communicated in English. It
impressed European scholarship, as well as his Western-educated
countrymen. Had some of it been communicated in Urdu or Persian (i.e.,
his rejection of belief in the advent of Imam Al-Mahdi, the release of
Dajjal, and the return of Prophet Jesus), it would have created serious
and abiding problems for him amongst the Muslim masses. To this day
there are many Muslims who are inspired by Iqbal, but remain blissfully
ignorant of the views mentioned above.
The dualism in Iqbal’s thought and works is compounded by the
fact that he sometimes says one thing in English, and then proceeds to
say something quite different in Urdu or Persian.
For example, he agrees with the Turkish Ijtihad (if it may be
called such) to the effect that the Imamate or Caliphate (which was
abolished by the Turks in 1924) can be vested in a body of persons or an
elected Assembly. Provided that a modern Parliament can be constituted
of good Muslims, Iqbal would be willing to accept it as a valid substitute
for the Caliphate. Yet Iqbal, in verse, urges the restoration of the
Caliphate, and seeks that mobilization of the spirit which would make it
possible:
W
Iqbal, Sufi Epistemology, and the End of History 41
To once again establish,
The foundation Khilafah in the world,
You must bring from somewhere,
The mettle of your ancestors.
Iqbal is also quite explicit in his rejection of belief in the advent
of Imam Al-Mahdi and in the return of Prophet Jesus (AS). This is what
he says:
[The doctrine of the finality of prophethood] may further be
regarded as a psychological cure for the Magian attitude of
constant expectation which tends to give a false view of
history. Ibn Khaldun, seeing the spirit of his own view of
history, has fully criticized and, I believe, finally demolished
the alleged revelational basis in Islam of an idea similar, at
least in its psychological effects, to the original Magian idea
which had reappeared in Islam under the pressure of Magian
thought.1
Indeed, in his letter to Muhammad Ahsan it would appear that he
adds belief in the advent of Dajjal to the list of Magian ideas which, he
claims, have infiltrated into Islamic thought. This is clear from his use of
the word masihiyat 2 Yet Iqbal, in verse, is fairly explicit in the
affirmation of belief in the advent of Imam Al-Mahdi:
Out of the seclusion of the desert of Hejaz,
The Guide of the Time is to come.
And from this far, far away valley,
The Caravan is to make its appearance.
The view has been expressed that Iqbal’s Khidr-e-Waqt was
none other than Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. We disagree. By
no stretch of the imagination can Jinnah be conceived of having emerged
from a distant valley in the Hejaz. Nor could Sultan Abdul Aziz bin Saud
be conceived as Khidr-e-Waqt. Who then, was Iqbal referring to?
We trace this apparently disturbing dualism in Iqbal’s thought
and works and suggest that it resulted from an epistemological
ambivalence in his thought. Different epistemologies function at
different levels of consciousness. Iqbal’s theoretic consciousness
functioned with one epistemology. His aesthetic and spiritual
consciousness functioned with another. Unless one succeeds in
integrating all levels of consciousness in the personality, an
epistemological ambivalence and a dualism in thought can appear.
The 42 Qur’anic Horizons 4:1
It is a disservice to Iqbal to suggest that the explanation lies in
his speaking one way to his European audience, and in another to his
native audience. He is too great a scholar to have displayed such lack of
integrity.
Sufi Epistemology
The Sufis have a consistent record of not only recognizing, but,
also, of using the heart as a vehicle for the acquisition of knowledge.
That experience of the heart, through which it “sees” and penetrates
“truth,” is frequently referred to as “religious experience.” In its wider
sense, religious experience also includes that intuitive grasp which
delivers to the believer the “substance” or “reality” of things. The
Prophet (SAW) referred to it when he warned: “Fear the firasah (i.e.,
intuitive capacity for penetrating the substance of things) of the believer,
for surely he sees with the light of Allah (SWT).” And Iqbal himself
directed attention to it in his famous couplet:
For thousands of years,
The narcissus bemoans its blindness;
It takes ages before the discerning soul,
Appears in the garden.
Iqbal’s deedawar — the discerning soul — is clearly he who sees with
an inner light. Iqbal is, himself, a true expression of a deedawar.
The epistemology, which embraces “religious experience” as a
source of knowledge, is herein referred to as the Sufi epistemology.
All through history, it was always important for the seeker of
knowledge to be able to penetrate the “substance” or “reality” of things.
But that would become absolutely essential in an age in which
“appearance” and “reality” would be in total conflict with each other.
“Appearance” would be so dangerous that, if accepted, would lead to the
destruction of faith. And so, in that age, survival would depend upon the
capacity to penetrate beyond external form to reach internal substance,
and thus be saved from being deceived and destroyed. Islam has declared
that such an age would appear before the end of the world. And herein
lies the abiding importance of the Sufi epistemology.
The Prophet (SAW) advised that Suarh Al-Kahf (Chapter 18) of
the Qur’an be recited every Friday for protection from the fitnah
(deception, trial) of Dajjal. His modus operandi is that of functioning by
deception. The story, in Surah Al-Kahf, of Moses (AS) and Khidr (AS)
revealed the inadequacy of that epistemology which admits of
knowledge only through observation. Moses (AS) is mistaken on all
three occasions. Khidr (AS) on the other hand, who sees with the light of
Allah (SWT), corrects the mistakes which Moses made. The story also
indirectly points an ominous finger at the misguided community (or
Ummah) of Moses (AS), i.e., the Jews, as the people who would
experience the greatest deception, would be deceived and would then fail
to read accurately the historical process. In consequence of being
deceived they would blindly follow the most dangerous of all Pied
Pipers, Al-Masih Al-Dajjal, to their final destruction in history. My view
is that deception has already taken place, and the final destruction of the
Jews is now assured.
Iqbal is himself the best example of a scholar with a matchless
capacity to penetrate beyond appearances to grasp the reality of things.
He made a thorough and penetrating study of modern Western
civilization and came to the conclusion that its appearance was quite
different from its reality. Just three months before his death he tore away
the veil or appearance of “progress,” and delivered a stinging
denunciation of the modern West. Many, including the likes of Shaikh
Muhammad Abduh, as well as today’s secular liberals, have declared that
they have seen Islam itself in the modern West. Iqbal was not deceived:
The modern age prides itself on its progress in knowledge and
its matchless scientific development. No doubt, the pride is
justified…. But in spite of all these developments, tyranny of
imperialism struts abroad, covering its face in the masks of
Democracy, Nationalism, Communism, Fascism, and heavens
know what else besides. Under these masks, in every corner of
the earth, the spirit of freedom and the dignity of man are
being trampled underfoot in a way of which not even the
darkest period of human history presents a parallel.3
Epistemology of the Modern West
Modern Western civilization emerged in consequence of sudden
unprecedented change that overtook Europe. A civilization which was
previously based on faith (in Christianity), and which had given
collective and dramatic expression of that faith in the Crusades,
experienced such radical change as transformed it into a civilization now
based on materialism. The new epistemology, which paved the way for
the collective embrace of materialism, was one that specifically denied
the possibility of knowledge being acquired through religious
experience, or through revelations from the unseen. Observation and
experimentation were the only valid means through which knowledge
could be acquired. That which could not be observed could not be
known. The new epistemology naturally paved the way for a dramatic
conclusion, to wit: a world, which could not be observed and known, did
not exist. Hence there is no reality beyond material reality.
Iqbal’s Epistemological Response
Iqbal realized that the acceptance of this Western epistemology
would result in the complete destruction of religion in the world of Islam.
Knowledge would be secularized, and the secularized mind would be cut
off from the Unseen world — the world of the Sacred. The heart would
then lose that sacred light without which its sight is, at best, dim. Even
the best scholars in the world of Islam would then be in danger of being
deceived by essentially Godless Western Pied Pipers, and all of mankind
would dance to their tunes. Islam would be so secularized that a
Protestant version of Islam would emerge. An age, which had already
experienced the total dominance of Western civilization over all of
mankind, posed a great danger of precisely such an epistemological
penetration of the Muslim mind.
Iqbal’s response was to devote two of the seven lectures of the
Reconstruction to a vigorous defense of the Sufi epistemology, and to
place these two lectures at the very beginning of the series. They occupy
the same prominent position in the book.
In “Knowledge and Religious Experience” and “The
Philosophical Test of the Revelations of Religious Experience,” Iqbal
presented the most well-reasoned and persuasive challenge to the new
Western epistemology ever penned by a Muslim. These first two
chapters of the Reconstruction were produced and prominently placed
for precisely this purpose, i.e., to stimulate Islamic scholarship to probe
with Allah’s light, and to penetrate beyond the seductive appearances
presented by the Modern Age, in order to reach its poisonous reality.
More than sixty years have passed since that challenge (in the
first two chapters of Reconstruction) was offered, yet neither has
Western scholarship condescended to respond, nor has Islamic
scholarship cared to follow in the epistemological trail which he blazed.
Indeed, this failure on the part of Islamic scholarship is partly responsible
for the terrible plight in which the world of Islam now finds itself. The
Western world, with its secularized system of education, its politics of
power-lust, greed and polarization of society, and its economics of
exploitation, has enjoyed almost total success in deceiving the world of
Islam and in thus leading it down the road of impotence, anarchy,
intellectual confusion, and the ruination of faith. The largest Muslim
country in the world today, Indonesia, now stands at the very brink of
being lost to Islam.
Iqbal’s Ambivalence
From his teen-aged days as a college student in Lahore to his
university education in Europe, Iqbal’s exposure to Western thought was
continuously intimate. He also lived in an age that was forced to observe
the literal explosion of Western scholarship on the stage of the world.
History had never witnessed anything comparable to that scholarship
which dramatically extended the frontiers of knowledge in nearly every
conceivable branch of knowledge. The scientific revolution of the West
was something unique in the world of knowledge. More often than not
Iqbal’s respect for Western scholarship grew into outright admiration.
Our view is that this admiration for Western scholarship provoked a
corollary. It revealed itself in the startling accusation that “during the last
five hundred years religious thought in Islam has been practically
stationary.”4 And the consequence of that profound admiration was
found in the Reconstruction, which is littered with references to, and
quotations from, his peers in the world of Western scholarship. There
was no such peer within his own community, and so there is not a single
reference in the Reconstruction to a contemporary Muslim scholar in the
huge and intellectually influential Indian Muslim community.
This ambivalence, this love-hate relationship which found
expression in the first two chapters of the Reconstruction, as in the
endless references to Western scholars, was also revealed in Iqbal’s
choice of language for addressing Muslims on as important a subject as
the reconstruction of their religious thought. He chose to address the
Western-educated Muslim intelligentsia. Even so, it must have been an
absolutely amazing spectacle to behold Iqbal, sixty long years ago,
addressing his largely uncomprehending Muslim audience (one needs to
have some knowledge of philosophy in order to comprehend these
lectures) in chaste English and in a manner which conformed to Western
linguistic etiquette and sensibilities. It must have been an equally
amazing sight to behold the same Iqbal using the native Urdu and Persian
languages to convey through poetry a message whose form and
substance was quite alien to the Western mind.
We believe that Iqbal was not, himself, immune from the
negative influence of the very Western epistemology of which he warned
so strongly. His poetry, which came directly from the heart, witnessed
the unsurpassed use of the Sufi epistemology and was uncluttered by any
Western logical or epistemological restraints. The same cannot always be
said of his thought when expressed in English. Our purpose in this paper
is to direct attention to a subject which, more than any other, illustrates
Iqbal’s epistemological ambivalence. That subject is “the end of history.”
Islam and the End of History
Is there an Islamic view of the end of history? Did Iqbal ever
address it?
It is appropriate, in the context of the subject we are here
examining, to note that Islam has chosen terminology located in time for
referring to the end of the world. The Islamic word is “the Hour” (Al-
Sa‘ah). The supreme importance of this subject of “the Hour,” i.e., the
end of history, was established in the famous visit of Archangel Gabriel
(AS) when he appeared before the Prophet (SAW) in the mosque in the
form of a man. He asked questions, the Prophet (SAW) answered them,
and Gabriel (AS) then confirmed that the answers were correct.
Sometime after his departure the Prophet (SAW) informed the Muslims
of the identity of the visitor, and of the fact that he had come (at that very
late stage in the life of the Prophet) to instruct them in their religion. He
had asked five questions, and two of these related to the end of history.
The first was: when will the end come? And the Prophet (SAW) had
replied to the effect that the one who was being questioned had no more
knowledge of the subject than the questioner. The second question was:
tell me of the signs by which we would know that the end is at hand?
(i.e., what are some of the signs by which we would recognize the age
which would witness the end of history?) He replied to the effect that a
slave girl would give birth to her mistress (and this has now become a
possibility because of surrogate parenting), and that the barefooted
shepherds of yesterday would be competing with each other in
constructing high-rise buildings. (Some of the foremost scholars of Islam
in this age have declared that this sign has now materialized).
This extraordinary hadith amply demonstrated the supreme
importance that Islam has attached to the subject of the end of history. It
also clearly establishes that we now live in the last age.
The Islamic view of the last age is quite comprehensive. It
includes the belief that the earth would function as habitat for a limited
duration. (Al-Baqarah 2:36). The earth would one day be transformed
into a dust bowl. (Al-Kahf 18:8). This implies that the end-time, which
witnesses the death of the earth, would be preceded by an age of a
constantly diminishing supply of (sweet) water, leading, eventually, to
extreme scarcity of water. The Prophet (SAW) described that last age as
the age of fitan (i.e., tests and trials), and the Qur’an warned that all of
mankind would be targeted, and that Allah’s Punishment would be
terrible. (Al-Anfal 8:25).
The constantly diminishing supply of water would take place in
consequence of the release into the world, by Allah (SWT), of evil
beings whom He created, viz., Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj. The last two
chapters of the Qur’an were specifically devoted to warning the believers
of the very great dangers which would emerge in the world in
consequence of the release of “evil created by Allah.” The evil would
appear as “evil beings” created by Allah (SWT) to test and to punish.
They are Ya’jooj, Ma’jooj and Dajjal. The Prophet (SAW) described
Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj to be such thirsty beings that they would drink up all
the water of the world. They would pass by a river, he said, and they
would drink it dry.5 The last age would thus be characterized by overconsumption,
waste, and disrespect for water. Mankind would witness, in
the last age, riots and wars fought over water.
When we look around us in the world, it appears to be quite clear
that the countdown has already begun. There is an ominous and growing
shortage of water in nearly all parts of the world today. The head of the
U. N. Environment Program has recently expressed his fear that the
world is heading towards a “period of water wards between nations.” A
Pakistani government minister has warned of the likelihood of riots over
water in Karachi. The Kalabagh Dam project threatens bloodshed. The
Farrakha Dam, built by India, threatens to drown Bangladesh. Turkey
and Syria are poised on the brink of war. Water is one of the issues that
divide them. Israel, the Palestinian Arabs, and the neighboring Arab
Sates (particularly Jordan) have serious and growing differences over the
sharing of dwindling water supplies.
It would therefore appear that the release of Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj
has already taken place. Iqbal agrees. Indeed, he appears to be one of the
very few scholars of Islam to have ever had the vision and the courage to
make a formal declaration that the release has taken place and, as a
consequence, that we now live in the last age, or the age which will
witness the end of history. The declaration was made in Urdu verse, and,
predictably, there is not even a hint of it in any of his writings or
statements made in English. This is the verse:
The hordes of Gog and Magog,
Have all been released;
The Muslim can see with his eyes,
The meaning of yansiloon.
The word yansiloon, which occurs at the end of the verse, and to
the tafseer (interpretation) of which Iqbal has directed the attention of the
Muslims, refers to a passage of the Qur’an in Surah Al-Anbia in which
Allah, Most High, declares that when Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj are released
they will descend from every direction (min kulli hadabin yansiloon).
Here is the passage:
And there is a ban on a town which We destroyed, that they
shall not return (i.e., the town shall not be restored), until
Ya’jooj (Gog) and Ma’jooj (Magog) are let through (the
barrier which Dhul-Qarnain built in order to contain them),
and they descend from every direction. (Al-Anbia 21:95, 96)
This indicates that Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj would not only become
the dominant force in the world, but that their power would subdue all of
mankind. Indeed their power would be such that, according to a Hadith
Al-Qudsi, Allah (SWT) has Himself declared: “none but I can destroy
them.”6
Our view is that Iqbal arrived at this amazingly accurate
conclusion eighty years ago in consequence of his use of the Sufi
epistemology. He not only made a critical and an acute observation of
the historical process, and of the world which confronted him, but he also
had the courage to make an intellectual leap for a startling intuitive grasp
which delivered to him, for one dazzling moment in time, the very
substance of the subject. The uneducated say many things without
knowledge. But when a scholar of the Qur’an makes a declaration such
as this, one cannot but pause in admiration, and with praise for Allah
(SWT), the Source of all knowledge. Conventional Islamic scholarship,
unable or unwilling to reach out for that intuitive grasp of the subject, is
yet to pronounce on the release of Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj. For Iqbal, on the
other hand, modern Western civilization is the civilization of Ya’jooj and
Ma’jooj. (This is the view of Prof. Muhammad Munawwar.)
We believe that Iqbal was absolutely correct. Consider the
following:
The Caliphate is an institution central to the collective integrity
of the Muslim Ummah. Although the seat of the Caliphate was oftimes
filled in a manner which did not conform to the Shari‘ah of Islam, the
office of the Caliphate survived for some 1300 years. There is an
indication of a prophecy of the destruction of the Caliphate, and of its
restoration at the time of the advent of Imam Al-Mahdi, in the famous
hadith in which the Prophet (SAW) spoke of the return of Prophet Jesus
(AS): “How will you be when the Son of Mary descends amongst you
and your Imam will be from amongst yourselves.” (Sahih Bukhari)
Within seven years of Iqbal’s pronouncement concerning the
release of Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj in 1917, the unprecedented power and
influence of today’s dominant Western civilization led to the destruction
of the Ottoman Islamic Empire and, subsequently, to the collapse of the
Caliphate.
Secondly, the Hajj is an institution which is even more central in
importance to Islam, and which has survived for thousands of years. The
Prophet (SAW) has prophesied the abandonment of the Hajj in the
context of the aftermath of the release of Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj. The
fulfillment of that prophecy appears to be imminent. It should come to
pass as soon as the Jews deliver on their promise to destroy Masjid Al-
Aqsa in order to rebuild the Temple of Solomon (AS). When it does
come to pass it will confirm, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that Iqbal
was absolutely correct in this pronouncement concerning the release of
Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj.
Thirdly, the basic characteristic of Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj is their
fasad (i.e., their conduct which corrupts, spoils, ruins). (Al-Kahf 18:94).
The age of Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj would thus be one of immense and
unprecedented corruption. Everything will be corrupted — religion and
religious scholars; government and political life; the market, the
economy, and the world of finance or money; law and justice;
transportation, the environment, even the ecological system of the earth;
sex, marriage and family life; sports and entertainment; education, youth,
the role of women in society, and so on. When we look around us in the
world today we find ample evidence of this universal corruption,
indicating that Iqbal was correct, and that the countdown has begun.
Fourthly, another basic characteristic of Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj is
their Godlessness and immorality (khabath). The Godlessness was
described in a Hadith Al-Qudsi in which we were informed that only one
of every 1000 of the end-time would enter into heaven (and that person
would be a follower of the Prophet). The rest, 999 out of every 1000,
would all be the people of Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj and would all be sent to
Hell.7 The immorality was described in a hadith in which the Prophet
(SAW) conveyed to this wife, Ummul Mo’mineen Zainab (RAA), the
news that the advent of Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj would be in consequence of
the increase of khabath in the world.8 The Qur’anic use of the term
khabath includes that sexual perversity which characterized Sodom and
Gomorrah. There is sufficient Godlessness, immorality, and sexual
perversity in the world today to qualify for the description given by the
Prophet (SAW). Again Iqbal is correct.
A fifth characteristic of Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj, and one which also
follows from the above, is that they will transform all of mankind into
one single global society in which all will follow essentially the same
way of life. It will be Godless and decadent. Already that single Godless,
decadent society has embraced the elite around the world. The process is
now moving inexorably to embrace the masses as well. The actual hadith
is that Ya’jooj, the community (Ummah), will expand to incorporate
another four hundred communities (umam). Ma’jooj, the Ummah, would
do the same. And so the world of Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj would be an everexpanding
globalized world of information, communication,
entertainment, and culture, etc. It will culminate in one essentially
Godless and decadent global society with the mental and spiritual
illumination of Kentucky Fried Chicken and Coca Cola. A world
government will preside over it. Television has played, and still plays, a
crucial role in the relentless pursuit of that goal — a goal that now
appears to be quite within reach. This confirms Iqbal’s declaration.
Sixthly, perhaps the most significant clue of the release of
Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj, and ominous consequences of that release for the
world of Islam, is located in the hadith (referred to above) in which the
Prophet (s) spoke to his wife, Ummul Mo’mineen Zainab (RAA), about
the release of Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj. His words were: “Woe unto the
Arabs, because of an evil which is now approaching.” In other words, the
release of Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj would result in great calamities and
suffering in the Arab world in particular. The clue is expressed quite
explicitly in the Qur’an, however, when Allah (SWT) declared of a town
(or city) which He had destroyed, that its restoration would never be
possible until the release of Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj makes it possible. (See
reference to ayaat 95 & 96 of Surah Al-Anbia above).
My own use of the Sufi epistemology led me to the conclusion
that the town was Jerusalem (i.e., the State of Israel). If I am correct, and
Allah (SWT) knows best, then the Qur’an is declaring that the State of
Israel, destroyed by Allah (SWT) twice in history, would be restored
when Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj are released, and, as a consequence, that
restoration formed part of the Divine Plan through which Dajjal would
deceive the Jews and lead them to their final destruction. Indeed, this is
precisely why he is known as Al-Masih Al-Dajjal. The identification of
the “town” with Jerusalem is not far-fetched at all. There are several
ahadith which link Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj with Jerusalem (i.e., the State of
Israel). For example, the Prophet (SAW) said that when Ya’jooj and
Ma’jooj are released they will pass by the Sea of Galilee (which is in
Israel).9 Then there is a very long hadith in Sahih Muslim in which we
are told that Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj will seek to attack Prophet Jesus (AS)
in Jerusalem.
It should be noted that the Jordanian Israeli Peace Treaty
required Israel to supply Jordan with a certain amount of water on a
regular basis. Israel could only fulfill this treaty obligation by pumping
water from the Sea of Galilee. The water level in the Sea of Galilee has
now reached so low that further pumping of water would cause damage
to its capacity to store water. Consequently, Israel has been forced to
suspend its fulfillment of its treaty obligation concerning the supply of
water to Jordan. Israel has recently told Jordan that the latter’s share of
water will be reduced by 60% during the coming summer due to “low
rain fall.” In response, the Jordanian Foreign Minister has urged Israel to
fulfill its commitment and to carry out the signed agreement. The
countdown has begun!
The restoration of the State of Israel not only confirmed the
release of Dajjal and of Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj, but it also constituted a
veritable dagger plunged into the very heart of the Arab Muslim world.
This, in turn, fulfilled the ominous prophecy: “woe unto the Arabs.” We
may add, in passing, that the feminist revolution of the modern age (in
which night wants to become day) confirms that Dajjal is now in the last
stage of his mission.
I was pleasantly surprised to find this conclusion confirmed by
eminent Sufi Sheikhs. It is just possible that Iqbal came to the same
conclusion and this was one of the reasons why he called for attention to
be devoted to tafseer harf-e-yansiloon. After all, the Zionist Movement
was established in 1898, and the alliance between the Zionists and the
modern West was painfully revealed to Iqbal in the Balfour Declaration
of 1917.
Iqbal’s Epistemological Ambivalence and the End of History
The major actors in the last stage of history, viz., Ya’jooj and
Ma’jooj, Dajjal, Imam Al-Mahdi, and the return of Prophet Jesus (AS),
and the respective roles which they play, all combine to form an
integrated inseparable whole. It is beyond the scope of this article to
describe that whole, which requires another paper. That paper will
appropriately be entitled tafseer harf-e-yansiloon.
What is truly alarming is that despite Iqbal’s amazing and
accurate confirmation of the release of Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj, he rejected
belief in Dajjal, Imam Al-Mahdi and the return of Prophet Jesus (AS).
What possible explanation could there be for this truly unfortunate
situation? Also, how do we explain the surprising fact that apart for that
one couplet on Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj Iqbal is otherwise completely silent
on the subject?
My view is that if Iqbal were alive today, the unfolding events in
the world, and, in particular, in the Middle East, would have forced him
to change his views with respect to Mahdi, Dajjal, and the return of
Prophet Jesus (AS). Did he not himself say: Only stones do not change!
It was because the reality of Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj was established
by the Qur’an that there was no way that Iqbal could have dismissed the
subject. The corollary is that if Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj had not been
established in the Qur’an, and were dependent on the ahadith, they
would have suffered the same fate as belief in the advent of Imam Al-
Mahdi, Dajjal, and the return of Prophet Jesus (AS). When Iqbal turned
to the study of these subjects he appears to have experienced an
epistemological transformation. The spiritual or religious consciousness
was used to study the subject of Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj. The light of Allah
(SWT) illumined the path for a dazzling display of the intuitive embrace
of truth. On the other hand, it was the theoretic consciousness which was
used to study the other verities which were not established by the Qur’an.
I also suspect an impact of Iqbal’s philosophical training, as well as the
Western epistemology, on Iqbal’s theoretic consciousness, when he
directed attention to the verities of the last age which were located in the
ahadith. This appears to be a subject worthy of serious study by a
psychologist who is also capable of examining spiritual realities.
Endnotes
1. Iqbal, Dr. Muhammad., Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, ed.
by M. Saeed Shaikh (Lahore: Institute of Islamic Culture, 1986) p. 115
2. Iqbalnama, Vol. II, p. 231. Quoted in M. Saeed Sheikh, “Editor’s
Introduction” to Iqbal’s Reconstruction, op. cit., p. xi.
3. Iqbal, Dr. Muhammad., New Year’s Message, Broadcast from All India
Radio, Lahore, on January 1, 1938. Quoted in Syed Abdul Vahid, Thoughts
and Reflections of Iqbal (Lahore: Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, 1964) p. 373.
4. Iqbal, Reconstruction, op. cit., p. 6.
5. Kanz Al-Ummal, Vol. 7, Hadith No. 2157
6. Kanz Al-Ummal , Vol. 7, Hadith No. 3021
7. Sahih Bukhari, 4:567; 6:265; 8:537
8. Sahih Bukhari, 4:797; 9:181; 9:249
9. Kanz Al-Ummal, Vol 7, Hadith No. 3021
ANIL BHATTI
Iqbal and Goethe.

