IQBAL AND OUTER SPACE

Shaheer Niazi

Almost all the poetical works of Iqbal are philosophical, but his Jāvīd Nāmah is of course an everlasting epistle of love, wis­dom and insight. It is a descriptive celestial journey wherein he discussed most intricate philosophical problems and portrayed the lives of great men in the hereafter, placing them in different planets according to their calibre. Iqbal was of opinion that inter-planetary travel is possible, and to support his point of view he refers to the Ascension of the Holy Prophet. He says:

[ I learn from the Ascension of the "Chosen One" (Mustafa) That "Heaven" is within the reach of mankind!]

[The sphere that may suit you is beyond the Moon;

And if you venture a step forward, the place is not very far away.]

[Why you (the Viceregent of Mine on the Earth) have failed in con­quering outer space, and ruling the Sun, the Moon and other planets.]

In the Sun's family Mars is the next step[4] beyond the Moon from our Earth. It is sometime 35,000,000 miles from Earth when it is nearer and in such a state it outshines even Jupiter. Its diameter is 4200 miles. The gravity is one-third of our Earth's and its atmosphere is relatively thin. A year on Mars amounts to 687 days and we will become younger if we are there (30 years =16 years). The day is nearly equal to ours, say about 14 hours, 37 minutes and 22.6 seconds. The cycle of its seasons is slightly different but basically similar. A suspicion about the possibility of life on Mars was aroused with the discovery of the Martian canals by an Italian named G.V. Schiaparelli in 1877 and then in 1892 when W.H. Pickering spotted some oases on the surface of Mars. The best photographs of the Martian canals were those taken by E. Pettit in 1939 and this was one year after the death of Iqbal (21 April 1938).

So far as the question of life on Mars is concerned, it may be pointed out that Mars is not the only planet where life is suspected, but it is probable that life or, more accurately, some sort of living organism may exist on Venus and other planets also, to be discussed later. According to Patrick Moore,[5] Lowell was convinced that the canals on Mars were artificial and constructed by some intelligent being, to whom Mars was the abode of life.

It is surprising that Iqbal has portrayed the life of the Martians in a most singular style as if he were a real witness of it and he did this at a time when adequate information about Mars was not at hand. However, we should record his statement before we discuss it. The following translation of his verses is not exactly literal, but I have tried my best to interpret them as correctly as possible. He says:

"After a pause H found myself in another world wherein the conception of time and space was altogether different. Despite the fact that the same Sun shone there, it sanctioned' a new order of the day and night to that planet. The most striking was that the body (of the inhabitants) was unaware of the customary way of maintaining the soul. There was no pain, no fatigue and no excess of work (including flight) that could cause old age.

"My guide Rūmī, the teacher of the men of insight, diverted my attention towards the wonders of this planet saying: `Look at it, this is Mars.' I saw that in a great plain there was a very huge building of an observatory erected on a hillside where a very big telescope was installed.

"Rūmī said : `This is a world of the lure of varieties like that of our Earth, having cities, countries, palaces and streets. The inhabitants are well versed in physical and spiritual sciences. like learned men of the West ; in comparison with us they are more advanced in all respects. They have got a perfect hold on space and time because they are better versed in cosmology and astrophysics. Contrary to the dwellers of the Earth, their body is subordinate to their soul. The Law of Nature for this planet is that when a soul enters a body it moves the physique as it wishes. There all the rapture and intoxication is due to the command of the soul over the existence and the non-existence of the physical body, while on our planet the existence is double-sided, i.e. the soul which is unseen and the body which is seen. To the people on Earth, the body and soul are like a bird and a cage but on Mars "Life" is something like mental behaviour. When some-one is about to die on Mars, he becomes more active and happy than before, because of this change (departure) and usually one or two days before his death he declares it in the presence of his people, telling them what is going to happen. Their souls are not the product of their biological process and undoubtedly they are not dominated by their physical environment. When a Martian dies, it means nothing to him but to dissolve his body into his soul or to retreat from the physical life into "himself". This discourse is above your understanding because your soul is sub-merged in your body. Let us relax for some time here. Indeed such an interval would not have been granted to anyone by God.'

The Emergence of the Martian Astronomer from His Observatory "An aged man wearing a snow like beard (came out of an observatory) who seemed to have been busy with literary and philosophical works for a number of years. He was like a Seer of the West and his brief-case too was like theirs. He was a man of good height having a radiant face. He was well versed in all the manners and etiquettes and from his look he seemed to be a very serious thinker.

