Iqbal, Sir Muhammad
Iqbal, Sir Muhammad, also spelled MUHAMMAD IKBAL (b. Nov. 9,
1877, Sialkot, Punjab, India [now in Pakistan]--d. April 21,
1938, Lahore, Punjab), Indian poet and philosopher, known for
his influential efforts to direct his fellow Muslims toward the
establishment of a separate Muslim state, an aspiration that was
eventually realized in the country of Pakistan. He was knighted
in 1922.
Early life and career.
Iqbal was born at Sialkot, India (now in Pakistan), of a pious
family of small merchants and was educated at Government
College, Lahore. In Europe from 1905 to 1908, he earned his
degree in philosophy from the University of Cambridge, qualified
as a barrister in London, and received a doctorate from the
University of Munich. His thesis, The Development of Metaphysics
in Persia, revealed some aspects of Islamic mysticism formerly
unknown in Europe.
On his return from Europe, he gained his livelihood by the
practice of law, but his fame came from his Persian- and
Urdu-language poetry, which was written in the classical style
for public recitation. Through poetic symposia and in a milieu
in which memorizing verse was customary, his poetry became
widely known, even among the illiterate. Almost all the cultured
Indian and Pakistani Muslims of his and later generations have
had the habit of quoting Iqbal.
Before he visited Europe, his poetry affirmed Indian
nationalism, as in Naya shawala ("The New Altar"), but time away
from India caused him to shift his perspective. He came to
criticize nationalism for a twofold reason: in Europe it had led
to destructive racism and imperialism, and in India it was not
founded on an adequate degree of common purpose. In a speech
delivered at Aligarh in 1910, under the title "Islam as a Social
and Political Ideal," he indicated the new Pan-Islamic direction
of his hopes. The recurrent themes of Iqbal's poetry are a
memory of the vanished glories of Islam, a complaint about its
present decadence, and a call to unity and reform. Reform can be
achieved by strengthening the individual through three
successive stages: obedience to the law of Islam, self-control,
and acceptance of the idea that everyone is potentially a
vicegerent of God (na`ib, or mu`min). Furthermore, the life of
action is to be preferred to ascetic resignation.
Three significant poems from this period, Shikwah ("The
Complaint"), Jawab-e shikwah ("The Answer to the Complaint"),
and Khizr-e rah ("Khizr, the Guide"), were published later in
1924 in the Urdu collection Bang-e dara ("The Call of the
Bell"). In those works Iqbal gave intense expression to the
anguish of Muslim powerlessness. Khizr (Arabic: Khidr), the
Qur`anic prophet who asks the most difficult questions, is
pictured bringing from God the baffling problems of the early
20th century.
What thing is the State? or why
Must labour and capital so bloodily disagree?
Asia's time-honoured cloak grows ragged and wears out . . .
For whom this new ordeal, or by whose hand prepared?
(Eng. trans. by V.G. Kiernan.)
Notoriety came in 1915 with the publication of his long Persian
poem Asrar-e khudi (The Secrets of the Self). He wrote in
Persian because he sought to address his appeal to the entire
Muslim world. In this work he presents a theory of the self that
is a strong condemnation of the self-negating quietism (i.e.,
the belief that perfection and spiritual peace are attained by
passive absorption in contemplation of God and divine things) of
classical Islamic mysticism; his criticism shocked many and
excited controversy. Iqbal and his admirers steadily maintained
that creative self-affirmation is a fundamental Muslim virtue;
his critics said he imposed themes from the German philosopher
Friedrich Nietzsche on Islam.
The dialectical quality of his thinking was expressed by the
next long Persian poem, Rumuz-e bikhudi (1918; The Mysteries of
Selflessness). Written as a counterpoint to the individualism
preached in the Asrar-e khudi, this poem called for
self-surrender.
Lo, like a candle wrestling with the night
O'er my own self I pour my flooding tears.
