Rabu, 04 Februari 2009

Iqbal - What Should Them be Done O People of the East

WHAT SHOULD THEM BE DONE 'O PEOPLE OF THE EAST
ENGLISH RENDERING OF IQBAL’S PAS CHIH BAYAD KARD AY AQWAM-I SHARQ
byB. A. DAR
and
Off old sat freedom on the hills versified translationof the Persian Poem
MUSAFIR
LIVING ACCOUNT OF LIVING PEOPLE
Translatorr: JAMIL NAQVI


PREFACE

Iqbal's Pas Chih Bayad Kard was first published in September 1936. A few months earlier had appeared a collection of his Urdu poems entitled: Darb-i Kalim. The latter deals with different subjects like education, role of women in life, art and literature, politics in East and West. In his dedication to late Nawab Hamidullah Khan of Bhopal, Iqbal says:


[There was none who could truly understand the travail of the people of Asia; what have they suffered so far and what future holds in its womb for them.]

These verses show that during these years Iqbal was very anxious about the future of the Asian people, most of whom were in political bondage of the West and those who were free were under her political, economic and social pressure. This posed a great and serious problem for all Asian people. The East has its own rich tradition of culture, but under the dominating influence of the West, her people had succumbed to the charms of the prevalent material culture.

Iqbal feels that Western culture, though dynamic in certain fields, has, unfortunately, due to her historical background, become wedded to the ideal of secularism. Some Western scholars claim that the concept of secularism in the West is rot antireligious; it is not a denial of religion; historically, it is an extension of religion.1
It may be true, but when Iqbal accuses West of secularism, he refers to their basic creed that religion is a private affair of the individual, and therefore it has nothing to do with the social, political or economic life of the people. This divorce of the secular life from its spiritual basis is what Iqbal condemns most strongly. It has led to the breeding among the new generation of the East materialistic approach towards life and rendering them incapable of facing the new challenge. To meet this challenge successfully, we must face facts boldly. The stark reality is that East and West both are sick at heart.

[Love is almost dead in West through secularism. reason, through confusion, is slavish in East.]2
[Neither Asia nor Europe has life's vitality, one leads to khudi’s death, the other to heart's death and yet we feel in our hearts throbs of revolution maybe the old world is about to die]3
But Iqbal is not hopeful of any change for the better in the West. Why was Iqbal so hopeless about Europe's future? The situation in the West was really very serious during the days these books were written. Democracies of Western Europe England and France, had lost their former political supremacy; though they wielded power through the League of Nations, yet this institution had lost all prestige. Iqbal had very early raised his voice against this international association of vultures. Japan's attack on Manchuria, Mussolini's siezure of Abyssinia and Hitler's rise to power in Germany presaged very dark days for the world. Bloody battles among contending forces of fascism and socialism were fought on the soil of Spain, people of the same land killing one another. Clouds of world war were thickening. It seemed a world conflagration was on the corner. Nobody could safely predict what was in store for man. A mood of gloom was all but natural and it was due to these reasons that Iqbal decides to appeal to the people of the East to rise to the occasion and try to arrest the fast approaching danger of destruction. He tries to awaken them so that they may take up the task of civilising mankind in a better way.
[The wine-shop of the East has still the wine that can illumine one's vision: the sages are hopeless of Europe for her people lack purity of heart.]4
The present Mathnavi is, therefore, addressed to the people of the East. In the Introduction, he warns the readers of the danger of Reason's revolt which may endanger the future of the human race. By associating revolt with reason, Iqbal does not mean to denounce reason as such or depreciate the valuable contribution of reason to the development of human culture.
By reason's revolt, Iqbal seems to emphasise the secular trends of thought that characterise the life of the Western people, severing the individual's social, economic and political life from the operation of moral and spiritual principles. Reason's revolt means, in Iqbal, revolt of the Western man against the spiritual basis of life. The remedy for this, therefore, lies, according to Iqbal, in raising recruits from the Kingdom of Love, those who are dedicated to the objective of world peace, human brotherhood and social justice. When it is the question of bringing about revolution among people, changing their whole outlook on life, it is not to reason that one has to appeal; it is the transmuting power of faith that is to be awakened which transforms heartless people into noble and gentle spirits.
[That which changes all of a sudden people's destiny is a power to which wise reason is no match]5
It is this "madness" which, when combined with reason, brings about revolution in men's way of thinking and living.
In the first two introductory chapters, Iqbal describes the situation as it has developed in Asian lands under the influence of Western thought and mode of living. He regards it his paramount duty to clarify the relation between State and Church which, according to him, is the main pivot on which revolves the future of the people of the world. In order to build a new world order which is more in consonance with the traditions of the East, it is necessary, first of all, to destroy, root and branch, that aspect of Western culture that does not suit our genius and is harmful for our future development. The fourth and fifth chapters depict the contrasting effects of two different paths-the path of truth and the path of falsehood. The fourth chapter explains in brief the type of man deriving inspiration from the Qur'an and the Sunnah. The fifth deals with the type of people whose outlook is limited to this world here and now and have no faith in any life after death chapters elaborate the theme
The sixth. seventh and eighth chapters touched upon in chapter four. The basis of this spiritual state is there is no god save Allah. It is a synthesis of both negation and affirmation -negation of whatever is undesirable and affirmation of what is good and valuable. Iqbal refers to the life of the Arabs of the seventh century of the Christian era who succeeded in building a new society on both negation and affirmation. Then he refers to modern Russia which. is involved in denial and has yet not taken the next important step to affirmation. The next two chapters, dealing with Faqr and Free Man, describe the type, positively, of man who can successfully guide the people, and, negatively, the type - of people who are no more than hypocrites.
The fourth part of the book begins with chapter 9, dealing with the manifold values embodied in the Islamic Shari’ah. Here Iqbal describes certain basic principles of the new social order that is to be based on the Shari’ah
First, the value of money is undeniable; it is the misuse of money that leads to injustice and tyranny
Second, acquisition of money should be through legal sources, those that are approved by the Shari’ah
Neglect of these principles, Iqbal states, has led to the exploitation of man by man which has brought about serious crises in the affairs of the people.
In the end he defines in clear terms the significance of Shari’ah and Tariqah, the latter a mere inner extension of the former.
The fifth part deals first with the sad spectacle of disharmony among the different peoples inhabiting the South Asian subcontinent. As we know, the present book was written during 1935 and 1936, the period when elections were to be held in India under the newly enforced Government of India Act, 1935. The Quaid-i Azam had decided in 1934 to revive the Muslim League and efforts began to be made towards this purpose. Iqbal was in full accord with the Quaid-i Azam in this objective. In spite of intensive efforts made during the last twenty years to bring about some understanding between the two communities, Hindus and Muslims, nothing had been achieved. Iqbal laments over this situation which unfortunately perpetuated the bonds of slavery.
In the next chapter, the ninth, Iqbal discusses the baneful effects of slavery on man, who loses thereby his creative impulse and dynamic urge for new life.
In the third chapter of part five, Iqbal addresses the Arab people who, through the intrigues of Western nations, were divided into several Nation-States, thus reducing their overall strength in political and economic fields. He advises them to throw off the yoke of the West and, in building the new edifice of their society, they should draw inspiration from their ancient rich cultural traditions.
The thirteenth chapter deals with the main problem: what should the people of the East do to meet this challenge of the modern secular age? In the first place, Iqbal deals with the miserable condition of the people of the world as a result of divorce of material life from its spiritual source under the influence of the West. In the second part, he advises them to give up following the West and turn to their own cultural heritage for inspiration.
The book concludes with a prayer to Prophet Muhammad (may peace be upon him). Though it seems to start with a personal note, it is in reality a critique of the modern Muslim and a prayer to the Prophet (may peace be upon him), in his behalf, so that be may gain confidence in himself, in his traditions, and in his cultural heritage.
I am glad to acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. Hadi Hussain who not only went through the typescript and suggested certain improvements, but also helped me in clearing some doubts about certain verses of the text. I am grateful to Mr. Ashraf Dar who took great pains and meticulous care in editing and preparing the typescript for the press.

B. A. DAR
1. Dr. Hafiz Malik, Ed., Iqbal, Poet-Philosopher of Pakistan, p. 182.
2. Darb-i Kalim, p. 81.
3. Ibid., p. 139.
4. Ibid., pp. 111-12.
5. Ibid., p. 146.
TO THE READER OF THE BOOK

I raise a new army from the Kingdom of Love;

for there is danger of revolt by the Intellect against the Sanctuary.1

The world does not know the real nature of Madeness2 :

it is a garment that fits the Intellect perfectly.

Donning this garment, I attained to a station
5
where it would be honour for the Intellect

to walk around my house (like a pilgrim).

Don't think that the Intellect is exempt from the final reckoning:

one look from the believer judges it as if on Judgment Day.3


1. Sanctuary, Haram, the sacred precincts at Mecca. For Iqbal, this word also stands for Muslims or Muslim society.
2. Madness (Junun), in Iqbal, stands for Intuition and Love in contrast to Intellect and Reason. See my articles Intellect and Intuition . . ." in Iqbal, IV/3 (January 1956), 60-105 and " 'Iim wa 'Ishq" in Adabi Dunya, "Iqbal Number" (1972), p. 24.
3. See the Qur'an, xxi. 47 and xvii. 13.
[EXPLANATORY NOTE]
TO THE READER OF THE BOOK
EXPLANATORY NOTE
The main problem before Iqbal is to counter the tendency towards undue emphasis that, under the influence of Western thought, people have begun to give to reason in human life. Iqbal's criticism of the West (which in his poetical works is designated by the word farang, a term used by the people of the subcontinent in a derogatory sense in the earlier phases of the rule of the East India Company and different Western ideologies like Capitalism, Socialism, Imperialism, Nationalism, is based on his conviction that all these ideologies flow from the belief that matter and spirit are basically different and that matter is primary, more important for our life, than spirit.
In his Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, he says. "Modern Europe has . . . built idealistic systems . . . but experience shows that truth revealed through pure reason is incapable of bringing that fire of living conviction which personal revelation alone can bring. This is the reason why pure thought has so little influenced men while religion has always elevated individuals, and transformed societies. The idealism of Europe never became a living factor in her life, and the result is a perverted ego seeking itself through mutually intolerant democracies whose sole function is to exploit the poor in the interest of the rich. Believe me, Europe to-day is the greatest hindrance in the way of man's ethical advancement.1"
Professor Arberry refers tauntingly to this opinion of Iqbal as a mere dogmatic assertion, which, in his eyes, has no basis in truths.2 Professor Arberry seems to miss the main point of Iqbal's argument, which is that unless ideologies are formed with the conviction that spirit is more important than matter, that life after death is more significant than life here and now, there is no hope of survival for mankind. What we need today is not more of material prosperity, but prosperity which is not divorced from spiritual aspirations of man. In the same Lecture, Iqbal says: "Humanity needs three things to-day-a spiritual interpretation of the universe, spiritual emancipation of the individual, and basic principles of a universal import directing the evolution of human society on a spiritual basis."3
This, however, does not mean that the material aspect of our life should be ignored and the utility of reason totally denied. In emphasising the importance of love in contrast to reason, Iqbal never meant to deny the value of reason. His object is. that there should be a proper balance between the two and that we should try to avoid the mistake of the West in denying either of the two.

[Science without love is a demonic thing, Science together with love is a thing Divine.]4
1. P. 179 (Lecture entitled : "The Principle of Movement in the Structure of Islam").
2. Preface to Arberry's English translation of Iqbal's Rumuz i Bekhudi (Mysteries of Selflessness), p. xiii.
3. Reconstruction, p. 179.
4. Javid Namah, p. 83.

INTRODUCTION
The Pir of Rum,1 the clairvoyant murshid,

the leader of the caravan of love and ecstasy,
10
whose station is far above the Moon and the Sun,

for whose tent the Milky Way serves as pegs,

whose heart is effulgent with the light of the Qur'an,2

whose mirror is more revealing than Jamshid's3 cup.

That musician4 Of Pure breed has
15
thrown my being into tumult once again with his music.

Said he: The people have become aware of the secrets,

the East has awoken from its deep slumber;

destiny has given it new aspirations,

and loosened its age-old chains.
20
No one, O knower of the secrets of the West,

has experienced the fire of the West5 better than thee.

Be God-intoxicated like the Friend of God,6

and help bring down every idol-temple.7

It is ecstasy that imparts life to peoples,
25
though the undiscerning call it madness.

No people under the azure dome of the sky

has ever achieved anything without this ingenious madness.

The believer is strong through his will and his Paragoul;8

if he lacks these two, he is an unbeliever.
30
He can distinguish between good and evil

a mere look from him can shake the whole world;

his blow can crush a mountain to pieces ;

and he has thousands of resurrections at his command.

Having drunk wine from my tavern,
35
you have removed all outmodedness from your vision.

Live in the garden like smell, both hidden and manifest,

live among colours, but be free from colour.

Your age is not aware of the secrets of the spirit:

its creed is nothing but love for the other-than-God.
40
Little has the philosopher understood this point:

his thought revolves only round matter.

He has not illumined his eyes with the lantern of the heart;

hence he sees nothing but blue, red and yellow.

Fortunate is he who never bowed before any man,
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and who freed his feet from the chains of

servitude to the other-than-God.

What it means to be a lion is beyond the ken of cows and buffaloes;

never reveal your secret except to lions.

One should not drink wine in the company of a churl,

though he may be king of Rum9 or Rayy.
50
It is better that our Joseph be taken away by a wolf

than be bought by an unworthy person.10

People of the world lack reason and imagination

they are weavers of mat and know nothing about satin.

What a beautiful verse a Persian poet has sung,
55
which sets the soul afire:

"To the ears of the people of the world, the wailing of the lover

is like the cry of the adhan in the land of the Franks."

Reveal once again the significance of religion and politics,

tell the devotees of the Truth what you understand by them.
60
"Suffer grief (patiently) and do not eat the bread

of those who augment grief;

a wise man suffers grief while a child eats sweets."11

To the mendicant,12 even his patched-up garment is a burden.

Like breeze you should carry nothing except the smell of roses.

Are you an ocean? Then be constantly at war with your environment.
65
Are you a dew-drop? Then drop yourself gently on a rose-petal.

The Divine mystery is not hidden from the man of God;

do you know what is the true nature of a believer's soul?

It is a drop of dew which, out of desire for self-manifestation,

unravelled its own knot with its own hands,
70
which sat in the depth of its being by dint of self hood,

which started on its journey from the stillness of the heavens;

which did not turn towards the limitless expanse of the ocean,

nor hid itself in an oyster13;

It palpitated in the lap of the morning for a moment
75
and then dropped into the mouth of the new-born bud.