"When he saw a man (i.e. me) he was extremely glad and he addressed me in the language of Tūsī and Khayyām (Persian) and he said: `It is strange that the "Man" made of clay has ascended so high despite all his disadvantages and drawbacks. The "Dust" (Man) has flown so high without an aeroplane. To those who were stationary has been given the trait of the moving.'

"His conversation was very fluent and flawless and I wondered how he was so eloquent and I doubted very much whether it was a dream or a magic that a Martian was speaking of the secrets so frankly. He spoke again: 'In the days of the "Chosen" (i.e. the Holy Prophet) there was a man amongst the people of Mars who resolved to visit the land of Adam. He propelled his wings in space and reached the desert of Arabia and then he re-corded all that he had seen from the East to the West. His works are more attractive than the heavenly garden. I too myself have been to Iran and Europe and I have gone round the country of Egypt, the land of the Nile, and I have been to India, the land of the river Ganges. I have also visited America, Japan and China for my geophysical research work. I keep myself well informed about the day-to-day changes on the Earth and for this purpose I have been visiting the Earth. I know all about the soil and the oceans of the Earth. All the movements of the sons of Adam are in our knowledge while, contrarily, they are unaware of our adventures.'

"Rūmī told him: `I am from the heaven and my companion belongs to the Earth and he is intoxicated without a cup of wine. He is a carefree man and his name is Zindah-rūd (the Living Stream) and his rapture is due to keen study of the "Nature of Things". Now when we happen to be in your city and being in the world without any bondage, we are naturally in the quest of new manifestations and we do request you to be with us for a while.'.

The Martian Philosopher Speaks

"These are the suburbs of Marghadīn-i Barkhiyā, named after the Father of our forefathers (the Father of the Martians) whose name was Barkhiyā. It happened (once) that Farzmurz (Satan), commander of the evil character, went to see Barkhiyā in Paradise and said to him : "Why are you resting here in sub-ordination to the God of Goodness, while there is a better world than yours ? That paradise is the abode of everlasting pleasure while this one where you stay is a timely blooming. That world is above all the worlds, even above `Nothingness'. The God of Goodness is not aware of that and (I assure you that) I have never seen a world of more freedom than that because there is no interference of any god in its administration. There is no Book, no Prophet and no Gabriel. There is no circumambulation, prostration, prayer and the praise of a Prophet." Barkhiyā said: "Ye the Charmer! go away from here and cast your spell in that world." '

"Then he (the Martian philosopher) told us : `Simply be-cause our Father Barkhiyā did not fall a victim to the evil designs of Satan, God (Almighty) gave us a new world. Come and see this God-gifted country "Marghadīn," its customs and its laws.'
 

Round the City of Marghadīn

"How should I describe the grandeur that was the city of Marghadīn and its magnificent buildings? Its citizens speak softly and gently. They are handsome, cultured, polite and plainly dressed, Their way of thinking is free from the pains-taking studies and still they are aware of the secret of the chemical formation of the Sun (Solarology—the science of the elements of what the Sun is made of). Any of the Martians who wants to have some silver or gold immediately produces it from the Light juntas we procure salt from the water of the sea. On Mars the sole purpose of knowledge is the service of living beings. They take no interest in the arts and crafts for the sake of monetary gains. They have no coins or currency and these idols could make no headway in their temples. The devil has cast no shadow on their minds. Their sky is not crowded with gaseous clouds. Their cultivator or tiller of the earth is always immune from the high-handedness of the landlords. Their farms and the means of irrigation are free from disputes in connection with the water-supplies and their crops are shared by none. There are no military forces and no one earns his livelihood by fighting against anyone or by killing people. This is also remarkable that in Marghadīn people do not use the pen to tell lies or for the propagation of Evil. There is no crowd or humming in the Bazaars of Marghadīn caused by the jobless people (as it is on the Earth) and no noises of the beggars tease the ears of the passersby.

A Dialogue between the Martian Philosopher and Zindah-rūd "The Philosopher:

"'There is no beggar here and no one is in want of anything. There is no master and no "slave" here, no "governor" and no "governed".

"Zindah-rūd:

"To be a beggar or in want of anything is by the Will of God. To be the "governor" or the "governed" is also by the Will of God. There is none other than God to will the destiny of any-thing and there is no remedy when it is His Will.'

"The Philosopher:

"If you are aggrieved because of a certain destiny, you pray to God for another destiny. It is legitimate to pray for another destiny because the Will of God is not limited. The inhabitants of the Earth have lost the sense of self-respect because they do not understand the meaning of "destiny". I imply that God behaves[6] with you as you behave with yourself and that is the secret of life.

