IQBAL'S THEORY OF MUSLIM COMMUNITY AND ISLAMIC UNIVERSALISM

Dr. Manzooruddin Ahmad

Introduction

The Muslim Renaissance in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent was primarily inspired and activated by Sayyid Ahmad Khan,[1] and Dr Sir Muhammad Iqbal.[2] Sayyid Ahmad Khan, pragmatic genius as he was, had laid its foundation in the late nineteenth century; and later in the twentieth century, Dr Iqbal, through his poetic vision and political insight, as reflected in his writings, speeches, and political works, elaborated for the Indian. Muslims a political ideology which could form the basis for a separate Muslim State—later to be known as the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, leaving the great task of its creation and organization to Mr. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the Quaid-i Azam (the Great Leader).

The political ideology of Pakistan, as elaborated by Iqbal, is deeply rooted in the Islamic values contained in the Quranic teachings, and the traditions (Sunnah) of the Prophet, the founder of the world community of Islam. A close study of Iqbal's works shows that, for Iqbal, the political ideology of Pakistan would primarily be composed of two basic elements, namely, the Quranic concept of the universal Millah (community) and his concept of the Self (khudī). It was, in fact, within such an ideological framework that lqbal was confronted with the problem of redefining the political status of the Indian Muslims in accordance with the contemporary political terminology. In order to achieve this objective, Iqbal had expounded the Two-Nation Theory as the basis for claiming the right of self-determination of the Indian Muslims for carving out a separate Muslim State. Thus, naturally, the concepts of the universal community—Mitlat and the Two—Nation Theory constitute the crux of the political philosophy of Pakistan. However, obviously, the inherent contradictions between these two propositions creates a theoretical difficulty of a fundamental nature. The question arises as to how Iqbal proposed to reconcile Islamic universalism with modern territorial nationalism. Unless the inherent dichotomy is resolved, the political ideology of Pakistan would remain vague, and confusing, and would fail to bring about the much desired national integration of its diverse elements, namely, regions, classes, and other primary groups. The purpose of this paper is to examine in some depth Iqbal's concept of Minot and his theory of Two-Nations and see how he proposed to reconcile these apparently contradictory propositions.

Self-Community Iqbal's concepts of Self (Khudī) and community (Millat) are fundamentally derived from the Quranic source. The individual believer in Islam is described in the Qur'ān as Muslim (one who surrenders his will to the will of Allah) and Mumin (one who has faith in the oneness of Allah) whom the Muslim mystics usually call the perfect man (insān-i kāmil). According to the Quranic cosmology, Adam, the first man, was created as the masterpiece of God's creations—highest of all beings (ashraf al-makhlūqāt) and was endowed with the Divine virtue of knowledge (allamah al-ismā[3]) and the rare gift of free will Obviously, therefore, in, the Qur'an man is called the vicegerent of Allah on the earth (khalīfah[4]). In a nutshell, it is the potentiality of self-awareness, moral consciousness, and spiritual vitality for ceaseless struggle which distinguish man from other creatures.

Man, by submitting his will to the will of Allah, emancipates his self with all its attributes and potentialities from the shackles of his natural frailities, and emerges as the master of his own destiny in the cosmic vastness. Islam, the submission to Allah, in fact implies a fundamental change of human personality as his psyche moves from the state of intellectual and spiritual chaos described in the Qur'ān as kufr (unbelief) to higher level of moral consciousness—Imān (belief).[5] Iqbal's concept of the self, in sub-stance, is a philosophical exposition of the Quranic view of the perfect man—the Mumin. In contrasting the believer with the unbeliever, Iqbal says:

The hall-mark of the unbeliever is the fact that He is lost in the cosmos; in contrast, the true Believer's mark is that the cosmos itself subsists within his Self.

In another verse, Iqbal says:

With the power of self-awareness

Comprehend the world!

And discover the secret of this place of Color and fragrance.

