IQBAL ON MUSLIM FRATERNITY

A. Shakoor Ahsan

Muslim fraternity forms one of the fundamental themes of Iqbals’ poetry. He believes that Muslims all over the world form one united community based on common religion and tradition. Throughout his works rings the note of this distinct unity. He exults in the universal Islamic heritage to which all Muslim peoples have made magnificent contributions over the centuries. He cherishes this precious heritage as common and indivisible and completely identifies himself with the mainstream of Muslim ethos and shares the common joys and sorrows of Muslims as an integral part of the great universal Islamic brotherhood. The Muslims whether from Hejaz, China or Iran are like the dews of the same smiling morn:

We bail from Hejaz, China, Iran,

We are the dews of the same smiling morn.

This concept is essentially based on the unity of God and the doctrine of Prophethood which forged scattered groups of people into a universal fraternity and inspired them with a common ideology. The poet has laid special stress on Prophet-hood and argues that if an individual survives through God, the nation survives through Prophet. Our common creed, aims and ideals, he says, all derive their inspiration from Prophet hood:

Prophet hood turned us into a community inspired with unity of expression, mode and ideal.

A multitude inspired with one aim and ideal merges into unity, When the unity is complete it turns into Millat.

We learnt the religion of nature (Islam) from the Prophet,

And kindled a torch in the path Divine

This gem has emerged from his immeasurable ocean,

By his grace do our hearts throb in unison.

----------------------

We are enamoured of the eyes of the Saqi of Batha,

We exist together like wine and goblet all the world over.

Again, the poet has given the word Millat a new connotation. For him it always stands for the Muslim Ummah and not for a single, particular group of Muslim people.

The disastrous political and moral decline of the Millat engaged his thoughts in his early poetic career. When he presented his philosophy of the self in Asrar-i-Khudi in 1915, he was already seized of the problem of the Millat which, he sadly commented, had been cut off from its moorings. He subjected it to scathing criticism for its neglect of Islamic ideals and attitudes and the consequent process of disintegration, and admonished it to rediscover its identity and lost unity:

When the gazelle fled from the environs of the Kaba,

His bosom was ripped by the hunter’s arrow.

The rose-petal fell apart like its very scent,

O you fleeing from yourself, come back unto yourself.

O trustee of the wisdom of the Book!

 Rediscover your lost unity.

The doctrine of Khudi, which he systematically and assiduously preached in this book, is inextricably linked with power and domination. No wonder that the hanging pall of gloom over the Muslim world evoked the poet-philosopher to present the concept of Khudi, or self realization, self-expression and self-affirmation, in which struggle, action and power play a dominant role. The Millar has constantly influenced his thoughts and significantly, the poet’s second Persian work Rumuz-i-Bikhudi opens with an address to Millat-i-Islamiat [5] that is, the Muslim nation, and not to a specific nation, race or group of people.

Contrary to his ideals, however, the poet found that the world of Islam was fast capitulating to an exclusive nationalism. It could not but corrode the fraternal bonds of Muslim peoples. All his life, therefore, he -waged a crusade against this new concept based or race and territorial boundaries, which, he believed, was alien to the spirit of Islam. He was not averse to patriotism and love of one’s habitation. But, as he contends in a letter to Prof. Nicholson, the structure of groups and nations on the basis of race and territorial frontiers is merely a passing phase in the development of collective life. He does not object to this phase but he is opposed to the theory that it is the ultimate goal of human activity.[6] Thus, while he justifies partiotism, he hates exclusive territorialism, not to speak of chauvinism. People may be associated with a certain territory, but it should not stop them from rising above parochial limits and prejudices. In this connection the poet cites the fascinating example of the sun which rises from the east and is proverbially associated with it, but which traverses the heavens and humbles all horizons.[7] In a similar fashion a Muslim should loath to confine himself to limited space. One who flouts the sense of confinement, he says, becomes supreme and universal:

One who transcends the limits of directions overwhelms all the six directions like the sky.

The Muslims may have different nomenclatures and manifestations of local cultures, but in this diversity lies their essential unity. Their real country is Islam:

Our heart does not belong to India, Rum (Turkey) or Syria, Our only habitation is Islam.

In an exceptionally original interpretation of Sura-i-Ikhlas he observes that a Muslim is the son of Islam,[10] who is related to fellow Muslims through the unbreakable bonds of close spiritual affinities. The poet admonishes the Musalman to live free and detached like a fish in the sea. Nationalism leads to destruction, deception and rivalry between nations, and division between man and man, and cuts at the roots of the Millat.[11] Only the elimination of racial and national distinctions can save this enfeebled universal brotherhood.