A Note
Vorblatt
Publikation
Erstpublikation: Yearbook of the Goethe Society of India, 1999-2000, S. 184-201.
Neupublikation in überarbeiteter Fassung.
Vorlage: Datei des Autors.
URL: <http://www.goethezeitportal.de/db/wiss/goethe/bhatti_iqbal.pdf>
Eingestellt am 31.01.2005.
Autor
Prof. Dr. Anil Bhatti
Centre of German Studies
School of Language, Literature & Cultural Studies
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi 110 067
Indien
Emailadresse: <bhatti@mail.jnu.ac.in>
Empfohlene Zitierweise
Beim Zitieren empfehlen wir hinter den Titel das Datum der Einstellung oder des letzten
Updates und nach der URL-Angabe das Datum Ihres letzten Besuchs dieser Online-Adresse
anzugeben: Anil Bhatti: Iqbal and Goethe. A Note (31.01.2005).
In: Goethezeitportal. URL: <http://www.goethezeitportal.de/db/wiss/goethe/bhatti_iqbal.pdf>
(Datum Ihres letzten Besuches). Anil Bhatti: Iqbal and Goethe, p. 1 1
ANIL BHATTI
Iqbal and Goethe.

A Note
In one of his Stray Reflections Mohammad Iqbal (1873-1938) remarks that compari-sons are
"odious". But, there are some which are not so and these are instructive as in the comparison of
Maulana Rumi and Nietzsche for, as Iqbal says, "in the history of literature and thought it is the
1
points of contact and departure which constitute centres of special interest." Iqbal touches upon
a basic problem of comparative literature in which we do not necessarily concentrate on the
justification of the comparison but rather pay attention to the plausibility of the comparison and
the historical trace it leaves. It may help here to consider Benjamin's use of Baudelaire's term
2
“correspon-dance” and its possible productivity for comparative literature. Of course in a
secularized version since we do not refer to the “correspondance” between a macro and a micro
world or to alchemy but to a situational “correspondance” between Goethe and Iqbal. The term
allows a flexible oscillation between the connotations of connection and transfer and
Entsprechung. And, by extension, also between message and reply. If no empirical evidence is
available to substantiate the "points of contact and departure" we usually resort to a typological
approach. But it may help to consider another insight of Benjamin. Speaking of “constellations”
Benjamin emphasizes that the historian must cease to think in terms of a nexus of causality
between different moments of history. He should rather comprehend the constellation between
3
his own epoch and an earlier one. By extension of this insight we can speak of the
"constellation" between Goethe and Iqbal with the advantage that we can base ourselves on the
numerous references to Goethe in Iqbal's work. It is important, however, to avoid the
unproductive term ‘influence’. Instead we could speak of effects (Wirkungen) as Benjamin
quoting Goethe does: "Alles was eine große Wirkung getan hat, kann eigentlich nicht mehr
4
beurteilt werden."
1 Stray Reflections. Allama Iqbal's Note-Book, Lahore 1992, Iqbal Academy Pakistan, p. 153.
Subsequently quoted in the text as SR and page number.
2 Walter Benjamin, Über einige Motive bei Baudelaire. In: Illuminationen. Ausgewählte
Schriften, Frankfurt a.M. 1980 (Suhrkamp), p. 216. Walter Benjamin, Anhang zu “Über den
Begriff der Geschichte", Illuminationen, op. cit., p. 261.
3 ibid.
4 ibid. Anil Bhatti: Iqbal and Goethe, p. 2 2
I
Iqbal's first published collection of poems Bang-e-Dara (1923) contains a tribute to Mirza Ghalib
with the lines:
"Ah tu ujadi hui Dilli menh aramidah hai
Gulshan-e-Weimar menh tera humnavah khwahbida hai" 5
(Alas, you lie buried in devastated Delhi,
while in the Garden of Weimar sleeps your compeer) 6
These lines, written probably before Iqbal’s visit to Europe in 1905 provide the key to the
constellation between two of the greatest icons in Urdu and German literature. They contain the
germ of Iqbal's poetic reflection on the situation of writing in a colonial context and his sense of
having inherited a history of loss. The devastated condition of Delhi and the garden of Weimar
symbolize the historic divide between Europe and India, which is a result of two different world
historical contexts.
Goethe was writing in a period of Europe’s intellectual appropriation of the East under
colonial expansion. Ghalib was writing at the end of the Mughal Empire in India. At the time of
Ghalib's death in 1869 the British were consolidating their colonial power after the Rebellion of
1857. Ghalib's grave becomes a sign of historical inequality and this also contains the germ of
Iqbal's notion of cosmic injustice; his shikwa or complaint against God. The melancholy which
is associated with loss of power is however only a passing moment in Iqbal's mood. It is
replaced by a sense of mission. Iqbal inherits a sense of history in which memories of past
Islamic glory are rudely confronted with what he considered as decadence and decline in the
East and the rise and expansion of the West.
One may find his celebration of military glory difficult to take today. The lit-erary historian
Muhammad Sadiq wonders how Iqbal's lines from his poem Shikwa “Whenever we marched
forth under our banner/ We dyed our cloaks in our foe's blood" would differ from "from the
7
jingoism of the British War Office or Kipling's ecstasies over British Imperialism". True, this
rhetoric is difficult to take but we must remember that Iqbal was primarily concerned with
jolting Muslims out of their torpor.
5 Kulliyat-i-Iqbal, Delhi, n.d., p. 12. The text should be available in any standard collection of
Iqbal’s Urdu poetry. The transliteration from Urdu is meant as help for understanding only and is
not scientific. I use the usual Indian conventions.
6 cf. Syed Nazir Niazi, Conversations with Iqbal, in: Mohammad Iqbal. Poet and Philosopher. A
Collection of Translations, Essays and other Articles. Presented by the Pakistan-German Forum,
Karachi, 1960, p. 112.
7 Muhammed Sadiq, A History of Urdu Literature, Delhi etc. 1984 (O.U.P.), p. 468. Anil Bhatti:
Iqbal and Goethe, p. 3 3
For this reason he rejected art for art's sake as "a clever invention of decadence to cheat us out of
life and power". The literature of Indian Muslims "has been chiefly the work of the period of
their national decadence". They are "now in search of a new literary ideal." (SR 145)
For Iqbal the important factor was that Europe succeeded in world domination and the Islamic
empires had to retreat from this position. Iqbal’s attitude reflects in many ways the attitude of
north Indian Muslims who, as Ravinder Kumar puts it, “sulked over the unkind fate which had
8
deprived them of their status as a ruling class …”. There is little space in Iqbal's construct to
reflect that Goethe and his generation had first to establish their creative efforts in an atmosphere
of critical indifference. Goethe's essay on "Literarischer Sansculottismus" is concerned with this
problem. Eighteenth century Germany was nowhere near having a public sphere comparable to
England and France and it was only towards the nineteenth Century that it could incorporate and
generate the ideology of being "das Land der Dichter und Denker", the country of poets and
thinkers.
II
In spite of his mode of complaint Iqbal displays a remarkably international perspec-tive while
delineating the literary constellations to which he is indebted. He writes in a one of his Stray
Reflections:
"I confess I owe a great deal to Hegel, Goethe, Mirza Ghalib, Mirza Abdul Qadir Be-dil and
Wordsworth. The first two led me into the "inside" of things; the third and fourth taught me how
to remain oriental in spirit and expression after having assimi-lated foreign ideals of poetry, and
the last saved me from atheism in my student days."(SR 61)
Iqbal refers frequently to Goethe in a manner suggesting the effect the German poet has
exercised.
"Our soul discovers itself when we come into contact with a great mind. It is not until I had
realized the infinitude of Goethe's imagination that I discovered the narrow breadth of my own."
(SR 25)
With reference to “Faust”, Iqbal remarks that Goethe "picked up an ordinary legend and filled it
with the whole experience of the nineteenth century - nay, the entire
8 Ravinder Kumar, Essays in the Social History of Modern India, Delhi etc. 1983 (O.U.P.), p.
174. Anil Bhatti: Iqbal and Goethe, p. 4 4
experience of the human race." This "transformation of an ordinary legend into a systematic
expression of man's ultimate ideal is nothing short of Divine workman-ship. It is as good as the
creation of a beautiful universe out of the chaos of formless matter." (SR 74)
Further, it is from Goethe "alone" that we get a "real insight into human na-ture". (SR 120) In
contrast to Shakespeare who as a "realist Englishman re-thinks the individual", Goethe as "the
idealist German "rethinks the universal". Indeed "Faust is a seeming individual only. In reality,
he is humanity individualized." (SR 122)
Of course these remarks are in the nature of being stray reflections. Their sig-nificance lies
primarily in the authorship of Iqbal and occasionally some of these remarks, as is not infrequent
in situations of contact, could equally be applied to Iqbal himself. They are self-revelatory. As,
for instance: "Nature was not decided what it should make of Plato and Goethe. Poet or
9
philosopher. (SR 113) Iqbal too was both.
Some of the remarks contain startling insights concerning the manner in which German
literary development can be perceived in terms of cultural comparison from outside: "No nation
was so fortunate as the Germans. They gave birth to Heine at the time when Goethe was in full-
throated ease. Two uninterrupted Springs!"(SR 126) Or, by extension: "Literary criticism does
not necessarily follow the creation of literature. We find Lessing at the very threshold of German
literature." (SR 126)
Iqbal's strategic use of Goethe in his texts is often surprising because the text could very easily
proceed without the authority of a quotation. Consider for instance Iqbal’s lecture on “The
Revelations of Religious Experience.” Iqbal speaks of the Creative Self to whom change cannot
mean imperfection. Perfection "consists in the vaster basis of His creative activity and the
infinite scope of His creative vision. God's life is self-revelation, not the pursuit of an ideal to be
reached. The 'not yet' of God means unfailing realization of the infinite creative possibilities of
His being which retains its wholeness throughout the entire process."
And then he quotes Goethe:
"In the endless self-repeating
For evermore flows the Same.
Myriad arches springing, meeting,
Hold at rest the mighty frame.
Streams from all things love of living,
Grandes star and humblest cold,
9 Occasionally one wonders whether his remark on Mazzini is not self-revelatory in this sense:
"The true sphere of Mazzini was literature, not politics. The gain of Italy is not much compared
to the loss which the world has suffered by his devotion to politics." (SR 64). Anil Bhatti: Iqbal
and Goethe, p. 5 5
All the straining, all the striving
Is eternal peace in God." 10
Iqbal goes on to write:
"Thus a comprehensive philosophical criticism of all the facts of experience on its ef-ficient as
well as appreciative side brings us to the conclusion that the ultimate Real-ity is a rationally
directed creative life. To interpret this life as an ego is not to fashion God after the image of man.
It is only to accept the simple fact of experience that life is not a formless fluid, but an
organizing principle of unity, a synthetic activity which holds together and focalizes the
dispersing dispositions of the living organism for a constructive purpose."11
The image of the stream in the quote corresponds to mystical usage. And the appellation
“Zindarud”, the living stream, which Iqbal adopts in his Jawid Nama (1932) is a reference to this
mystical metaphor. Such a "correspondance" derives its authority paradoxically from its
fortuitous placement in the logic of an argument. Other quotes from other traditions would no
doubt also have been available. The illustrative choice of Goethe is in itself a statement.
But, we must hasten to add, the constellation Iqbal-Goethe does not imply a permanent
symmetry of expression and attitude. In many ways Iqbal's positions on various matters differ
greatly from Goethe. For instance many of Iqbal's Indian middle class puritan views, for instance
on arts and amusements or women, would hardly be compatible with Goethe's writings and
12
portrayal of women figures. And Iqbal is not a poet one would immediately associate with
contemporaneity in the way Goethe as the author of Faust, Die Wahlverwandschaften, Wilhelm
Meister can in purely formal terms be. And, if exactitude and precision are signs of modernity,
Iqbal
10 Goethe's original text was written in 1827. This poem written five years before his death
reads in the original:
"Wenn im Unendlichen dasselbe
Sich wiederholend ewig fließt,
Das tausendfältige Gewölbe
Sich kräftig ineinander schließt,
Strömt Lebenslust aus allen Dingen,
Dem kleinsten wie dem größten Stern,
Und alles Drängen, alles Ringen
Ist ewige Ruh in Gott dem Herrn."
Quoted from: Goethe. Gedichte, hg. und kommentiert v. Erich Trunz, München 1974, p. 367.
11 Muhammed Iqbal, The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, New Delhi 1998
(Kitab Bhavan), p. 60f.
12 Cf. Annemarie Schimmel, Gabriel's Wing. A Study into the Religious Ideas of Sir
Mohammad Iqbal, Leiden 1963 (E.J. Brill), p.64; SR p. 78, p. 68 Anil Bhatti: Iqbal and Goethe,
p. 6 6
places himself on the outside with his remark "I like however an element of obscurity
and vagueness in poetry; since the vague and the obscure appear profound to the emotions." (SR
99) Again, as far as religion is concerned, the devout Iqbal would hardly have concurred with
Goethe's Spruch:
"Wer Wissenschaft und Kunst besitzt,
Hat auch Religion;
Wer jene beiden nicht besitzt,
Der habe Religion." 13
Important though the remarks and quotations, which link the two writers, may be, it is in Iqbal's
poetry that the significance of Goethe becomes evident. Consider Iqbal's early lyrical poem "Ek
Shaam" (An Evening) which is one of the creative products of his stay in Germany. Here the
echo of Goethe's Wanderers Nachtlied is clear. Annemarie Schimmel’s German translation
emphasizes this aesthetic similarity in the disposition of the two poems in the evocation of
stillness, rest and peace:
Ein Abend
(In Heidelberg, am Ufer des Neckars)
Stille ist des Mondlichts Traum,
Still ein jeder Zweig am Baum,
Stumm des Tales Sänger nun,
Stumm die grünen Hügel ruhn.
Die Natur, ganz unbewußt
Schlummert an des Abends Brust.
Schweigens Zauber wandelt nun
Neckars Rauschen selbst in Ruhn.
Zieht der stumme Zug der Sterne
Ohne Glockenklang zur Ferne,
Berg und Strom und Feld in Stille,
In sich ruht der ew’ge Wille.
mein Herz, sei still – auch du…
Laß den Gram – schlaf nun in Ruh.
Mumtaz Hasan’s English translation reads:
13 Trunz op. cit, p. 367.Trunz points out that Religion is both religion and religiosity. Just as
Frömmigkeit is also Kirchlichkeit. Trunz, op. cit., p. 681 Anil Bhatti: Iqbal and Goethe, p. 7 7
An Evening
(On the banks of the river Neckar/Heidelberg.)
Silent is the moonlight,
Silent the boughs of trees
Silent are the music makers of the valley,
And silent the green robed ones of the hills.
Creation is in a swoon
And asleep in the arms of the night.
The stillness has cast such a spell
That even the flow of the Neckar seems still.
The caravan of the stars moves on
In silence, without bells.
Silent are hill and forest and river;
Nature seems lost in contemplation.
Thou too, o heart, be still!
Hold thy grief to thy bosom, and sleep. 14
Compare this with Goethe well known lines:
Über allen Gipfeln
Ist Ruh,
In allen Wipfeln
Spürest Du
Kaum einen Hauch;
Die Vögelein schweigen im Walde.
Warte Nur, balde
Ruhest Du auch. 15
III
16
Hermann Hesse noted that Iqbal's entire work is an East-West Divan. Written under
colonialism, it bears a universal message clothed as a Message of the East, the Payam-i-Mashriq
(1923). And it is to the foreword to this work that we should now
14 Muhammed Iqbal, Botschaft des Ostens. Ausgewählte Werke, hg.v. Annemarie Schimmel,
Tübingen und Basel (Horst Erdmann), p. 68.
Mohammad Iqbal, Poet and Philosopher, A Collection of Translations, Essays and other Articles,
Presented by The Pakistan-German Forum, Karachi, n.d., p 122.
15 Trunz, op cit., p.142
16 Geleitwort; Muhammad Iqbal, Botschaft des Ostens. Ausgewählte Werke, hrsg. v. Annemarie
Schimmel, Tübingen und Basel, 1977 (Horst Erdmann), p. 7. Anil Bhatti: Iqbal and Goethe, p. 8
8
17
turn.
Iqbal's foreword occasionally disappoints because it is sketchy and it covers familiar
territory. But we must remember that Iqbal's strength did not lie in discursive literary criticism