In Muslim theology there has been going on an eternal controversy over the question of Free Will (qadr) and Necessity (Jabr). In the following verse, Iqbal, dilating over the subject, asserts that man by cultivating and disciplining his self is truly capable of achieving mastery over Destiny:

Elevate your Self to such heights That before Destiny (intervenes) God Himself may ask His Slave, "Tell ! what doeth thou will !"

For Iqbal,

Self is like an ocean without shore, However, there is no way if thou shoudst Mistake it for a stream.

Iqbal seems to have discovered the secret of self by his keen observation of nature of things as he reflects:

Every object is obsessed  - With self-expression,

And each particle is subservient to God. Without the urge of expression, Life itself (Turns) into Death, as the (Essence) Divinity lies in the cultivation of the Self.

Iqbal believes that those who are initiated into the secrets of the Self hold exalted position:

The morning breeze has given the message That men who are aware of the Self Hold royal station.

Thine life springs from it, and Thine honour is contingent upon it. With self-awareness one attains royalty; and devoid of it, only disgrace.

For Iqbal self-awareness is the substance of Islamic message to mankind when he says:

The light of the self, and the fire of the self Constitute the very essence of Islam,

The fire of the Self nourishes life with Enlightenment and Consciousness.

This is the nature of every object, and this is the Cause of growth, however, the Nature has concealed its essence.

Iqbal goes beyond Nietzsche's super-man in expounding his philosophy of the Self in Islamic context when he asserts that God-centered self-awareness is the highest level of human consciousness. Following his spiritual mentor, Rūmī, Iqbal asserts that Nietzsche's super-man constitutes only the first stage in the evolutionary process of growth of human' self. In fact Nietzsche's blurred vision had totally missed the other two crucial stages—(i) selflessness—the social context of self realization; and., (ii) Divine consciousness—the discovery of the Self in relation to God. In elaborating these higher stages of self-awarencss, Iqbal refers to Nietzsche in the following verse:

If that Western Majdhūb (one who is lost in his Own Self) were alive today, surely Iqbal would have explained to him the level of Divine Consciousness.

Man's journey of self-awareness is clearly reflected in the Quranic dictum—There is no god except Allah. The dictum implies two stages—(a) the first of negation that nothing and no mortal can claim supernatural powers; and (2) the second of affirmation of God Almighty. For Iqbal, Nietzsche could not go beyond the first stage in enunciating his concept of the super-man. The Mumin in Islam, by demolishing the images of all false gods, realises his true self as the axis of the universe, and hence is transformed into the super-man of Nietzsche. But his journey does not end here. The Islamic individual, the Mumin, moves ahead, in the course of his spiritual ascension, towards the next stage selflessness or self-abnegation, and recognises the social context of his own self. This is the stage when the Islamic individual merges himself with other fellow Muslims to constitute what the Qur'ān describes Millah. The focal point of integration of the Millat constitutes the third stage-when all individual believers surrender their individual wills to the will of God Almighty subordinating themselves to the Divine Laws—the Sitarī'ah. Thus faith in God Almighty provides an eternal principle of unity of mind, of will, and of body for all individual believers.

Iqbal, in his famous poem composed in Persian language en-titled Asrār-i Khudī[14] (The Secret of the Self) expounds his theory of the unique Islamic individual, and in a later poetic work- Rumūz-i Bekhudi[15] (The Mysteries of the Selflessness) he integrates his concept of Self within the framework of the Islamic theory of Millar (community). The Islamic individual in the ultimate end turns out neither to be like Hobessian Leviathan, nor like Nietzschian super-man, but finds himself as a truly free man growing within the framework of a God-centred community—the Millar. In this manner, Islam resolves the irreconcilable dichotomy of free will, and necessity, liberty and authority, and individual and the State.

It is the faith in God Almighty which distinguishes a true believer from either Nietzscheian super-man or Hobessian Leviathan. Dilating upon the mysterious powers of faith Iqbal says:

As faith is born within this burning dust (man),

He can create (for himself) wings of the Celestial Angel (Gabriel).