1. Jalaluddin Rumi, one of the greatest mystic poets of the world. Iqbal has expressed his indebtedness to him in all his books, starting with Asrar-i Khudi and ending with Javid Namah where Rumi serves as his guide in his heavenly sojourn and Armaghan-i Hijaz, the last book of his poems published posthumously. In the last book (p. 106), Iqbal says about Rumi
[He helped this worthless person understand many a mystery, transmuting "this earth of pathway" into gold the song of that pure-hearted singer, acquainted me with Love and Ecstasy.]
2. Cf. the famous verse about Rumi's Mathnavi
[The Mathnavi of the Maulana, who knows reality, Is the Qur'an in Persian language.]
3. Jamshid, a legendary king of ancient Persia. According to legend, Jam or Jamshid had a wine cup through which
he could see events happening in the world. Iqbal thinks that Rumi's Mathnavi is more revealing than the cup of Jamshid.
4. Reference is to Rumi whose very first verse in the Mathnavi is :[Listen to the reed when it relates its story, and complains of separation.]
Cf. the following verse of Iqbal (Armaghan-i Hijaz, p. 198):
[This very wood of flute is my property:neither pulpit's wood nor that of the gallows.]
5. Fire of the West. Reference is to the fire into which Abraham was cast by his enemies. It is said that Abraham came out of this fire unscathed and better equipped to face the challenge of his enemies "O fire ! be ,coolness and peace for Abraham" (The Qur'an, xxi. 69. For Abraham's experience, see the Qur'an, xxi. 68 ; xxix. 24 ; xxxviii. 97). Iqbal (Bal-i Jibril, p. 92) claims to perform the same role in the present context :
[I am aware of the pains of modern knowledge, For I was thrown into its fire like Abraham.]
In another place (Armaghan-i Hijaz, p. 70) be says
[God knows that like Abraham I jumped into the fire (of the West) so carefree.]
6. Friend of God is the title of Abraham.
7. Breaking of idols is associated with the name of Abraham. "So he broke them (the idols) into pieces" (The Qur'an, xxi. 28).
8. Complete reliance on God (tawakkul). Here Iqbal follows Rumi and interprets tawakkul in the positive sense of relying upon God while starting any programme of work. It is related that a Bedouin left his camel grazing unprotected. He lost it and came to the Prophet complaining that he had left The camel grazing quite unprotected, relying completely on God. The Prophet said, "Tie the camel's knot and trust in God." This is Islamic tawakkul. Says Rumi (Mathnavi, i, 913, 947) :
[The Prophet said in a loud voice:Trusting in God, bind the camel's knee.][If you practise tawakkul, do it in your workSow the seed, then rely upon the Almighty.]
Cf. the Qur'an: "When thou hast decided (to take some step, take it and) put thy trust in God" (iii. 58). This verse of the Qur'an contains both the words used by Iqbal, ‘azm and tawakkul.
9. Rum means West Asian mainland.
10. Cf. the Qur'an (xii. 17-20). The brothers of Yusuf falsely claimed that he had been devoured by a wolf. The folklore has it that when Yusuf was being offered for sale in the Egyptian market by the Midianites, a woman came forward to buy him in exchange for a piece of yarn. Cf. the following verse in Payam-i M’ashriq (p. 3):
[God revealed on me the secrets of State and Religion, and removed from my eyes the impress of other- than-God.]
11. These lines (61 62) are from Rumi.
12. Faqir, lit. beggar, mendicant. In Iqbal's terminology, Faqr is not begging for lack of means, but a positive attitude of detachment towards the material world. One who serves God's purposes and obeys His laws and subjects himself to His will is what Iqbal would call a Faqir. See below, explanatory note to Chapter on Faqr.
13. Oyster. It is generally said that if a drop of water enters the oyster, it becomes a pearl.
Self-development in the eyes of Iqbal, does not consist in acquiring material wealth or in showing off one's talents it rather lies in gaining in depth and radiating one's dynamism and vitality towards all without any -distinction.

[EXPLANATORY NOTE]
INTRODUCTION
EXPLANATORY NOTE
In this introduction Iqbal has tried to emphasise four points:
(1) He is greatly indebted to Rumi from whom he has learnt
(a) that societies cannot be made active except through what Iqbal calls jadhb (sukr), junun (madness), which stand for Love or the vital way of appropriating the universe (see Reconstruction, p 109), and
(b) that a true believer should be characterised by active pursuit of ideals, but his dynamism must be intimately related to the fundamental spiritual background of our life.
(2) Unfortunately, the present age has forgotten that spirit is primary and more important than matter. Mere reason cannot be of great use here. One should illumine one's eye "with the lamp of the heart".
(3) The world is in need of learning once again the true value and significance of religion and politics and their intimate relation in the life of human societies.
(4) The ideal of life for an individual is to live soulfully, i.e. in ever-fruitful contact with God, and then to diffuse the fruit of this contact among the people around him so as to bring about a better social order.

ADDRESS TO THE WORLD-ILLUMINATING SUN

O lord of the East, O shining Sun!

thou illuminest the heart1 of every mote of dust.

It is through thee that Being has ardour and exhilaration;

it is through thee that every hidden thing desires to manifest itself.
80
Thy golden canoe in the silvery waters

moves brighter than the hand of Moses.2

It is thy rays which give light to the Moon,

and provide sustenance to the ruby within the heart of the stone.

The inner burning of the tulip
85
and the coursing of blood in its veins are the result of thy bounty.

The narcissus tears away hundreds of veils to catch a glimpse of thy ray.

Welcome, with thee comes the morning of our heart’s desire,

thou hast transformed every tree into the

Burning Bush of Mount Sina’i.3
90
Thou art the beginning of the morning while I am

at the end of my days; light a lamp in my heart;

illumine my dark earth from head to foot;

cover me up in thy illuminations

that I may bring the light of the day to the night of the Orient’s thought,
95
brighten up the heart of the free men of the Orient,

give maturity to the inexperienced through my songs,

and give a new turn to the events of the world.

Thus may the thought of the Orient free itself from the Franks

And gain lustre through my songs.
100
Life comes not but through dhikr (meditation);

(true) independence comes not but through purity of thought.

When the thought of a people becomes corrupt,

then in their hands pure silver turns into base metal.

The pure heart dies in their breast,
105
and to their eyes the crooked appears straight.

From the battlefield of life they keep themselves safely away;

for them life resides only in the stationary.

Seldom do waves arise from their ocean;

their pearls are as worthless as pieces of clay.
110
It is therefore necessary that their thought should

first be purified (of all dross);

Reconstruction of thought would then be easy for them,


1. Raushan damir, one who can see into the heart of things; one whose heart is so illumined that everything can be seen in it. This is the epithet usually applied to God-intoxicated people who are credited with having the miraculous power of foreseeing and foretelling events.
2. Hand of Moses. Moses is called Kalim (one who speaks) because, as stated in the Qur’an (xvii. 143-44), God spoke to him. Verse 144 states: “O Moses! surely I have chosen thee out of all people by bestowing apostleship on thee and by speaking to thee.” The hand of Moses is a reference to the Qur’anic verses xx. 22-23; xxvii. 10-27; xxviii. 31-32. The first verse reads
“And press thy hand to thy side; it will come out white without evil- another sign.” It was one of the signs with which Moses vanquished Pharaoh.
3. Reference is to the Qur’anic verse (xxviii. 30): “And when he came to it, he was called from the right side of the valley in the blessed spot of the bush.” The Burning Bush, the place from where Moses heard the call of God, declaring “I am Allah, the Lord of the Worlds” (xxviii. 30) is a symbol of sacredness in Islamic literature.
[EXPLANATORY NOTE]
ADDRESS TO THE WORLD-ILLUMINATING SUN
EXPLANATORY NOTE
According to the tradition prevalent in the Wisdom Literature particularly, the Orient represents the land of light, knowledge, right guidance, while the Occident is the land of darkness, ignorance and misguidance. (Cf. Corbin, Ibn Sina and the Visionary Recital.)
As a source of light and illumination. Iqbal seems to be enamoured of the Sun, which rises in the East and diffuses its light and warmth to all. East and West alike.
Very early in his poetic career, Iqbal composed a poem on the Sun which, according to Iqbal himself, as he stated in the Makhzan of 20 August 1902, conveyed the sense of the Vedic hymn on the praise of the Sun. The first seven verses here reflect in substance the spirit expressed in the earlier poem
[O Sun. thou art the moving spirit of the world, thou bindest together the scattered pages of the universe. All things are sustained through thy manifestation, all thy ardour stands for Life, total and absolute. The Sun that diffuses light throughout the world is heart, reason, spirit and consciousness.] 1
The East is not only politically under the heels of the West; intellectually too it is the West’s slave. Iqbal wishes to free the. people of the East from bondage to Western modes of thought, which are not conducive at all, he thinks, to the welfare of the people of the world. In order to build anew, Iqbal had to demolish old and harmful systems of thought (verses 111-12).
He expresses a similar idea in the Introduction to the Gulshan-i Raz Jadid:
[A battle of life -and death is being waged in my soul; my eye is on immortal life.I saw thy clay devoid of life, I breathed my soul into thy body. The fire that I have has affected me deeply, illumine the darkness of the night with my lamp.] 2
In the Epilogue of the same book, he says:
[Catch the flying flame from my fire, for I am warm-blooded like Rumi;otherwise get fire from the new culture (of the West), adorn your exterior and die spiritually.] 3
Iqbal has explained his programme of social Reconstruction in different books, specially in Rumuz-i Bekhudi and Javid Namah. Here he epitomises this programme by stating, as in verses 101-02, that dhikr and fikr, meditation and rational approach, are essential for normal growth of individuals and societies.
Dhikr, literally, reciting the name of God or words in His praise or reciting some sacred phases, in Iqbal, however, dhikr does not mean this ritual reciting of some formulas in the mystic tradition, which he condemns as harmful for the growth of society.4 For Iqbal, dhikr stands for an attitude of mind which is the result of maintaining constant touch with Reality that affords the individual spiritual nourishment at all crucial moments of his life. Fikr is rational approach, an attitude of mind which characterises a true scientist who is always in search of Truth. Iqbal thinks that an individual should cultivate both these characteristics; he should be a scientist as well as a mystic.
These two terms, dhikr and fikr, are derived from the following verse of the Qur’an (iii. 190): “Those who remember (dhikr) Allah standing, sitting and (lying) on their sides, and reflect (fikr) on the creation of the heavens and the earth: Our Lord, thou hast not created this in vain! Glory be to Thee !”
Iqbal defines the two by bringing them into sharp contrast:
[These are all a wayfarer’s search postsabout whom the Qur’an says6: “He taught all the names”.] 5
[The achievements of Rumi and ‘Attar are stations of dhikr;
the compilations of Bu ‘Mi Sina pertain to the station of Fikr.
To measure time and space is the station of fikr,
to recite: “Exalted be my Lord, Most High” is the station of dhikr]
and then recommending that both these should be synthesised. In Javid Namah (p. 89), he says:
[The Faqr of the Qur’an is the mingling of dhikr and fikr; I have never seen .fikr perfect without dhikr]
In other words, Iqbal recommends both dhikr and fikr, reason and intuition, intellectual and vital ways of dealing with the universe, the former represented by scientists and the latter by mystics. If you ignore fikr, reason, you are destroying the motivation for social progress, advance in civilisation and hence you fail to fulfill the negative demand of faith, La ilah. If you ignore dhikr or, in other words, lose your contact with the Source of Being and Life, you are creating a spiritual vacuum in your life, mischief and disharmony in society and hence paving the way for violent and aggressive revolution.

1. Bang-i Dara, pp. 30-31.
2. Zabur-i ‘Ajam, p. 205. See my art. on “Iqbal’s Message” in monthly Faran (Karachi) for September 1972, pp. 10-21.
3. Zabur-i ‘Ajam, p. 243.
4. See Armaghan-i Hijaz, p. 228
[(Satan advises his followers to)Keep him (man) busy in morning meditationsthat renunciatory trends take firmer roots.]
5. Darb-i Kalim, p. 16. These words are recited in prayer when man prostrates himself on the ground, bringing home to him
(a) the great gap that separates him from God, Who is most High, while he is most lowly;
(b) the role of prayer is covering up that gap and thus bringing him nearer to God.
6. The Qur’an, ii. 31.
THE WISDOM OF MOSES
As the Prophet establishes God’s decrees,

he repudiates Caesar’s law.1

In his eyes the royal palace is like an old idol-temple;
115
his sense of honour makes him disobey the order of the other-than-God.

The imperfect become perfect through association with him.

He gives a new tumult to the age.

His message is that Allah is sufficient and all else is meaningless,2

so that the man of truth does not fall into anybody’s snare.
120
His moisture imparts fire to the vine’s twig

and his breath gives life to this handful of earth.

He is the meaning of Gabriel and the Qur’an,

and he is the custodian of God’s Law.3

His wisdom is superior to artful Reason,
125
his spirit gives birth to a people (Ummah).4

He is a ruler disinterested in throne and crown:

sans crown, sans army, sans tribute.

His look transforms autumn into spring,

and through him the dregs of every pitcher

become stronger than the wine.
130
In his morning lamentation lies life,

and the universe is renewed by the morning of his manifestation.

The sea and the earth are devastated by the intensity of his deluge,

and in his eyes there is a message of revolution.

He teaches the lesson of “they have no fear”5
135
he puts a heart into the breast of man.

He teaches man determination, submission (to the

will of God) and willing acquiescence;

and makes him radiant in the world like a lamp.

I do not know what magic he practises,

but he totally transforms the soul in the body.
140
In his society a piece of clay becomes a pearl;

and his wisdom gives abundance to the deficient.

He says to the downtrodden slave:

Arise and break into pieces every ancient deity.

O man of God, break the spell of this old world
145
with these words: God is the highest of all.

If you wish to gain Faqr, don’t complain of poverty;

well-being depends on one’s attitude and not on rank and wealth.

Truthfulness, sincerity, submissiveness, ardour and sympathy

these are needed and not gold or silver, nor red and yellow coins.
150
O living man, avoid these kings and nobles,6

walk around your own self and not around the palaces.

Thou hast fallen away from thy true station,

thou art born of a falcon, do not follow the ways of vultures.

A bird in a garden grove builds his nest to his own liking.
155
Thou who hast a heaven-traversing imagination

should not think thyself inferior to a bird. Rebuild these nine heavens7

and refashion this world according to thy own desire.
160
When he gets annihilated in God’s will,

the man of faith becomes God’ decree.

The four dimensions along with the blue heavens

are born out of his pure bosom.8

Annihilate thyself in the will of God like thy forefathers;
165
bring out thy pearl out of the oyster.9

In the darkness of this world of stone and bricks,

illumine thy eyes with the light of thy nature.10

Unless thou takest thy share of the majesty11 of God,

thou canst not enjoy Divine Beauty.
170
The beginning of love and ecstasy is majesty (qahiri);

the end of love and ecstasy is beauty (Dilbari).12

The man of faith is a symbol of perfect existence :13

he alone is real; all else is mere appearance.

If he gains ardour and zeal from “There is no deity (but God),”
175
the Sun and Moon will revolve only at his bidding.