and his foreword is based on his general “memory” of what he calls the "oriental movement” in
nineteenth century Germany. In his foreword to Payam-i-Mashriq Iqbal simply states that his
work “owes its inspiration" to Goethe's West-östlicher Divan. Goethe is the German
"Philosopher of Life” who in the words of Heine, the "Israelite" poet of Germany says:
"This is a bouquet presented by the West to the East as a token of high regard. The Diwan bears
testimony to the fact that the West, being dissatisfied with its own spiri-tual life, is turning to the
bosom of the East in spiritual warmth."18
Iqbal clearly stylizes himself as the representative of the East who talks on equal terms to
Goethe as the representative of West. The term “Philosopher of Life”, "Lebensphilosoph" would
apply to both. Iqbal refers to Herder's interest in the Orient and his interest in Sadi as against
Hafiz. Given Iqbal's own reservations concerning the undesirable influences of Hafiz and Sufism
on Islamic thought, this reference is not without its significance although Iqbal's own preference
is towards Rumi. Nevertheless Iqbal emphasises that Goethe's imagination was stirred by
Hammer-Purgstall's translation of Hafiz' Divan (1812). Iqbal draws a connection between what
he calls the "political decadence of the German people" which at that time had "reached its
lowest limit in every way", and Goethe's age (around sixty five years) and temperamental
unsuitability for political activity and the search of this "lofty and restless soul" for an
imaginative "refuge in the peaceful atmosphere of the East". In
17 Iqbal wrote the Payam-i-Mashriq in Persian. The problem Urdu / Persian is complex. Iqbal's
early Urdu poetry was criticised by 'traditionalists' because he did not hesitate to introduce
popular Punjabi idiom into his verse. Arguably this increased the innovative discourse in his
poetry which otherwise did not really attempt formal innovativeness. Would Urdu have been
strengthened if he had remained with it exclusively? He of course continued to write in Urdu
also. But his major works are in Persian. Apparently he required Persian for two reasons. Firstly,
according to him, it enabled him to express complex ideas, which Urdu did not. Urdu apparently
did not lend itself readily to philosophical discourse. There is a partial plausibility in this. A
heavily persianised and jargonised Urdu (similar to a heavily sanskritised Hindi) is a
cumbersome tool. Secondly, Persian also made communication beyond the Indian North-West
possible. It served as a Pan-Islamic lingua franca with readily available traditions. Persian was,
of course, still an "elite language" in Northern India during Iqbal’s times. c.f. Iqbal Singh, The
Ardent Pilgrim. An Introduction to the Life and Work of Mohammed Iqbal, Delhi etc. (O.U.P.), p
66.
18 The English translation is quoted from Mohammad Iqbal, Poet and Philosopher… op. cit, p.
6. Anil Bhatti: Iqbal and Goethe, p. 9 9
addition to the motive of 'flight' (Flucht), Iqbal explicitly draws the reader's attention to the
productive function of Hafiz' poetry on Goethe's creativity.
Iqbal draws our attention to Goethe's debt to Persian imagery, metaphors and as proof
perhaps of "his indebtedness to his Persian models he does not hesitate to refer even to
homosexual love." But Iqbal is quick to reject a superficial notion of influence, or imitation and
emphasizes the independence of Goethe's poetic genius, which "owes allegiance to none".
Goethe does not surrender his Western identity. His interest lies in the lyricism of Hafiz' poetry
and not in its mystical interpretations. In the language of the period Iqbal writes that "Goethe
with his Western Divan tried to instill the Persian spirit into German literature." Iqbal goes on to
refer to Platen and Rückert and Bodenstedt. Though, as Schimmel points out, he perhaps
overrates Bodenstedt, it may well have been historically correct to do so since, as Iqbal claims,
Bodenstedt’s Mirza Schaffy was a popular success and went through 140 editions.
Iqbal emphasizes that his brief sketch may "evoke some enthusiasm in a younger man for further
research." Then Iqbal comes to his own work, written as he notes a hundred years after the
Western Divan. Its "main object is to bring out those social, moral and religious truths which
have a bearing on the spiritual development of individuals and communities."
Though there is a similarity in the situation between the contemporary East and early 19th
century Germany, Iqbal, unlike Goethe, cannot seek refuge in the "sprit" of the 'Other'. It was not
just a question of Iqbal's rejection of the West, which was undoubtedly fundamental. The
problem lay in the globality of the crisis and therefore the kind of cultural mimesis practiced by
Goethe in his appropriation of Hafiz and the Orient was historically not possible for Iqbal.
Iqbal's route lay through revival and not through extension of contacts. For him the "inner
turmoil which the nations of the world are going through today, and which we are unable to
regard objectively inasmuch as we ourselves are affected by it, is the fore-runner of a social and
spiritual revolution of very great magnitude."
"Nature" is the agency, which is responsible for the construction of a new humanity and a new
world order out of the universal catastrophe of the First World War. The catastrophe was a
consequence of the "scientific, moral and economic pursuits" of Europe. Glimpses of this new
world are seen in the works of Einstein and Bergson, but in general European statesmen do not
see it. "From the purely literary point of view, the weakening of the life potentialities of Europe
after the painful happenings of the World War is detrimental to the development of a sound and
mature literary ideal."
As against the decadence of the West, America, "unfettered by the traditions Anil Bhatti: Iqbal
and Goethe, p. 10 10
of the past" can adjust to the New more easily. But the main point is that the East, and more
particularly, the Muslim East has woken up after centuries of slumber. This is Iqbal's
construction. This involves a revolution, but one, which starts for Iqbal with the primacy of,
change in the inner self.
"The Eastern people have, however, realized that life cannot effect a revolution in its
environment before it has had, in the first instance, a revolution in the inner depths of its being,
nor can a new world assume external form until its existence takes shape in the hearts of men.
That immutable law of the Universe, which the Quran has enunci-ated in the simple but
comprehensive verse:
'God does not change the destiny of people unless they change themselves',
holds good for the individual as well as the collective aspects of life."
Iqbal looks upon this as a transnational outlook fostering a "sound and strong sense of
humanity", deserving respect. Goethe’s "flight" to the Orient of Hafiz was possible because the
Orient of the European Imagination was a dormant discoverable Other. A similar attitude
towards the West is historically not possible for Iqbal. Though Goethe and Iqbal were both
witnessing a situation of historical crisis, their options had to be different. Anything else for
Iqbal would have been cultural epigonality. Iqbal could not have a symmetrical form of
appropriation of the West comparable to Goethe’s appropriation of the Orient because the
colonial situation prevents this. Iqbal is the “Spätgeborene” and he consciously writes as such.
But, Iqbal could not answer Goethe’s Orientalism by generating a reverse-Orienatalism or
Occidentalism.In other words, Iqbal could not repeat Goethe's unique mimetic act because this
19
would have become mere imitation. And imitation is not mimesis. He, thus, writes a reply of
the discovered to whom colonial discovery itself is closed by history. While doing so he also
articulates a sense of crisis, which is countered by a transnational perspective.
Iqbal explicitly states on the cover page of his Poem that the Payam-i-Mashriq is written in
response to Goethe’s Divan. And Iqbal retains the Qur'an verse "to God belongs East and West"
20
which was Goethe's source for the corresponding verse in the West- Östlicher Divan.
“Gottes ist der Orient!
19 I would agree with Prof. Vahiduddin that as far as poetry is concerned "there is more of Hafiz
in Goethe than there is of Goethe in Iqbal." (S. Vahiddudin, Goethe, Hafiz and Iqbal. In: Indo-
Iranian Studies, ed. Fathullal Mujtabi, New Delhi 1977 ( Indo-Iran Society), pp. 175-186; p. 185.
20 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Sämtliche Werke, Bd.3. Zürich, München, 1977 (Artemis,
dtv), p. 290. Anil Bhatti: Iqbal and Goethe, p. 11 11
Gottes ist der Okzident!
Nord- und südliches Gelände
Ruht im Frieden seiner Hände.”
The Payam also contains a translation of Goethe's Mahomets Gesang, and a reply to the
Goethe’s Divan poem Einlass with its treatment of the theme of the Huri and the Poet.
But the two poems in which Goethe, the Poet, is explicitly addressed or re-ferred to are
perhaps the most revealing. The Payam-i-Mashriq is dedicated to His Majesty Amanullah Khan,
ruler of Afghanistan. The poem of dedication contains a tribute to Goethe and a self-justification.
In these poetic lines Iqbal refers to Goethe the thinker, the cultural icon and in some sense also
the European Other. Iqbal continues a tradition of looking upon Goethe in the context of
‘wisdom’. He simultaneously reinforces a dichotomisation between West and East in order to
create a situation where his poem becomes a reply, a message returned to a salutation offered.
Goethe is the “sage of the West”, the German poet
“Who lost his heart to the winning ways of Iran
Who painted a picture full of the beauty of sweethearts young and saucy
And sent salutations of the West to the East:
The message of the East is my response to his greeting.” 21
The rhetoric of response demands that the actors in this cross-cultural encounter should be
identified and situated with corresponding attributes:
“He was one of Europe’s youthful ones, with the quality of lightning;
While my love-flame is born of the breath of the wise men of the East.
He was born and nurtured in a garden,
While I sprang from barren soil.
His melody was a paradise to the ear, as the song of the nightingale in the garden,
While I am like caravan bells ringing tumultuously in the desert.
The mysteries of the Universe have been revealed to both,
Both are messengers of life in death.
Both are like daggers, bright as the mirror and smiling as the dawn.
He is unsheathed, but I am yet in the scabbard.
Both are pearls of great price and lustre,
Born of the shoreless sea.
His insistent urge made him restless in the depths of the ocean
Till he burst forth from his shell;
While I am still striving in my shell’s confines,
21 Translation by Mumtaz Hasan. In: Mohammed Iqbal, Poet and Philosopher… op. cit, p. 21f.
Anil Bhatti: Iqbal and Goethe, p. 12 12
Undiscovered yet in the ocean’s abyss.”
The sense of possessing an accomplishment yet to be realized - the image of the dagger which is
yet in its scabbard -as a riposte to the salutation of the Western poet allows Iqbal to stage his
Eastern Divan as both a reply and a corrective to the Western Divan of Goethe. But, in order that
the reply should measure up to the challenge of the salutation Iqbal has to develop a different
rhetoric of poetry. One, which will not be understood by his contemporaries:
“He who was my friend knew me not and went away
With an empty goblet from my wine cellar.
I offer him the grandeur of the Chosroes
And would place the throne of Cyrus under his feet.
But he asks of me love stories
And the glitter of poetic phrases.
The undiscerning one knew not the restlessness that fills my soul.
He saw my outer being but not the inner one.”
It is part of Iqbal’s construction to view his ambitious endeavor as a creative act, which will not
be understood in the context of the traditional expectations, which the reader has from poetry.
His poem, after all, is going to traverse a wide historical and cultural range in the field between
West and East. Therefore it will also not be understood, at least not immediately.
“My soul took love to its bosom
And accomplished a union of straw and fire.
God revealed to me the secrets of the faith and of worldly power,
And effaced all trace of godlessness from my view.
My thought fills the rose petal with colour.
Every line I write is a drop of my own blood.
Lest thou hold poetry to be madness,
Know that the perfection of madness is the fullness of wisdom.
I am made rich with talent,
But in the land of Ind I am disgraced.
The luckless rose and tulip hear not my song;
I, a song-bird, am a stranger in my own rose-garden.
Since fate must favour the ignoble and the base,
Woe to the man who is a man of merit!” Anil Bhatti: Iqbal and Goethe, p. 13 13
IV
Iqbal’s poem “Jalal-o-Goethe” from the Payam-i-Mashriq is, however, perhaps the greatest
tribute written by Iqbal to Goethe. Jalal-ud-din Rumi represented the quintessence of Islamic
mysticism for Iqbal who generally did not refrain from criticising Hafiz for the latter’s alleged
waywardness. Rumi and not Hafiz should have been Goethe’s guide to the Orient, so one
imagines, Iqbal felt. In the Urdu footnote to this Persian poem Iqbal writes: “In this drama (i.e.
Faust) the poet (i.e. Goethe) speaks of the progressive potentialities of human development and,
for this purpose has used the old legend of the Philosophers covenant with the Devil with such
consummate art that it is impossible to imagine anything more perfect.”
Iqbal makes Rumi say as much in the poem after Goethe has read out Faust to the great
Eastern Mystic:
“Portrayer of the inmost soul
Of poetry, whose efforts goal
Is capturing the seraphim
And God himself, yes even Him,
Your thought, consorting with your heart,
Remade the world by means of art.
O you have seen the spirit’s frame
Ablaze in its corporeal frame,
And you from observation know
How in their shells pearls form and grow
All this you know, but there is more.
Not all can learn love’s secret lore,
Not all can enter its high shrine
One only knows by grace divine
That wisdom is the Devil’s own,
While Love belongs to man alone.” 22
Iqbal’s stray remarks on Goethe and the echoes of Goethe in his poetry are character-istic of his
cosmopolitan relationship to European and Indo-Persian writing. This was his constellation. He
derived himself consciously from the Indo-Persian Islamic heritage and contextualised it in
terms of lines of alignment with the European literature available to him through colonialism.
What is remarkable is that this takes
22 Translation by M. Hadi Hussain; From: Goethe and Iqbal; A tribute to Johann Wolfgang
Goethe on his 250th Birth Anniversary. Pakistan-German Friendship Society, Lahore n.d. Anil
Bhatti: Iqbal and Goethe, p. 14 14
place without dichotomizing between the two heritages available to him. Instead, as we have
mentioned above, he develops a mode of complaint, a sense of loss and melancholy attributable
to the loss of that political power which historically had characterized the past of Islamic history.
It is by returning to the original purity of Islam that Iqbal, as it were, tries to reestablishes a kind
of world historical parity between the European and Islamic traditions. This leads to rhetoric of
23
recovery of the original purity of Islam. But the Islam, which becomes an origin for him is
distinct from syncretic forms of religious expression on the Indian Sub-continent such as Sufism.
Iqbal’s poetry written in reflection on Goethe and other European writers articulates this
consciousness.
Select Bibliography
Schimmel, Annemarie, Gabriel's Wing. A study into the Religious Ideas of Sir Muhammed Iqbal,
Leiden 1963 (E. J. Brill).
Schimmel, Annemarie, Iqbal and Goethe. In: Iqbal. Essays and Studies, ed. Asloob Ahmed
Ansari, New Delhi 1978 (Ghalib Academy), pp.271-284.
Vahid, Syed Abdul, Iqbal. His Art and Thought, London 1959 (John Murray).
Vahiduddin, Iqbal aur Maghribi Fikr, Iqbal Institute, University of Srinagar, 1981.
Iqbal, Javid-Nama, trsl. by A.J. Arberry, London 1966 (George Allen & Unwin).
Vahid, Syed Abdul, Glimpses of Iqbal, Karachi 1974 (Iqbal Academy Pakistan).
Malik, G.R., Goethe's Faust and Iqbal. In: Iqbaliyat, 6, Srinagar 1991 (Iqbal Institute, University
of Kashmir)
Iqbal aur Maghrib, ed. by A.A. Suroor, Srinagar 1981 (Iqbal Institute, University of Srinagar).
Singh, Iqbal, The Ardent Pilgrim. An Introduction to the Life and Work of Mohammed Iqbal,
Delhi 1997 (O.U.P.).
Iqbal. A Selection of the Urdu Verse. Text and Translation. D.J. Matthews, New Delhi 1993
(Heritage Publishers).
Rastogi, Tara Charan, Western Influence in Iqbal, New Delhi 1987 (Ashish Publishing House).
ACTIVITY, RESEARCH AND ORIGINALITY:

Iqbal not only reminded the Muslims their glorious past but also showed them the way what how
their fore-fathers achieved that position and dignity. He told the Muslims that they should get
and aspire for such education through which they may compete other nations of the world. He
stressed the point that they should not remain passive but should actively participate in different
constructive activities so as to make their individuality sound and their nation strong.
Activity:
Great emphasis is laid on activity, because everything in this world is active one way or the
other. He went so far regarding his philosophy of action that this world, paradise and even the
hell are all related to action and movement. The man by his nature is neither like light or angels
nor like fire or devils, but the actions and deeds respective to their nature make man so:
Action makes the life either paradise or hell

The man in itself is neither light nor fire. (2pp:213,214)
Iqbal advise the Muslim youth to work continuously and to put efforts endlessly, because if they
do so they may leave their glorious prints permanently on the world history. The necessary
condition for such a progress is constant efforts, struggle to improve, a desire for learning more,
actions and movements. Iqbal was aware of the fact that the Muslims in general and the youth in
particular has shunned away action and struggle and gave them advice that they should become
practical and should leave their passivity:
May God confront thee with a stormy situation?
For ye lack struggle and action in your life.
(P.82 Zarb-I-Kalim)
He advises the Muslim youth thaw only studying and memorizing literature and philosophy is
not to be the aim of education but equal and greater importance should be given to technical and
practical knowledge.
O unaware youth, literature and philosophy is nothing to be aspired for,

But action and struggle are necessary conditions for technical knowledge.
Creative education:-
Education, according to Iqbal, should be primarily a dynamic and creative education directed to
the releasing and nurturing of the creative spirit in man and equipping him with the desire and
capacity to conquer new realms of art and science, knowledge and power and education inspired
by an optimistic faith in the destiny of man. It means that if anyone of these branches of
knowledge is acquired, it will serve man’s purposes. There is no other way to be adopted for
man’s development.
In different branches of knowledge, science will naturally occupy a prominent place in it, so that
man may not only gain sovereignty over nature but also control the scientific method through
which he may explore and consciously reconstruct his world.
About creativity, Iqbal says that the world is not something to be seen or know through concepts
and ideas only it should be a world which is to be made and remade through continuous action
and struggle. He admonishes the young men of his country who have put themselves to
resignation and indifference.
Life is but death when it loses the zest for struggle. (9p:33.)
Through continuous action and struggle the Western nations have reached the zenith of glory and
have made their name in the world history. The Muslim nations following suit can also attain the
same position and even surpass the Western countries. Education should not be an education
which passive listener or receiver of knowledge but it is to be an education which make and
inspire students for action. It will be an education which should equip the students for a life of
action, not one that would favor passive contemplation like the education that developed in
many Eastern countries under the influence of some from of pseudo – mysticism and of political
decadence. Contemplation is not desirable because it paralysis the power of action instead of
whetting it which only makes one escape form realities of life.
Individuality which is the objective of education and which can realize itself but only in the
strenuous life of action. The acquisition of passive knowledge is wholly repugnant to the spirit of
Islamic education. In Islam no passivity is welcomed because it makes one dead.
The final act for the development of individuality is not an intellectual act but a vital act which
deepens the whole being of ego and sharpens his will with the creative assurance that the world
is not something to be merely seen or known through concepts but something to be made and
remade by continuous action. (p.178,”Lectures”)
From the ethical and psychological point of view, the greater importance of action or the deed
lies in the fact that while “a wrong concept misleads the understanding, a wrong deed degrades
the man and may eventually demolish the structure of the human ego. Concepts which are part
of human personality affect life partially; it is the deed or action which is dynamically related to
reality.
In this active interplay of his powers including forces around him of his environment, in this
process of ceaseless and never ending reconstruction, man is constantly mounding and enriching
his own individuality.
Iqbal assents that the Muslim youth should not follow Western culture and civilization but
instead should make their own efforts to achieve success and greatness. He says.
Look into thy own clay for the fire that is lacking
The light of another is not worth striving for. (P: 188 Payam-I-Mashriq)
He saw in the prevailing conditions of the East and in India in particular, that the slavish
imitation of the West has warped the development of Eastern peoples and has also repressed
their creativity.
Iqbal brings the attention of Muslims towards a serious problem and has drawn a vivid and
hauntingly truthful picture of how our youth has become denationalized through an education
which neither strengthens those individuality nor stimulate their originality. He then scathingly
criticizes those who, without appreciating the true values of Western culture seek to approximate
to it by copying its external trappings. It is obvious from his philosophy that he does not narrow
– mindedly reject the valuable contributions of the West (in research).
He readily welcomes their spirit of research, their sciences, their strenuous striving to gain
control of their environment. No doubt he repudiates the merely superficial and sensational
aspects of their civilization because they tend to weaken our self-respect and give us an entirely
false sense of being modern and progressive. (8pp:20, 21)
He believes that a free environment can develop the latent powers of an individual. He further
says that life cannot unfold all its possibilities, nor can the individual develop his latent powers,
except in an atmosphere of freedom which would allow for experimentation with the
environment, for the exercise of choice and discrimination in the use of methods and materials
and for learning by direct, personal, first hand experience.
Iqbal wished that our educational system and school be such that may bring up free, daring and
creative individuals:
Enclosed, life is reduce to a small rivulet

Free, it is like a boundless ocean.
He further makes the significant point that the development of creativity which is the highest
attribute of man and links him with God, and originality, which is a condition precedent for all
progressive change, also postulate freedom. Deprived of such freedom, man becomes a slave
whom Iqbal characterizes in happy inspiration, as one incapable of original, creative activity.
The environment of man is constantly changing and growing as a result of his own creative
activity, it is imperative, in the modern age, to lay special stress on the awakening and
cultivation of intelligence. Without it, it would be impossible for him to live a full and adequate
life in this complex and challenging environment. He shows a keen awareness of the role of
experimentally acquired knowledge in modern life.
Trial an error are very necessary factors for the attainment of knowledge and through fearless
exploration into realms of thought, we can make our original and valuable contribution to the
enrichment of knowledge and consequently, of life.
When freedom of thought and originality of action is quickened in individuals and groups, it
brings great triumphs in its wake:
What is originality of thought and action?
An urge to revolution!
What is originality of thought and action?
A renaissance of national life!
It is the source of life’s miracles,
Transforming granite into the purest of pearls. (P: 202; Bal-I-jibril).
“The movement of life, according to Iqbal, is determined by ends, and the presence of ends
means that it is permeated by intelligence. Thus ends and purposes, whether they exist
consciously or unconsciously, form the warp and woof of our conscious existence”.
Experimentalist on this point say, that man living in a world that is a mixture of the regular and
the changing, of the fixed and the uncertain, of the stable and the precarious. In short man lives
in a world, in which the character of experience is such that intelligent, purposeful activity is
demanded if he is to achieve a satisfying experience, and it is done through a purposeful activity.
(P: 8; Child’s Education and the Philosophy of Experimentalism). (8pp:28, 29)
He does not minimize the value and importance of action in the eyes of many Eastern thinkers.
Like Bergson, he believes that the intellect has been evolved in, and for the service of action and
its role is that of hand maiden in the achievement of life’s purpose. “We do not live in order to
think, we think in order to live.”
He explains this point thus.
Science is an instrument for the preservation of life.

Science is a mean of established the self.
Science and art are servants of life
Slaves born and bred in its house. (pp.17, 18; Asrar-I-Khudi).
If knowledge is not related to and acquired through action, it cannot be transformed into power
and man can not use it for the reconstruction of his environment.
Iqbal goes so far in his concept about the creative powers of man that he puts all his trust in man
in whom it sees the holders of infinite possibilities, capable of changing the world and even of
changing himself, because man is essentially a creator.
Iqbal sees in him a kind of demiurge, a rather disquieting rival for God:
God created the world, man made it even more fair,

Is man destined to become the rival of God? (6p:26.)
God created this world very beautiful but man is so impatient that he wanted it to be more
beautiful and splendid and it proves him to be a creative being.
Creativity is bound up with man and his inner powers and zest for nourishing it. Man would not
have become so glorious if he would have lacked his creativity and a desire for novelty.
Life consists in an incessant struggle between ego and its environment. The ego invades
the environment and the environment invades the ego. If matter were only an illusion, how
would struggle be possible? One does not fight with a phantom. The idea behind this assumption
is that man lives in the real would but not in the ideal one. And it is an obligation on man that he
has to strive in this world of matter. The old conception inherited from Aristotle considered the
world as a fixed product incapable of development, situated in a void called space. Einstein has
demonstrated the falsity of his theory and Iqbal proves to be in complete agreement with him
without deviating in any manner from the way dictated by the Quran.
The universe is not, for Iqbal, a finished product, immutable, created once for all, it is reality in
progress.
We are to compare Iqbal and the great Sufi poet Rumi and find a parallelism in their thought.
The most remarkable characteristic of Rumi’s thought is that he is the greatest upholder of
activism and ceaseless endeavors. He condemns the quietism that one usually associates with
Sufi doctrines in strong terms and preaches a life of dynamic activity.
He asserts:
Even a ceaseless activity is better than passivity.
What a refutation of the quietism that one usually associates with Sufism. Iqbal agrees
with Rumi in this completely. According to both, God is the most active being who loves
activity. Everyday he is busy with something new.
According to both life is action not contemplation. Both opine that love stands for the principle
of dynamic activity, a prima urge to live, and not merely to live but so to live as to enrich,
increase, improve and advance life.
All that is best in science, art and religion comes from love. Love or faith not only releases
creative energy, it also illuminates the path of future action. Comparing Iqbal with Bergson, we
find that for the later the creative force is a mere blind will. He is of the view that what man does
or what progress does he make, is doing blindly and unknowingly. He says that man lacks
creativity.
Iqbal regards creative will as essentially of the nature of thought and intelligence and not a
blind and whimsical force as Bergson will have. Iqbal and Nietzsche differ on many points but
both agree on one issue and that is their conception of hardness and will-to-power. It is the
hardness that man overpowers and his ability of will-to power with which he seeks new world
and conquers realms of knowledge and science. (10 p: 120)
To sum up his conception of man with which we have started man as an active agent, a doer, a
shaper of purpose who is not only engaged in the reconstruction of his world but also in the far
more significant experiment of creatively unfolding and perfecting his own individuality. This
provides the justification for reaffirmation of our faith in methods of education which stimulates
self activity and stimulates the will to courageous effort on behalf of great causes.
Education can play a pivotal role in shaping and re-shaping the destiny of man and his
future. Through education only, man can achieve his goals and can become a perfect being. He
should be provided with such education as to impart to him those skills and habits with which he
may succeed and may have a better and bright future.
BIBLOGRAPHY
1. Abdul Sattar J. Parach, Murtaza S.A. Jafari, Shams Uddin M. Siddique.