"If you live like dust, He will blow you in the air ; if you are like stone, He will smash you against a glass. If you are like a drop of dew, then a fall is your destiny and in case you are like an ocean, your destiny is a long life. But you have been in-venting and introducing all the time new images of Lāt and Manāt[7] and pray to them for the safeguard of your pleasures and interests. The unawareness of the "Self" has become your faith and your thoughts have become a bondage for you. You have grasped that there is a kind of destiny that gives you sorrows without any wealth and another destiny that gives you wealth without sorrows, but you do not understand that such a doctrine will make the poor poorer. Woe be to such a faith that gives you a deep slumber and keeps you sleeping for the worse! Is it a religion or a lure or a magic? Is it a religion or a pill of opium?

"`Do you know from where the[8] intellect" emanates ? And from where a Houri comes in the dream of a man? Do you know what is the source of the philosopher's thought?

Do you know what is the secret of the prophetic prayer? Do you know what is `insight' and "manifestation"? Do you know what is the origin of the arts and the miracles?

The power of eloquence that you possess is not from within yourself;

And the fire that kindles in your heart to work is not from within also.

It is all from `Blooming Nature' and "Nature' is from God, the Creator.

What is life? It is like a mine of precious stones.

You are simply a custodian while the owner is someone else (God).

An enlightened heart is a grace for the righteous man, for whom the object of life is nothing but the service of humanity.

The service of humanity has been a tradition of the Prophets but it becomes a bargain for those who want something in return.

Like air, dust, cloud, farm and field, garden, forest, palace, street, stone and clay, there is nothing that may he claimed as your property. All of them belong to God. The Earth that belongs to God, you say it is yours; what is this way to interpret the Quranic verse lātufsid fi'lard?

The sons of Adam are busy in evil deeds and naturally the result of satanic deeds is always disruption.

It is of course conventional that the security is not violated by the custodian himself and therefore righteous are those who believe that the State belongs to God!' "

There are seven or eight verses more in this poem, but they are not useful here and the rest of the chapter deals with the illegal entry of Qurrat al-'Ain Tahirah,[9] in this region of Mars and we should see whether his statement is simply poetic imagination, intuition or a scientific speculation. The first part of this question can be dropped easily because the nature of his statement is evidently not poetical only and it seems to be based either on intuition or on some sort of scientific information, and that is what we are going to discuss further. There are some fundamental questions which may be posed as under: (1) What is "Life? (2) Should "Life" exist on our Earth only and if not then what is the possibility of life on other planet and in what circumstances? (3) What are the so-called 'Unidentified Objects' (U.F.O.'s = Flying Saucers) and from where do they come? (4) Is it true that some visitors from outer space have been on our planet from time to time and what is the purpose of their visit?

The meaning of "Life" (a living organism) is very difficult to define particularly when we are prone to prove it a result of some chemical or biological process, as we do in connection with the Psyche (Mind). However, I will take into account the opinion of the ancient and the modern scientists to solve the problem.
 

Life or A Living Organism

The most ancient thought was that the anima (shade) which can be identified with "soul" is the main source of living organisms whether this is human life or the life of the animals and plants. Plato (427-347 B.c.) and Aristotle (387-322 B.c.) ascribed the various functions of living bodies to the Psyche and distinguished vegetable, animal and intellectual functions. Plato believed that the human Psyche was largely independent of the body and cap-able of a separate existence, but Aristotle regarded Psyche (Man or Soul) and Soma (Body) as inseparable. In the seventeenth century an Italian biologist Francesco Redi (1668 C.E.) worked on the biological analysis of living organisms and it was the beginning of an experimental approach towards this problem. In the eighteenth century Spallanzini (d. 1799 C.E.) added a lot of in-formation to our biological knowledge. In 1887 C.E. Cagniard de la Tour, a French investigator, found that the fermentation of beer was the result of the activities of tiny organisms. Then the theory of the complicated microbes took a new turn with the germ-theory of Louis Pasteur.

During the latter part of the nineteenth century there was a considerable change in the method of discussion on the question of the origin of life. The writings of Charles Darwin, T.H. Huxley, Tyndall, Schafer and others had marked the beginning of pure materialistic point of view just opposite and contrary to all the religious philosophies and revelations. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, European writers and thinkers were busy in presenting the old wine in the new cups to the world on the pretext of original thinking. I will not go into the details of such transmutations except to say that the Western scholars were reproducing the works of Muslim philosophers without making any reference to them, otherwise they could have mentioned Ibn Rushd, Ibn Sīnā' and Ibn Maskawaih, who had not only 'propounded the theories of Plato and Aristotle but had added a lot to it and improved the ideas of Democritus, Anaximander and Empedocles.