1. Iqbal here brings into sharp contrast God’s Will and king’s will, keeping in mind perhaps the well-known saying of Christ: Render unto Caeser what is Caesar’s and render unto God what is God’s. Iqbal feels that it is not possible for one to be loyal to God’s will and yet to accept and follow the lead of ordinary mundane rulers.
2. Cf. the Qur’anic verse (xxxix. 36): “Is not Allah sufficient for His servants ?”
3. Cf. the Qur’anic verse (xxx. 30): “So set thy face for religion, being upright, the nature made by Allah in which He has created man.”
Allah s Nature, as the Qur’anic verse signifies, stands for Islam to which the Prophet is commissioned to give practical and concrete shape.
4. It appears that, according to Iqbal, the hikmat (wisdom) of the Prophet is not qualitatively different from reason only it is much higher than the latter.
Iqbal speaks of the Prophet (Rumuz, p. 117: Arberry’s translation (Mysteries of Selflessness, p. 20]):
[...through his wisdom -flows
The lifeblood of the whole Community;...His was the breath that gave the people life;His sun shone glory on their risen dawn.In God the Individual, in himLives the Community. . . .]
In another place in the same book (pp. 103-04 : Arberry’s translation, p. 10), Iqbal speaks of the Prophet’s role:
[. . . At his fiery breathA people leap like rue upon a fireIn sudden tumult, in their heart one sparkCaught from -his kindling, and their sullen clayBreaks instantly aflame. .The naked understanding he adorns,With wealth abundant fills its indigence,Fans with his skirts its embers, purifiesIts gold of every particle of dross.]
5. See the Qur’anic verse (x. 62) : “Now surely the friends of Allah have no fear, nor do they grieve.”
6. Kawus, name of a legendary king of Persia; kai, allied with Sanskrit Kay!, bard, stands for nobles.
7. Nine heavens. In the Qur’an, we usually meet with “seven” heavens. Cf. lxv. 12 In xxiii. 17. instead of seven heavens we have seven ways.
According to Lisan aI-’Arab, the word “seven” was used by the Arabs to denote multiplicity.
Iqbal’s use of “nine” instead of “seven” does not seem to be a departure from the classical tradition ; it may have been used to conform, not of course exactly, to the latest scientific research.
Javid Namah, p. 152
[Blessed is the man whose single sighcauses the nine heavens circle round his dwelling.]
Zabur-i ‘Ajam, p. 210
[Happy the day when you master the world, and pierce the heart of the nine heavens.]
8. Asrar, p. 55:
[He will subvert the course of time and wreck the azure firmament. By his own strength be will produce a new world which will do his pleasure.]
See also Zabur -i ‘,Ajam, pp. 225-26, and Javid Namah, pp. 15-20.
9. See note 13 on line 74.
10. Light of nature, nur-i sir isht, the natural simplicity and righteousness of man, the basic nature (fitrat Allah) on which God created man.
11. Majesty ( jalal) and beauty (jamal) are the two antithetical but complementary aspects of God’s Essence. The former indicates might, wrath, awfulness, while The latter stands for beauty, mercy and loving-kindness.
Javid Namah, p. 226
[Both attain perfection through Tauhid,Life for the latter is majesty, for the former beauty.]
“Both” here stands for individual and society.
Darb-i Kalim, p. 122
[If there be no Jalal, beauty is ineffective;if the song lacks fire, it is mere sound.]
Javid Namah, p. 83
[May God protect us from “might” without “love”.]
In other words, social welfare and individual development demand synthesis of the two.
12. Dilbari, lit, art of heart-ravishing, heart-captivating, while qahiri, lit., is conquering power, might.
These two terms like jamal and jalal, khalwat and jalwat (Javid Namah, p. 83), form two complementary aspects of a higher synthesis.
Darb-i Kalim, p. 109
[The same eye has might and force,the same eye has beauty and loving kindness.]
Javid Namah, p. 25
[Both are world-conquering, both seek immortality;the one by guidance of force, the other by love.]
13. According to pantheistic mystics, wujud (being), as such, belongs to God alone; all else is devoid of wujud and if they possess it, it is only as a reflection (zill). Here Iqbal asserts that man alone has independent existence and enjoys fullness of being. By wujud, Iqbal means strong and rich personality (Darb-i Kalim, p. 28):
[What is existence ?-manifestation of Ego’s power.]
[EXPLANATORY NOTE]
THE WISDOM OF MOSESEXPLANATORY NOTE
Moses in Oriental tradition is called Kalim, one who talked with God It is based on Qur’anic narration (xx. 11-24). Here God addresses Moses and advises him to take certain steps in his encounter with the Pharaoh and his hosts. Iqbal has taken Moses as a prototype of Prophethood and in his works we often meet with the contrast of reason and love expressed as Moses and Pharaoh, philosopher and prophet, etc. Moses or Kalim stands for knowledge based on revelation
[Only a Kalim can rise in revolt against imperialism,a mendicant, without cap and blanket.]1
[The heart of a people is purifiedBy a Kalim or reed-playing poet.]2
“Reed-playing poet” refers to Rumi.
[Modern knowledge has once again revived Old Magic,it’s impossible to live now without Moses’ rod.]3
The word hikmah is generally used for wisdom. The Qur’an employs this term often for knowledge received through revelation from God. “This is the wisdom (hikmah) which thy Lord has revealed to thee” (xvii. 39). Again. “He grants wisdom to whom He pleases and whoever is granted wisdom, he indeed is given a great good” (ii. 269).
The Prophet brings about a revolution in the minds of the people, transforms societies by his new message. Speaking about the role of the Prophet. Iqbal says: “The Prophet’s return from the repose of unitary experience] is creative. He returns 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. . . 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” (Reconstruction, pp. 124-25).
[So to return from the Spaceless world,that He be in thy heart and the world, in thy grasp.]4
The message that Iqbal wishes to convey is that man must first start with a firm conviction in God’s overall supremacy conveyed in words like “Law is only Allah’s”. This conviction is the basis of a new social order that emancipates people from loyalty to false ideals.
Under the influence of this teaching, the Prophet transforms ordinary people into men of highest calibre both spiritually and materially. Such people are not anchorites ; they insert themselves into the sweep of history and refashion it after the pattern desired by God’s When they annihilate their will in the Will of God, the world of God moves according to their will. They are repositories both of Dilbari (love) and qahiri (might), jamal (beauty) and jalal (power).
1. Armaghan-i Hijaz, p. 127.
2. Ibid., p. 14.
3. Bal-I Jibril, p. 88.
4. Zabur-i ‘Ajam, p. 225.
THERE IS NO DEITY EXCEPT GOD
I tell thee a significant point known only to the people of ecstasy1:

for nations, negation expresses power, affirmation expresses beauty.

Negation and affirmation together signify control of the universe:
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they are the keys to the doors of the universe.

Both are the destiny of this world of Becoming.

Movement is born out of negation, stationariness, out of affirmation.

Unless the secret of negation is grasped,

the bonds of the other-than-God cannot be broken.
230
The beginning of every work in the world is with the word of negation:2

it is the first stage of the man of God.

A nation which burns itself in its heat for a moment

recreates itself out of its own ashes.

To say No to the other-than-God is Life :
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the universe is ever renewed by its tumult.

Not every person is affected by its madness ;3

not every haystack is fit to catch its fire.

When this ecstasy affects the heart of a living person,

he makes sluggards4 sitting on the roadside5 to move on swiftly.
240
Dost thou wish the servant to fight the master6 (for his rights)?

Then sow the seed of No in his handful of dust.

Whoever has this burning ardour in his heart

is more awe-inspiring than the Doomsday.

No is a succession of violent blows;
245
it is the rumbling of thunder, not the piping tune of a flute;

its blow changes every being into non-being,

So that thou comest out of the whirlpool of Existence.7

I relate to thee the history of the Arabs

that thou mayest know its good and bad aspects.8
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Their strokes broke Lat and Manat9 into pieces;

confined within dimensions, they yet lived free of all bonds.

Every old garment was torn off by them;

Chosroes and Caesars10 met their doom at their hands.

At times deserts were overrun by their thunder showers;
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at other times seas were churned by their storms.

The whole world, no more than a straw, was set afire by them:

it was all a manifestation of No.

They were constantly astir until out of this old world

they brought forth a new one11 into existence.
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The invitation to the truth (the -call to prayer) is

the result of their early rising ;12

whatever exists is the outcome of their sowing (of seed).

The lamp of the tulip that has been lit up

was brought from the banks of their river13

They erased from the tablet of their heart the

impress of the other-than-God;
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hundreds of new worlds therefore came into

being at their hands.

You will similarly see that in the period of Western dominance14

capital and labour have come to blows.

As the heart of Russia was sorely afflicted, the word

No came out of the depths of her being.15
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She has upset the old order

and applied a sharp scalpel to the veins of the world.

I have closely observed her position which is:

no kings, no church, no deity.16

Her thought has remained tied to the wind-storm of negation,
275
and has not marched towards the affirmative “but”.

Maybe a day will come when through force of ecstasy

She may extricate herself from this whirlwind.

Life does not rest at the station of Negation,

the universe moves on towards “but”.
280
Negation and affirmation both are necessary for the nations:

Negation without affirmation is their death.17

How can Khalil (friend) be ripe in love

unless negation guides him towards affirmation?18
285
O you who indulge in debate in your closet,

raise the cry of negation before a Nimrod.19

What you see around you is not worth two grains of barley,

be acquainted with the might of there is no deity.

He who has the sword of negation in his hands
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is the ruler of all the universe.

1. People of ecstasy, mardan-i hal, persons who pass through different states in their spiritual experiences. This phrase stands here for people engaged in dynamic activity in contrast to mardan- i hal, people who only talk and do nothing.
Power and beauty, jalal and jamal, see note 11 to verse 169 above.
2. Cf. the verse (Darb-i Kalim, p. 60):
[In the universe, negation is the beginning, affirmation the end.]
3. Literally, Not every collar is torn by its madness. In Oriental poetry, a-mad person, in a fit of madness, often tears his clothes, especially the collar.
4. Sluggards, rah-nashin, wayside beggars, sitting and doing nothing.
5. Rah-naward, he who is on the way, going somewhere, indicating movement, progress towards the goal.
6. Iqbal coined the word khwajgi to express the idea behind “capitalism”. It was first used in Rumuz-i Bekhudi, published in 1918 (Asrar-o Rumuz, p. 120):
[(The Prophet’s teachings) Raised the dignity of a labourer, Removed capitalist tyranny from the overlords.]
Then in a poem entitled “Khidr-i Rah” (included in Bang-i Dara, p. 298), recited by Iqbal in 1922, he used the same phrase
[Capitalism has cast many a charming idolRace, nationalism, church, state, civilisation, colour.]
in another context, he says (Javid Namah, p. 89)
[What is the Qur’an ?-sentence of death for the capitalist succour for the destitute labourer.]
7. The point Iqbal wishes to emphasise here is that one who follows Tauhid in spirit feels everything besides himself and God as of no value and hence insignificant and unreal.
Asrar-o Rumuz, p. 163
[On the head of this falsehood, garmented as truth,strike with the words: there is naught but God.]
ibid., p. 114
[Man of God is naught before his Master,but stands firm against falsehood.]
Bal-i Jibril, p. 132 (translation by Kiernan)
[Round his servant’s firm faith God’s great compasses turnall this universe else shadow, illusion and myth.]
We must, however, guard here against one misconception. Iqbal’s normal position is that the world of matter is real and not illusory.
Asrar -o Rumuz, p. 165
[Don’t call this determined world as mean].
The characterising of the universe as bath, illusion, myth, in the text here is psychological and not ontological.
8. Literally, so that thou mayest know what is ripe and unripe in (the history of) the Arabs.
9. Lat and Manat are the names of two idols, among many, which the Arabs worshipped. See the Qur’an, liii. 19-20. Here they stand for objects and persons other than God, to whom people pay homage.
10. Chosroe was the title of Persian monarchs; Caesar, of Roman emperors. Qaisar and Kisra are symbols of imperialism. Addressing the Russians, Iqbal says ( Javid Namah, pp. 88-89):
[Like us Muslims you have brokenthe bone of-imperial rule in this world.Who gave the black man White Hand?Who gave-the tidings of “no Caesar, no Chosroe”?]
11. New World. Iqbal says of the Ideal Man:
Asrar-o Rumuz, p. 49
[His genius abounds with life and desires manifestation he will bring another world into existence.]
Javid Namah, p. 73
[When one world grows old,the Qur’an gives him another world.]
Iqbal gives in Javid Namah (pp. 74-83) an outline of the New World which, according to him, is in accordance with the basic principles of Islam and is most relevant to the situation as it obtains today.
12. Rising early in the morning. It stands for intense devotion to God. Sowing of seed is to prepare the field for cultivation. The first line signifies that the ideal man is in constant touch with God from Whom be gets inspiration, as a result of which he tries to establish the rule of God’s laws on this earth.
13. Iqbal refers to the tremendous creative work done by the Arabs in the fields of science and art. All that is visible in this world, of civilisation, of knowledge, art and skill, is the result of their creative activity. It was they who sowed the seed and we in the present age are witnessing and enjoying the fruit of their labours. Modern sciences and arts are a continuation of what the Arabs achieved in their days.
14. Daur-i Farang, period of European domination, both political and intellectual. Iqbal seems to imply that the class struggle, strife between capital and labour, is the result -of this age which is secular in nature, divorced from religious background.
15. Depth of being. The word used by Iqbal, damir, signifies conscience, heart, and hence inner recesses of mind. This is a peculiar use of the word in Iqbal. The Qur’an says (xli. 53): “We will show them Our signs in the outer world and in the inner world (of self).” The actual word used is anfus which the mystics regard as a region where they receive illumination and hence are able to arrive at the truth, mentioned in the above Qur’anic verse. This region of mystic experience may be called qalb (mentioned in the Qur’an, xxxii. 7-9) about which Iqbal says : “It is, according to the Qur’an, something which ‘sees’, and its reports, if properly interpreted, are never false” (Reconstruction, pp. 15-16).
If we succeed in exploring this region of the self ii the way the sufis have been able to do, we can come into direct contact with Reality and receive suitable illumination which helps us in arriving at the truth.
Javid Namah, p. 72
[If you possess the spirit of a true Muslim, look into your heart and the Qur’an, a hundred new worlds lie in its verses, whole centuries are involved in its moments.]
Ibid., p. 225
[Break whatsoever is uncongenial,create a new world out of your heart.]
Pas Chih Bayed Kard. p. 40
[If you wish to know the essence of religion,look but into the depths of your heart.]
16. Cf. the following verses (Javid Namah, p. 88):
[You have finished all the “idols”.Pass on from “no” march onward to “but”;pass on from “no” if you are a true seeker,you are alive if you take the road to affirmation.]
For ideas expressed in verses 269-82, see Javid Namah, pp. 87-89.
17. The idea expressed in these lines (269-82) was expressed in Javid Namah, pp. 87-89.
18. Reference is to the life of Prophet Abraham. See the Qur’an, vi. 76-80 where Abraham’s experience of “the kingdom of the heavens and the earth” is described, involving denial of all false gods and attaining certainty by affirming his complete submission to Him “Who originated the heavens and the earth,” and he was not of the polytheists.
19. Nimrod was the king of the Chaldees who decided to punish Abraham for preaching monotheism, which was, in its true implications, a revolt against his autocratic and irresponsible governance. See Genesis, x, 8-9. Here Nimrod stands for any haughty ruler whose authority is not based on consent and who rules autocratically.
Armaghan-i Hijaz, p. 104
[Be acquainted with the Nimrods of the present age.we can act Abraham-like through their beneficence.]
Ibid., p. 201
[Abrahams are not afraid of Nimrods,for fire is a test for the raw incense.]
Ibid., p. 90
[Nimrod is angry with me becauseI have tried to rebuild the Sanctuary.]
[EXPLANATORY NOTE]
THERE IS NO DEITY EXCEPT GODEXPLANATORY NOTE
La ilah ill Allah (there is no god except Allah), along with the second proposition that Muhammad is the last of God’s prophets, is the basic creed of Islam which, Iqbal thinks, is essential for the moral regeneration of individuals and societies. It is this simple formula that releases man from bondage to race, country or colour and enables him to keep in direct contact with God, the spiritual basis of our life. He states that “if a dogma must be defined as an ultra-rational proposition which, for the purpose of securing religious solidarity, must be assented to without any understanding of its metaphysical import, then these two simple propositions of Islam cannot be described even as dogmas; for both of them are supported by the experience of mankind and are fairly amenable to rational argument.”1
In the Rumuz, Iqbal says that “human thought is idolatrous and idol-fashioning and is ever in search of new idols. In these days it follows once again Azar’s trade, but the new idols it has created, whose beloved name is colour, fatherland, blood-relationship, is shedding blood.”2
This formula, there is no deity except God, is a synthesis of two aspects, -the negative and the affirmative. Logically, these two aspects seem to be closely interrelated. If, for example, you negate beauty, it implies affirmation of ugliness. The famous Ten Commandments, embodying the negative “thou shalt not,” signify no more than an affirmative order advising the people to refrain from taking certain steps.
Some Hindu thinkers and Muslim mystics have tended to ‘define God in negative terms. The Upanishadic neti neti (it is not so) and the mystic characterisation of the Absolute as in the state of ‘ama (darkness), are indicative of this negative theology,. but, even in this case, negation of different characteristics implies. affirmation of certain other attributes which signify a state that. is above human comprehension and logical expression.
Iblis (Satan) represented as a symbol of denial, negation, destruction. In the economy of human life, this is as necessary as-affirmation, positiveness and construction. Civilisation signifies constructive efforts of several generations of people, but it also implies “destruction of a vast number of natural objects and processes”. As Rumi says
[When you wish to reconstruct on an old site,You must first dismantle the foundation.] 3
We meet in life contrasts between good and evil, freedom and determinism, separation and union, love and intellect, peace and war. These contrasts, and several others of this type, represent the two poles of the same lite-process. “Without negation none of these contrasts could be defined, . . . hence negation is an absolutely essential function of our thought and will. Without negation there would be no clearness with regard to values, no knowledge of heaven and hell, of good and evil ;.. hence Mephistopheles is indeed the inseparable companion of the one who is to learn what these distinctions are and is thereby to come into contact with what constitutes their value.”4
Soderblom, in his Gifford Lectures for 1933, says in then same strain “But No is also needed. Without No there will be no proper Yes. For then all that denies and destroys, degrades and delays what is right and good would be allowed to remain unattacked and unabolished. That is why No is necessary in the moral warfare of the individual, in the evolution of religion-and in the history of the race.”5
[Life is a Commentary on the Isharat of the Self;“no” and “but” are the stations of the Self.]6
That the negation and-denial of Iblis signified something affirmative, both Rumi and Iqbal accept. Rumi, for instance, says:
[When I say “no” my meaning is “but”.]7
Iqbal says:
[Under the veil of “no” I have murmured “yes”.]8
The polarity of affirmation and negation, no and yes, is well illustrated in Rumi who says:
[To anyone who is annihilated in My Face,
“everything is perishing,”10 is not applicable;
because he is in “except” he has gone beyond “no”;
whoever is in the state of “except” is not subject to annihilation]9
Similarly, Iqbal has tried to bring out the significance of this polarity in the following verses (besides what he says in the present book):
[Break down the old and start rebuilding.Who remains in the whirlpool of “no” never reaches “except”.]11
Iqbal thinks that the present day West is in the state of “no” and so is Russia in spite of her socialistic revolution.
[The beaker of modern thought brims with wine of “no,”but the Saqi has no bowl of “except” in his hand.]12
He speaks of Nietzsche as being unable to pass from No to Yes
[He remained stuck at No and did not each But,he remained a stranger to the station of His Servant.]13
Although “no” is as essential to the development of human life as “yes,” yet, if movement from negation to affirmation does not take place at the proper time, the consequences are disastrous.
[In the constitution of life, beginning is with no, and is exceptif No and Except remain disjointed, it is a message of death.]14
1. “Shamloo” Ed., Speeches and Statements of Iqbal, pp. 117-18.
2. Asrar-o Rumuz, p. 163. See Reconstruction, pp. 147, 154, and “Shamloo,” Ed., op. cit., p. 226.
3. Rumi, Mathnavi, iv, 2350.
4. Hastings, Ed., Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, art. “Negation,” p. 270a.
5. Soderblom, The Living God, p. 298.
6. Javid Namah, p. 177. Isharat is Bu ‘Ali Sina’s book.
7. Rumi, Mathnavi, 1, 1759.
8. Javid Namah, p. 158.
9. Mathnavi, i, 3053-54.
10. The Qur’an, xviii. 88.
11. Zabur-i ‘Ajam, p. 128.
12. Bal-i Jibril, p. 39.
13. Javid Namah, p. 178. “His Servant” refers to the Qur’an, xvii.
14. Darb-i Kalim, p. 60.
FAQR
O slaves of material things, what is Faqr ?–