In slavery, neither swords nor stratagems are of any avail, only with fervent faith one can break the chains. Who can assess the strength of his (believer's) muscles? The gaze of a believer can upturn even the Fates!

According to Iqbal, the essential attributes of a true believer are faith, ceaseless effort, and universal love as he say

Abiding faith, unceasing effort, and World -conquering love

Are like swords to brave men In the battlefield of life.

The faith in Tawhīd (monotheism), on the one hand, creates psychic cohesion within the individual self, and on the other pro­vides a principle of unity for the community (Millat). Thus the Islamic individuals are bound together by ideological bonds within the framework of the Millat—community. In other words, the individual, isolated from the community, remains insecure, weak and powerless; his energies are scattered and his aims narrow, diffuse and indefinite.[18] Emphasizing on the principle of unity,

Iqbal says:

It is the unity which sustained the glory of thine community; with the loss of this unity, there was only disgrace for thee in the world.

The individual himself without this unity would be aimless, as he says in the following verse:

The individual remains steadfast only

With, the bond of community;

Alone he is nowhere Like a wave in the ocean, But outside nothing.

Thus the bond of community (rabt-i-millat) is the key concept for the preservation of the self. The bond resting on the faith of the individuals provides substance and form to the Millat Iqbal elaborates this point in his poem entitled: Tulū'-i Islām

The fatih of all individuals provides material

For community-building;

It is the force which shapes

The destiny of the community.

Therefore, Iqbal categorically rejects all other bonds of social unity—race, nationality, geography, etc., as un-Islamic. For Iqbal Millat is firmly founded on the bedrock of human unity. In his poem, Dunyā-i Islām (The World of Islam), Iqbal exhorts all the believers of Islam to unite as it was the only true prescription for their redemption and regeneration. He says:

The bond and unity of the sacred community Was the only way of deliverance for the Orient; The Asians are still unaware of this point.

Iqbal in expounding his theory of the community (Millat), further rejects secular foundations of politics, and he calls upon the believers:

Once again shun politics, and

Seek shelter within the walls of Religion; As Country and State are only fruits of The protection of the Sanctuary.

Let all Muslims unite

For safeguarding the Sanctuary

From the bank of Nile

To the land of Kashghar.

What stands in the way of Islamic unity? The rampant racial-ism among the Muslims was the greatest enemy of Islamic unity. Therefore, if Muslims persist to believe in racialism, they were destined to vanish as he says:

Whosoever believes in discrimination

On the basis of race or colour is doomed ;

No matter whether the Turk or the Arab.

If race of Muslims takes precedence over Religion,

(Rest assured) Thou wilt vanish away from the world Like the dust of the beaten track.

Millat and Nationalism. Iqbal, after a careful and critical study and observation, totally rejects the theory and practice of modern nationalism as it militates against humanistic ideals of Islam. Although like many other Muslim leaders, Iqbal had started his intellectual career as an ardent nationalist, yet with gradual maturing of his thought, he turned towards Islamic political theory for inspiration. In the earlier phase of his poetic life, particularly in his collection of poems entitled Bāng-i Darā several poems deal with the theme of patriotism, and nationalism. In the very first poem, Himaliyah, Iqbal says:

O! Himaliya! O! fortress of the land of Hindustan ! Sky stoops down to kiss your forehead.

Similarly in his Tāranah-i Hindī, Iqbal expresses his purest feelings patriotism and nationalism.

Our Hindustan is best in the world.

It's like a garden, and we are its nightingales. Religion does not teach us to be each other's enemy. All of us are Indians, and India is our Country.

Iqbal's belief in the cult of nationalism and patriotism had reached its climax in his poem, Nayā Shiwālah (New Temple) m which he proudly declared that patriotism was a sacred Religion for him as each particle of the dust of the Country was a god:

Thou doeth imagine that God resides in the images of stone:

But for me each particle of the dust. of the Country is a god.