Oct. 1977. Khayaban-i-Dana-i-Raz (u) Shaheen Barqi Press Peshawar (Pakistan).
2. Afridi A.K Ghaffar S.A Apr. 1999. History of education Ijaz Printers Peshawar
(Pakistan).
3. Ahmad M. Siddique 1965. Iqbal’s Educational Ideas (u) Javid Press Karachi
(Pakistan).
4. Bakhtayar H. Siddique. 1983. Iqbal as an Educational Thinker (u) Himayat Islam
Press Lahore (Pakistan).
5. Hamid Mohammad. Iqbal the poet Philosopher of fifteen century Hijrah. M.
Ashraf Imprint Offset Printers Lahore (Pakistan).
6. Miatre. L.C. Introduction to the thought of Iqbal
7. Rabbani M. Ikram. 199. Pakistan Affairs, the Caravan Press Darbar Market. Lahore
(Pakistan).
8. Saiydain K.G.1999. Iqbal’s Educational philosophy, Tufail Art Printers Lahore
(Pakistan).
9. Stepanyants Aug.1972. Pakistan Philosophy and Sociology” Siddiq printers Pachall
Printers Lahore (Pakistan).
Vahid, S.A. Feb. 1967. Studies in Iqbal Ashraf, Press Lahore (Pakistan).
Retrieved from "http://www.articlesbase.com/k-12-education-articles/iqbal-the-educationist-

511634.html"
Iqbal, Muhammad
Sir Muhammad Iqbāl (Urdu: ‫محمد‬ ‫( )اقبال‬November 9, 1877 –

April 21, 1938) was an Indian Muslim poet, philosopher
and politician, whose poetry in Persian and Urdu is
regarded as among the greatest in modern times.[1] Also
famous for his work on religious and political philosophy in
Islam, he is credited with first proposing the idea of an
independent state for Indian Muslims, which would
inspire the creation of Pakistan. He is commonly referred to as
Allama Iqbal (Urdu:‫)علمہ اقبال‬, where Allama means
Scholar.
After studying in England and Germany, Iqbal established a law practice, but he primarily
concentrated on religious and philosophical subjects, writing scholarly works on politics,
economics, history, philosophy and religion. He is best known for his poetic works, which
include the Tarana-e-Hind (Song of India), Asrar-e-Khudi (Secrets of Self), in honor of which he
was knighted by George V, Rumuz-i-Bekhudi (Secrets of Selflessness), and the Bang-i-Dara
(Caravan Bells). Iqbal was also the author of many political, philosophical and historical
commentaries. He is known as Iqbal-e-Lahori (Persian: ‫)اقبال لوهوری‬, (Iqbal of Lahore) in
Afghanistan and Iran where he is highly praised for his Persian works.
Iqbal was a strong proponent of the political and spiritual revival of Islamic civilization across
the world, but specifically in India; a series of famous lectures he delivered to this effect were
published as The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam. One of the most prominent
leaders of the All India Muslim League, Iqbal encouraged the creation of a "state in northwestern
India for Indian Muslims" in his 1930 presidential address.[2] Iqbal encouraged and worked
closely with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and he is known as Muffakir-e-Pakistan ("The Thinker of
Pakistan"), Shair-i-Mashriq ("The Poet of the East"), and Hakeem-ul-Ummat ("The Sage of
Ummah"). He is officially recognised as the "national poet" in Pakistan. The anniversary of his
birth (Yom-e-Viladat-e-Muhammed Iqbal, ‫ )یوم ولتدت محمد اقبال‬on November 9 is a holiday in
Pakistan. His dynamic interpretation of Islam posited that no generation should be bound by the
interpretations of previous generations but should be free to solve their own problems. Above
all, he wanted humanity to partner God in God's continuing work of creation so that God might
actually 'rest' from the 'toil and weariness of Godhood' [3].
Contents
[hide]
 1 Early life
 2 Literary career
o 2.1 Works in Persian
o 2.2 Works in Urdu
 3 Political career
o 3.1 Revival of Islamic polity
o 3.2 Relationship with Jinnah
 4 Death
 5 Criticism
 6 Notes
 7 References
 8 External links
 9 Credits
Early life
Sheikh Muhammad Iqbal was born in Sialkot, Punjab (British India - now part of Pakistan); the
eldest of five siblings in a Kashmiri family. It is believed that Iqbal's family were originally
Hindu Brahmins, but became Muslim following his ancestor Sahaj Ram Sapru's conversion to
Islam, although this version is disputed by some scholars.[4][5] Iqbal's father Shaikh Nur
Muhammad was a prosperous tailor, well-known for his devotion to Islam, and the family raised
their children with deep religious grounding.
Muhammad Iqbal in 1899
As a boy, Iqbal was educated initially by tutors in languages and writing, history, poetry and
religion. His potential as a poet and writer was recognized by one of his tutors, Sayyid Mir
Hassan, and Iqbal would continue to study under him at the Scotch Mission College in Sialkot.
The student became proficient in several languages and the skill of writing prose and poetry, and
graduated in 1892. Following custom, at the age of 15 Iqbal's family arranged for him to be
married to Karim Bibi, the daughter of an affluent Gujarati physician. The couple had two
children: a daughter, Mi'raj Begam (born 1895) and a son, Aftab (born 1899). Iqbal's third son
died soon after birth. The husband and wife were unhappy in their marriage and eventually
divorced in 1916.
Iqbal entered the Government College in Lahore where he studied philosophy, English literature
and Arabic, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree, graduating cum laude. He won a gold medal for
topping his examination in philosophy. While studying for his Masters degree, Iqbal came under
the wing of Sir Thomas Arnold, a scholar of Islam and modern philosophy at the college. Arnold
exposed the young man to Western culture and ideas, and served as a bridge for Iqbal between
the ideas of East and West. Iqbal was appointed to a readership in Arabic at the Oriental College
in Lahore, publishing his first book in Urdu, The Knowledge of Economics in 1903. In 1905
Iqbal published the patriotic song, Tarana-e-Hind (Song of India).
At Sir Thomas's encouragement, Iqbal traveled to and spend many years studying in Europe. He
obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Trinity College at Cambridge in 1907, while
simultaneously studying law at Lincoln's Inn, from where he qualified as a barrister in 1908.
Iqbal also met a Muslim student, Atiyah Faizi in 1907, and had a close relationship with her. In
Europe, he started writing his poetry in Persian as well. Throughout his life, Iqbal would prefer
writing in Persian as he believed it allowed him to fully express philosophical concepts,and it
gave him a wider audience.[1] It was while in England that he first participated in politics.
Following the formation of the All-India Muslim League in 1906, Iqbal was elected to the
executive committee of its British chapter in 1908. Together with two other politicians, Syed
Hassan Bilgrami and Syed Ameer Ali, Iqbal sat on the subcommittee which drafted the
constitution of the League. In 1907, Iqbal traveled to Germany to pursue a doctorate from the
Faculty of Philosophy of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität at Munich. Working under the
supervision of Friedrich Hommel, Iqbal published a thesis titled: The Development of
Metaphysics in Persia.[6]
Literary career
Muhammad Iqbal, in London 1908
Upon his return to India in 1908, Iqbal took up assistant professorship at the Government
College in Lahore, but for financial reasons he relinquished it within a year to practice law.
During this period, Iqbal's personal life was in turmoil. He divorced Karim Bibi in 1916, but
provided financial support to her and their children for the rest of his life.
While maintaining his legal practice, Iqbal began concentrating on spiritual and religious
subjects, and publishing poetry and literary works. He became active in the Anjuman-i-Himayat-
i-Islam, a congress of Muslim intellectuals, writers and poets as well as politicians, and in 1919
became the general secretary of the organization. Iqbal's thoughts in his work primarily focused
on the spiritual direction and development of human society, centered around experiences from
his travel and stay in Western Europe and the Middle East. He was profoundly influenced by
Western philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Henri Bergson and Goethe, and soon became
a strong critic of Western society's separation of religion from state and what he perceived as its
obsession with materialist pursuits. He was especially influenced by Alfred North Whitehead,
whom he frequently cited, adapting his process thought to interpret Islam in dynamic terms and
to describe Muslims as always progressing towards 'ever-fresh illuminations from an Infinite
Reality' that 'every moment appears in new glory' (1930: 123). Muslims, said Iqbal, are destined
to become 'co-workers with God' provided that they 'take the initiative' within the eternal
"process of progressive change" (1930: 12).
The poetry and philosophy of Mawlana Rumi bore the deepest influence on Iqbal's mind. Deeply
grounded in religion since childhood, Iqbal would begin intensely concentrating on the study of
Islam, the culture and history of Islamic civilization and its political future, and embrace Rumi
as "his guide." Iqbal would feature Rumi in the role of a guide in many of his poems, and his
works focused on reminding his readers of the past glories of Islamic civilization, promoting a
pure, spiritual focus on Islam as a source for socio-political liberation and greatness. Iqbal
denounced political divisions within and among Muslim nations, frequently alluding to the
global Muslim community, or the Ummah.[7]
Works in Persian
Iqbal's poetic works are written mostly in Persian rather than Urdu. In 1915, he published his
first collection of poetry, the Asrar-i-Khudi (Secrets of the Self) in Persian. The poems delve into
concepts of ego and emphasize the spirit and self from a religious, spiritual perspective. Many
critics have called this Iqbal's finest poetic work.[8] In Asrar-i Khudi, Iqbal explains his
philosophy of "Khudi," or "Self," arguing that the whole universe obeys the will of the "Self."
Iqbal condemns self-destruction. For him the aim of life is self-realization and self-knowledge.
He charts the stages through which the "Self" has to pass before finally arriving at its point of
perfection, enabling the knower of the "Self" to become the viceregent of Allah.[7]
Muhammad Iqbal, with his son Javid Iqbal 1929
In his Rumuz-i Bekhudi (Hints of Selflessness), Iqbal seeks to prove that the Islamic way of life
is the best code of conduct for a nation's viability. While not refuting his earlier belief that a
person must keep his individual characteristics intact, he nonetheless adds that once this is
achieved he should sacrifice his personal ambitions for the needs of the nation. Man cannot
realize the "Self" apart from society. Also in Persian and published in 1917, this group of poems
has as its main themes the ideal community, Islamic ethical and social principles, and the
relationship between the individual and society. Although he is true throughout to Islam, Iqbal
recognizes also the positive analogous aspects of other religions. The Rumuz-i-Bekhudi
complements the emphasis on the self in the Asrar-i-Khudi and the two collections are often put
in the same volume under the title Asrar-i-Rumuz (Hinting Secrets), addressed to the world's
Muslims. Iqbal sees the individual and his community as reflections of each other. The
individual needs to be strengthened before he can be integrated into the community, whose
development in turn depends on the preservation of the communal ego. It is through contact with
others that an ego learns to accept the limitations of its own freedom and the meaning of love.
Muslim communities must ensure order in life and must therefore preserve their communal
tradition. It is in this context that Iqbal sees the vital role of women, who as mothers are directly
responsible for inculcating values in their children.
Iqbal's 1924 publication, the Payam-i Mashriq (The Message Of The East) is closely connected
to the West-östlicher Diwan by the famous German poet Goethe. Goethe bemoaned that the West
had become too materialistic in outlook and expected that the East would provide a message of
hope that would resuscitate spiritual values. Iqbal styles his work as a reminder to the West of
the importance of morality, religion and civilization by underlining the need for cultivating
feeling, ardor and dynamism. He believed that an individual could never aspire to higher
dimensions unless he learns of the nature of spirituality.[7] An admirer of the liberal movements
of Afghanistan against the British Empire, he made his first visit, presenting his book "Payam-e
Mashreq" to King Amanullah Khan. In 1933, he was officially invited to Afghanistan to join the
meetings regarding the establishment of Kabul University.
The Zabur-i Ajam (Persian Psalms), published in 1927, includes the poems Gulshan-i Raz-i
Jadid (New Garden of Secrets) and Bandagi Nama (Book of Slavery). In Gulshan-i Raz-i Jadid,
Iqbal first poses questions, then answers them with the help of ancient and modern insight,
showing how it effects and concerns the world of action. Bandagi Nama denounces slavery by
attempting to explain the spirit behind the fine arts of enslaved societies. Here, as in his other
books, Iqbal insists on remembering the past, doing well in the present and preparing for the
future, emphasizing love, enthusiasm and energy to fulfill the ideal life.[7] Iqbal's 1932 work, the
Javid Nama (Book of Javed) is named for his son, who is featured in the poems, following the
examples of the works of Ibn Arabi and Dante's The Divine Comedy, through mystical and
exaggerated depiction across time. Iqbal depicts himself as Zinda Rud ("A stream full of life")
guided by Rumi, "the master," through various heavens and spheres, and has the honor of
approaching divinity and coming in contact with divine illuminations. In a passage re-living a
historical period, Iqbal condemns the Muslim traitors who were instrumental in the defeat and
death of Nawab Siraj-ud-Daula of Bengal and Tipu Sultan of Mysore respectively by betraying
them for the benefit of the British colonists, thus relegating their country into the shackles of
slavery. At the end, by addressing his son Javid, he speaks to the young people as a whole,
providing guidance to the "new generation."[7]
Works in Urdu
Muhammad Iqbal, 1933, in Spain.
Iqbal's first work published in Urdu, the Bang-i-Dara (The Call of the Marching Bell) of 1924,
was a collection of poetry written by him in three distinct phases of his life.[7] The poems written
prior to 1905, the year Iqbal left for England, including the Tarana-e-Hind (The Song of India)
popularly known as Saare Jahan Se Achcha, imbibe patriotism and imagery of the landscape.
The second set of poems, which date from between 1905 and 1908 when Iqbal studied in
Europe, dwell upon the nature of European society, which he emphasized had lost spiritual and
religious values. This inspired Iqbal to write poems on the historical and cultural heritage of
Islamic culture and Muslim people, not from an Indian but a global perspective. Iqbal urges the
global community of Muslims, addressed as the Ummah to define personal, social and political
existence by the values and teachings of Islam. Poems such as Tulu'i Islam (Dawn of Islam) and
Khizr-i-Rah (The Guided Path) are especially acclaimed.
Iqbal preferred to work mainly in Persian for a predominant period of his career, but after 1930,
his works were mainly in Urdu. The works of this period were often specifically directed at the
Muslim masses of India, with an even stronger emphasis on Islam, and Muslim spiritual and
political reawakening. Published in 1935, the Bal-i Jibril (Wings of Gabriel) is considered by
many critics as the finest of Iqbal's Urdu poetry. It was inspired by his visit to Spain, where he
visited the monuments and legacy of the kingdom of the Moors. It consists of ghazals, poems,
quatrains, epigrams and carries a strong sense religious passion.[7]
The Pas Cheh Bay ed Kard ai Aqwam-i Sharq (What are we to do, O Nations of the East?)
includes the poem Musafir (Traveller). Iqbal again deploys Rumi as a character. The texts
provides an exposition of the mysteries of Islamic laws and Sufi perceptions. Iqbal laments the
dissention and disunity among the Indian Muslims as well as Muslim nations. Musafir is an
account of one of Iqbal's journeys to Afghanistan, in which the Pashtun people are counseled to
learn the "secret of Islam" and to "build up the self" within themselves.[7] Iqbal's final work was
the Armughan-i Hijaz (The Gift of Hijaz), published posthumously in 1938. The first part
contains quatrains in Persian, and the second part contains some poems and epigrams in Urdu.
The Persian quatrains convey the impression that the poet is traveling through the Hijaz in his
imagination. The Urdu portion of the book contains some categorical criticism of the intellectual
movements and social and political revolutions of the modern age. Although Iqbal admired Sufi
poets and thinkers he was outspokenly critical of Sufi Islam. Sufis Islam, by stressing baqa
(unity) with God "took people mistakenly along the radius to the center" while "the human task,"
according to Iqbal "is to concentrate on the circumference" and it is within the created order that
"self-realization" will occur. [9]
Political career
Iqbal, third from left, front row, with Muslim political activists.
While dividing his time between law and poetry, Iqbal had remained active in the Muslim
League. He supported Indian involvement in World War I, as well as the Khilafat movement,
remaining in close touch with Muslim political leaders such as Maulana Mohammad Ali and
Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He was a critic of the mainstream Indian National Congress, which he
regarded as dominated by Hindus. He was disappointed with the League when during the 1920s,
it was absorbed in factional struggles between the pro-British group led by Sir Muhammad Shafi
and the centrist group led by Jinnah.
In November 1926, with the encouragement of friends and supporters, Iqbal contested for a seat
in the Punjab Legislative Assembly from the Muslim district of Lahore, defeating his opponent
by a margin of 3,177 votes.[10] He supported the constitutional proposals presented by Jinnah
with the aim of guaranteeing Muslim political rights and influence in a coalition with the
Congress, working with the Aga Khan and other Muslim leaders to mend the factional divisions
and achieve unity in the Muslim League.
Revival of Islamic polity
Iqbal's second book in English, the Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (1930), is a
collection of his six lectures which he delivered at Madras, Hyderabad, India and Aligarh; first
published as a collection in Lahore. These lectures dwell on the role of Islam as a religion as
well as a political and legal philosophy in the modern age. In these lectures Iqbal firmly rejects
the political attitudes and conduct of Muslim politicians, whom he saw as morally-misguided,
attached to power and without any standing with Muslim masses. Iqbal asserted that secularism
as a guiding principle for government was a mistake and must be abandoned by the Muslim
polity.[11][12] Iqbal expressed fears that not only would secularism weaken the spiritual
foundations of Islam and Muslim society, but that India's Hindu-majority population would
crowd out Muslim heritage, culture and political influence. In his travels to Egypt, Afghanistan,
Iran and Turkey, he promoted ideas of greater Islamic political co-operation and unity, calling
for the shedding of nationalist differences. He also speculated on different political arrangements
to guarantee Muslim political power; in a dialogue with Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Iqbal expressed his
desire to see Indian provinces as autonomous units under the direct control of the British
government and with no central Indian government. He envisaged autonomous Muslim
provinces in India. Under an Indian union he feared for Muslims, who would suffer based on
their separate identity as Muslims.[10] Sir Muhammad Iqbal was elected president of the Muslim
League in 1930 at its session in Allahabad, in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh as well as
for the session in Lahore in 1932. In his presidential address on December 29, 1930, Iqbal
outlined a vision of an independent state for Muslim-majority provinces in northwestern India:
Iqbal front, center, with Choudhary Rahmat Ali and other Muslim activists.
"I would like to see the Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sind province (1936-1955) and
Baluchistan (Chief Commissioners Province) amalgamated into a single state. Self-government
within the British Empire, or without the British Empire, the formation of a consolidated
Northwest Indian Muslim state appears to me to be the final destiny of the Muslims, at least of
Northwest India."[2]
In his speech, Iqbal emphasized that unlike Christianity, Islam had a specific set of "legal
concepts" with "civic significance," and its "religious ideals" were inseparable from social order:
"therefore, the construction of a policy on national lines, if it means a displacement of the
Islamic principle of solidarity, is simply unthinkable to a Muslim."[11] Iqbal stressed not only the
need for the political unity of Muslim communities, but the undesirability of blending the
Muslim population into a wider society not based on Islamic principles. He thus became the first
politician to articulate what would become known as the Two-Nation Theory — that Muslims
are a distinct nation and thus deserve political independence from other regions and communities
of India. However, he would not elucidate or specify whether his ideal Islamic state would
constitute a theocracy, even as he rejected secularism and nationalism. The latter part of Iqbal's
life was concentrated on political activity. He would travel across Europe and West Asia to
garner political and financial support for the League, reiterating his ideas in his 1932 address.
During the Third Round-Table Conference (1931-1933), he opposed the Congress and proposals
for transfer of power without considerable autonomy or independence for Muslim provinces. He
would serve as president of the Punjab Muslim League, and would deliver speeches and publish
articles in an attempt to rally Muslims across India as a single political entity. Iqbal consistently
criticized feudal classes in Punjab as well as Muslim politicians averse to the League.
Relationship with Jinnah
Iqbal, in his final years.
Ideologically separated from Congress Muslim leaders, Iqbal had also been disillusioned with
the politicians of the Muslim League owing to the factional conflict that plagued the League in
the 1920s. Discontent with factional leaders like Sir Muhammad Shafi and Sir Fazl-ur-Rahman,
Iqbal came to believe that only Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a political leader capable of
preserving this unity and fulfilling the League's objectives of Muslim political empowerment.
Building a strong, personal correspondence with Jinnah, Iqbal was influential in convincing
Jinnah to end his self-imposed exile in London, return to India and take charge of the League.
Iqbal firmly believed that Jinnah was the only leader capable of drawing Indian Muslims to the
League and maintaining party unity before the British and the Congress:
"I know you are a busy man but I do hope you won't mind my writing to you often, as you are
the only Muslim in India today to whom the community has right to look up for safe guidance
through the storm which is coming to North-West India and, perhaps, to the whole of India."[13]
There were significant differences between the two men — while Iqbal believed that Islam was
the source of government and society, Jinnah was a believer in secular government and had laid
out a secular vision for Pakistan where religion would have "nothing to do with the business of
the state."[14] Iqbal had backed the Khilafat struggle; Jinnah had dismissed it as "religious
frenzy." And while Iqbal espoused the idea of partitioning Muslim-majority provinces in 1930,
Jinnah would continue to hold talks with the Congress through the decade, only officially
embracing the goal of Pakistan in 1940. Some historians postulate that Jinnah always remained
hopeful for an agreement with the Congress and never fully desired the partition of India.[15]
Some historians have speculated that Iqbal's close correspondence with Jinnah was responsible
for Jinnah's embrace of the idea of Pakistan.[16] Iqbal elucidated to Jinnah his vision of a separate
Muslim state in his letter sent of June 21, 1937:
"A separate federation of Muslim Provinces, reformed on the lines I have suggested above, is the
only course by which we can secure a peaceful India and save Muslims from the domination of
Non-Muslims. Why should not the Muslims of North-West India and Bengal be considered as
nations entitled to self-determination just as other nations in India and outside India are."[10]
Iqbal, serving as president of the Punjab Muslim League, criticized Jinnah's political actions,
including a political agreement with Punjabi leader Sir Sikandar Hyat Khan, whom Iqbal saw as
a representative of feudal classes and not committed to Islam as the core political philosophy.
Nevertheless, Iqbal worked constantly to encourage Muslim leaders and masses to support
Jinnah and the League. Speaking about the political future of Muslims in India, Iqbal said:
"There is only one way out. Muslims should strengthen Jinnah's hands. They should join the
Muslim League. Indian question, as is now being solved, can be countered by our united front
against both the Hindus and the English. Without it, our demands are not going to be accepted.
People say our demands smack of communalism. This is sheer propaganda. These demands
relate to the defense of our national existence. ... The united front can be formed under the
leadership of the Muslim League. And the Muslim League can succeed only on account of
Jinnah. Now none but Jinnah is capable of leading the Muslims."[13]
Iqbal's version of Islam was more open to re-interpretation than that of Sayyid Abul Ala
Maududi, but Iqbal saw an ally in the young scholar and invited him to join him in the Punjab in
1938. Maududi was a staunch supporter of the concept of an Islamic state and of a separate
homeland for Muslims. After the creation of Pakistan, nine years after Iqbal's death, Jinnah and
other League politicians would publicly credit Iqbal as one of the visionaries and founders of the
new state.
Death
The Mausoleum of Muhammad Iqbal, next to Badshahi Masjid, Lahore, Pakistan
In 1933, after returning from a trip to Spain and Afghanistan, Iqbal's health deteriorated. He
spent his final years working to establish the Idara Dar-ul-Islam, an institution at which studies
in classical Islam and contemporary social science would be subsidized, and advocating the
demand for an independent Muslim state. Iqbal ceased practicing law in 1934 and he was
granted pension by the Nawab of Bhopal. After suffering for months from a series of protracted
illnesses, Iqbal died in Lahore in 1938. His tomb is located in the space between the entrance of
the Badshahi Mosque and the Lahore Fort, and an official guard is maintained there by the
Government of Pakistan.
Iqbal is commemorated widely in Pakistan, where he is regarded as the ideological founder of