Break all idols of colour and blood and merge yourself into Millar, Because the Turanians, Iranians and Afghans have lost their past glory.

In an exquisite quatrain he has refuted the concept of territorial nationalism by claiming that Muslims are neither Afghans nor Turks nor Tartars. They have bloomed in the same garden and belong to one branch. The distinction of colour and odour is forbidden them, because they are the products of one happy spring.

A dervish, who for Iqbal is an ideal Muslim, belongs neither to the east nor to the west. His home is neither Delhi nor Isfahan nor Samarqand.

One who is destined to voyage through immeasurable seas cannot be bounded by the Ravi, the Nile or the Euphrates:

That is why he has given the Muslims the name of Millat-i-giti navard[16] or the globe-traversing nation. Thus he visualizes a limitless field of exploits for a Muslim and invests him with a global vision and vast human sympathies. As he once wrote to Prof. Nicholson he wished to remind his fellow Muslims that their real interest lay in the progress of the entire humanity.[17]

There are certain vital historical factors which engaged Allama’s constant attention to the Muslim world and impelled him to preach the gospel of Muslim unity and fraternity as it had been conceived and vehemently advocated by the revolutionary-reformer Sayyid Jamal-ud-Din Afghani during the 19^th century. The poet found western colonialism riding rougoshod over the east, especially the Muslim countries. The region now known as the Middle East was the main target of ruthless imperialist onslaught and caused deep consternation amongst Muslims of the subcontinent on account of their close spiritual, cultural and emotional links with it. The four nations of the Middle East, namely, the Turks, Arabs, Iranians and Afghans became the focus of the poet’s attention and he pursued their fortunes with infinite concern and anxiety. While making impassioned appeals to all Muslim countries to unite, reassert, revive the Islamic spirit and build up their future on the traditions of their great past, he also addressed to each of these nations separately.

Turks

Turkey was the first country to engage his attention on account of its shifting fortunes. In the eyes of the Muslims of the subcontinent the Ottoman Caliphate was the guardian of Muslim faith and tradition and the symbol of Muslim pride and unity. The western nations, however, frantically conspired to oust the Turk, whom they scornfully called the sickman of Europe, from that continent. Turkey was involved in the Tripoli and Balkan wars in 1911. The end of World War I successively saw the dismemberment of the Turkish empire, a heroic and victorious war of liberation by the Turks, the establishment of the republic of Turkey and the abolition of the Caliphate. Iqbal wrote many poems throughout this period highlighting the desperate courage and heroism of the Turkish nation. Of these Khizr-i-Rah[18] and Tulu-i-lslam[19] are the monumental examples. These are imbued with robust optimism and rising’ hopes.

When Turkey overcame its political crisis, Allama continued to pursue new developments in that country with his characteristic concern. He supported the new constitutional developments in that country in his lecture on “The Principle of Movement in the structure of Islam” and justified the Turkish concept of Ijtihad in regard to the institution of Khilafat[20]. Again, fully agreeing with the Turkish national poet Zia on an international ideal of Islam he says :

“For the present every Muslim nation must sink into her own deeper self, temporarily focus her vision on herself alone until all are strong and powerful to form a living family of republics.”[21]

While concluding his discussion on the subject of re-evaluation of intellectual inheritance and reconstruction of religious thought, Allama again pays homage to modern Turkey in the following words:

“The truth is that amongst the Muslim nations of today, Turkey alone has shaken off its dogmatic slumber, and attained to self-consciousness. She alone has claimed her right of intellectual freedom. She alone has passed from the ideal to the real, a transition which entails a keen intellectual and moral struggle. They (Muslims countries) are mechanically repeating old values, whereas the Turk is on the way to creating new values. He has passed through great experiences which have revealed his deeper self to him. In him life has begun to move, change and ‘amplify, giving birth to new desires, bringing new difficulties and suggesting new interpretations.”[22]

This is a great compliment paid to modern Turkey by the poet of the East. Later developments in Turkey, however, seem to have disillusioned the poet. He became rather critical of the adoption of the western style of living and western culture by that cherished land of Muslim hopes. This modernization, he remarks, has no streak of originality. What the Turk deems to be new is nothing but obsolete in the western eye. Imitation (talid) he adds, does not lead to a fuller and richer life, as the creative process in the universe does not owe itself to imitation. By imitation life is bound to lose its intimate touch with reality. For a Muslim the quest for creativity receives its fulfilment in Quranic guidance, because each verse of this holy book is the repository of a hundred new worlds, of which only one can suffice the modern age:

The Turk lacks new tunes in his harp,

His new is but the old of the Frank.