Those who have gone through the essay of John Tyndall on "Vitality.' (1866 C.E.) can recollect without being confused that he borrowed his idea from Anaximander (600 B.C.) who observed that the energy for life was derived ultimately from the Sun and that plants were essential for trapping solar energy and playing an intermediary role in the transmission of energy from the Sun to animals. I wonder how Charles Darwin's theory of Evolution, termed the "Origin of Species," could be popularised despite all its absurdities. I think it will be interesting if I quote some lines from a letter written by Charles Darwin to his friend Sir J. Hooker, wherein it reflects that Darwin was not serious on the point of physical evolution and the "Origin of Species". He wrote to Hooker: "It is mere rubbish thinking at present of the origin of life; one might as well think of the origin of matter."[10]

It is evident that -modern biologists are still under the influence of Plato, Aristotle and Anaximander as we have already cited. In modern biology Psyche (Mind) is the product of certain elements and compounds and we cannot separate "Mind" from "Body" and this is what Aristotle said in 322 B.C. Thomas Henry Huxley[11] and Julian Huxley, the most noted biologists of the West, have discussed these theories in detail. Jackson and Moore[12] have surveyed the modern theories while discussing the possibility of life on other planets. There was a time when the Christian Church committed to flames all the scientific works and killed many of their scientists for propounding Pseudo-Christian doctrine, but the Church failed and David Hume very boldly declared:

"If we take into consideration any religious material we should try to find out whether there is some philosophy, logic or reasoning or not to establish some fact and in case it contains nothing but sophistry and illusion, then commit it to the flames."[13]

With the spread of academic teachings, European scientists, materialists, biologists, biochemists, becteriologists, and embryologists were gradually becoming antinomians, After working for a long time on the "Theory of Elements" of Empedocles, a great biologist of Alexandria, they propounded two new theories of life. One of them was termed "Radiopanspermia," which proposed that "Life" may not have originated on the Earth itself but the "Seed of Life" or dormant forms of organisms might have 'been spread in Space and life could grow only where circumstances were favourable. The other one was termed "Lithopanspermia,'' which suggested that the "Seed of Life" was transported from another planet to this Earth by means of the meteorites. Both these theories were propounded by a Swedish scientist, Svante Arthenius. In my opinion these theories were a sort of religious hypothesis and were derived from the story of Adam's migration from Heaven to this Earth. It will not be out of place if I recollect once again that the "Four Elements" of Empedocles have become more than ninety-two now according to a Russian biologist Vinogradoy,[14] but still some elements like carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur, sodium, magnesium, chlorine, potassium, calcium, iron, copper and iodine are regarded as more important. Then in 1920 two biologists, J.B.S. Haldane of England and A. I Oparin of Soviet Russia, by chance reached one and the same conclusion in their hypothesis on the origin of life on this Earth and this theory was called the "Haldane-Oparin Theory"[15] according to which the source of life on this earth was ultra-violet radiation, reminding us of the Theory of Anaximander once again but it should be noted that some organisms can survive without oxygen and water.

After a critical survey of opinions about the origin of life, no one can deny that almost all the biological definitions of "Life," "Psyche" (Mind), Soul (Arabic, Nafs) or the "Spirit" (Arabic Rūh) are entirely unsatisfactory and it is all due to our so-called "Rationalism," otherwise the Divine Message would have satisfied those who claim to be Christians or Jews. The Muslims are satisfied and they believe that "Life" or "Spirit" (Rūh) is the "Will of God"[16] which cannot be explained despite all our efforts and attempts. We find that all the attempts are abortive time and all the efforts arc futile. Evidently the "Spirit" the (of some a separate "Entity" and not a bi-product biological process as the modern scientists believe. It is clear that the first hurdle to be removed is the misconception of the "Origin of Life" without which we cannot solve our problems quickly.