the state. His Tarana-e-Hind is a song that is widely used in India as a patriotic song advocating
communal harmony. His birthday is a national holiday, annually commemorated in Pakistan as
Iqbal Day. The actual date of his birth remains disputed, with many believing February 23 to be
the date of Iqbal's birth.[17] On February 1, 1974 a Pakistani government committee officially
declared Iqbal's date of birth to be November 9.[18] Iqbal is the namesake of many public
institutions, including the Allama Iqbal Open University and the Allama Iqbal International
Airport in Lahore — the second-busiest airport in the nation. Government and public
organizations have sponsored the establishment of colleges and schools dedicated to Iqbal, and
have established the Iqbal Academy to research, teach and preserve the works, literature and
philosophy of Iqbal. His son Javid Iqbal has served as as a justice on the Supreme Court of
Pakistan. Iqbal spent almost everything he earned on promoting his vision and died almost
penniless. He once said that he would consider the best memorial to him to be the endowing of a
chair at a university. His memory is honored by the Joint University of Cambridge-Pakistan
Allama Iqbal Fellowship.
Criticism
Interior of Iqbal's tomb.
Some intellectuals have criticized Iqbal for embracing Nietzsche's concept of Übermensch,
reflected in Iqbal's descriptions of ego, self, and renewal for Muslim civilization. He has also
been criticized for his advocacy of Islamic political revival and rejection of Western scientific
and cultural influences.[19] Several scholars have called his poetic descriptions of the true practice
of Islam impractical and wrongly dismissive of diverse societies and cultural heritages.[11] While
remembered as a great poet, some of Iqbal's Urdu poetry and later works are criticized as weaker
than his early Persian works, lacking in inspiration, energy and style.[20]
While credited and admired as the conceptual founder of Pakistan, Iqbal is criticized by some
historians and scholars for implicitly endorsing the incompatibility of Muslims with other
religious communities. Some historians and Indian nationalists criticize Iqbal's vision for a
Muslim state as specifically implying the denunciation of Hindus and Hinduism, as well as the
peaceful co-existence of Hindus and Muslims.[11][12] Iqbal was also strongly criticized for
advocating, on occasion, the division and fragmentation of India. Critics also point to the civil
war that led to the secession of East Pakistan in 1971, as well as recent sectarian and religious
conflict in Pakistan to suggest that Iqbal's notion of a natural Muslim nation and of Islam as a
political, unifying identity was inherently flawed and fanciful.[11] Despite this criticism, Iqbal is
widely credited for his work in encouraging the political rejuvenation and empowerment of
Muslims, and as a great poet not only in India and Pakistan, but also in Iran and Muslim nations
in the Middle East.
Notes
This article contains Indic text. Without proper

rendering support, you may see question marks or
boxes, misplaced vowels or missing conjuncts instead
of Indic text.
1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Bhatti, Anil (2006-06-28). Iqbal and Goethe (PDF). Yearbook of the Goethe
Society of India. Retrieved 2006-06-28.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Sir Muhammad Iqbal’s 1930 Presidential Address (HTML). Speeches, Writings,
and Statements of Iqbal. Retrieved 2006-12-19.
3. ↑ cited by Rajmohun Gandhi, Understanding the Muslim Mind, (London and New Delhi:
Penguin, 1998 ISBN 9780140299052) 60
4. ↑ "Sir Allama Muhammad Iqbal - an Ideologist, a Poet-Philosopher and a Spiritualist",

Pakistan Times, 2004-11-09. Retrieved 2006-06-03.
5. ↑ (Kak 1995)
6. ↑ Iqbal's "Development of Metaphysics in Persia" Ph.D. thesis Retrieved August 14,

2007.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 Allama Iqbal - Biography - Iqbal's Works (PHP) (2006-05-26).
Retrieved 2006-12-19.
8. ↑ Official website, Allama Iqbal Academy. "Asrar-i-Khudi". Retrieved 2006-05-30.
9. ↑ Bennett, Clinton "Muhamamd Iqbal and Islam" in Brown, Laurence et al Modern

Spiritualities, 127-143, Amherst, NY: Prometheus. 1997 ISBN 1573921122 page 136
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Allama Iqbal - Biography - Iqbal and Politics (PHP) (2006-05-26). Retrieved
2006-12-19.
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 Naipaul, V. S.. Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the
Converted Peoples, 250-52.
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Iqbal's political views (PHP) (2006-05-26). Retrieved 2006-05-26.
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Iqbal and Pakistan Movement
14. ↑ Official website, Government of Pakistan. "The Governor General". Retrieved 2006-
04-20.
15. ↑ Ayesha Jalal, The Sole Spokesman, pp. 14
16. ↑ Official website, Government of Pakistan. "The Statesman: Allama Iqbal's Presidential
Address at Allahabad 1930". Retrieved 2006-04-20.
2006-05-26.
2006-05-26.
19. ↑ "Criticism of Muhammad Iqbal societal influence", Dr. Sebanti Retrieved August 14,
2007.
20. ↑ Talib, Gurbachan Singh. Indian P.E.N., 6-9.
References
 Naipaul, V. S. Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples,