a penetrating insight and a living heart.

Faqr 1 is to sit in judgment over one’s own work,

and to envelop oneself round the words there is no deity.

Faqr is conquering Khaibar and living on barley meal,2
295
kings and nobles are tied to its saddle-straps.

Faqr is ardour, ecstasy and submission to the will of God.

It belongs really to Mustafa; we are only its trustees.

Faqr makes a nightly assault on the angelic hosts,

and on the hidden forces of Nature;
300
it transforms you into a different man,

and turns you from a piece of glass to a diamond.

Its whole equipment is derived from the Great Qur’an.

a dervish cannot be contained in a blanket.3

Although he speaks very little in the assembly of people,
305
yet this little enlivens a hundred assemblies.

It gives to the wingless the ambition to fly,

and the majesty of a falcon to a gnat.

When a faqir falls out with kings,

the throne trembles before the mat’s majesty.
310
He sets the whole town in tumult through his madness,

and frees the people from tyranny and oppression.

He does not settle but in places

where a falcon runs away from before a dove.4

His heart’s power flows from ecstasy and sobriety.5
315
his slogan before the king is no kings.

It is through his dust that our fire glows and burns,

the flame trembles before the meanest particles of his dust.

No nation suffers defeat in the battle of life

as long as it has a single dervish.6
320
Our honour is due to his lordly contentment,

our yearning is due to his carefree zeal.

Look at yourself in this mirror,

that God may bestow on you clear authority.7

The essence of faith lies in the graciousness of Faqr;
325
the might of faith flows from its highmindedness.

The King of the Faith said to the Muslims:

“The whole earth is my mosque.”8

seek protection from the revolution of the nine heavens,9

that the Muslim’s mosque remains in the hands of others.
330
The person of pure faith tries hard

to take back the mosque of his beloved Lord.

O you who talk of renunciation of this world, don’t talk of it,

renunciation of this world lies in conquering10 it.

To be its rider is to free oneself from its bondage:
335
it is to rise above the status of water und clay.

This world of water and clay is the Muslim’s quarry,

would you advise a falcon to give up its prey?

I am unable to understand

why a falcon11 should flee from the skies.
340
Alas! for a falcon that does not follow its nature,

that recoils from inflicting pain on little birds,

that remains confined to its nest, afflicted and depressed,

and does not wing the azure expanse of the skies.

The Qur’anic Faqr is a critical examination of Existence:
345
it is not mere rebeck-playing, intoxication, dancing and singing.

What is a believer’s Faqr? It is conquering of dimensions,

the slave acquires attributes of the Lord12 through it.

The Faqr of an unbeliever is flight to the wilderness,13

the Faqr of a believer makes land and sea tremble
350
life for the former is solitude in caves and mountains,14

life for the latter flows from a glorious death;

the former is seeking God through renunciation of flesh,

the latter is whetting one’s khudi on the stone of God,

the former is killing and burning out of khudi,
355
the latter is to illumine the khudi like a lamp.

When Faqr becomes naked under the Sun,

the Sun and the Moon tremble through its fear.

Naked Faqr is the warmth of Badr and Hunain,15

it is the sound of Husain’s takbir.16
360
When Faqr lost its zest for nakedness,

the Muslims lost their might (jalal).

Alas! for us and for this ancient world!

neither you nor I possess the sword of negation.

O young man, free your heart of the other-than-God,
365
and barter away this ancient world.

How long can you live careless of the plight of your faith?

O Muslim, this kind of life is as good as death.

The man of faith renews himself;

he does not look at himself except in the light of God;17
370
he measures himself by the standard set by Mustafa,

and thus succeeds in creating a new world.18

Woe to a nation that has fallen so low

that it gives birth to kings and lords but not to a single dervish.

Do not ask me to tell you its story, for how
375
can I describe what is indescribable?

Tears choke my throat;

it is better if this commotion remains within the heart.

The Muslim of this land has lost all hope in himself,

for a long time he has not seen a true man of God,
380
hence he has grown sceptical about the strength of his faith,

and has started waylaying his own caravan.

For three centuries the Ummah has been wretched and helpless,

it lives on without an inner (spiritual) fire and ecstasy.19

Lowly in thought, mean of nature, vulgar in taste,
385
its teachers and religious preceptors are devoid of fervour;

its low thoughts have made it wretched,

and lack of unity has made it sick of itself.

As he (the Muslim) is not aware of his true station,20

the zeal for revolution has died in his heart.
390
For lack of contact with a man of knowledge, he has become

feeble and dejected, and incapable of accepting truth.

He is a slave who has been rejected by his Lord,

who has grown poor, indigent and absolutely careless.

He has no wealth which may be snatched away by a king,
395
nor has he any (spiritual) light that may be taken away by a Satan.21

His religious leader is a disciple of the Frankish lord,

though he boasts of the station of Bayazid.22

He says: Bondage gives splendour to religion,

and life consists in being devoid of khudi.
400
He looked upon the enemy’s political control as a mercy;

danced in adoration round the Church and died.23

O you who are devoid of spiritual zest and anguish,

do you know what this age of ours has done to us ?24

This age has estranged us from ourselves
405
and cut us asunder from the beauty of Mustafa.25

Since love for Mustafa departed from the breast,

the mirror lost its natural lustre.

You did not understand the real character of this age,

and have lost the wager in the very first move.
410
Since your mind got involved in its vortex,

no live desire appeared in your heart.

Subject yourself to examination and do not forget yourself;

be forgetful of the other-than-yourself for a while.26

Why do you give in to fear, doubt and melancholy?
415
Realise your position in this. country.

This garden (country) has many tall trees,

therefore do not make your nest on a low branch.

O man unaware of yourself you have a song in your throat,

recognise your true stock and do not fly with crows.27
420
Give yourself the keenness of a sword,

and then hand yourself over to Destiny.

You have within you an irresistible storm,

before which a lofty mountain is but straw.

The grandeur of the storm lies in restlessness;
425
for it to rest for a moment is to die.

I am neither a theologian nor a jurist with an analytical mind,

nor am I acquainted with the intricacies of Faqr.

For all my keen insight into the ways of faith, I am slow-footed ;28

all my work is incomplete and what to me

appears mature is unripe,
430
but God has given me a heart full of living passion

and thus enabled me to unravel one knot out of a hundred.

“Take your share of my fire and ardour,

there may not come after me as a faqir like me.”


