The symposium was organized by Iqbal Academy Scandinavia (IAS). The guest speaker Mohammad Sharif Baqa from London presided the session. Mohammad Kamil, a member of IAS executive board, recited the last six verses of the Qur’an (59:19-24) in his melodious voice followed by translation in Urdu. The session was hosted by Anjum Parveen, an IAS life member. She opened the session with a brief note on the day’s order.
The first speaker was Sarosh Alamgir, a learned IAS board member, who delivered his well prepared speech in English, in which he explained the basic idea of Khudi and its intended literal concept, the conception of God - The ultimate Khudi and some of His fundamental traits (independence, Creativity, Awareness, Principles). What sets human apart from other creatures - Creativity, Awareness and Free will. Besides, he elaborated the subjective concept of God. Then he talked on various stages of development and edification of Khudi. His speech was in fact a foundational exposition of Khudi derived from the Holy Qur’an. His 35 minutes speech kept all the minds in the hall fully engaged, followed by a Q&A warm session of over 30 minutes in which questions from the audience in English and Urdu were answered logical in the same language by Sarosh to their full satisfaction. His complete speech will be soon in the air on Youtube and also will be available on the website: www.allamaiqbal.com/ias .
The founding chairman IAS Ghulam Sabir carried forward Sarosh Alamgir’s point of Love as the most important tool to edify the Self (Khudi). With regard to edification of the Self he mentioned that the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard was also of the view that Love (Ishq) is the way to develop the Self or Khudi, as it is love that purifies the heart by removing rubbish from it and that it is a transparent heart only that guides the traveler of Khudi to adopt the right way. The most important question, with regards to love is ‘with what’ and ‘whom’, was also answered by him through Iqbal’s Persian and Urdu poetry. He quoted the example of Iqbal’s Ishq with our Profit (PBH). In his Asrar-I Khudi Iqbal says, “Ashiqi muhkam sho az taqleed-I yar” (to follow the footsteps of your beloved is to strengthen the Love). The Profit loved God, therefore, we should love God and to love God is to love human beings, which is the ultimate aim of Khudi (The Self).
The last speaker Mohammad Sharif Baqa dealt with the subject at large, clarifying further some of the points from former speeches of Sarosh Alamgir and Ghulam Sabir suppored by verses from the Qur’an and sayings (Hadith) of the Profit. He said that Iqbal has written nothing against the Qur’an’s teaching. The idea of Khudi is also derived from the teachings of the Profit of which the ultimate source is the Qur’an, He stressed on the importance of Khudi in the life of Man as well as that of the nations as Iqbal has said “Khudi kay saaz men hai Umr.i javidan ka suragh; Khudi kay soz say roshan hain ummaton kay chiragh”, (Individual Self makes a person immortal and collective Self ensures the domination of a nation). The destination of Khudi is The Utimate, which means Niabat-I Elahi or being vicegerent of God on the earth – The person, who attains this position, if wills it becomes the will of God. The speech followed full one hour for Q&A. This speech created so much life in the hall that the time of one hour ultimately fell short to answer some of the questions. This speech will also be available on Youtube as well as on website www.allamaiqbal.com/IAS page video in due course. |