Random House Inc., 1998. ISBN 0375501185
 Ayesha Jalal. The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for
Pakistan, Cambridge University Press, 1994. ISBN 0521458501
 Munawwar, Muhammad. Iqbal-Poet Philosopher of Islam, ISBN 9694160618
 Mir, Mustansir. Iqbal, ISBN 1845110943
 Ram Nath Kak. Autumn Leaves: Kashmiri Reminiscences, India: Vitasta, 1995. ISBN
8186588000
 Iqbal, Muhammad The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 1930
Dr. Abdur Rashid Bhat
IQBAL REVIEW
Journal of the Iqbal Academy Pakistan
April 2004 – Volume: 45 – Number: 2
Introduction
Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi (1564-1624) and Allama Iqbal (1877-1938) are regarded as the two
seminal personalities of Indian subcontinent. Both were deeply rooted in the Shari‘ah
knowledge, understood their times, its crisis and put forward their remedies to it in their own
ways. Sirhindi belonged to late medieval times when the Muslim empire in India apparently
seemed stable but religiously it was witnessing a serious decline under Akbar’s innovation of
‘Din-i-illahi’ the situation was inherited by his successor, Jahangir and the Shaykh Ahmad
Sirhindi through his keen and constant efforts of religious reformation ultimately affected a
positive change in the society. Allama Iqbal belonged to the twentieth century milieu when India
was under the British rule and its natives in general and the Muslims in particular were
witnessing a heavy onslaught of the imperialism. Iqbal, thus, on the one hand, attempts at
devising the means to obtain the freedom from the foreign subjugation and, on the other,
explains keenly the truth of Islam and the richness of Muslim heritage in India throughout his
poetry, prose writings and speeches. It is in this context that Iqbal is concerned with the great
Sufi thinker and revivalist of Islam, Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi who is also called mujadid alaf-i
thani (the revivalist of the second millennium). Iqbal not only pays tribute to the Shaykh but also
illustrates the profundity and vitality of his religious thinking and seeks inspiration from him.
1. The predicament of Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi’s Times
Although the early two rulers of the Mughal empire were not strict followers of the Shari‘ah yet
they did not even made any direct attack on it that would harm the Muslims.[1] It was during the
reign of Akbar that the royal court deviated from the true beliefs and principles of Islam and it
got replaced by the heretic beliefs in the form of ‘Din-i-Ilahi’. It is said that Akbar earlier held
true beliefs but it was in his later period of his life that he turned to the wrong beliefs and
deviated from the actual path of religion[2]. For this some pseudo ulama are held responsible.
The historians say that though he himself was illiterate yet sincere and allowed the ulama to have
discussions in the court on various faiths and religions[3]. The scholars belonged not only to
religion of Islam but also to other religions like Hinduism and Christianity. Mullah Abdullah
Sultanpuri (Mukhdum al Mulk) and Maulana Abdul Nabi (Sadru Sadur), no doubt, were given
high religious status but both betrayed him in fulfilling their responsibility truly[4]. Decrees
about the non offering of hajj and non-payment of zakah were issued by them and encouraged
corruption and economic exploitation. The two sons of Mullah Mubarak, Faizi and Abu Fazl
although men of great talent but their liberal religious thought influenced Akbar to declare
himself imam and mujtahid [5]. On the instance of Abul Fazl, Ibadat Khana was established for
polemic discussions on religions and which ultimately led the foundation to his new religion,
Din-i-Ilahi[6]. Syed Abul Hasan summarizes the substance of this religion thus:
Usury, gambling, wine and pork were made lawful by the new religion, slaughter of cows was
banned, the laws relating to marriage were amended, purdah and circumcision were forbidden,
prostitutes were settled in a separate ward and rules were made for the trade of flesh and
religious form of the burial was change’. In short, a new Indian religion was devised which, like
the religions of old, met halfway the passions and desires of carnal nature and made it a
handmaid of personal and political interests of the king[7].
This was the predicament of Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi’s times which he witnessed himself.
Akbar’s successor, Jahangir too was brought up in this environment. Sirhindi himself, a man of
great stature and well versed in both esoteric and exoteric sciences of Islam gathered his energies
to combat this predicament. Through initiating the disciples in great number at Sirhindi and
Lahore, he sent his deputies to the various quarters of India and abroad to have moral
regeneration of the people[8]. Due to his constant efforts the Shaykh gained fame and even his
influences reached the royal army[9]. Although, Jahangir had no pure picture of Islam before
him yet was not inimical to it and initially he did little care for the special esoteric views of the
Shaykh, propounded in his letters Maktubat[10]. However, it is said that people of vested
interests among the nobles of the court motivated Jahangir that the Shaykh’s endeavours are
politically motivated rather than his own understanding of the letters led him to say that they
contain the views which ran counter to the true Islam. On this Sirhindi was imprisoned in
Gwalior jail by Jahangir for one year. The release of the Shaykh, was however, due to
displeasing of religious minded courtiers and even Jahangir’s own feeling of regret for the
act[11].
2. The Guardian of the Millah
Allama Iqbal himself had keen interest in esoteric of Islam–the inner dynamism of the individual
self–side by side with his poetic creativity and the philosophical thinking. Out of this devotion
for spirituality of Islam he visited the grave of Nizam ud Din waliya in Delhi in 1905 before he
left for England for higher studies. In 1935, i.e. after the return from England and during the
later of his life, Iqbal visited the grave of Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi. What impressions he gathered
from his visit to Sirhindi’s grave Iqbal expresses them in the context of the Indian Muslims
heritage in his poem entitled, Punjab kay Peerzadun kay Naam. The poem is the symbolic
expression of Shaykh Ahmad’s great personality of religious learning and `dynamism. Among
other things Iqbal describes him as the guardian of the Muslim millah in India:
He the guardian of the estate of millah in India
Whom Allah awakened at the right time.[12]
As mentioned above the 17th century witnessed the deterioration of Islamic faith and tenets in
India due to the maneuvering of the pseudo-ulama of the court and the king’s own crisis in
understanding the religions. Of course true religious faith and tenants serve as the chief properly
of the millah ‘(sarmaya-i millat). During the times of Shaykh this estate was being exploited
wrongly and heresy (ilhad) and the views tending to apostasy were propounded openly. By
explaining the truth of Tawhid and Prophethood and the moral values of Islam, Sirhindi
safeguarded the ‘property’ (Din) of the Muslim community in India. To Iqbal, this defense of
religion by the Shaykh took place at its right time when the Shaykh was made aware about the
loss by Almighty Allah[13].
According to Iqbal Sirhindi was adequately God-conscious and bold which did not allow him to
offer prostration in Jahangir’s court. He took this risk even at the cost of the severe resentment of
the king. At the same time, the warmth of iman within his heart (self), says Iqbal, represents the
vigour and dynamism of change and freedom. It excites the energies of the men of freedom:
The one who did not bow his head to Jahangir.
Whose warm breath lends heat to the freemen.[14]
3. Faqr and Its Truth
Faqr is the other theme which Iqbal treats in the poem vis-à-vis the Shaykh ’s achievements.
Some scholars are of the opinion that faqr is the foundation of sufi path. The men of saluk who
propound the spirituality of life and ignore materialism are led to uphold faqr not as the negative
entity of life but to distant themselves from the other (ghayr) than Allah. It means the withdrawal
from ones attributes and return to Allah alone.[15] It is these traits of faqr and zuhd which
bestow upon the seeker of the sufi path contentment in life and recognition of the triviality of
this mundane world. This is also described as the special station of the path.[16] Iqbal has
devoted a whole poem to faqr. It illustrates truth and meaningfulness of faqr as compared to
rational and philosophical knowledge. He says that the very existence of the two are different.
The blessings of faqr become possible only when a man develops a living and conscious mind in
him:
The miracles of faqr are the crown, the throne and the soldiery
Faqr is the leader of the leaders, it is the king of kings
The end of knowledge is the purity of reason and intellect
The end of faqr is sanctity of heart and vision.[17]
While describing Sirhindi as the man of secrets-one who has undergone through various
religious experiences and ecstasies-Iqbal seeks from him the blessings of faqr. It is because the
latter is conscious of his own limitation who describes himself as merely a man of sight and not
a man of the vision.
My eyes do see things but they lack the wakeful sight.[18]
The last part of the poem, Punjab kay Pirzadaun kay Nam, touches upon the Shaykh’s response
to Iqbal’s request. This is an admonishing response which indicates the resentment of the Sufi
and religious mentors, over the deeds of the present day Muslims.[19] The Shaykh explains to
Iqbal that the order of faqr is closed due to the mentors’ indignation against the people of Punjab.
In the symbolic way the truth of faqr is illustrated here through the message of Sirhindi. To him
the mentors abode is not the nation that will misuse the status of faqr for the worldly gains. The
reality of faqr lies in the vigour of religious truth (al-haq) and not in subordinating oneself to the
petty government. The message is, therefore, a lesson to the people of Punjab and through them
the whole nation of India that the spiritual blessings of faqr are attainable only when the seeker
follows the true path of Tawhid and strives to safeguard it from the contamination of greed and
worldliness.
4. Significance of the Religious Experience in Sirhindi
In his famous lecture entitled “Is Religion Possible?” which forms the seventh chapter of his
classic work, The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam; Allama Iqbal discusses the two
ways of understanding reality. One is the scientific way and the other is the religious way and
considers the latter better and vital one. At the outset, of his discussion, Iqbal says that religious
life may broadly be divided into three periods ‘Faith,’ ‘Thought’ and ‘Discovery’.[20] The first
period appears as a form of discipline where command (hukm) is accepted without rational
understanding of its ultimate meaning and purpose. The second is the period of perfect
submission which is through the rational understanding of the discipline and its ultimate source
of authority.[21] In this period religious life seeks its foundation in a kind of metaphysics a
logically consistent view of the world with God as a part of that view. In the third period
metaphysics is replaced by psychology and religious life here develops an ambition to come into
direct contact with the Ultimate Reality.[22] Now religion becomes a matter of personal
assimilation of life and power and the man ‘achieves a free personality, not releasing by the
fitters of law but by discovering the ultimate source of the law within his own consciousness.’
Iqbal emphasizes that he uses religion in this very sense and this meaning of it is known by
‘unfortunate Mysticism’ which is termed as life and fact denying attitude and radically opposed
to empirical out look of the modern times. To Iqbal higher religion is actually a search for a
larger life and is an experience and Religion (Islam) had recognized experience’ as its foundation
long before science learnt to do it.[23]
It is in this context of the richness of religious experience that Iqbal refers to Sirhindi in the
lecture. He holds that the highest stage of religious life is the discovery of the ego (self) and in
the individual’s contact with the Most Real (God) that the ego can discover the ‘uniqueness, its
metaphysical status and the responsibility of improvement in that status’.[24] But the experience
due to which this discovery is attained is not, says Iqbal ‘conceptually manageable intellectual
fact, it is a vital fact’. It is not accessible in logical categories. While referring to the discoveries
of modern psychology. Iqbal mentions that it has only come to recognize that some ‘unknown
phenomenon of the mind’ exists.[25] He directly refers to C. G. Jung ( 1875-1961) and indirectly
to William James(1842-1910)and Sigmund Freud(1856-1939). James though gives place to
transcendental or mystical experience but does not recognize it as an independent entity but a
function of particular experiences.[26] On the other hand, Freud’s theory of unconscious is
related to the hidden causes or processes of mind over which man has no control. To him
instincts are the principle motivating forces in this realm.[27] Jung in his response to Freud,
gives large place for intuitive contact with the majestic and divine in his theory.[28] However,
these researches of analytical psychology fail to recognize the truth of the religious experience.
To Iqbal, they have missed the whole point of higher religious life. Some moral restraints to the
ego are not its goal but the preliminary stage of evolution to move in a direction far more
important to the destiny of the ego than the moral health of the social fabric. The forward
movement of religious life is described by Iqbal in terms of ‘the unity of ego, his liability to
dissolution, his amenability to reformation and the capacity for an ampler freedom to create new
situations in known and unknown environments’.[29] To Iqbal, modern psychology has not yet
touched the outer level of this richness and variety of religious-experience. It is in this domain of
religious experience that Iqbal considers Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi’s contribution highly
commendable. Iqbal says that the Shaykh developed a new technique of Sufism which got
popular not only in India but in Afghanistan and Asiatic Russia. He discovers in this Shaykh the
true understanding of religious experience (religious psychology in modern terminology) which
is developed in the atmosphere of different culture’.[30] He quotes one of the letters of Shaykh
in which is the latter’s reply to the experience of Abdul Mumin. This was described to the
Shaykh as following:
Heavens and the Earth and God’s Thorne and Hell and Paradise have all ceased to exist for me.
When I look round I find them nowhere. When I stand in the presence of somebody I see nobody
before me: nay even my own being is lost to me. God is infinite. Nobody can encompass Him;
and this is the extreme limit of spiritual experience. No saint has been able to go beyond this.
[31]
On this the Shaykh gives him the following reply:
The experience which is described has its origin in the ever varying life of the Qalb; and it
appears to me that the recipient of it has not yet passed even one-fourth of the innumerable
“Stations” of the Qalb. The remaining three-fourths must be passed through in order to finish the
experiences of this first “station” of spiritual life. Beyond this “station” there are other stations”
known as Ru h, Sirr-i-Khafi, and Sirr-i-Akhfa, each of these four “Stations” which together
constitute what is technically called’ Alam-i-Amr has its own characteristic states and
experiences. After having passed through these “stations” the seeker of truth gradually receives
the illuminations of the Divine Essence.[32]
This letter of the Shaykh thus provides a better illustration of the religious experience as well as
its significance. It gives the idea of inner experience of the individual what so ever the grounds
of distinctions of its various stations (maqamat) it depicts. To reach the stage of the unique
experience it is essential to pass first through the Alam-i amr (the world of directive energy).
Conclusion
The above discussion, thus, brings out that Allama Iqbal pays tribute to Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi
for the latter’s keen insight into the Shari‘ah sciences (ulum) and the spiritual experiences of life
which made him to visualize the grave crisis of his times and led him to success in combating it.
The Shaykh’s constant struggle for moral and social reformation, according to Iqlal, safeguarded
the real estate (Din) of the millah of the subcontinent. The truth of faqr and the prerequisites for
its acquisition are elaborated vis-à-vis the uniqueness and purposefulness of religious
experiences by Iqbal in the context of Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi’s achievements. This tribute, on
the one hand, highlights the Shaykh’s seminal contribution to the religious thought and, on the
other, explores the possibility of understanding religion in terms of the new developments in
modern philosophical, psychological and scientific thought.
Notes and References
[1] See Fazlur Rehman, Islam, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, p. 201.
[2] Maulana Sayyid Abul Hasan Nadvi, Tarikh Dawat wa Azimat, part, IV, Majlis Tahqiqat wa
Nashriyat Islam, Luknow, 1980 p.70, 82-86.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid pp. 88-91.
[5] Ibid p. 103.
[6] Darah Ma‘arif Islamia, vol.1, Punjab University Pakistan, pp. 889-890.
[7] M.Sayid Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi, op.cit. p. 107.
[8] Ibid pp. 154-155.
[9] Ibid pp. 157.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Ibid. 159.
[12] Iqbal, Kulliyat-i Iqbal, Markazi Maktaba Islami, Delhi, 1993, p. 375.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Dr. Ubaidullah Farahi, Tasawwuf:Aik Tajziyati Mutalah, Idarah Tahqiq wa Tasnif, Aligarh,
1991, p. 26.
[16] Ibid. p. 31.
[17] Supra. n. 12.
[18] Ibid. p. 302.

[19]Ibid. p. 375.
[20] Sir Muhammad Iqbal, The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, Kitab Bawan,
Delhi, p. 181.
[21] Ibid.
[22] Ibid.
[23] Ibid. p. 182.
[24] Ibid. p. 184.
[25] Ibid p. 191.
[26] See his Varieties of Religious Experiences.
[27] See his Psychopathology of Everyday Life.
[28] See his Psychology of Unconsciousness.
[29] Supra n. 25.
[30] Ibid .p. 193.
[31] Ibid
[32] Ibid. Maktubat-i Rubbani, Nawal Kishur edition, Letter no.253, p. 276
Perfect Man in the Eyes of Rumi and Muhammad Iqbal

Prof. Dr. Erkan Turkmen
Rumi is M. Iqbal’s great master whom he calls "Pīr-i Rūmī (The master from Anatolia); and he
names himself as "Murīd-i- Hindī (The Indian disciple)". In his Asrār-o-Rumūz Iqbal claims,
"The saint Rumi has changed my earth into an elixir and out of my dust has produced many
splendours". It means that there is a great impact of Rumi on Iqbal’s spiritual teachings. When
we study Rumi and Iqbal side by side, we find two bodies in one shirt. There are more than 250
poets in Turkey that follow the great master Rumi but Iqbal’s interpretations are the most up-to-
date. It is Rumi’s Masnevi that seems to influence Iqbal the most. Great Persian poet Mulla Jāmī
says this about Rumi’s Masnevi. "The Masnevi of the spiritual master (Rumi) is the Koran in
Persian." This statement is very true. Thus many teachings of Iqbal depend on the Koran,
directly or indirectly. The major theme of the Koran is ‘A Perfect Man’ or ‘Merd-i Mu’min’ and
Muhammed (s.w) is the prototype for it. Muhammed (s.w) devoted his life for the betterment of
human beings regardless of race or national discrimination; and killed his ego or selfhood for the
love of God to set a unique example of character. Masnevi aims at this character. So do teachings
of Iqbal. Rumi guides a man gradually from the lowest stage to the highest where he is finally
submerged in the ocean of divine attributes. It is at this stage that a man becomes perfect, and
understands the will of God. Here God loves the man and the man is pleased with God. Captivity
of time, worldly worries and fate disappear. As Iqbal says:
"Raise your self-being to the stage where God, before writing your fate may ask you tell me my
beloved what is your will?"
To reach this spiritual stage of a perfect man one need to go through these steps:
1. Freedom from the worldly greed:
a. Set yourself free:
"O my son! Be free and break away from your worldly ties.
For how long will silver and gold keep deceiving your eyes?
If you want to pour a sea into your single jar.
It shall hold the need of day, not to be carried far" (M.I/19-20)
b. The wakefulness of this world is actually a deep sleep:
"He who is awake (in this world) is actually more asleep

His wakefulness is worse than his normal peaceful sleep
When our souls aren’t awake to God’s wonderful Presence
We are awake yet in prison, without an active essence.
(M.I/419-420)
Iqbal adds:
Find the secret of your life by drowning in your inner self

If you are heedless to me, let it be so at least think of yourself"
The real awakening is to discover your inner being which is the gift of God.
His holy spirit as God says in the Koran,
"I breathed into him of My spirit" (XV/29) is the "Amānah" (Trust) which man accepted
from God, as the Koran says, "We indeed offered the Trust to the Heavens and the earth
and the mountains, but they refused to undertake it being afraid thereof. But man
undertook it. He was indeed unjust and foolish". "Unjust and foolish" because man
carries God’s spirit with him and yet ignores it (33/72).
The soul and the body are not from each other concealed,
But to many an ear and eye this fact is not revealed"
Body is made out of clay (minerals); and earth attracts it. Because it is the part of earth; and the
spirit of God in man is drawn towards God as Rumi reminds:
If anything from its origin may ever fall away
It seeks a chance to find it in a better way"
Rumi explains this fact by the following parable:
One day Majnun decided to visit his beloved Leyli and for this he rode on a camel’s
back. Soon Majnun lost himself by thinking of Leyli. He-camel had a beloved too in the
village from where the journey started. When the camel found that his master was asleep
he came back to his beloved. This happened two or three times. Majnun gave up and
said, "Alright my dear camel! you go to your beloved I go to mine; and he walked on
foot" In this story body is camel and the spirit is Majnun. There is a struggle between
body and soul. They want to return to their origins. Dust to dust and spirit to Spirit. A
worldly man is in love with his physical body.
He is like an embryo:-
Mercy of God wants to bring him out

Yet he runs back to his mother’s womb
With fear and doubt
For he is afraid to give up his beloved station

And thinks that he will never reach the real salvation
(M III/3964-3966)
A perfect man tends more and more towards God. He lives in this world but his soul is with God.
"He has a concealed attraction towards the sky (spiritual location); he is made of clay yet
he is free from it"
This world of physical charms fails to cheat a perfect man:
As soon as man turns his attention to God the satanic powers begin to stop him. More worldly
charms try to hamper his progress. Rumi and Iqbal warn man not to fall in such traps:
"Don’t be satisfied with the colours and smells of this world for there are many other gardens
and nests"
"If you pas beyond these shapes and deceptive forms,

Then you begin to see rose gardens after rose gardens.
(M III/578)
It is not wise to fall in love with traffic signs when you still have to go further.
Perfect man uses his divine knowledge to avoid temporary lures.
e) In order to attain hawkish flight one has to kill these four birds in him as Rumi suggests:
Cut these four birds, heads to gain your immortal bread
The duck is your greed and your ego is the crow
The cock is lust, and the peacock is your show
(My /42-44)
While Iqbal says:
"O nightengale begin to sing so that because of your songs a heart of hawk may be born in the
bosom of a pigeon"
When hawkish spirit is born among the young
They see their abodes in the skies
Your nest is not on the domes of royal palaces
You are a hawk go and live on the high rocks
Hakim Sanā’ī also says the same thing:
"Let’s uproot partridge – like life from within us
And change it with an active life of a falcon"
III- Action and divine food:
He who eats husk and barley deserves to be slaughtered
He who consumes light of God becomes the Koran himself.
(M/V 2478)
No one knows this secret that a believer (or lover of God) seems to be a reader although he is the
Koran himself.
IV:- Love and action:
When love of God is filled in the heart of a man his selfhood melts away in the crucible of
divine love. He has no fear of death, time or worldly worries as God says in the Koran" on the
friends of God there is no fear, nor shall they grief" (X/62)
Rumi verifies:
"Although in our life there are many a snare,
Since you are are with us then why should we care?"
(MI/387)
"Love is a flame and when it begins to blaze,
It burns everything but the Beloved worthy of praise"
(MV/1789)
and Iqbal says:
"With the plectrum of love is born the music of life,
Love is heat of life and light of life"
Due to love this partial intellect surrenders to the universal intellect:
"Pass beyond this intellect for this light,
Is not the goal but a lamp for sight"?
A true lover of God cannot sit idle for the whole universe is in action due to divine love and
God’s manifestation.
"Like the mill stone this universe
Day and night turns up and cries restlessly
Since it has no peace because of love of God
My heart! Seek no rest like a wandering star"

Iqbal adds:
"Real life is hidden in searching
The essence of life is concealed under desires"
When the lover fails to posses any love-fire
He is like a bird without wings and desire.
(M1/31)
Perfect man is like roses. There are white, red, pink roses but the smell is the same. Earth is full
of filth and manure but rose-branches suck up only what is needed for the beautiful smell. This
world is like the manure and a perfect man takes only what is required for his Beloved (God) by
reaching maturity:
As long as you are raw you are only a heap of clay
When you are baked you become an un-rusted sword"
"For a lower man the stage of a perfect man is too high
So cut a long story short and say to him Goodbye"
Gabriel’s Wing: Dr. Annemarie Schimmel’s Masterpiece on Iqbal