Exobiology: The Extraterrestrial Life

 The second question is: "Should life exist on our Earth only and, if not, then what is the possibility of life on other planets and in what circumstances?" In reply we have nothing to argue against the possibility of life on other planets but to admit plainly that this is not necessary for a living organism to exist on our planet alone despite the fact that some scientists insist that there should be similar circumstances on another planet for the exist‑ once of a living organism. This is the point where I differ and in my opinion they are slightly mistaken because a different kind of living organism can survive in a different atmosphere and circumstances as plant life does on our Earth. I find that some European astro-biologists are gradually conceding this. However, it will be easier to discuss the problem if we take into account some specific points of view and fundamentally I prefer the views of Sir H. Spencer,[17]" who has stated:

"In attempting to discuss whether life can exist on any other world, we come up against the difficulty that we have no certain knowledge of how life originated on the Earth. Suppose we could show that on some other world the conditions were essentially similar to those on the Earth, would it be legitimate to assume that because life has come into existence on the Earth, there must necessarily be life also on the other world though perhaps in different forms from those with which we are familiar?

"On the other hand, if we could show that the conditions on another world differed from those on the Earth to such an extent, would it be a legitimate conclusion that the other world must be a world devoid of life?

"May we not have some justification for assuming that the forms of life that now exist on the Earth have developed through a slow process of evolution, to suit those conditions and that if different conditions were found to prevail elsewhere in the uni­verse, different forms of life might have evolved?

`"It is conceivable for instance that we may have beings, the cells of whose bodies contained silicon instead of carbon which is an essential constituent of our cells and of all other living cells on the Earth."

When we scrutinize the statement of Sir H. Spencer Jones, we find that his difficulty in not knowing the Origin of Life on this Earth with certainty is in vain because even a certain know-ledge about it, apart from the Divine Revelation, would have proved futile to establish the fact that a living organism becomes essential when such and such conditions are available.

Secondly, even conditions to those on Earth may not similar essentially be the cause of life, on the one hand, while, on the other hand, there can be "Life" in different conditions, even in adverse circumstances, because the patterns of life are innumerable like stars in this universe, and we have no clear idea of the "Musts" and "Musthots" for a certain organism which is not similar to our own and which is not known to us as yet.

Thirdly, modern biologists are not justified in assuming that life on our Earth has developed through a slow process of evolu­tion because evidently the Darwinian Theory of the Species 'is an outdated hypothesis already rejected by many biologists. I have previously cited that Darwin was not serious about his hypothesis and that is why it is full of absurdities. Sir Jones is also self-contradictory on the point of evolution because he stated previously that people have no certain knowledge of the origin of life on this Earth. This and other similar difficulties of men are due to their disbelief in God and His Power of creation. However, we infer on scientific ground that there is a possibility of life on other planets, though it may be different from ours. Jackson is not wrong when he says that "it would be a sheer conceit on our part to maintain that Homo-sapiens must be the ideal model for life on the other world."[18] Now, what we conclude is that no particular combination of specified elements is required to give birth to a living organism which invariably comes into existence under unknown circumstances, very mysteriously and only by the Will of God ; therefore "Life" can be anywhere even in the coldest planet like the Moon or the hottest like the Sun.

Visitors From Outer Space

It is already noted that Iqbal mentions the Martians' visitation to Our Earth from time to time and to support this idea we shall have to produce documentary evidence, but first of all we should take into account the amazing stories about the mysterious U.F.O.'s (Unidentified Objects=The Flying Saucers) which will help us understand the problems of space-travel and the depth of our knowledge. Evidently our knowledge of outer space and universe is poor and our information scanty. We also find that our expanding knowledge about the Universe is creating puzzles. "As much as man unravels each new mystery, he is assailed by fresh doubts and torments for he has caught a glimpse of another mystery lying ahead. For the explorer in any field it is probably yet undiscovered territory vaguely seen in the distance that sparks the search for knowledge," is rightly observed by Vyacheslav Zaitsev.[19]

According to reports that appear occasionally in the Press, we can assume that the Flying Saucers began to appear after the use of Atom Bombs by America in Japan in 1945 and since then until now they have been appearing mostly in Russia, America, Britain, France, Australia and at last in China, which indicates that there is some mystery behind their visits and these mysterious visitors are seriously concerned with our Atomic tests and similar nuclear activities which are evidently less peaceful and more destructive, while it can be visualized at the same time that the destruction of our planet will involve some other planets with-in the Solar system or eventually it may cause the death of the Solar system as a whole.

In the beginning people did not take any serious notice of these mysterious shining objects which were generally shaped like saucers and some scientists like Dr Donald H. Menzel,[20] a professor of Astrophysics at Harvard University, belied all the witnesses and declared that the so-called Flying Saucers were not spaceships but merely "sensory aberrations" of various kinds, or "atmospheric phenomena," but he and other scientists like him could not convince educated people in America and Russia who understand what an atmospheric phenomenon means. Today "optical illusion" theories of flying saucers carry no weight and they are rejected by Russian and American scientists, including Professor J. Hynek, the astro-physicist, and Professor. F. Salisbury, the astrobiologist. Dr. Valleo,[21] another participant in the 1966 International Mathematical Congress held in Moscow, is of opinion[22] that the question of the visitors from outer space should be considered seriously.