1. Faqr. See the Explanatory Note. Iqbal here recounts only two characteristics of an ideal man: his penetrating insight which refers to his psychological and intellectual accomplishments, and a living heart, which refers to his spiritual attainments.
2. Reference is to ‘Au who succeeded, during the life of the Prophet, in subduing the fortress of Khaibar, the Jewish stronghold, after several unsuccessful attempts by others. It is said that ‘Ali’s usual staple food consisted of barky Iqbal has used the word sha’ir as well as jau, signifying barley, with ‘Ali to imply that his feats of valour were due not to nourishing and rich food but to spiritual factors, complete and absolute faith in God.
Payam-i M’ashriq, p. 210
[Not everybody who eats barley has Haidar-like attributes.]
Ba1-i Jibril, p. 9
[He whom thou hast given simple food of barley,Maybe he is granted the strong arm of Haidar.]
3. Shaikh Sa’di says in Gulistatan that two kings cannot co-exist in a kingdom while two dervishes can be easily accommodated in a single blanket. Iqbal has employed Sa’di’s phraseology to express his idea. For Sa’di, a dervish is simply a poor man who is forced by circumstances to be content with the least. A dervish, for Iqbal, is poor by choice and is ambitious for the highest in the world, highest of course not in the material sense.
Zabur-.i ‘Ajam, p. 13
[Nothing strange if two kings cannot rule over a single land,strange it is that two work’s cannot contain a single faqir.]
Darb-i Kalim, p. 39
[An unbeliever is one engrossed in the world,a believer is one in whom all the worlds are lost.]
4. Iqbal seems to imply that as a result of such people, social justice is fully established and the weak (symbolised here by dove) are no longer afraid of the strong (symbolised here by falcon).
5. Jadhb-o suluk. Jadhb, ecstasy, and suluk is travelling on the way and salik is traveller. Jadhb-o suluk are two different vocations of a sufi, corresponding to the states of sukr (intoxication) and sahw (sobriety) (R.A. Nicholson, Tm, Hujwiri’s Kashf al-Mahjub, pp. 184-85, 226-29; Shahabuddin Suhrawardi, ‘Awarif aI-Ma’arif, Chap. 4).
6. Iqbal seems to think that nations rise and fall in relation to the treatment meted out by people to the men of God. In another place he has quoted (Bal-i Jibril, p. 181) Rumi’s verse to illustrate this point
[No nation meets its doom,until it angers a man of God.]
See Rumi’s Mathnavi, ii, 3112. In Nicholson’s translation, the verse is differently quoted.
7. Clear authority. sultan-i mubin. This phrase is used in the Qur’an mostly in reference to Moses, as, for instance, in xi. 96, xxiii. 45, Ii. 38 “And in Moses, when We sent him to Pharaoh with clear authority.” -In lii. 38 these words are used in a general sense. Sultan here means spiritual equipment necessary to meet different challenges of life adequately. In Reconstruction (p. 131), Iqbal translates the word sultan as power.
If we try to acquire characteristics described in verses 291-316 of the man of God, we can attain what the Qur’an calls sultan-i mubin, clear authority, which leads one to act decisively in a time of crisis.
8. Cf. the following verses in Asrar-o Rumuz, p. 131:
[Through the bounty of the ruler of our faith,the entire earth became our mosque.]
9. For “nine heavens,” see note 7 to “Wisdom of Moses” above. “Revolution of nine heavens” is an idiomatic way of saying “vicissitudes of fate”. It is based on ancient belief that man’s fate is determined by the revolutions of the sky and other planets.
10. Conquer, taskhir, control. Cf the Qur’an, xiv. 13: “He has made subservient to you whatsoever is in heavens and whatsoever is in the earth, all
Zabur-i ‘Ajam, p. 209
[If you become proficient in conquering self,conquering the world will be easy for you.]
Cf. the following lines (Javid Namah, p. 152)
[Woe to the dervish who, having uttered a sigh, closes his lips and draws back his breath. He sought a convent and fled from Khaibar, he practised monkhood and never saw royal power. Do you possess God’s image ? the world is your prey; Destiny shares the same reins as your design.]
Also Bal-e-Jibril, p. 186, and Darb-i Kalim, p. 47. See also lines 349-54.
11. Falcon, shahin. As Iqbal states in one of his letters, he employs this word for a person who embodies all the characteristics of Faqr. Shah!,, is
(I) self-respecting and jealous of its honour and does not eat of another’s prey; (ii) lives a free life, for it does not build a nest (III) flies at high altitudes, (iv) loves solitude, and (v) has penetrating eyesight (Sh. ‘Ataullah, Ed., Iqbal Namah, II, 204-05).
12. Reference is to the tradition: takhallaqu bi akhlaqillah “Create in yourself attributes of God”.
13. Cf. the following verses Javid Namah, p. 16):
[Whenever a watchful soul is born in a body,this ancient world trembles to its foundation.]
14. Iqbal quotes (Bal-i Jibril, p. 136) from Rumi:
[The policy of our faith is holy war and glory,the policy in Christianity: caves and mountains]
15. Badr and Hunain are places where two famous battles were fought by Muslims against the unbelievers. The Battle of Badr was the first battle in which Muslims, only 313 in number, engaged the unbelievers who were one thousand. This battle laid the foundation of Muslim Ummah in Medina. The battle of Hunain took place in the eighth year of Hijrah, in the valley of Hunain, about three miles from Mecca.
16. Husain, the son of ‘Ali the fourth Caliph. He died fighting Yazid’s forces and in Iqbal is often employed as a symbol of truth fighting against falsehood and deceit.
Takbir is the call: Allahu Akbar, God is great, which eventually became the battle cry of Muslims. The affirmation of God’s greatness is to deny, by implication, the efficiency of secondary causes.
17. Cf. the following verse (Javid Namah, p. 14)
[The third witness: consciousness of God’s essence,to behold oneself in the light of God’s essence.]
18. According to Iqbal, it was Prophet Muhammad whose religious experience resulted in -the creation of Muslim Community. He says (ibid., p. 76):
[Muhammad chose solitude upon Mount Hira’ and for a space saw no other beside himself; our image was then poured into his heart and out of his solitude a nation arose.]
19. Iqbal here refers to the plight of the Muslims of the subcontinent who, according to him, are spiritually impoverished due to the non-appearance of a true man of God during the last two or three hundred years. It is through the efforts of such people that nations get spiritual renewal as a result of which they are able to act creatively in the world.
Bal-i Jibril. p. 17
[Since three-hundred years taverns in India have closed down,it is time, O Saqi, your munificence be distributed among all.]
Armaghan-i Hijaz, p. 54
[I had a lamp in my breastwhich went out during the last two hundred years.]
Ibid., p. 257
[The dervish whose morning groans awaken heartshas not appeared in the nation since long.]
Darb-i Kalim, p. 55
[Two centuries’ slavery has destroyed their confidence;think of some remedy for their mental confusion.]
20. “His true station” may refer to the task assigned to the Muslim nation by God, as described by the Qur’an, iii. 100: “You are the best nation raised up for men: you enjoin good and forbid evil and you believe in Allah.”
21. He is impoverished, both materially and spiritually.
22. Bayazid of Bistam (d. 2611874, a famous sufi. Iqbal recounts an event from his life to illustrate some point in his Asrar. See ‘Attar, Tadhkirat al-Awliya’, pp. 129-66, and R C. Zaehner, Hindu and Muslim Mysticism (Oxford, 1960), for an account of Bistami’s life and teachings.
23. These lines refer to certain religious leaders of the subcontinent who justified theologically the alien political rule of the British and enumerated the so-called blessings of their administration. See Mahmud Nizami, Malfuzat, p. 41.
24. Cf. the following verse (Zabur-i ‘Ajam, p. 136)
[I have seen in the cups of the Present Agevenom that serpents twist and writhe in pain therefrom.]
In Armaghan-i Hijaz (p. 135), Iqbal calls the Present Age as “lacking-in sincerity and ardour (of love)”
[Muslim managed to combine Faqr and rulership;his geniuc brought together ephemeral and eternal; but I seek protection of God from the present age which combined rulership with devilishness.]
25. “Beauty of Mustafa.” It signifies cultural heritage of the Muslims which is based on the Qur’an and the Sunnah. Western education, as planned by the British rulers, deprived the new generation of the inspiration that it would have derived from this heritage.
26. In one of his addresses, Iqbal says, elucidating as if the verses here: “The Indian Muslim has long ceased to explore the depth of his inner life. The result is that lie has ceased to live in the full glow and colour of life. . . . The lesson that past experience has brought to you must be taken to the heart. . . . Expect nothing from any side. Concentrate your whole ego on your self alone, and ripen your clay into real manhood if you wish to see your aspirations realised. . . . The flame of life cannot be borrowed from others; it must be kindled in the temple of one’s own soul” (“Shamloo,” Ed., Speeches and Statements of Iqbal, pp. 54-56).
27. These lines refer to the political situation obtaining in the Indian subcontinent after the Third Round Table Conference came to end in the beginning of 1933. A White Paper was published by the British Government in March 1933. It contained proposals for the solution of the communal problem. Efforts began to be made to arrive at some solution which envisaged Muslims giving up separate electorates. Those working on these lines were called the Nationalist Muslims who did not enjoy the confidence of the majority of the Muslims of the country. Iqbal here advises the Muslims not to become camp-followers of others, to trust in themselves and try to achieve art independent and honourable position for themselves in accordance with their mission in life, which Iqbal expresses in the following verse (Bang-i Dara, p. 30]):
[East’s salvation lies in the unity of the millat.]
28. Cf. Iqbal’s statement : “I have given the best part of my life to a careful study of Islam, its laws and polity, its culture, its history and its literature. This constant contact with the spirit of Islam, as it unfolds itself in time, has, I think, given me a kind of insight into its significance as a world-fact” (“Shamloo,” Ed., op. cit., p. 3).
[EXPLANATORY NOTE]
FAQREXPLANATORY NOTE
The word Faqr used by Iqbal has a peculiar significance. This word, in the Qur’an, stands for need, poverty, an attribute which men can possess while God is characterised by an attribute which is its opposite, viz, self-sufficiency. The Qur’an says: “O men, it is you that have need of Allah (fuqara’), and Allah is Self-Sufficient, the Praised One” (xxxv. 16).
Faqr, according to the Qur’an, then, is a state which man should avoid and fear: “The Devil threatens you with Faqr (poverty) . . . and enjoins you to be niggardly, and Allah promises you forgiveness from Himself and abundance . . .” (ii. 268). In other words, the state of Faqr is something that should be avoided while its opposite, called fadl, abundance, is something which is commendable and which God bestows on the righteous.
But gradually the significance of the word Faqr changed in the hands of the mystics, most probably under the influence of non-Muslim mystics, Christian and Buddhist, who were respected and honoured for their piety, renunciation of the world and devotion to their faith. As a reaction to the social and political upheavals in the first centuries of Muslim rule, mendicancy seems to have become a common practice among the mystics and, in spite of prohibition of begging by the Prophet, sufis not only approved of this practice but prescribed it for the novices and often went to the length of misinterpreting the explicit sayings of the Prophet. it was perhaps during this period that traditions eulogising Faqr became current.
The meaning of Faqr was further transformed in the hands of sufis in due course of time. It does not mean only need or poverty, but an attitude of detachment towards the world, of total indifference to social and political problems of the day, complete negation of the self, flight from the outward to the inward, from the exoteric to the esoteric. This transformation, unfortunately, played havoc with the ideological structure of Islam and laid the foundation for later quietism and negative mysticism.
Iqbal, however, brought about a wonderful metamorphosis and sought to invest this word with attributes more in harmony with the ideological background of Islam. Faqr, in Iqbal, does not signify only an attitude of detachment, selflessness and indifference to worldly life, which are all negative in nature. Iqbal’s Faqr is through and through positive. A faqir or qalandar in Iqbal is not only indifferent to vicissitudes of material life; he is a man of strong will, who has a moral stake in the social and political life of the people around him, motivated by the love for the ideal of moral and spiritual regeneration of mankind. In the attainment of this ideal, he is ready to sacrifice everything. It is this positive Faqr which Iqbal describes in this chapter.
We find a glimpse of this Faqr in Rumi. He says:
[The affairs of Faqr are beyond your comprehension do not look upon Faqr with contempt.Because dervishes are beyond property and wealth, they possess abundant sustenance from the Almighty. Is “poverty is my pride” vain and false?No, there a hundred glories are hidden in it.] 1
Rumi describes different levels of spiritual men. At the apex “is the living Imam who is the Mahdi and the Hadi” and down-wards there are several grades of Faqr. He who undergoes greater discipline and passes through intenser fire occupies a higher position. It is the fire that purifies Faqr of all dross. He says:
[The faqir who bears hardship, is like ironwhich under the hammer and fire is red and happy.] 2
[If thou desirest Faqr, that depends on companionship] 3
This positive concept of Faqr is found in Iqbal much later. The word Faqr is used first in a poem written in 1914 where he employs the hadith “Poverty is my pride” in the traditional poetic way, where poverty is contrasted with wealth.4 The word Faqr in its special sense in Iqbal is found first of all, perhaps, in a verse in Payam-i M’ashriq (published in 1923)
[ Faqr is also world-conquering and world-organisingto the faqir sitting along the path is bestowed the sword of sight.] 5
In Zabur-i ‘Ajam, published in 1926, the use of this word is more explicit. See, for instance, the following verse
[It’s nothing strange if two kings cannot be contained in a single kingdom,Strange it is that a single faqir cannot be contained in two worlds.] 6
The following verse expresses Iqbal’s concept of Faqr beautifully
[When Faqr attains perfection, it is a sign of power;search for kingly throne under a faqir’s mat.] 7
Faqr in Iqbal symbioses all those attributes which the Qur’an describes about a true Muslim and which were actualised in the lives of the Companions of the Prophet. They lived in poverty of their own choice and yet were in the thick of social life of the people, guiding and directing them towards the ideal of material and spiritual well-being.
[Do away with Faqr that brings nakedness,blessed is the Faqr which bestows political power.] 8
In another place, it is said:
[Without the Qur’an, power is deceit, the Faqr of the Qur’an is the root of power.The Qur’anic Faqr is commingling of Remembrance and Reason, I have never seen Reason perfected without Remembrance,] 9
Iqbal distinguishes two kinds of Faqr, one leading to supremacy and the other to base poverty, and acknowledges that for this concept of Faqr he is indebted to Rumi:
[Learn from Rumi the secret of Faqr, that Faqr is envy of kings; avoid that Faqr whichled you to (social and moral) decline.] 10
[Since khudi was cut off from supremacy, it taught the art of begging; from the intoxicated eye of Rumi I gained exhilarating experience of the state of Almightiness.] 11
1. Mathnavi, i, 2352 ff.
2. Ibid., ii, 810 ff.
3. Ibid., v, 1063.
4. Bang-i Dora, p. 198.
5. Payam-i M’ashriq, p. 206. For other references which the word Faqr and faqir are used, see Payam-i M’ashriq, pp. 7, 8, 191, 195, etc.
6. Zabur-i ‘Ajam, p. 13.
7. Ibid., p. 163.
8. Javid Namah, p. 169.
9. Ibid., p. 89.10. Armaghan-i Hijaz, p. 108.
11. Ibid.
THE FREE MAN
The free man is strong through repetition of Fear not1;
435
in the battlefield we are hesitant while he is daring;

the free man is clairvoyant through There is no deity,

he does not fall into the snare of kings and lords;

like the camel, the free man carries burdens2:

he carries burdens but lives on thorny bushes.3
440
He sets his foot so firmly on the ground

that the pulse of the pathway begins to throb with his ardour;

his soul becomes more everlasting through death,4

his call of takbir is beyond words and sounds.5

The dervish gets tribute from kings,6
445
who regards the stones of the pathway as mere glass.7

The warmth of your nature is due to his red wine;

your stream is watered by his river.

Kings in their silken robes

are pallid from fear of that naked faqir.8
450
The essence of faith for us is report, for him it is vision9

he is within the house while we are outside the door;

we are friends of the Church, we sell mosques,10

He quaffs cups from the bands of Mustafa himself;11

He is not indebted to the wine-seller, nor has be the cup in his hand ;12
455
we have empty cups, while he is intoxicated since eternity.13

The face of the rose is red through his grace,

his smoke is brighter than our fire.

He has in his bosom a clarion call14 to nations,
460
their destiny is inscribed on his forehead.15

We turn in worship16 sometimes to the Church and sometimes to the temple,

he does not seek his sustenance from others’ hands;

we are all slaves of the Franks, he is His slave,17

he cannot be contained in this world of colour and smell.18

Our days and nights are spent in anxiety for livelihood;
465
but what is our end ? – pains of death.

He alone has stability amidst this world of instability;

death for him is one of the stations of life.19

The people of the heart20 feel frustrated in our company,

but the grace of his company puts a heart even into dust.
470
Our life is subject to doubts and misgivings,

he is all activity and little talk;

we are beggars roaming the streets and destitute,

his Faqr is equipped with the sword of There is no deity;

We are mere straw caught in a whirlwind,
475
his stroke on the mountain brings out springs of water.21

Get acquainted with him and avoid us,

destroy your present house and acquire a new one.

Complain not of the revolving sky

revive yourself through associating with that living person.
480
Association is better than knowledge of books,

companionship of free men is creative of men.

A free man is a deep and shoreless sea,

get your water from an ocean and not from a canal.

His breast is in ferment like a boiling kettle,22
485
for him a solid mountain is like a heap of sand.

In peace, he is the ornament of the assembly,23

like spring wind to the garden;

on the day of battle, he, the knower of his destiny,

digs his own grave with his own sword;
490
fly from us like an arrow,

and catch hold of his skirt with a frenzy.

The seed of the heart does not develop out of water and clay,

without the look of the people of the heart.

In this world you do not count more than a piece of straw
495
unless you attach yourself to the skirt of somebody.