By Dr. Ahmed S. Khan
Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938) was one of the great thinkers of the 20th century. Dr. Iqbal was
an amalgam of an oracle, a seer, a poet, a philosopher and a thinker. Dr. Ali Shariati describes
him as “a man of religion and a man of this world, a man of faith and knowledge, a man of
intellect and emotions, a man of philosophy and literature, a man of God and people. A
devotee during the night and a lion during the day”. He further states that “Iqbal is considered
to be a contemporary thinker and philosopher of the same rank as Bergson in the West or the
same level as Ghazali in Islamic history”.
The message and the writings of Iqbal have many dimensions: literary, religious, political,
social, educational, and economic. Iqbal’s poetry and philosophy are aimed at humanizing the
world. The central theme of Iqbal's philosophy is the concept of “Khudi or Selfhood”. It is the
source of feeling and knowing one’s inner capabilities and potential through contemplation,
introspection, self-cognition, self-realization and determined action. It is the sense of human
identity in the individual as well as the society. In the words of Iqbal:
When ‘self’ embraces the energy of life
The stream of life is transformed into an ocean
According to Iqbal science, culture, poetry, literature, and law – everything - is the product of
human aspirations actualized through continuous struggle.
Dr. Annemarie Schimmel (1922-2003) was an internationally acclaimed scholar who dedicated
more than fifty years of her life to explain Islam to the West. Her interest in Iqbal dates back
to her student days at the University of Berlin. She says, “My long lasting love of Iqbal has let
me to publish a number of works which are more or less relevant for a study of his
contribution to Muslim thought… In many articles I have tried to show Iqbal in context of
Islamic modernism, or deal with his imagery”. Her scholarship served as a bridge between East
and West, cultures and religions. Dr. Schimmel was an avid scholar of the poetry and
philosophy of Iqbal and Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi. She considered Iqbal as one of the greatest
poets of the East. Dr. Schimmel served as the professor of religious studies at the University of
Ankara, Turkey (1954-59). During her stay in Turkey her translation of Rumi’s poetry furthered
her interest in Iqbal. On the insistence of her Turkish friends she translated ‘Jawednama’ into
Turkish. This led to her first visit to Pakistan in 1958, which opened a new door in her
scholarship and inquiry that ultimately took her to the Harvard University. During her tenure at
Harvard (1967-1992) as professor of Indo-Muslim culture, she authored volumes of articles and
dozens of books covering a wide spectrum of topics and issues related to Islamic studies,
Sufism, Iqbal and Rumi. Dr. Schimmel wrote her first article on Iqbal in 1954, and later she
wrote on Iqbal in various languages and on different aspects of his message and philosophy.
But her book Gabriel’s Wing – A study into the Religious Ideas of Sir Muhammad Iqbal (E.J.
Brill, Leiden, Netherlands, 1963 & 1989) is considered a superb example of her scholarship and
insight in Iqbal studies. In the foreword (1962) of Gabriel’s’ Wing Dr. Schimmel writes, “During
the 25 years which have passed since the death of Muhammad Iqbal, hundreds of books and
pamphlets, articles and poems in honor of the poet-philosopher of Muslim India have been
published, most of them in Pakistan, the country which is proud of calling him a spiritual
father. In the West, too, his fame has spread perhaps more than that of any other modern
Muslim thinker and poet”. Commenting on the approach and the style of the books, she states
that “although it would be easy to quote to a larger extent from earlier publications I have
tried to avoid that, making rather Iqbal himself speak than his commentators. Since only part
of his work is available in translation, full quotations were considered useful. I simply want to
give a picture of Iqbal’s way of thinking, arguing, suffering, and again finding mental peace in
the security of his religion - suspending judgment as far as possible though the book will be, in
any case, an account of any personal experience with Iqbal’s work”.
Gabriel’s Wing has five parts. In the first part she provides the historical background of
Muhammad Iqbal, his life, the aesthetic side of his work, and his religious motives. In the
second part she discusses Iqbal’s interpretation of the five pillars of faith. In the third part she
expounds on Iqbal’s interpretation of the essentials of faith. In the fourth part she presents
some glimpse of Western and Eastern influence on Iqbal’s thought, and on his relation to
mystics and mysticism. And in the final and fifth part she sums up her work on Iqbal by
synthesizing the poet’s message and philosophy. She regards Iqbal the spiritual father of
Pakistan and the best example of a modern interpretation of Islam. His poetry was on
everyone’s lips in India in the 1930s, for the largely illiterate masses could be reached only by
the poetical word which could be memorized easily. She believes that Iqbal had tried under
the influence of Goethe and Rumi, to postulate a dynamic Islam; he was aware that the human
being is called on to improve God’s earth in cooperation with the Creator, and that one should
exhaust the never-ending possibilities of interpreting Qur'an in order to survive changing
circumstances.
Dr. Schimmel further observes that Iqbal also taught that one should never rely exclusively
upon intellect, as much as modern technology and progress can be admired, and that man is
called on to participate in it. In a central poem of Iqbal “Message of the East” (his answer to
Goethe’s “Divan”) Iqbal writes that science and love, that is critical analysis and loving
synthesis, must work together to create positive values for the future. Regarding the status of
Iqbal, she states:
“Iqbal has been praised – to quote only one instance – by a leading Pakistani as ‘the
triumphant missionary, the high priest of humanity’ (A. K. Bokhari, Iqbal Rev. April 1961) and
one of the first authors in this field has held that if the peacock throne is the cause of pride
for Iran, and the Kooh-i-noor means glory and dignity for British crown, then is Iqbal, of
necessity, the decoration and ornament of poetical court of very country”.
In response to Iqbal's critics regarding the difficulty in his expressions, Dr. Schimmel tells the
story that after her publication of the Turkish-prose translation of the Javednama, she received
a letter, in very bad Turkish orthography, revealing that the letter writer was an unlearned
man; but he expressed his admiration for Iqbal's work, and asked her for more books of his in
Turkish translation. Dr. Schimmel writes that “the person wrote that he was a bearer in a
restaurant in a small town of Eastern Anatolia – that seems to be sufficient proof for Iqbal's
unquestionable appeal to simple minds too, who do not grasp properly the philosophical
implications of his poems but are moved just by the energy they feel, even through the
medium of a translation.”
Commenting on the background of his philosophy, she writes: “No doubt, Iqbal cannot be
understood without the religious background of his homeland. He’s firmly rooted in the
prophetical tradition of Islam, and in the mystical thought of India. He has struggled against
whatever he thought wrong in this mysticism and has rediscovered the personal, dynamic God
of Prophetic revelation who is described best not in the abstract philosophy of the lectures but
in the poet’s deep and pathetic prayers”.
Discussing the nature of Iqbal’s philosophy, she observes that “as to the question of this
philosophy, one should not forget that a difference exists between a scientific philosopher and
a prophetic philosopher. Iqbal was certainly of the second type, endowed with an extraordinary
capacity for assimilation, and for synthesizing seemingly divergent facts into a new unity that
may look, at the first glance, surprising enough, but has, in any case, proved as stimulating
formative of the Weltanschauung of Pakistan. Sometimes one gets the impression that his study
of European philosophy leads him, in the course of his life, more and more to the conviction
that all the good and appropriate ideas launched by Western philosophers had been expressed
centuries ago in a somewhat more ideal from by Islamic thinkers”. As he writes in 1916:
Yesterday, I saw the Mathnawi of Rumi: Every thought devours another though, one idea grazes
upon another idea – God gracious! In a special chapter he has put this idea that every being
besides God Almighty is devouring and being devoured and has brought into consideration so
beautifully Shakespeare’s philosophy that Shakespeare’s spirit itself would tremble!
Dr. Schimmel observes that “this way of interpretation provided him with new possibilities of
combining harmoniously Islamic tradition with the most recent scientific research. Only thus,
he thinks, Muslims can become interested in Western science and discover that Europe is
indebted to Islam, and that therefore the adopting of recent scientific results from the West
does not do any harm to primacy of Islamic thought”. As Iqbal has said, “If Muslim scholars
were aware that Einstein’s most thrilling ideas are already existent in Islam, they would like
to take more interest in them and study them carefully”.
Einstein granted Iqbal the proof for his view concerning the relation of God and universe, that
the universe is limitless but finite, and his theory of relativity has impressed Iqbal’s theories of
time and space. Thus, the European philosophy and scholarship becomes, in Iqbal’s reading, a
medium for leading back the Muslims to the sources of their own culture, and giving them the
feeling that these conceptions are nothing but their own heritage. Interpreted in this way,
European civilization is no longer a danger for the Muslims but a stimulant for their awakening.
Dr Schimmel states that Iqbal has tried to answer in poems the claims of different philosophers
and political leaders during the different periods of his life, and the nasqsh-i-frang (the picture
of Europe) in the fourth part of Payam-i-Mahriq (message of the West) contains short poetical
sketches, skillfully characterizing thinkers and poets of the West. The philosophers whose
names have occurred most in Iqbal’s prose and poetry are Hegel, Bergson, and Nietzsche.
In the concluding pages of Gabriel’s Wing Dr. Schimmel remarks, “Whether or not the Muslim
or non-Muslim readers will approve of Iqbal’s ideas, or his way of expressing them, they will
have to acknowledge that Iqbal, to quote Kenneth Cragg, was ‘the spokesman of something
deep within the contemporary soul…The age the must have felt its need of him.’ Dr. Schimmel
compares this sentence with Iqbal’s words which he used to characterize the prophetic
revelation: ‘The world-life intuitively sees its own needs, and at critical moments defines its
own direction. This is what, in the language of religion, we call prophetic revelation.’
Dr. Schimmel observes that “the similarity of the two sentences springs light in the eyes. It is
this very kind of representing the needs of an age of a society which can be witnessed in Iqbal
whose whole personality tended to a prophetical interpretation of religion. Nobody will assert
that he was a prophet, but we may admit that he has been touched by Gabriel’s wing”.
Gabriel’s Wing is a comprehensive study on Iqbal’s thought and philosophy. It is an illuminating
and fascinating read for all seekers of truth and wisdom. Today, the world needs people like
Dr. Schimmel who can build intellectual bridges to promote global peace, harmony and
coexistence.
Dr. Ahmed S. Khan (khan@dpg.devry.edu) is a senior Professor in the EET dept. at DeVry University, Addison, Illinois. He is the
athor of The Telecommunications Fact Book and the co-author of Technology and Society: Issues for the 21st Century and Beyond.
(© http://www.pakistanlink.com/Opinion/2007/June07/22/05.HTM)
Iqbal’s Idealist Critique Of Hawking’s Materialist Concept of Time
Asad Shahzad
Abstract
Hawking’s materialist and sectional concept of time has been assessed by Iqbal’s concept of
real time. A fundamental agreement between the approaches of Iqbal and Hawking has also
been shown. It has been argued that Hawking has not succeeded to develop a concept of time
based on “the whole of human knowledge”, i.e. on the unified application of physics and
philosophy. Iqbalian assessment reveals that Hawking’s approach is not holistic and integrated
but sectional and segmented and therefore inadequate. So, Hawking’s psychological arrow of
time is essentially physical time rather than psychological time. Hawking’s claim that
psychological arrow of time is determined by thermodynamic arrow has been analyzed and it
has been maintained that Hawking’s claim is unconvincing and is rooted in the essentially
sectional character of his approach to the problem of time.
Introduction:
The secret of time is so entangled and at the same time so captivating that even though the
philosophers, scientists and theologians have very thoroughly and meticulously scrutinized and
explored the nature of time for some 2,500 years– that is since the time of the Greek theoretical
scientists and philosophers to the scientists and philosophers of our time– but they have not yet
fully succeeded in giving satisfactory and categorical answers to all questions and mysteries
relating the reality of time. However with the “passage” of time the reality of time has become
far more comprehensible than before. The problem of time is both physical and philosophical;
and it has been analyzed and investigated by the geniuses of both physics and philosophy. This
article considers some very significant aspects of Iqbal and Hawking’s concepts of time. It
basically gives Iqbalian assessment of Hawking’s psychological arrow of time.
Hawking’s Concept of Time:
Hawking has striven to unite the philosophical and scientific concepts of time in his work. It is
in this spirit that he has not restricted his study of time to its physical aspect only; he has also
investigated the psychological aspect of time which in fact is the core of the reality of time. He
theorizes that, “There are at least three different arrows of time”, namely, thermodynamic arrow
of time, psychological arrow of time and cosmological arrow of time. These three arrows imply
the “movement” of time in three particular directions. Direction of these arrows is related to the
expansion and contraction of the universe, which is central in his conception of time. The
psychological arrow of time, “is the direction in which we feel time passes, the direction in
which we remember the past but not the future”, the thermodynamic arrow is, “the direction of
time in which disorder or entropy increases”, and the cosmological arrow is, “the direction of
time in which the universe is expanding rather than contracting” (IX. 153). The thermodynamic
and cosmological arrows of time are essentially aspects of physical time, whereas the
psychological arrow of time is rooted in human consciousness.
Iqbal’s Concept of Time:
Iqbal asserts that physical time[1] (or clock time) is unreal time. He holds the opinion that
psychological time[2]is real time. For Iqbal, the secret of time does not lie in stars, moons, and
galaxies; it lies within human consciousness. He does not reject the usefulness of serial time as
he says, “a purely objective point of view is …. partially helpful in our understanding of the
nature of time” (III. 76). But, to unravel the mystery of time we have to explore the inner
recesses and various stages of our consciousness. He maintains, “The right course is a careful
psychological analysis of our conscious experience which alone reveals the true nature of time”
(III. 76). He very eloquently declares in Secrets of the Self:
Our Time which has neither beginning nor end,
Blossoms from the flower-bed of our mind.
He says in Gabriel’s Wing:
Our days are illusion, our nights are a dream;
A current of time in which there is neither day nor night.
fiHOSE BLOOD IS IT HAS PAINTED mAN’S LONG HISTORY SO BRIGHT?
iN THE HEART OF THE aLMIGHTY LIKE A PRICKING THORN i LIE;
ffiOU ONLY CRY FOR EVER GOD, OH GOD, OH GOD MOST HIGH!*
*POEMS FROM iQBAL, TRANSLATED BY ff.G. KIERNAN (lONDON: JOHN mURRAY, 1955),
51–3.

Iqbal

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Originalbeschreibung:

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

Iqbal

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

True Love

Does True Love Exist?

During the interbellum,

Islamic Culture, 2003).

(Surrey: Curzon Press, 1996), p. 171.

East (London: Hurst, 2002), p. 195.

Political Economy (Routledge, 1998), p. 241.

Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), p. 586.

India (Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 1996), p. 337.

(1970), pp. 317-373.

Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 8.

and Debates (London: Continuum, 2005), p. 22.

64 Muhammad Khalid Masud, Travellers in Faith, Studies of the Tablighi

Jama’at as a Transnational Movement for Faith Renewal (Leiden: Brill,

Welt des Islams, Volume 47 (2007), Numbers 3-4, pp. 356-

o 2.1 Works in Persian

o 2.2 Works in Urdu

o 3.1 Revival of Islamic polity

o 3.2 Relationship with Jinnah

Muhammad Iqbal in 1899

Muhammad Iqbal, in London 1908

Muhammad Iqbal, with his son Javid Iqbal 1929

Revival of Islamic polity

Relationship with Jinnah

Iqbal, in his final years.

Iqbal is commemorated widely in Pakistan, where he is regarded as the ideological founder of

4. ↑ "Sir Allama Muhammad Iqbal - an Ideologist, a Poet-Philosopher and a Spiritualist",

6. ↑ Iqbal's "Development of Metaphysics in Persia" Ph.D. thesis Retrieved August 14,

8. ↑ Official website, Allama Iqbal Academy. "Asrar-i-Khudi". Retrieved 2006-05-30.

9. ↑ Bennett, Clinton "Muhamamd Iqbal and Islam" in Brown, Laurence et al Modern

13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Iqbal and Pakistan Movement

15. ↑ Ayesha Jalal, The Sole Spokesman, pp. 14

20. ↑ Talib, Gurbachan Singh. Indian P.E.N., 6-9.

 Mir, Mustansir. Iqbal, ISBN 1845110943

 Iqbal, Muhammad The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, Oxford: Oxford

Research begins here...

 This page was last modified on 2 April 2008, at 09:36.

 About New World Encyclopedia

Gabriel’s Wing: Dr. Annemarie Schimmel’s Masterpiece

Gabriel’s Wing: Dr. Annemarie Schimmel’s Masterpiece on Iqbal

The stream of life is transformed into an ocean

IQBAL AND SUFISM

The Living Mevlevi Tradition

A talk given by Shaikh Kabir at this year' s Urs celebrations in Konya.

Time as Spiritual Practice

Time Profane and Sacred

500 Most Influential Muslims in the World

Dervishhood & Adab,

Framework for Service

"When I come to Love, I am ashamed of all

The substance and meaning of Sufism

The practice of Sufism

The Truth of Sufism

If one cannot drink up the entire ocean,

The Blind Men and the Elephant

The Drop and the Ocean

How is it possible to realize Perfection?

Asceticism and Abstinence in Sufism

This one eats and only

The Spiritual Path

The Cloak of the Darvish

Recline on the throne of the heart,

Continuous, selfless remembrance of God