So far as the reality of Flying Saucers is concerned, we know nothing definitely, but so far as their appearance is concerned, they are generally of oval shape, glowing with red and green lights. They are either cigar-shaped or like flattened balls. Their searchlight is very glaring and their speed is tremendous. Thou-sands of people have seen them throughout the world and once in early 1955 1 saw them myself, when 1 was residing in Garden East (Karachi). They were four in number and were hanging in the sky near the mosque of Pakistan Quarters. The most tantalising habit of man is that he rejects everything which is beyond his reach or understanding and it naturally hampers his progress in many cases. Dr. Gustave Naan,[23] a prominent Estonian scientist, is of opinion that our common sense becomes a most unreliable adviser when we are confronted with a perfectly new situation. There is a lot of literature on U.F.O.'s now and Daniel Cohen has discussed this issue in his review[24] on some books and articles in the Science Digest, but we have no scope for detailed discussions here and therefore a brief survey will suffice to understand the present situation of the U.F.O. s.

Mr. Colin Norris, the Vice-President of the "Flying Saucers Research Society" (Australia), had issued a statement[25] to the Press in July 1963, on the basis of some trustworthy evidence of those responsible citizens who had seen the Flying Saucers them-selves. One of his witnesses from South Australia was actually reduced to a nervous breakdown when he encountered a bright red object on the roadside near the small township of Sandy Creek. He revealed that the unusual craft was parked across the road but when he stopped his car to investigate it, the craft made a dreadful noise and shot up into the sky, leaving a trail of jet-like smoke. Norris also disclosed that two "space-balls" which were found near Broken Hill were identified by the scientists as being parts of some strange type of spacecraft. Another report was recorded on the authority of an Australian Church Mission in England. Thirty-seven natives had seen some Flying Saucers a few hundred feet above the building of the Mission at Papua (New Guinea) in June 1959. Marie Pierre Larrive[26] believes in the existence of Flying Saucers but fails to understand the purpose of their visits. Vasily Kuprevich, President of the Academy of Sciences of Byelorussia, holds a different view. In his opinion,[27] they are still visiting the Earth without contacting people and their intellectual development may have attained such a level that they hold us no higher in their opinion than we do our ancestors, the cavemen.

On 16 August 1960, in the presence of other geologists, N. Sochevanov, a geologist himself, saw an orange disc with a sizeable diameter between the mountain tops near the village of Koktal in Kazakistan. On 12 July 1964, Professor V. Zaitsev was flying from Leningrad to Moscow aboard a TU-104-A, when he saw that a huge disc suddenly appeared below the liner's fuselage, flew a parallel course for a while and then turned aside with a burst of speed. L. Tsekhanovich, an astronomer and geodesist, reported that he had seen a disc diving over Novy Afon, Abkhazia, on 24 September 1963. In the following year, on 17 June 1966, V. Krylov, a geophysicist, witnessed a similar phenomenon with a group of colleagues over an outlying district of Elista, in Northern Caucasus. The trajectory of the flying object was somewhat devious, almost spiral. V. Akhuratov, an experienced Arctic flier, has observed U.F.O.'s many times from the ground and in the air. In addition to these reports[28] many people have reported similar experiences from the Soviet Baltic Republics and from Gorky, Kharkov, Murmansk and other regions of the U.S.S.R.

It is a reasoned statement by Russian scientists and, though there are hundreds of pieces of evidence from America, Australia and other places, there is no need to list them here. Therefore I leave aside the story of Truman Bethurum who claimed that he had spent some time on a Saucer from a planet Clarion whose captain was a beautiful woman named Mrs. Aura Rhanes and other similar stories including that of George Adamski of California who claimed that he had been on friendly terms with some Venusians, Martians and Saturnians and that he had some experience of flying on Saucers, or the story of Cedric Allingham who produced[29] a photograph of his Martian friend whom he had met on the coast of Scotland. It will be interesting to refer to a report[30] about a "Visiting Card from Outer Space," which carried a story told by Joao de Rio, an employee of tile National Wagon Factory at Cruzeiro, who met a visitor from Outer Space. "He was a tiny fellow having large luminous eyes and who addressed him in perfect Portuguese. He handed his visiting card, to Joao. It was a piece of a strange meta which is not found on our Earth and it carried an inscription in some unknown language."