1. ‘Fear not” (la takhaf) occurs repeatedly in the Qur’an in several contexts, e.g. xi. 70.
2. Iqbal has described man (Asrar-o Rumuz, pp. 45 ff.) on the first stage of development as similar to an elephant whose traits are service and toil and whose -ways are patience and perseverance.
[He eats little, sleeps little, and is accustomed to toil.]
3. “Eating of thorns” stands for a simple crude fare.
4. Cf. the following
Javid Namah, p. 217
[The free individual has a distinct dignity,death bestows on him a new life.]
Zabur-i ‘Ajam. p. 230
[Why fear death which comes from without?When the “I” ripens, it is free from death.]
5. Takbir, to express greatness of God by saying: Allahu Akbar. “Beyond words and sounds” signifies that his takbir is the result of his conviction and is uttered in spirit rather than in words.
6. He is so possessed of power that the kings fear him and pay him tribute.
7. Stone and glass. This contrast emphasises that for a free man difficulties of great magnitude become insignificant in face of his strong will.
8. See .Asrar-o Rumuz, pp. 26-29, where Iqbal relates the story of a king who got unnerved at the wrath of a dervish.
Naked faqir. By nakedness of Faqr, Iqbal seems to denote complete and full manifestation of Faqr, the qualities of an ideal man. See lines 357-58 above:
When Faqr becomes naked under the Sun,the Sun and the Moon tremble through its fear.
9. The polarity of khabar, information, report, and nazar, vision, is as recurrent in Iqbal as the polarities of jamal (beauty) and jalal (majesty), love and reason, light and fire (nur and nar), seclusion and association (khalwat and jalwat), dhikr and fikr, et’. Report denotes knowledge gained through books, hearsay, i.e. from second-hand sources, and stands for reason, while vision stands for knowledge gained through personal experience and hence leading to deep conviction (Mahmud Nizami, Malfuzat, p. 21).
Bal-i Jibril, p. 70
[Reason possesses nothing but khabar,your remedy lies in nazar (vision).]
In Bal-i Jibril (p. 184), Iqbal asks Rumi : What is the goal of man, khabar or nazar ? Rumi replies:
[Man is but sight, the rest is mere skintrue sight means seeing the beloved.]
As he states in Zabur-i ‘Ajam, p. 232 (see also p. 180), the really free man, the leader of mankind, is one who has enjoyed this vision. Though this vision in its complete and perfect form is vouchsafed to a few only, its reflections can and do reach ordinary people, for it is the degree of this vision which will determine the place of the individual in the scale of moral and spiritual excellence. A person’s religiousness, he states, depends upon this degree of vision. See below, verse 563:
“If you do not enjoy vision, your faith is only compulsion.”
10. This verse (453) as well as verse 461 refers particularly to the position of the Muslims in the subcontinent Some groups were allied to the Hindus, others, to the British- It is on record that the Muslims sold lands attached to the mosques and even the mosques themselves to the Hindus.
11. That is, his faith is based on direct inspiration from the Qur’an and the Sunnah.
12. Mughan, plural of mugh, a Zoroastrian priest. In Persian poetry, mugh is associated with wine-selling and, therefore, mughan stands for wine-seller. The verse signifies that the intoxication of the Free Man is not dependent upon the wine-seller or upon the cup of wine.
13. Alast occurs in the Qur’anic verse, vii. 172: “Am I not your Lord?’ These words refer to man’s covenant with God before the creation of the world and hence the word alast in Muslim literature stands for eternity.
14. Clarion call, takbir-i umamm. The word takbir (explained in note 5) is used here most probably for sur, trumpet of Israfil, summoning people from the graves on the Day of Resurrection. See the Qur’an, lxviii. 18. The Free Man’s call makes the dead nations alive once again. Iqbal speaks of God’s Vicegerent (Asrar-o Rumuz, p. 50):
[At his cry “arise,” the dead spiritsrise in their bodily tombs like pines in the fields.]
15. Forehead, jabin. It is commonly said that the fate of a person is inscribed on his forehead. This physiognomical belief may be right or wrong, but it has given to the literary tradition a lot of phrases and idioms like the present. See the couplet in Darb-i Kalim (p. 180):
[Now write your destiny with your own pen,
God’s pen has left your forehead empty.]
16. Qiblah, direction of the Ka’bah. the place to which Muslims turn for prayers, hence the object of adoration to which we turn for prayers and supplication, for the fulfilment of our wishes and desires. Cf. the following verse (Javid Namah, p. 170):
[Now it makes concord with the Church.anon it turns entreating to the people of the Temple.]
17. ‘Abduhu, His slave. It is based on the famous Qur’anic verse describing the Prophet’s ascension :‘ ‘Glory to Him Who carried His Servant by night from the Sacred Mosque . - .“ (xvii. 1).
The Qur’an uses words like ‘abdina, ‘abdan, ‘ibadan, etc., all signifying God’s creatures, as, for instance, xix. 93: There is none in the heavens and the earth but comes to the Beneficent as a servant (‘abdan).” the ‘abduhu (His slave) is used here by Iqbal in the sense of Perfect Man, especially the Holy Prophet.
Asrar-o Rumuz, p. 105
[When the station of Servanthood is established, Beggar’s bowl becomes Jamshed’s cup.]
Javid Namah, p. 78
[That he may share in “the eye turned not aside,”He stands steadfast on the station of His Servant.]
“The eye turned not aside” has reference to the Qur’anic verse liii. 17. And then there is the famous discourse in Javid Namah (p. 150) where, on the basis of these words, Iqbal develops his doctrine of Logos
[“Servant” is one thing, “His Servant” is something different:we are all in expectation, he is the Expected One.]
It is a said of the Ideal Man (Aramghan-i Hijaz, p. 128):
[His station is that of His Servant, buthe is the nourisher of the world of ecstasy.]
18. With regard to the character of the Perfect Man, expressed in this verse, Iqbal says: “Maulana Rumi has very beautifully expressed this idea (of man’s absorption of God into himself]. The Prophet, when a little boy, was once lost in the desert. His nurse Halima was almost beside herself with grief but while roaming the desert in search of the boy she heard a voice saying [Mathnavi, iv, 976]:
‘Do not grieve, he will not be lost to thee;
Nay, the whole world will be lost in him.’
The true individual cannot be last in the world ; it is the world that is lost in him” (quoted in Nicholson, Tr., Secrets of the Self, Intro., pp. xix-xx, footnote).
Zabur-i ‘Ajam, p. 212
[He is not contained in this world of retribution,it is only a station on his journey.]
Darb-i Kalim, p. 39
[An unbeliever’s sign: he is lost in the universe,a believer’s sign : the universe is lost in him.]
19. (ll. 466-68). Here two kinds of death are mentioned : one, the death of ordinary people, the other, the death of strong personalities. Rumi has also described (Mathnavi, iii, 3435) these two kinds of death:
[That one in whose eyes death is destruction, he takes hold of God’s command: do not cast yourself into destruction; that one to whom death is the opening of the gate, he is addressed by God as: vie ye with one another in hastening.]
Iqbal believes that if life had been led without pursuit of ideals and the state of tension has not bean maintained, then death would lead to dissolution of personality. To one who has led a life of fruitful activity death is only a kind of passage to another world (Reconstruction, pp. 19-20; Nicholson, Tr., Secrets of the Self, Intro., p. xxiv).
Darb-i Kalim, p. 25
[If Khudi is self-examining, self-creative and self-grasping,‘tis possible you may not die after death.]
Iqbal distinguishes these two kinds of death (Zabur-i ‘Ajam, p. 230):
[Why fear that death which comes from without?For when the “I” ripens into a self,It has no danger of dissolution.There is a more subtle inner death which makes me tremble.This death is falling down from love’s frenzy,Saving one’s spark and not giving it away freely to the heaps of chaff.]
[Translation by Iqbal, in his article “McTaggarts Philosophy,” in Indian Art and Letters, 6, 1932.)
Iqbal calls (Armaghan-i Hijaz, p. 43 ; also pp. 44-45) the second type of death as “incomplete death”:
[A believer who lived without He is Allahmeets an incomplete death.]
About the first kind of death, he says (ibid., p. 53):
[I wandered throughout the world but did not meeta believer before whom death trembles.]
Payam-i M’ashriq, p. 36
[Thy heart grieveth at the thought of Death, Pale as a lime in terror thou dost lie;Come to thyself, make thyself more mature, If thou dost, thou wilt not die after death.]
20. Heart, dil. In Muslim literature, the word dill or qalb stands for the source of spiritual experience, ilham, inspiration. The idea was developed by Ghazali in Ihya’. It is based on the Qur’anic verse: “Then He made him (man) complete and breathed into him of His spirit, and gave you ears and hearts. . .“ (xxxii. 93).
Commenting on this verse, Iqbal says: “The ‘heart’ is a kind of inner intuition or insight which, in the beautiful words of Rumi, feeds on the rays of the sun and brings us into contact with aspects of Reality other than those open to sense-perception. It is, according to the Qur’an, something which sees,’ and its reports, if properly interpreted, are never false” (Reconstruction, pp. 15-16). Cf. Rumi’s Mathnavi, i, 1126-27
[The light which gives light to the eyes is in truth heart’s light, eye’s light is produced by the heart’s light.Again, the light that illumines the heart is God’s light, pure and different from that of intellect and sense.]
Distinguishing heart from sense and intellect, Iqbal says Payam-i M’ashriq, p. 20
[Love had not been, nor all love’s tumult,if heart possessed mind’s intelligence.]
ibid., p. 30
[When reason developed burning, heart was born.]
Rumi speaks (Mathnavi, I, 722) about the effect on a person’s personality, when he associates with men of heart
[Though you be marble or rock,you become a jewel when you reach the man of heart.]
21. Reference may be to Moses’s striking of a rock and the gushing forth of water. See the Qur’an, ii. 60.
22. It is related of the Prophet that noise like that of a boiling pot used to issue from his breast while he was saying his prayers.
23. (II. 487-90). Cf. the following verses (Javid Namah, p. 192) where Iqbal describes the characteristics of a strong leader;
[On the day of war, conquering the land by force of arms, on the day of peace, by the winning ways of love.]
[EXPLANATORY NOTE]
THE FREE MANEXPLANATORY NOTE
The distinction between Free Man (hurt) and its antithesis,. Slave (‘abd), belongs to the pre-Islamic Arab society which, like the Greek and other ancient societies, was feudal in character, divided into free men and slaves. The Qur’an refers to both these categories of people in ii. 178, using the words hurr and ‘abd. The word ‘abd was retained by the Qur’an to designate the ideal type of man in relation to God.
These two words, hurt and ‘abd, were used by Iqbal first in Asrar-i Khudi (pp. 82 if.). It is, however, to be noted that these 18 verses dealing with the characteristics of two types of people were not there in the first edition, published in 1915, not even in the second edition, and, therefore, were not included in Nicholson’s translation of the Asrar, which was based on the second edition of the text.
One type of people, the slave, is devoted to the pursuit of material ends and employs reason as an exclusive tool of approach. As such these people are confined within the net of space and time and their vision, therefore, does not rise higher than mornings and nights which weave their shrouds round their bodies. They are subject to the inexorable law of fate, and are contentedly happy with the old repetitive phenomena of life. They are given to sloth and, like fossils, never taste the joy of growth. and development. They feel safe in the cosy mansion of the past, with no concern for the present ever-changing panorama of human history.
The Free Man, on the other hand, does not allow these nights and days to put limitations on the flights of his ambitions. When he bursts forth from the shell of the dust and acquires “heart,” the symbol of the spiritual realm, he becomes the ruler of the universe. He is a creator par excellence on this earth, ever expanding his spiritual dimensions by singing new songs and creating new things and enlightening the hearts and minds of people around him His life is creatively related to the past and inspired by the vision of the future. This Man was described by Iqbal in Asrar-i Khudi, under the heading “God’s Vicegerency” and later while elucidating the “Hidden Meanings of the Names of ‘Ali’” (pp. 52-57).
There is one more point to be considered, viz. Iqbal’s use of the word ‘abduhu for the Perfect Man, most probably under the influence of Hallaj, who, while speaking of him, says: “He (i.e. God) looked in eternity and brought forth from non-existence an image, an image of Himself, endowed with all His attributes and all His names: Adam. The Divine look made that form to be his image into everlasting. God saluted it, glorified it, chose it, and inasmuch as He manifested Himself by it and in it, that created form became Huwa, Huwa, He, He.”1
Rumi has also dealt with this conception of the Perfect Man in great detail. There is a well-known ghazal of Rumi which is included in Nicholson’s Selected Odes (Ode 8) and then in the Mathnavi itself he describes the character of the Perfect Man, for whom he employs the old term, Adam.2
Besides other places where Iqbal has used this word ‘abduhu,3 in Javid Namah (pp. 149-50) he gives his point of view in detail:
[“His Servant” surpasses your understandingbecause he is a man, and at the same time essence.”“Servant” is one thing, “His Servant”4 is another thingwe are all expectancy, he is the expectation”no man knows the secret of “His Servant”.“His Servant” is naught but the secret of “save God”. ... “His Servant” is the how and why of creation”“His Servant” is the inward mystery of creation.”]5
In the end, Iqbal emphasises the importance of associating. with such people. On this subject, Rumi’s following verse is. well known:
[Association with friends of God for a few momentsis better than sincere worship of God for years.]
Armaghan-i Hijaz, p. 158
[Better in the company of a self-knowing person for a few minutes than to listen to the discourses of Mullas.]
1. R.A. Nicholson, The Idea of Personality in Sufism. p.40.
2. Mathnavi, iv, 398-402, etc.
3. See Asrar-o Rumuz, p. 105; Armaghan-i Hijaz, p. 128
4. The Qur’an, xvii. 1.
5. Javid Namah, p. 150. Arberry’s translation, p. 99.
THE ESSENCE OF THE SHARI’AH
I have learnt many things from the Master of Rum,

especially have I burnt myself in (the fire of) these words of his:

“‘If you carry money for the sake of the Faith,1

that money is a blessing,’ says the Prophet.”
500
If you don’t keep this point in mind,

you are a slave and money is your lord.

The welfare of the nations is in the hands of the poor,

while the rich man causes disruption to the nations.

In his eyes, novelty is something mean,2
505
he buys only old things;

what is wrong he regards as right

and is afraid of the upheavals of revolution.

The capitalist usurps the portion of the labourer,

and robs the honour of his daughter.3
510
The labourer bewails before him like a reed,

with constant cries issuing from his lips.

His cup lacks wine;

he builds palaces but is himself a homeless wanderer.

Praise be to the rich person who lives like a dervish
515
and is God-oriented in an age like ours.4

Unless people understand the significance of a lawfully earned food,5

life of society becomes miserable.

Alas! Europe is not aware of this principle,

her eyes do not see through God’s light;6
520
she does not know lawful from unlawful,

her wisdom is immature and all her activities defective7

One nation preys on another,

one sows the seed, another takes away the harvest.

It is “wisdom” to snatch food from the weak
525
and to rob their body of the soul.

The way of the new culture is to murder people;

and this killing is done under the garb of commerce.8

These banks, the result of clever Jews’ thinking,

have taken away Cod’s light from the heart of man.
530
Unless this system is destroyed completely,

knowledge, religion and culture are mere empty names.9

In this world of good and evil, man seldom knows10

what is profitable to him and what is harmful;

nobody knows the right and wrong of an act,
535
which path is straight and which crooked.

The Shari’ah grows out of life’s bosom11;

its light illumines the darkness of the universe.

If the world were to accept its judgment regarding what is forbidden,

this system would endure for ever.
540
It is not for the jurists to evaluate it, O son,

look at it in another way ;12

its legal formulations are based on justice and submission to Divine Will,

its roots lie in the bosom of Mustafa.13

it is through “separation” (from God) that desires warm the hearts.14
545
When “He” manifests Himself, you will cease to exist.

This separation is no doubt hard to bear,

try not to seek union with Him, rather submit to His will.15

Mustafa communicated His will to us;

the injunctions of religion consist of nothing else.
550
The throne of Jamshid is hid under the mat (of a faqir),

Faqr and political authority are both stations of (submission to God’s) Will;

accept the injunctions of the Shari’ah and do not complain,

the field of battle is not the place to argue why.

So far as you can help, do not disobey its law,16
555
so that nobody may disobey your orders.

Be of “the best make” through the Shari’ah,17

and inheritor of Abraham’s faith.18

O man of lofty attributes, what is Tariqah?19

to see the Shari’ah in the recesses of life’s heart.
560
If you wish to see the essence of religion clearly,

look but into the depth of your heart;

if you do not enjoy vision, your faith is only compulsion;

such a religion is a veil between you and God.

If man does not see God fully manifest,
565
he cannot rise higher than (the polarity of)

free-will and determinism.20

Dive into your inner nature for a moment,

become a man of truth, don’t rely on mere conjecture –

that you may see the right and wrong of things,

and know what secrets lie behind these nine veils.
570
He who shares in the experiences of the Prophet

gets close to the faithful Gabriel.21

O you who are proud of having the great Qur’an,

how long will you sit (inactive) in cell?

Reveal to the world the essence of religion,
575
and the significance of the clear Shari’ah;

none need be dependent on another (for one s primary needs),22

this is the sum and substance of the clear Shari’ah;

the jurists and the theologians have spun long tales;

the faithful have failed to grasp this point.
580
A living nation met its death due to misinterpretations,

her heart lost fire (of life).