The new and original in the universe is not possible by imitation in life, If you have the heart of a Muslim look into your consciousness and the Quran.

A hundred worlds abound in its contents,

Epochs are epitomized in its moments.

Only one such world does suffice the modern age,

Know, if you have an understanding heart.

Again, he is extremely critical of the superficial social changes introduced into eastern countries under the western impact. Without naming Turkey, he lashes at eastern nations exposed to such influences in the following words:

The strength of the West does not lie in the harp and the rebec, Nor in the dance of immodest girls.

Nor does it he in the magical charm of its dazzling beauties, Nor in the bare legs and short hair styles.

Its stability does not lie in irreligiousness,

Nor is its advancement the outcome of the Latin Script.

The power of the West flows from its knowledge and science From this fire has it kindled its lamp.

Arabs

The poet reminds the Arab of the revolutionary character of his religion and brings into bold relief his historic achievements in the early days of Islam in the background of his present downfall. He wants him to probe into the causes of his decline and fall, and be aware of the superficial glamour of the ‘West. Allama underscores the all-pervading importance of religion which had once equipped the Arab with faith, will, purity and determination. He tries to awaken in him the spirit of the great Islamic heroes Umar and Khalid, so that he may resurrect his dominant role in the present-day world:

O land of Batha! raise another Khalid,

Sing once again the song of Divine unity.

May the date-palms of your desert sway in lasting bloom, Will not another Faruq arise from your soil?

In a fervent appeal to the Arabs he wishes them to become once again the creators of history and revive their ancient glory by the undying flame of love, a burning passion for quest and an unshakable faith in their historic role. It saddens him to observe that they have created nations out of one people:

You were one nation, but have multiplied into nations, You have torn apart the bliss of a happy society.

He persistently warns them against total dependence on others and a static existence:

How long will you live without the joy of movement, How long will the strangers control your destiny?

He reminds them of the words of the Holy Prophet that for a man the day of adversity is the day of purity:

Are you afraid of calamity? The Prophet observes! “For a man the day of calamity is the day of purity”.

The poet has eulogized the early role of the Arabs as the pioneers of modern civilization. Their creative endeavours brought light and progress into the world. They are bound by destiny to revive their predetermined role and master the sweep of history[29].

In his address to the Arab poets[30] he proudly reveals the light he has received from the Quran. With its blessings, he says, he has turned the long dark night into dawn. He exhorts them to draw inspiration from their own conscience:

Do not seek aid except from your own conscience to stir the heart of the reader with a restless passion, inspire him with revolutionary zeal and ideals and last but not least nourish a deep concern for their Muslim brethren. He stresses the imperishable value of creative effort and of the passion to master the future:

Hold your grip on the artery of tomorrow,

He further wishes them to cultivate a proud sense of faqr, that is, a total disdain of worldy temptations. With the virtue of faqr, he says, even the destitute can spark off revolutions and rock the world.[33] The poet disseminated this message when the

Arab world was singularly devoid of material resources and the liquid gold had not yet started flowing from the deserts.

Iran

He turns to Iran again and again with an equal concern. Attached to its mighty intellectual past and hopeful of its event­ful future, he was nevertheless disillusioned by its contemporary political and social trends, especially its narrow concept of territorial nationalism and its fascination for the glamour of western life. A people who had created civilization, the poet regrets, had been lost to the West without getting into the roots of its thought and mainsprings of its intellect. The national ego had let loose a spate of racial prejudices, the Arabs being its main targets. This trend ran counter to the Islamic concept of fraternity. The nearer modern Iran got to the Achaemenian and Sasanian tradition, the farther it moved from its fraternal Islamic moorings. Thus the poet laments:

Victim of the gay, vivacious beauties,

Creator of civilization; and yet blind imitator of the West!

The craze of that possessed nationalist and racist is to celebrate Shahpur and condemn the Arab.

His life is bereft of spiritual experience,

He seeks it in ancient graves.

Dedicated to the fatherland, he has lost himself,

Infatuated with Rustam, he has severed ties with Haidar!

He painfully recalls that the people of Iran had become oblivious of the debt they owed to the Arabs who had brought them new life and vitality when their own ancient culture had become decadent. Islam, he says, saved them from moral and cultural collapse. Nevertheless, the poet is not despaired of this gifted nation and he visualizes the possibility of its vital role in world politics:

If Tehran becomes the Geneva of the East,

The destiny of the world may well take a turn.