On the basis of the account which we have taken into consideration, it can be inferred that the U.F.O.'s (Flying Saucers) are something real and not imaginary. Now these Flying Saucers are recognised by American and Russian scientists including a man of the calibre of Boris P. Konstantinov who is ,the Vice-President of the Academy of Sciences (U.S.S.R.) and who has seriously dealt with the problem and coilected[31] all the important treatises written by top-ranking Russian scientists. In the same collection F.Y. Zigel on scientific grounds has rejected all those who regarded the U.F.O.'s as "Sensory Aberrations" or as "Atmospheric Phenomena".

Before proceeding further I would imply that Iqbal was not wrong when he cited in Jāvīd Nāmah that the Martians are the masters of space; they visit our Earth whenever they like and they can speak our languages. They know many things about us while we know nothing about them as yet.

Evidence From the Ancient Record

Now the fourth question is whether the inhabitants of some other planets have been visiting our Earth or not. In the past we had no reply but now when we have benefited from recent dis­coveries of some strange rock-images in Japan, Australia and Uzbakistan (U.S.S.R.), specifically. in Farghana District, the native place of Bābur and Humāyūn, we are in a position to assume that the phenomena which we term U.F.O.'s are not strange and modern and these objects were known to the ancient world before us, but most probably they too were ignorant about their origin and that is why we find rock-images without descriptive inscriptions. These rock-images depict very strange man-like creatures wearing pressure-suits, pressure-helmets and fully equipped with breathing-filters, slot-goggles (to see in the dark) and transmitters in the .form of helmet-peaks. These images are very old and they are placed in the Bronze Age, say about 2000 B.C.

According to a Russian report,[32] "It was 1965 when a Chinese archaeologist startled the whole world by his hypothesis, imply­ing that the spaceships from some other world have been visiting our Earth for the last 12,000 years", i.e. 10,000 B.C. A German magazine[33] had observed in its review that for the last twenty-five years Chinese archaeologists have been exploring the caves in the Bayan Kara-Ula Mountains, on the border of China and Tibet, and they have been discovering odd-looking stone discs covered with indecipherable writing. About 716 discs are already discovered which are apparently thousands of years old. Like a gramophone record, each disc has a hole in its centre from which a double-groove spiral makes its way to the circumference. The grooves are not sound tracks, but the oddest writing in China and in the rest of the world. The Chinese archaeologists and palaeologists took a very long time to decipher the ancient writings of the caves, but when the secret of the spirals was disclosed by these experts, the report was so shattering that its publication was banned by the Peking Academy of Prehistory. However, the ban was lifted very soon and the author published his book under an intriguing title. The caves high up in the Bayan Kara-Ula Mountains where the rock-images and inscriptions were discovered are inhabited by the Ham and Dropa tribes. When one of the hieroglyphs was deciphered it was revealed: "The Dropas had come down from the clouds in the gliders and when the men on Earth understood their sign-language they realised that the new-corners had peaceful intentions." Another Ham hieroglyphic inscription expresses regret over the loss of their own spaceships during a dangerous landing in high mountains and their failure in an attempt to build new ones on this Earth. For the sake of advanced research these mysterious discs were sent to Russian scientists who scraped them and found that these discs contained a large amount of cobalt[34] and other metals which are not found on our Earth. It was a shocking discovery when the Russian scientists found these discs were still vibrating to an unusual rhythm as if they carried an electric charge or were part of an 'electric circuit. These discs are of course a challenge to science. According to an ancient legend of China, once upon a time some small, gaunt, yellow-faced men had come down from the clouds. They had very big heads and extremely thin and weak bodies. The Chinese rode on their fast horses, fought against them and ultimately they fled away. Now the reality seems to confirm the legends. In some of the Bayan Kara-Ula caves archaeologists and speleologists have found 12,000-year-old vestiges of graves and skeletons. These remains belong to human beings with huge craniums and underdeveloped skeletons. The Chinese expeditions which discovered the burial grounds reported that they had found "an extinct species of ape," but the Russian scientists rejected this view on the ground that the apes do not bury their dead and they have no ability to write hieroglyphic symbols on stone discs.

Still more astonishing is that the inner walls of the caves are covered in many places with pictures of the rising sun, the moon and the stars, spaced by a multitude of pea-sized dots re-presenting spaceships which are coming down from the sky and landing[35] in a mountainous region.