I have seen sufis of pure heart

and taken good stock of the teacher in school,

my age produced a prophet too,23
585
who could see in the Qur’an nothing but himself;

every one of them is fully conversant with the Qur’an and the traditions;

but they are totally unaware of the true significance of the Shari’ah.24

Reason and tradition both have fallen prey to lust,25

their pulpit is a counter for the display of their wares.
590
There is no hope of salvation from these reformers.26

What is the use of the sleeve when it lacks the White Hand?27

The problems of the nations cannot be set right by you,

Unless you prove by action that you are the bearer of truth.


1. Rumi’s point of view in the controversy between unalloyed material-ism, which totally ignores the demands of the spirit, and fake spiritualism. that flies from involvement in -the mundane affairs, is that of Islam which treads the middle path between the two extremes. Rumi does not denounce wealth as such but only its misuse and undesirable consequences that follow from its possession (Mathnavi, i. 983):
[Water in the boat leads to its destruction,water under it helps to push it forward.]
What is condemnable -is not wealth or efforts towards acquiring it but the attitude of mind that breeds capitalistic blindness to human welfare and deadens sensitivity to the miseries of the exploited people.
2. This verse refers to the capitalist’s aversion to change and his striving to maintain the status quo at al cost.
3. (Il. 507-10). These verses refer to the capitalist’s blatant violation of moral values which, as Iqbal seems to imply, is the natural consequence of amassing of wealth when divorced, motivationally, from spiritual orientation.
4. Iqbal characterises the present age as lacking in spiritual orientation (Armaghan-i Hijaz, p. 68), ecstasy (ibid., p. 69), sincerity (ibid., p. 135). If amidst such an environment, a person, having wealth, lives a simple life of piety and abstinence, surely it is a matter of great significance.
5. In the economic system of Islam, the first and foremost principle is the distinction between what is lawful and what is not lawful. Islam places restrictions on the scope of acquisition of wealth as well as on that of expenditure. The contemporaries of Prophet Shu’aib, when advised by him to be careful in their business dealings lest they violate the basic moral principles of equity and justice, remarked: “Does your prayer enjoin you that we should not do what we please with regard to our property?” (Qur’an, xi. 87).
These limitations, born out of moral considerations alone on the acquisition and expenditure of wealth, cut at the root of economic imbalance in society. With such an economic System in force, there is no fear of economic exploitation and class-war.
Rumi explains that unlawful food inexorably leads to immoral behaviour. If you find anybody overwhelmed by greed, jealousy, lust, cruelty, you could very easily and correctly argue that his food had not been lawfully acquired, for food is the seed and thoughts in one’s mind are the fruit (Mathnavi, i, 1642 ff).
6. Reference is to the famous tradition of the Prophet:
[Fear the sagacity of the believer, for he sees through the light of God.]
7. Iqbal quotes (Bal-i Jibril, p. 190), Rumi’s verse:
[True knowledge is born of lawful food,love and compassion are born of lawful food.]
in Javid Namah (p. 240), he says:
[The essence of religion is: truthful speech and lawful food.]
8. (II. 523-28). About the Western system of Government, Iqbal says (Zabur-i ‘Ajam, p. 233):
[Intellect is nothing but fostering of unbelief, the art of the West is nothing but man-killing. A group lies in ambush against another group, may God protect her in her predicaments.]
See also the following (Javid Namah, p. 210):
[Its dazzling shows have burnt down abodes,consumed branch, leaf and nest.]
Iqbal says: “Believe me, Europe to-day is the greatest hindrance in the way of man’s ethical advancement” (Reconstruction, p. 179). The reason for this, according to him, is that European culture is divorced from the spiritual basis of life, what he calls nur-i haqq here. A few lines earlier, he says in the same lecture: “Humanity needs three things to-day-a spiritual interpretation of the universe, spiritual emancipation of the individual, and basic principles of a universal import directing the evolution of human society on a spiritual basis.”
9. (II. 531-32). Iqbal thinks that Western culture which is through and through secular in complexion cannot be expected to face the challenge of the new age. No change, superficial or far-reaching, can stave off its doom. What is needed is : total destruction of this culture. It is the same remedy that was suggested by Waliullah: total and complete revolution. See the present translator’s articles “Wali Allah : His Life and Times,” Iqbal Review,. October 1965, p. 25, Footnote 3.
10. Iqbal thinks that human reason is not capable of arriving at the universal moral truth for which man has to fall back upon revelation. Conclusions in the field of morality arrived at by human intellect are more often marred by the natural prejudices to which man is subject.
Javid Namah, p. 78
[The self-seeking intellect heeds not another’s welfare, it sees only its own benefit, not another’s God’s revelation sees the benefit of all, its regard is for the welfare of all.]
Darb-i Kalim, p. 67
[He got so much involved in the web of his wisdom,he could not decide what is harmful and what profitable.]
11. Life’s bosom, a’maq, plural of ‘umq, depth.
In the true mystic tradition, Iqbal believes that the innermost depth of heart is the place where man receives spiritual illumination, revelations from the God of life. Ghazali in Ihya’ (111/9, 23-24) describes this fact in a symbolic way. There are two ways to fill a pond. First is to pump water into it from some reservoir. The other is to dig the ground underneath to such a depth that water gushes out of the bottom and thus the pond begins to receive ever fresh and sweet water and no longer stands in need of external supply. The first is the way of reason while the second is the way of the mystic. Says Rumi (Mathnavi, ii, 160ff.):
[The sufi’s book is not (composed of) ink and letters,it is naught but a heart white as snow.]
Discussing the relative merits of the two paths, symbolised in another story of the Chinese and the Greeks, the former decorating the wall with diverse paints while the latter only polishing the wall, Rumi says (Mathnavi. i, 3489):
[Reason here becomes silent or (else) it leads into error, because heart is with God or indeed the heart is He. The burnishers of heart have escaped from scent and colour, they behold Beauty at every moment without tarrying.They receive a hundred impressions from the Empyrean, the Chair and the Void,What impressions? Nay, ‘tis the very sight of God.]
This mystic conception of polishing (saiqal) the heart has its counterpart in Iqbal in ‘umq, depth. This term is used sometimes with damir as in verses 561-62 below
[If you wish to see the essence of religion clearly,look but into the depth of your heart.]
But most often he uses the word damir (or a’maq) alone to indicate the innermost recesses of the heart as the source of inspiration. See, for instance, the following verse (Zabur-i ‘Kalim, p. 94).
[Happy is the man who reached deep into Being’s heart, drew forth jewel-like words and spoke fluently.]
In another verse (ibid., p. 176), he speaks about his own experience of illumination:
[My thought dived deep into Life’s hearttill I could lay my hand upon your secret thoughts.]
It is only outstanding people, of great intellectual stature who can reach these depths. Comparing him with ordinary run of people, he says (Darb-i Kalim, p. 73):
[Desire to reach the shore is not yet born in thee,he is aware of “depths” through his nature’s purity.]
This awareness of “depths” is what Iqbal calls the vital way of appropriating -the universe. It is. as he states in severa1 places, out of illumination experienced in the innermost recesses of the heart that great Prophets and great reformers have been able to lay the foundation of a new world order. In verse 544 below, be speaks about the source of the Shari’ah:
[Its roots lie in the bosom of Mustafa.]
This question of a’maq, depths, damir heart, is very intimately bound up with the question of intuition, or ilham, and its relation to reason. Iqbal holds (Reconstruction. p. 2) and so was the position of Ghazali, that both reason and intuition or ilham spring up from the same root. Reason plunges down into the “depth” and brings out jewels while what we call ilham is the same reason plunging deeper down into the “depths” of the self and bringing out more precious jewels. It is wrong to bold that reason and intuition are mutually antagonistic. All scientists and philosophers and all thinkers have been using both these. What is denounced in Iqbal. Ghazali and Rumi is not reason but sophistry. For Iqbal, see my art. on “Ilm and ‘Ishq” in the monthly Adabi Dunya for April 1972 (VI, 42), pp. 9-24 For Ghazali, see Dr Nabih Amin Faris, Tr., The Book of Knowledge, pp. 235 if. For detailed discussion of relation between the two, see my art. “Intellect and Intuition,” in Quarterly Iqbal, for January 1956, pp. 93-97.
12. “Looking in another way,” in contrast to the legal and formalistic attitude of the jurist, is the penetrative insight born of spiritual regeneration which, though based on reason, goes beyond reason and is the essence of what Rumi and Iqbal call Faqr.
13. “Bosom of Mustafa,” innermost heart of the Prophet, i.e. the revelation received by him from God on his heart, as stated in the Qur’an (xxvi. 194). Speaking about a prophet, Iqbal says : ‘In his personality the finite centre of life sinks into his own infinite depth only to spring up again, with fresh vigour, to destroy the old, and to disclose the new directions of life” (Reconstruction, p. 125).
14. Separation, .firaq, in opposition to union, wasl.
Very early in the history of sufism, a conflict raised its head in the fundamental tension between the esoteric and the exoteric, batin and zahir, the emphasis being laid on the former to such an extent that tasawwuf came to be regarded as a rival of the Shari’ah. Genuine attempts, however, were made by people like Ghazali and Ibn Taimiyyah, among others, to arrive at some integrative experience which might resolve this tension and help to arrive at some synthesis.
Hujwiri has tried to evaluate both the terms of the tension, and it seems that he is personally inclined to the superiority of the Shari’ah and its concomitant categories. Yet it must be admitted that no scientific attempt seems to have been made by him to resolve this tension.
Following Sirhindi, Iqbal tried to emphasise the true spirit of Islam as it manifested itself completely in the Shari’ah. His emphasis on firaq in contrast to wasl is in the same spirit. He is emphatic that in the highest experience, which the mystics call unitive, the true individual retains his separate existence and self-possession while face to face with God (see Javid Namah, pp. 140, 156-57, 159, and Zabur-i Ajam, pp. 220-21). In one of his letters to Khwajah Hasan Nizami, Iqbal says: “Imam-i Rabbani has discussed in one of his letters whether gusastan (breaking away, separation) is better or pal wastan (joining together, union). According to me, the former is Islam and the latter renunciation of the world or Magian mysticism” (Quarterly Iqbal, April 1954, p. 45).
15. The ideal for Iqbal is not to seek unitive experience, experience of oneness with God, but to follow God’s Will which is given in concrete shape in the Shari’ah.
16. This verse reminds one of Sa’di’s well-known verse
[You too should not disobey God’s commands,that others shouldn’t disobey your orders.]
17. Reference is to the Qur’anic verse “Certainly We created man in the best make” (xcv 4). But if he fails to follow the true path, he is brought to ‘‘the lowest of the low”.
18. Islam has -a particularly intimate relation with the personality of Abraham. The Qur’an states that Islam is the “faith of your father Abraham” who “named you -Muslim . . .“ (xxii. 78). In another place (ix. 4) it is said that “there is for you a good example in Abraham and those with him.. . It was Abraham who first enunciated and elucidated the implications of tauhid.
19. Tariqah, path. This is another term in mysticism that is sometimes opposed to Shari’ah (see Hujwiri, Kashf al-Mahjub (Urdu-trans.), pp. 565.66). Iqbal tries to explain that Tariqah is Shari’ah when its laws are followed in their real spirit.
Cf. the following note of Rumi in the Preface to the fifth volume of the Mathnavi: “[he religious law is like a candle showing the way. Unless you gain possession of the candle, there is no wayfaring; and when you have come on to the way, your wayfaring is the path and when you have reached the journey’s end, that is the truth. The law is knowledge, the path action, the truth attainment unto God.”
20. (II. 563-66). What Iqbal describes here can be elucidated by a reference to some passages in the last lecture of the Reconstruction. Here he gives three stages of religion In the last stage, he says (p. 181) “. . . metaphysics is displaced by psychology, and religious life develops the ambition to come into direct contact with the ultimate reality. It is here that religion becomes a matter of personal assimilation of life and power ; and the individual achieves a free personality, not by releasing himself from the fetters of the law, but by discovering the ultimate source of the law within the depths of his own consciousness.”
Javid Namah, pp. 4-5
[Without tajalli from God no wise man found the way,he dies buffeted by his own imaginings;without tajalli life is a mortal sickness,reason becomes veil and religion constraint.]
Musafir, p. 7
[What is religion ?-to discover one’s essence;life is death without seeing one’s self]
Iqbal expressed the same idea by quoting (Reconstruction, p. 181) from a Muslim sufi: “No understanding of the Holy Book is possible until it is, actually revealed to the believer just as it was revealed to the Prophet.”
Bal-e Jibril, p. 112
[As long as the Book is not revealed on your heart,neither Razi nor Kashshaf’s author can unravel the knot.]
Kashshaf is a comment. on the Qur’an by the famous Mu’tazilite Zamakhsbari.
Iqbal says: “Iman is not merely a passive belief in one or more pro-positions of a certain kind; it is living assurance begotten of a rare experience. Strong personalities alone are capable of rising to this experience and the higher ‘Fatalism’ implied in it. . . . [This] fatalism . . . is . . . life and bound-less power which recognizes no obstruction, and can make a man calmly offer his prayers when bullets are showering around him” (Reconstruction,. pp. 109-10).
21. The angel Gabriel is described in the Qur’an as “the faithful spirit (ruh u1-amin) that has brought revelation on thy heart . . .“ (xxvi. 193). “Close to Gabriel” may signify that the person now enjoys the privilege of receiving direct revelation from God.
22. This is in a nutshell the consequence of the enforcement of the Shari’ah. For Iqbal’s concept of economic reform in Muslim society, see Javid Namah, pp. 78, 80.81, 89-90, 125. In one of his letters to the Quaid-i-Azam, Iqbal has unequivocally stated that if the Shari’ah of Islam is enforced, the essentials of a peaceful life are fully assured.
23. The “Prophet” refers to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian. For Iqbal’s early attitude towards him, see his article “The Doctrine of Absolute Unity as Expounded by Abdul Karim al-Jilani,” published in The Indian Antiquary, September 1900. For his later and mature views about him, see his different statements as given in “Shamloo,” Ed., Speeches, etc., pp. 93-144. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad tried to interpret certain Qur’anic verses so that he could prove the genuineness of his Prophethood.
24. Their knowledge is theoretical only; they lack fire of conviction and zeal for activity, for they have missed the true spirit of the message.
25. “Reason” and “tradition” stand for two kinds of knowledge into which pursuit of learning was divided in classical Islamic period, corresponding to what is called ‘aql and naql. The latter stands for all those aspects of learning that deal exclusively with religious problems, while the former refers to all those branches of learning that today come under the title of science and humanities.
26. “Reformers,” Kaliman, plural of Kalim, the title of Moses. Kalim in Iqbal stands for an ideal reformer, prophet, teacher.
27. “White Hand” is a miracle of Moses. See the Qur’an, xx. 22. Staff and White Hand are two miracles of Moses -that correspond to Jamal (beauty) and jalal (majesty), qahiri (might) and Dilbari (mercy).
[EXPLANATORY NOTE]
THE ESSENCE OF THE SHARI’AHEXPLANATORY NOTE
This is perhaps the most important chapter of the book,
The first point that Iqbal emphasises is that wealth (capital) in itself is nothing evil. It is the use to which it is put that determines its value. Any exploitation of one class by the other must be condemned.
Islam lays down certain limits with regard both to earning and spending money. Unfortunately, modern age, under the European ways of secularism, has lost sight of this very import-ant distinction between lawful and unlawful earnings and the result is that all kinds of social evils are undermining the peace and security of the people. Iqbal particularly refers to the banking system, which, he thinks, is based on exploitation of man by man.
In the sphere of morals, human reason is found to be defective in affording guidance. Iqbal thinks that revelation, as embodied in the Shari’ah, can help us here. It is based on social justice and can easily meet the economic demands of the common man.
In the end, Iqbal comes to resolve the age-old tension between Shari’ah and Tariqah. According to -him, Tariqah is the mode of following the laws. When you follow the Shari’ah with all your heart in its true spirit, you are following the Tariqah. In the words of Iqbal, it is to discover “the ultimate source of the law [Shari’ah] within the depths of [our] own consciousness.”1 This discovery enables the individual to rise above the petty differences of the theologians and the jurists and to realise the real worth of the Shari’ah, whose object is to establish a socio-economic system in which every individual has the inalienable right to live free from all man-imposed claims and the State is responsible to meet his primary needs of food and shelter and upbringing of his children.
[None be dependent on others (for primary needs).]
1. Reconstruction, p. 181.
WHAT SHOULD THEN BE DONE O PEOPLE OF THE EAST?
The West has put mankind in grievous pain,

and, through it, life has lost all charm.1

What should then be done, O people of the East ?-

that the life of the East may once again brighten up.
810
A revolution has occurred in the East’s heart,

night has passed away, and the sun has risen.