I spent my self, that there might be more light,
More loveliness, more joy for other men.
(Eng. trans. by A.J. Arberry.)
The Muslim community, as Iqbal conceived it, ought effectively
to teach and to encourage generous service to the ideals of
brotherhood and justice. The mystery of selflessness was the
hidden strength of Islam. Ultimately, the only satisfactory mode
of active self-realization was the sacrifice of the self in the
service of causes greater than the self. The paradigm was the
life of the Prophet Muhammad and the devoted service of the
first believers. The second poem completes Iqbal's conception of
the final destiny of the self.
Later, he published three more Persian volumes. Payam-e Mashriq
(1923; "Message of the East"), written in response to J.W. von
Goethe's West-östlicher Divan (1819; "Divan of West and East"),
affirmed the universal validity of Islam. In 1927 Zabur-e 'Ajam
("Persian Psalms") appeared, about which A.J. Arberry, its
translator into English, wrote: "Iqbal displayed here an
altogether extraordinary talent for the most delicate and
delightful of all Persian styles, the ghazal," or love poem.
Javid-nameh (1932; "The Song of Eternity") is considered Iqbal's
masterpiece. Its theme, reminiscent of Dante's Divine Comedy, is
the ascent of the poet, guided by the great 13th-century Persian
mystic Jalal ad-Din ar-Rumi, through all the realms of thought
and experience to the final encounter.
Iqbal's later publications of poetry in Urdu were Bal-e Jibril
(1935; "Gabriel's Wing"), Zarb-e kalim (1937; "The Blow of
Moses"), and the posthumous Armaghan-e Hijaz (1938; "Gift of the
Hejaz"), which contained verses in both Urdu and Persian. He is
considered the greatest poet in Urdu of the 20th century.
Philosophical position and influence.
His philosophical position was articulated in The Reconstruction
of Religious Thought in Islam (1934), a volume based on six
lectures delivered at Madras, Hyderabad, and Aligarh in 1928-29.
He argued that a rightly focused man should unceasingly generate
vitality through interaction with the purposes of the living
God. The Prophet Muhammad had returned from his unitary
experience of God to let loose on the earth a new type of
manhood and a cultural world characterized by the abolition of
priesthood and hereditary kingship and by an emphasis on the
study of history and nature. The Muslim community in the present
age ought, through the exercise of ijtihad--the principle of
legal advancement--to devise new social and political
institutions. He also advocated a theory of ijma'--consensus.
Iqbal tended to be progressive in adumbrating general principles
of change but conservative in initiating actual change.
During the time that he was delivering these lectures, Iqbal
began working with the Muslim League. At the annual session of
the league at Allahabad, in 1930, he gave the presidential
address, in which he made a famous statement that the Muslims of
northwestern India should demand status as a separate state.
After a long period of ill health, Iqbal died in April 1938 and
was buried in front of the great Badshahi Mosque in Lahore. Two
years later, the Muslim League voted for the idea of Pakistan.
That the poet had influenced the making of that decision, which
became a reality in 1947, is undisputed. He has been acclaimed
as the father of Pakistan, and every year Iqbal Day is
celebrated by Pakistanis.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Aspects of his thought are explored in K.G. Saiyidain, Iqbal's
Educational Philosophy, 6th ed. rev. (1965), a standard analysis
of the relevance of Iqbal's ideas about education written by a
distinguished Indian educationist; Annemarie Schimmel, Gabriel's
Wing, 2nd ed. (1989), a thorough analysis of Iqbal's religious
symbolism, including a comprehensive bibliography in English;
Syed Abdul Vahid, Iqbal: His Art and Thought, new ed. (1959), a
standard introduction; Hafeez Malik (ed.), Iqbal,
Poet-Philosopher of Pakistan (1971), representative Pakistani
views; and S.M.H. Burney (S.M.H. Barni), Iqbal, Poet-Patriot
India (1987),focin his poetry. |