The famous Tassili frescoes which were found in the heart of the Sahara by a French military officer, Brenand, also mention some egg-like big objects from heaven. Another French expedition led by Henri Lhote found that, apart from the pictures of animals and hunting scenes, these frescoes depict strange figures dressed in what looks exactly like the most modern space-suits and the spherical helmets which are attached to the suits. Lhote[36] regards these enigmatic figures as "Martians". Describing the ancient drawings;. on the cave walls, the French explorer says that one of them depicts a man appearing from an egg-shaped object covered with concentric circles. To our astonishment there is a similar Peruvian legend according to which the ancient inhabitants of Peru were born from bronze, gold and silver eggs which had fallen from heaven. Jean Elisee Reclus has referred to this legend in his work entitled La Terre. We find that the French discovery, the Peruvian legend and the Greek mythology, according to which Helen and Nemesis were born of celestial eggs, have much in common. There is also a Latin American legend of the same type and we can infer that the legend of the celestial eggs, like other legends, would have originated from some bonafide impression of an actual event.

During excavations at different times in Japan, their archaeologists have alas found some figurines (dogu) depicting human beings in odd-looking space-suits, with helmets wholly covering their heads. On their heads are visible marks of something like slit-type glasses, breath-filters, antennae (hearing aids) and even a kind of device to see in the dark. Reviewing the latest Soviet space achievements, a German magazine[37] printed a selection of rock-drawings and photographs of dogu and cited that these figurines were ample proof that our Earth has been visited by some beings from another world. Many similar rock pictures have been discovered throughout the world. There are pictures of spacemen on cave walls in the Val Comonique, the Swiss Alps, in Australia and at a place, twenty-five miles from Farghana, near the city of Navoi, in Soviet Central Asia, but I will not take all of them into account unnecessarily.

Now when it is proved that some kind of intellectual life is possible outside our world and this too that some intelligent beings have been visiting our Earth from outer space for peaceful purposes, the only question that remains to be answered is as to why man is trying to reach some other planet so anxiously. A reply that comes from modern scientists is that the speed of the growth of population on our Earth is tremendous while our re-sources are limited, therefore we must possess[38] another planet to migrate to and also to utilise its resources to live a better life on this Earth. The Holy Qur'an tells us that "Man" is hasty and ignorant, and now we realise that he really is, because he fails to understand that, though the resources on Earth are limited, they are not insufficient for mankind. Is it not a fact that we have not exploited the whole earth as yet?

Before I conclude it seems imperative to return to the question of the possibility of life on Mars. We cannot omit the possibility of life on Venus also, which is rapidly becoming a rival in this regard and Dr John Strong, Professor of Experimental Physics at the Johns Hopkins University (U.S.A.), is very hopeful of finding the existence of an intellectual life on this planet, but we have to deal with Mars here and not with other planets. An-other American biologist, Dr Sanford Siegel,[39] Head of the Extraterrestrial Biology Department Research Institute, Tarry-town (N.Y.), believes that an intellectual life may exist on the planet Mars. In the opinion of Nikolai Semyonov,[40] an eminent Russian physicist and a Nobel Prize Winner, "Mars has an atmosphere, though rarefied, with little oxygen for breathing, but our thermonuclear reactors may help to create an atmosphere and a climate favourable to human life on that planet. Mars has water and oxygen could come from water and from rocks too.'[41]. Now there is reason to infer that if man can make a planet habitable, it may prove to be inhabited already by some intellectual being, with a slight difference in organism.

There is no doubt that before the death of Iqbal in 1938, some science fictions including H.G. Wells' First Man On the Moon and The War of the Worlds were in the world market and the photographs of the canals on Mars had been talked of for a long time, yet there was nothing to help Iqbal in portraying an intellectual life on Mars so lucidly. It is an incontrovertible fact that Iqbal was neither a scientist in the strict sense nor a prophet who could base his statement on Revelation ; then what he is left to be is an eminent thinker with a gifted insight, which he really was.

It is remarkable that the visitors from outer space were invariably portrayed as ugly creatures while, contrarily, Iqbal tells us that Martians are well-dressed and handsome creatures. To our astonishment Cedric Allingham4 had cited the same in 1954. According to Iqbal, Martians are far more advanced than us in all respects and they are not only outstanding scholars, linguists, scientists, geologists, biologists and astrobiologists, but they are the masters of space and they can fly to other planets with as much ease as we travel from one city to another. However, we have no alternative but to regard Iqbal's work a science-fiction at the moment, which may prove its own worth along with the scientific progress and shocking discoveries in the future. 

NOTES