IQBAL'S EMPHASIS ON THE STUDY OF HISTORY

Reyazur Rehman

Dr. Abdullah[1] is of opinion that Iqbal should be included among historians. No doubt, Iqbal's thoughts are pregnant with historical events, but the importance of history to him begins from the poem "March 1907".[2] Before this, it must be remembered, the study of history was discouraged by him. He was very much vocal in explaining his point of view. What, says Iqbal, remains there in the tales of old times?[3] The events of the past have had no meaning. Now since 1907 the past is all important. That poem promises the regeneration of the past glory.

Some contents of the poem "March 1907" like the Divine promise to the Muslims, of the conquest over the Roman empire, the reference to Ḥijāz, the emphasis on desert and the tiger-like bravery of the Muslims. There is warning for the Western civilisation that it will not last long.

It was his "study" of the history of early Islam which could make him conscious of the missions, to glorify Tawḥīd and to establish Khilāfat as he emphasises in "Jawāb-i Shikwah''.[4] Besides, in the themes of "Shikwah" anti "Jawāb-i Shikwah," Iqbal is echoing the voice of the past. To improve the deteriorating conditions of the present, the rehabilitation of qualities of the other time are of great importance, the most vital element of which is Tawḥīd. It was the faith in Tawḥīd which made them dynamic, chivalrous, fearless, truthful, just and selfless.

In the poem "Khitāb Ba Jawānān-i Islām"[5] (1912), again, it is history which presents to Iqbal the qualities and conditions of the early Muslims. He wants the Muslims to know their ancestors who were great conquerors, although the desert was their abode and who remained indifferent to wealth and to worldly pleasure. All these are reflections of history.

Besides, in one of the poems, "Muslim,"[6] composed during this period, that is 1912, Iqbal himself tells us that history has been the source of his inspiration.

Conducive to National Consciousness. As for an individual, it is equally necessary for the nation to know its goal without which its life would be meaningless. Life without purpose would be-come a lifeless entity. Iqbal says: "A living nation is living because it never forgets its dead."[7] It is history which keeps the spirit of a people alive. And because it records the achievements of the past, which is to be the source of inspiration to the pre-sent, it leads to the path of national mission.

"The skilful vision that beholds the past

Can recreate before thy wondering gaze

 The past anew; wine of a hundred years

 That bowl contains, an ancient drunkenness

Flames in its juice. ..."[8]

Iqbal asserts that for maintaining the national entity, the glories of the past should not be forgotten. In a crisis to improve upon the present and to ensure a happier future, the inspiration must be derived from the past.

"Break not the thread [of continuity] between the past and now

And the far future. ..."[9]

Thus to Iqbal history is all important. It is the source of national cohesion. It is the source of national consciousness and national mission. National life can become inspiring and active for the mission. This is what Namier says : "History pleases and inspires ..."[10]; ". . . the past is on the top of us and with us all time.''[11]

Role of Muslims in History. According to the general con­sensus of opinion, serious thinking generally emerges during the period of crisis. There starts pondering under the conditions of insecurity and dissatisfaction. Minds are engaged in an endeavour to know as to why the situation is heading towards more and more anxieties, insecurities and diissatisfaction.[12] "In an hour of crisis, when the order of a society flounders and disintegrates, the fundamental problems of political existence in history are more apt to come in view than in periods of stability."[13]

At such an hour Iqbal makes the Muslims conscious of their responsibility. They must rise and save humanity from destruc­tion.[14] It is his love for mankind that he denounces Machiavelli for causing bitterness and dissensions in human society against the teaching of Christianity.[15] His anguish at the sufferings of humanity is revealed in his New Year's Message broadcast from Lahore station of the All-India Radio on 1 January 1938:

"As I look back on the year that has passed and as I look at the world in the midst of the New Year's rejoicings, it may be Abyssinia or Palestine, Spain or China, the same misery prevails in every corner of man's earthly home, and hundreds of thousands of men are being butchered mercilessly. Engines of destruc­tion created by science are wiping out the great landmarks of man's cultural achievements. ..."[16]

Iqbal's unreserved admiration and eulogy for scientists, poets, saints, thinkers, irrespective of creed, colour or language, who have contributed to the greatness of man, clearly shows his humanist attitude.