But this dream, he knew could not be realized in the near future, for Reza Shah was not the man who could come up to his high hopes and aspirations. Nor was, for that matter, Kemal Ataturk, the leader of modern Turkey. They fell far short of his supreme ideals. Says he:

Neither Mustafa (Kemal) nor Raza Shah signify the soul of the East Which is still in quest of a body.

Constantly following their destiny the poet identifies himself with the people of Iran ; acknowledges his debt to the fountainhead of Iranian thought and gives them the tiding of a life of real freedom in the following couplets :

My mind fathomed the depths of life before

I could lay hand on your hidden thoughts.

A man will come and break the shackles of the slaves. This vision I’ve had from behind your prison walls. My glowing thought offers to the destitute of the East

The lone ruby which I have acquired from your ruby-land.

Afghans

The poet has devoted profound attention to the Afghan nation and made a sustained effort both in his Persian and Urdu works to awaken it to new realities and possibilities of life and arouse its dormant capabilities and talent. He, therefore, returns to this theme time and again to stir the Afghans to a sense of self-consciousness and self-affirmation :

The Turks have changed, so have the Syrians, and so has India, You too, 0 son of the mountains, know yourself!

Again:

Perceive the dignity of love and ecstasy,

From the position of a particle rise to be the captor of the sun and the moon.

The poet visualizes for the Afghan people a pivotal role in the history of Asia:

Asia is a body of water and clay,

Of which the Afghan nation forms the heart.

Its decline is the decline of Asia; Its rise is the rise of Asia.

Apart from his other works, Iqbal has devoted exclusively one book to Afghanistan, namely, Musafir, which was published after his visit to Afghanistan in Oct-Nov. 1933. Significantly, this book deals less with description and observation and more with his specific philosophy of self in the context of the conditions in Afghanistan. He acts as friend, guide and philosopher most of the time, acquaints the Afghans with the secrets of the self and urges them to determine their own fate in the complex realities of the times. Their is a land, he tells his Afghan brethren, which produces valour and is the home of intrepid heroes, but which suffers from lack of cohesion, order, perfection and devotion to ideals:

But he is groaning under centrifugal trends, He lacks system, perfection and spirit.

Woe betide the nation which lacks the urge for life,

A nation which is bereft of spiritual testacy.

He is painfully conscious of the inadequacies and limitations of the Afghans, and his heart aches for lack of creative endeavour amongst them:

Alas for his today which has no tomorrow.

He admonishes the Afghan to equip himself with a sense of purpose and direction and enliven his soul with constant creation of desires and ideals. The motive force in life he tells him, is desire which awakens life to ever new possibilities and gives it colour and substance. The worth of an individual is known by the desire he cherishes:

The foundation of life is desire,

Measure your worth by the desire you cherish.

The eyes, ears and understanding are all sharpened by desire,

Astir with desire, a handful of dust can raise tulips.

Like other Muslim nations, he guides the Afghans to meditate over the Quranic wisdom and assimilate it as the Holy Book is the repository of a hundred and one new worlds:

A hundred and one worlds still live in the Quran,

Soak yourself a little in its contents.

Besides, he wishes his Afghan brother to master sciences and knowledge because it is the harmony of the spirit and the matter which can bring strength and dignity to the Millar. He reminds him that it was the Muslims whose creative love of knowledge and quest for the unknown laid the foundation of modern sciences. To wit:

Our entire wealth is the Book and Knowledge,

The Millar derives its stature from these two forces,

The former implies victories in the world of ardour and eestasy,

The latter brings victories in the world around.

The material knowledge is not a product of the West,

Its origin lies in the joy of creativity.

If you make a deep probe, it too is a creation of the Muslims,

It is a pearl which has dropped from our hands.

His distrust of superficial western style of living and social habits is as evident in his address to the Afghans as it is in his advice to other Muslim peoples. The cause of a myopic attitude by Muslims towards the western civilization, says the poet, is love of ease and laxity. But this love of an unenviable nature, he warns, is a sinister indication that the soul has left the body:

To seek the easy way in this hoary world denotes

That the spirit has departed from the body.

These imploring to the Muslim people had the one objective of rehabilitation of true Islamic values and the renaissance of the Muslims the world over. These individual implorings often merge in unison and rise in a mighty crescendo of revolt and resurgence. The wit:

The entire East is like dust on the pathway,

It is a silent cry; it is a barren sigh;

Each particle of its dust is sullen glance.

Arise from Ind, Samarqand, Iraq, Hamadan!

Arise from deep slumber, an endless deep slumber,

Arise from deep slumber !

O help against the West and its ravishing charm,

Against its Shirin-like seductive sweetness.