Europe has fallen prey to its own sword ;2

it has laid the foundation of secularism in the world ;3

it is a wolf in the garb of a lamb,
815
every moment in ambush for a prey.

The difficulties of mankind are due to

it, it is the source of all the hidden anguish of man.4

In its eyes man is nothing but water and clay,

and the caravan of Life has no goal.5
820
Whatever you see is the manifestation of God’s light;

the knowledge of things6 is a part of God’s -secrets.

He who sees God’s signs7 is a free man,

the basis of this wisdom is God’s order: “Look.”8

Through it the believer is more successful in life than the non-believer
825
and more sympathetic towards others.

When knowledge illumines his mind,

his heart grows more and more God-oriented.9

Knowledge of things is like elixir to our dust,

alas! its effect in the West is different.
830
Its (the West’s) reason and thought have no standards of right and wrong,10

its eyes know no tear,11 its heart is hard as stone.

Knowledge, through it, has become a disgrace for all,

Gabriel, in its society, has become Iblis.

The wisdom of the Franks is an unsheathed sword,
835
ever ready to destroy the human species.

In this world of good and evil, intoxication of knowledge

does not suit mean natures.

May God protect us from the West and its ways,

and from its secular thinking;
840
the Westerners have changed true knowledge into magic,

nay, rather into unbelief.

A hundred mischiefs have raised their head on all sides,

snatch away the sword from the hands of this highwayman.

O you who know the distinction between body and soul,
845
break the spell of this godless civilisation.l2

Breathe the soul of the East into the West’s body,

that it may afford the key to the door of Reality.

Reason under heart’s guidance is godlike;

When it frees itself from the heart, it becomes satanic.
850
At every moment life is a struggle,

the situation in Abyssinia affords a warning;13

the law of Europe, without any doubt,

allows wolves to kill sheep.

We should set up a new order in the world,
855
there is no hope of relief from these plunderers of the dead.14

There is nothing in Geneva except deceit and fraud,15

this sheep is my share, that is yours.

There are many subtle ideas of the West which cannot be expressed in words,

a world of mischiefs and disorders lies hidden in them.
860
O you who are enamoured of colour, rise above colour;

have faith in yourself, deny the Franks.

The strings of gain and loss are in your hands,

the honour of the East depends on you.

Bring all the ancient nations together;
865
raise the flag of sincerity and rectitude.

The life of the votaries of truth depends upon their possessing power,

and the power of every nation depends upon unity.

Wisdom without power is deceit and enchantment,

power without wisdom is ignorance and madness.
870
Ardour, harmony, sympathy and compassion-all come from Asia,

both the wine and the cup are Asia’s.

We taught love the way of ravishing hearts

and the art of creating man.

Art as well as religion came from the land of the East
875
whose sacred dust is the envy of the heavens.

We revealed to the world all that lay hidden,

the sun is from us and we are of the sun.

Every oyster has its pearl through our spring rains,

the majesty of every ocean is due to our storms.
880
We have discerned our souls in the songs of the nightingale

and the blood of Adam in the veins of flowers.

Our thought, seeker of the secrets of Existence,

was the first to strike the note of life

We had in our breast a wound of passion,
885
made by us into a lamp to illumine the pathway of life16

You are the trustee of religion and culture,

bring out the White Hand from under your sleeve.

Rise and solve the problems of the nations,

put out of your head the intoxication of the West.
890
Set the pattern for the unity of Asia,

snatch yourself away from the hand of Ahriman.

You know the West and its deeds,

how long will you remain tied to its strings?

The wound, the lancet and the needle are all West’s,
895
ours is the pool of blood and the expectation that incision will be stitched up.

You know that kingship is power to rule,

but power, in our times, is mere commerce.

The shopkeeper17 is a partner in political power,

trade brings in profit and political power brings in tribute.
900
If a ruler is also a shopkeeper,

you will find good on his tongue, but evil in his heart.

If you can assess him properly,

you will find your coarse cloth finer than his silk

Pass off his workshop unmindful of everything,
905
do not buy his fur in winter.

His principle is: to kill without striking;

death lurks in the movement of his machines;

do not exchange your mat for his rugs

and your pawn for his queen;
910
his pearl is blemished, his ruby impure,

the musk of this merchant is from the navel of a dog.

Sleeping on his velvet will rob you of your eyes,

and its beauty will rob you of yourself.

You have made a muddle of your affairs,
915
do not build up your prestige on his basis;

a wise person would not drink wine from his pitcher,

and anyone who did would drop dead in the tavern;

while negotiating a business deal, he is all smiles and sweet word,

we are like children and he is a sweetmeat seller.
920
He fully knows the heart and look of the buyer,

O God! is this commerce or magic?

Those dealers in merchandise take away all the profit,

we buyers are all blind.

O free man, sell, wear and eat
925
only that which grows out of your own soil.

Those pure of heart, who are aware of themselves,

have themselves sewn their simple garments.

O you unaware of the deeds of the present age,

see the skilfulness of the people of Europe.
930
They weave out of your wool and silk,

and then offer them to you for sale.

Your eyes are taken in by their appearances;

their colour and glamour turn your head.

Alas for the river whose waves did not fret,
935
and which bought its own pearls from the divers!


1. Iqbal has expressed his disgust against the mischiefs of the West in several places. His protests are basically against the ideological basis of European culture, viz. its secularism. In the following verses, he expresses this protest in a very forceful language (Zabur-i ‘Ajam, p. 98):
[A tumult, in whose swelling breastTwo hundred tumults waitThat maiden is, who dwells caressedIn Europe’s craddle yet.]
In another place (ibid., p. 118), he says:
[Against Europe I protest.And the attraction of the West:Woe for Europe and her charm,Swift to capture and disarm!Europe’s hordes with flame and fireDesolate the world entire.]
Translation in both cases is from Arberry, Persian Psalms, pp. 61 and 76, respectively.
2. On 19 Match 1907, while he was still in England, Iqbal wrote the following verse (Bang-i Dara, p. 150):
[Your civilisation will commit suicide with its own hands.]
See Guftar-i Iqbal, p. 250
3. Iqbal himself defines secularism in the footnote : to divorce the affairs of the State from moral and religious principles.
4. Iqbal has discussed this aspect of Western culture in almost all his books. See Zabur-i ‘Ajam, pp. 135-36, 217, 233, and Javid Namah, pp. 79, 210.
5. Here Iqbal is referring to the purely materialistic attitude of the West which, denying the spiritual basis of life, is plunged into deep despair about-the future of mankind.
Discussing the implications of the theory of evolution in the West, Iqbal says: .... . the formulation of the same view of evolution .. . in Europe has led to the belief that ‘there now appears to be no scientific basis for the idea that the present rich complexity of human endowment will ever be materially exceeded.’ That is how the modern man’s secret despair hides itself behind the screen of scientific terminology” (Reconstruction, p. 187).
6. “Knowledge of things,” hikmat-i ashya’, refers to the Qur’anic verse (ii. 31) : “And He taught Adam all the names.” Iqbal regards knowledge of things as the basis of modern science. He says “. . . man is endowed with the faculty of naming things, that is to say, forming concepts of them. and forming concepts of them is capturing them. Thus the character of man’s knowledge is conceptual, and it is with the weapon of this conceptual knowledge that man approaches the observable aspects of Reality” (Reconstruction, p. 13).
Asrar-o Rumuz, p. 168
[Knowledge of names is the source of Adams glory;this knowledge serves to fortify him.]
Payam-i M’ashriq, p. 6
[Knowledge of things is the knowledge of the names,it serves both as Moses’ Staff and his White Hand]
7. “Signs of God” (ayat-i Khuda) here and “light of God” (anwar-i Haqq) in line 821. signifying the world of phenomena, imply Iqbal’s belief in Pan-psychism. “The world, in all its details, from the mechanical movement of what we call the atom of matter to the free movement of thought in the human ego, is the self-revelation of the ‘Great I am’. Every atom of Divine energy, however low in the scale of existence, is an ego” (Reconstruction, p. 71).
8. “Look,” unzur, refers to the Qur’anic verse (lxxxviii. 17-20): “See they not the clouds bow they are created ? And the heaven, how it is raised high. And the mountains, how they are fixed! And the earth, how it is spread out.” The verse quoted in the footnote of the text begins with : which is incorrect. The correct words are: [See they not ?].
The point Iqbal wishes to emphasise in lines 821-24 is that in science when we are dealing with concrete objects of the material world, we are, as a matter of fact, dealing with an aspect of God’s behaviour and, therefore, Iqbal says: “The scientific observer of nature is a kind of mystic seeker in the act of prayer” (Reconstruction, p. 91).
9. Cf. the Qur’anic verse (xxxv. 28): “Those of His servants who are possessed of knowledge fear Allah.”
10. See lines 535-36 above.
11. “Eyes know no tear.” A person who is not spiritually oriented is not moved by compassion towards others or feels remorse over his own sings The modern materialistic culture tends to deaden the heart.
Javid Namah, p. 243
[I have wandered in the world so long,I have seldom seen tears in the eyes of the rich.]
Bal-i Jibril, p. 52
[The eye, lighted by the collyrium of the West, is clever and deceitful, but knows no tear.]
12. See lines 53 1-32 which teach the same lesson, viz, destroying the present Western culture.
13. On his return from Europe after attending the Round Table Conference, Iqbal visited Italy and met Mussolini. He seems to have been greatly impressed by his personality and, what I feel, particularly liked his anti British policy. He expressed appreciation of his work among the younger generation of Italians (Bal-i Jibril, p. 202) But when, later on, Mussolini’s imperialistic role came to surface, he could not restrain himself from condemning him and his expansionist policy in Abyssinia. Fin wrote two different poems in 1935 (“Abyssinia” 18 August, and “Mussolini,” 22 August, included in Darb-i Kalim, pp. 147 and 151-52, respectively) which express his sentiments. The following three lines from the first are relevant (Darb-i Kalim, 147):
[Culture’s zenith is the decline of nobility., nations of the world indulge in destruction:every wolf seeks some innocent iamb.]
14. “Plunderers of the dead,” those who steal away the shrouds from the graves of the dead. Writing in 1923 (Payam-i M’ashriq, 233), Iqbal characterised the League of Nations as “Plunderers of the lead”.
15. On League of Nations and Geneva, its headquarters, see Darb-i Kalim, pp. 54, 158, 163.
16. (II. 871-86). These lines refer to the various creative and fruitful contributions made in the past by the people of Asia to world culture.
17. As is commonly known. Napoleon characterised the British as a nation of shopkeepers.
[EXPLANATORY NOTE]
WHAT SHOULD THEN BE DONE O PEOPLE OF THE EAST?EXPLANATORY NOTE
This is the main theme of the book and, therefore,. deserves very serious consideration. The first point is that the world is in distress and everybody is feeling the evil effects of European civilisation. According to Iqbal, the reason for this is the materialistic outlook and the secular attitude of the West.

[Since the West viewed body and soul separate, it also regarded State and Church as two.See deceit and artifice in Statecraftbody without soul, and soul without body.] 1
The result is:

[The art of the West is nothing but man-killing.] 2
True peace is possible here if the spiritual and the temporal are looked upon as twin aspects of the same unity. Iqbal says: “The essence of ‘Tauhid’ as a working idea is equality, solidarity, and freedom. The state, from the Islamic standpoint’ is an endeavour to transform these ideal principles into space-time forces. . . . ”3

[Mankind will be secure onlywhen religion and State are one.] 4
A State based on religious principles and guided by moral considerations is called by Iqbal as khilafat in the real sense:

[Imperialism is all deceit and magic,
Caliphate is the protector -of God’s laws.] 5

[Caliphate is Faqr with political authority.] 6
The secular attitude is also responsible, according to Iqbal, for the misuse of reason and denial of revelation. Reason is in-capable of guiding us in the sphere of morals for which we have to fall back upon revelation. The message of Iqbal, therefore, is, first, to destroy the secular culture root and branch, and, secondly, to supplement reason with revelation. Love and reason, dhikr and fikr, Jamal and jalal, nur (light) and nar (fire) must supplement one another. It is this spiritual approach that should replace the materialistic attitude of the West.
Political thinkers of the West tried to establish a League of Nations after the First World War, but it could not solve the problems of mankind because, according to Iqbal, it accepted division of mankind on the basis of land, colour and race as valid. It thus tended to divide mankind into warring factions instead of bringing them together. In 1913, only four years after the establishment of the League, Iqbal could say:
[So that the seed of strife be sown in the world,world’s well-wishers have set up an organisationto me it seems some plunderers of the deadhave gathered to divide graves among themselves.] 7
But writing in 1935, he gives a clearer picture of this organisation in contrast to what Islam would envisage its programme of action:

[The object of Western diplomacy: dividing nations,object of Islam: human brotherhood.] 8
It would be very instructive if Iqbal’s New Year -message, which he gave in 1938, is quoted here. It is as relevant today as it was when it was given. He says “So long as this so-called democracy, this accursed nationalism and this degraded imperial-ism are not shattered, so long as men do not demonstrate by their actions that they believe that the whole world is the family of God, so long as distinctions of race, colour and geographical nationalities are not wiped out completely, they will never be able to lead a happy and contented life and the beautiful ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity will never materialise.”9
The people of Asia must acquire power themselves, turn their back on the materialism of the West and set up a new social order based on the ancient traditions of honesty, sincerity and spirituality, which Iqbal calls here White Hand of Moses.
The last advice of Iqbal is that we must develop our economic system free from the influence of the West. Our trade, commerce and industry must in no case be dependent upon those of the West. It is better, he emphasises, to remain poor and ill-clad rather than pine for wealth which may enslave us to the West.
1. Zabur-i ‘Ajam, p. 217.
2. Ibid., p. 233.
3. Reconstruction, p. 154.
4. Bal-i Jibril, p. 160. Junaid, the mystic of Baghdad, represents religion, while Ardsher, Iranian monarch of Sassanid dynasty, represents State.
5. Armaghan-i Hijaz, p. 126.
6. Ibid., p. 110. “Crown and throne” are symbols of political authority.
7. Payam-i M’ashriq, p. 233.
8. Darb-i Kalim, p. 54.
9. “Shamloo,” Ed., Speeches and Statements of Iqbal, p. 222.
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