Although there has been the general opinion that Iqbal was concerned with the Muslims, and he wrote for the Muslims. But this is not the whole truth. He was particularly but not exclusive­ly concerned with the Muslims. Alongwith the Muslims he was concerned with humanity at large. To quote Iqbal himself: "I feel it is my duty as a Muslim and as a lover of mankind, to remind them of their true function in the evolution of man-kind.'[17]  This is evident also from his poem "March 1907" wherein he expresses the desire of serving humanity. He believes in the creation of a new world for a new "Adam".[18] `Ābid Husain is correct in supporting this view.[19] Muslims should act to improve human situation in order to save humanity.

It must be remarked that in so many of his works Iqbal has stressed upon the Muslims[20] to fulfil their historical mission of liberating mankind. In his lecture "Islam As A Moral and Politi­cal Ideal" (of 1908), it has been stressed on the Muslims that "it is their mission to set others free".[21] In Rumūz[22] the Muslims are being cited as a "just nation" according to the Qur'ān. They are called upon to establish justice. In the Jāwīd Nāmah[23] and Pas Chih Bāyad Kard,[24] it is being impressed upon the Muslims that they have come with a revolutionary mission and they must act to save the civilisation.

Quite naturally, at this stage one would find oneself at a loss to discern the elements of humanitarianism in Iqbal's rejoicings in poem "March 1907" at the destruction of the Roman empire by Islamic forces. On course, to understand Iqbal's viewpoint some amount of ingenuity is necessary.

Some of the elements of humanitarianism are to be envisioned in the poem of 1907 where the destruction of Roman empire has been elugoised. The silent voice from "Ḥijāz" has brought the message that the lion that once emerged from the desert and had upset the Roman empire will awake once again.[25] In these lines `Abd al-Qādir:[26] finds him to be only a seer and nothing more than that. Seer he might have been ; this does not concern us. What concern us here is the political implications in these lines. It must be noted that the emergence of Islam is desired, not as a conquering force, but as a force of liberation as it did in the past. To Iqbal defeat of Rome implies the victory of the forces of liberation. This is what Iqbal emphasises in other places. The defeat of the Roman empire in his view was the defeat of tyranny and oppression and victory of the power of freedom. It is being asserted[27] here that the tyrannical rule could be destroyed by the power of Haidar, by the asceticism of Bū Dharr and the truth of Salamān.

Such a view of Iqbal finds its expression in so many places of which a few are noted below.

(a) In the Shikwah[28] it is stressed that Muslims destroyed the rule of the Kaisar who enjoyed god-like authority, and thence they secured equality and freedom for mankind.

(b) This view that the victory of the Muslims over Rome was the victory of forces of liberation appears again in a speech delivered in a meeting at Lahore after the First World War to protest against the unjust treatment meted out to Turkey by Britain. The irony of the situation, Iqbal pointed out, was that the right to control over their own territory was being denied to those who secured liberty to the people of Rome at a time when they were smarting under the oppressive rule of the Kaisar.[29]

Many Western thinkers support the view that the Muslim conquest brought benefit for the conquered. Even B. Russell, although not sympathetic to Islam, has had to admit that the Muslims in history had been more tolerant and humane:

"Throughout the Middle Ages the Mohammedans were more civilized and more humane than the Christians. Christians persecuted Jews. . . . In Mohammedan countries, on the contrary, the Jews at most times were not in any way ill treated."[30]

W. Durant also holds a similar view about the tolerance shown to the religious groups.[31]

B. Lewis unequivocally holds the Muslim rule preferable to that of the Romans. To substantiate it, he quotes a few "Apo­calyptic and a Christian historian" who in the criticism of the Roman Empire for tyranny far excelled Iqbal as it will be seen:

"We may compare with this the words of a later Syrian Chris­tian historian: `Therefore the God of vengeance delivered us out of the hand of the Romans by means of the Arabs. . . . It profited us not a little to be saved from the cruelty of the Romans and their bitter hatred towards us.'[32]

For their liberating role, the Muslims drew their inspiration from the Prophet, who was the harbinger of the principles of freedom, equality and brotherhood, as is evident from Iqbal's lecture of 1908. Here it is emphasised that Islam had "elevated those who were socially low".[33] Very significant is his dedicated love and reverence for the Prophet whom he refers to as the one "who brought the final message of freedom and equality to man­kind".[34] This lecture concludes with a message for the Muslims that "it is their mission to set others free". The Prophetic role as the heralder of freedom, equality and brotherhood has been emphasised also in the Asrār-ī Khudī.[35] And in the Rumūz, paras after paras have been devoted to the liberating role of Islam and as a mission left by the Prophet as a legacy.

But lqbal is not content merely be emphasising the liberating role of Islam. He is equally anxious to create conditions for the individual to enjoy freedom and equality including economic justice. For this, Khilāfat as a political system is much more suit-able than other forms of government: Khilāfat is based on the supremacy of law where there is no place for "personal authority," and where both the ruler and the ruled are "subject to the same law".[36] These are the basic conditions for the enjoyment of free­dom and equality.[37] Something more would have been said about Iqbal's inspiration from the liberating role of the past. But in the present context glance must be given to the charge on Iqbal for communalism. Let us examine its validity.

Search .for Golden Age in History. Iqbal has been charged for preaching his own creed for he ceased to believe in Indian nationalism. He drew inspiration from the glorious past of Islam and for the re-emergence of which he urged Muslims to act and to struggle.[38] It has been commented by Kiernan that Iqbal "indulged in unguarded rhetoric about holy wars and the Sword of Islam, and extolled action as if it were an end in itself."[39]

It is an evasion of the facts of history that has led them to misread the ideas of Iqbal. It is known that the crisis was largely responsible for the emergence of his ideas. To resolve the crisis, to tide it over and to improve the situation, it has been the case of all the nations to seek inspiration from its own national his­tory. It has been rightly asserted by Crossman:[40] "We attempt to seek a golden age, or to reconstruct a broken society in the pat-tern of that age." The study of Greek philosophers and specially of Plato assumes much importance today in view of crisis.

There is, therefore, nothing communal here. It is known to a student of history that every nation must have a history of its own, which may be the source of inspiration for it. The most dominating and powerful factor for maintaining national con­sciousness, in the words of J.S. Mill is: "the possession of a national history and consequent community of recollections; col­lective pride and humiliation, pleasure and regret, connected with the same incident in the past."[41]

And if a nation does not have its own history with a glorious past, it seeks inspiration from the history of other nations which influenced its ideas and thoughts.

Although "Greek philosophy is philosophy of the Greek and for the Greek," yet, as just said, it continues to inspire the West : "Now history matters more to us, and none is more really contemporary than that of the Greeks."[42]

The West has had to depend upon Greek philosophy because there was no other source for her to seek remedy against the enslavement of man in the name of religion. The Renaissance was mainly inspired by Greek thought.

To improve the conditions in the present, it becomes neces­sary to seek its link with the past to justify a movement or a revolution ; if no such link can be traced out in history, it is even invented, as, for example, the social contract theory. "The con-tract theory of the origin of state is false and worthless as a record of facts. . . ,"[43]

Now, if social contract theory which is the basis of modern democracy is unhistorical, there is no reason to mark a thinker as a communalist, if he is inspired not by any "imaginary golden age in history," but rather by an age which is well recorded in the past events. A period of history in which he finds the dignity of man being ensured through the establishment of the supre­macy of impartial and impersonal law, treating both the ruler and the ruled alike, and where the power was exercised not for any other purpose than to establish the supremacy of law.

References