And its Perviz-like Imperial character,

And its Chengiz-like vandalism which has laid the world waste. O architect of the Haram. arise to build a world anew ! Arise from deep slumber, an endless deep slumber,

Arise from deep slumber.

The poet was fully conscious of the weaknesses and infirmities of the present day Muslims and he never ignored or condoned them. He found Muslims lacking in creative frenzy and dynamic passion. Thus the picture of the Muslim world which emerges through this searching criticism, spread over his entire life, does not appear to be wholly bright. He is fully conscious of the distance that lies between the ideal and the real. Moments of despair betray themselves in his private correspondence as well. For example, in a letter he laments that the heart of the coming Muslim generations totally lacks the spiritual perceptions which constitute the basis of his ideas.[48] But these moments of gloom are dissipated by the poet-philosopher’s reformative drive. Even in the darkest moments of the Millat’s misfortunes he played the role of an unfailing optimist and a prophet of hope and resurgence. The martyrdom of Fatima blast Abdullah during the war of Tripoli brought him the tidings of a new morn and the birth of a new nation whom the mortal eye could not yet see.[49] In Khizr-i-Rah he gave the happy news of a new era because a bright oay had dawned even though at the cost of a hundred thousand stars. He radiated undying faith in the survival of the Millat. While discussing its destiny he says that nations have fallen and withered. The Muslims have themselves passed through fire and blood and faced unprecedented catastrophes and upheavals like the sack of Baghdad. But they are one nation, he asserts with profound conviction, which is destined to survive and live. The Muslim, he says, derives his light from the flame of La ilah which will not extinguish. Extinction of the Muslim will mean the extinction of the universe itself. This nation transcends the limits of time and space. Nations may rise and fall, but the nation of Islam will live for ever.[50] “Death cannot touch a Muslim” he wrote in a letter to poet Girami “for his inherent strength absorbs both life and death and effaces the contradiction of existence and non existence”.[51]

Allama presents a guiding programme for Muslims to revive their old self. This consists of firstly, devotion to the Quran:

If you have the heart of a Muslim,

Look into yourself and the Quran.

A hundred new worlds live in its contents,

Epochs lie hidden in its moments.

and secondly, dedication to the historical Islamic tradition. The poet confidently observes that when a nation is about to disintegrate it can survive through dedication to its old traditions and institutions. That is why he lays repeated stress on the pristine glory of Islam. Thirdly, he calls for compliance with the religious law. The Muslim, according to Allama, lost the secret of his earlier dynamic character and sank into apathy and inaction the moment he failed to live up to the standards and values set by the Holy Prophet. Fourthly, the poet lays stress on the presence of a physical centre of national life. In the case of a Muslim, he says, it eminently exists in the form of Baitul-Haram or Ka’ba. It forms the nucleus of a unifying and binidng force for all Muslims. In the beginning of his poetic career he prayed to the Almighty

Lead the astray gazelle to the Haram

and at the end he again exclaimed :

There is no destination of the caravan but Haram

It has naught but Truth in its heart.

Deep and lasting love for the Muslim nation and Allama’ soft-repeated prayers for the progress and solidarity of the Millat and the restoration of its old glory colour his entire poetry. This emotion is imbued with rare intensity and total dedication.

Prayers for the collective good of the Millat have significantly found precedence over his supplications for himself or for the dearest of his kith and kin. In these prayers he has invariably wished the Millar to share his pangs and yearnings, his hopes and aspirations, the fire of his heart, the frenzy of his soul, his emotion and intellect, and his unswerving faith in the face of the gathering storm of skepticism. To wit:

The sleeplessness of my moist eyes,

The hidden restlessness of my heart.

The humility of my midnight cry,

My anguish both in moments of aloofness and association.

My ambitions and my desires,

My hopes and my quests,

My mind, the mirror of the time,

And the meadow of the gazelles of ideas.

My heart, the battleground of my life,

Where storms of scepticism rages but faith stands steadfast.

This, O Saki, is the be-all and end-all of my life, This makes me rich in poverty.

Bestow it upon my caravan,

For in this bestowel lies its true goal.

Of the fire which enkindled my life,

Give a taste to Muslim progeny.

Of the burning frenzy of this humble faqir

Grant him a fiery conscience,

Illumine and immortalize his heart,

With the hope that is born of faith.

The role of a great sage, visionary and guide which 1 played in the service of the Millat is eloquently summed up the following quatrain which in a sublime spiritual state 1 thus recited before the Holy Prophet :

I lived restlessly amongst the Bright Nation of Islam, And I produced a heart-melting song.

Veneration demands that) wind up my words in brief:

I agitated, I created, I rested.

NOTES