In the above verse one can hardly miss the resounding echo of a Contemporary Iranian poet. Pūr Dāwūd who in his poem Na'rah-i Pūr Dāwūd (Call of Pūr Dāwūd) says:

If you ask what is Pūr Dāwud's creed ? That young Persian worships Iran.

However, Iqbal was soon disillusioned with the cult of nationalism and patriotism. Consequently he turned to the study of Islam, and discovered that Islamic universalism and humanism cannot be contained within the narrow framework of contemporary nationalism. In an early lyric, Iqbal points to the obvious contradictions between nationalism and Islamic Millat :

 The Arabian architect"(the Prophet) has fashioned it (Millat) on a model unique in the world.

The unity of the Country is not the foundation of the rampart of our Community (Millat).

Later in 1908 in his poem, Bilād-i Islāmiyah (Muslim World) Iqbal introduces a new political concept which he prefers to call Qawmiyyat-i Islām (Islamic nationalism). In his view if Islamic nationalism were to be ultimately pinned down to the notion of territory, neither India, nor Iran, nor Syria, nor for that matter any specific area can be considered as the true homeland of Islam, but rather it is the land of Yathrib (Medina) which is the true home of all Muslims[28]:

 If Islamic nationalism were bound with a place,

Its foundation is neither India, nor Persia, nor Syria. O Yathrib! that art the home and refuge of Muslim, Thou art the focal point of attraction of the rays of feelings so long as thou liveth in this world, we also shall live.

If thou art the dawn of this garden, so would also be there dew-pearls.

However, in his poem Tarānah-i Millī (The Song of the Community) Iqbal rediscovers the global context of Islamic nationalism when he says:

 China and Arabia are ours, so is India ours.

We are Muslims, and the whole world is our Country.

In another poem, Wataniyat (Patriotism) Iqbal examines the idea of country as a political concept, and sharply focuses on the inherent contradictions between Country and Religion in the following verse:

Country is the supreme among all the contemporary gods;

Its cloak is the shroud of Religion.

In elaborating the evil consequences of the impact of nationalism on the Muslim world, Iqbal observes:

This image (of nationalism) as fashioned by the contemporary civilization.

Destroys the home of prophetic faith.

Your muscles obtain strength from the power of Mono-theism.

Islam is thine home, and thou art the follower of the Prophet. Show to the World a glimpse of the old days?

0 follower of the Prophet! crush this image in the dust.

In the same poem, Iqbal emphasizes on the non-territoriality and the universality of the Islamic Millat, and says:

 If one were bound with a place, the result will be utter destruction,

Thou should'st live like a fish in the ocean independent of country.

In the parlance of politics "country" means something different;

And according to the saying of the Prophet country is something else.

Therefore, Iqbal categorically denounces nationalism as evil because it divides mankind into national factions, and so also does it destroy the very roots of Islamic nationalism:

 God's creation is divided into nations by nationalism. The roots of Islamic nationality is destroyed by it.

Reflecting on the true basis of Islamic nationalism, Iqbal suggests that we should clearly distinguish between Western brand of nationalism and Islamic view as the former was grounded in man's loyalty to the Country, while the latter emphasises on the power of Religion as the only integrating force of the Muslim Community:

 You should not equate your Community (Millar) with Western nations ;

The Nation of the Prophet is unique in its composition ; Their unity (Western nations') depends on country and race, (But) your unity derives stability from the power of Religion.

Thus for Iqbal, Islamic Millar is a nation sui generis because it was founded in monotheism (Tawhīd). Therefore, it transcends all barriers of race, colour, language, and territory; in fact it aims at achieving integration of all mankind into a moral body par excellence as Iqbal observes:

That is the purpose of Nature, that is also the secret of Islamicness.

World-encompassing brotherhood, and abundance of Love. Break the images of colour, race, and get lost in the .community. So that there may be neither Turk, nor Iranian, nor Afghan.

Iqbal advises all Muslims to associate themselves with the central organ of the Islamic Millar, as the self-awareness reinforced by collective consciousness can truly regenerate Divine powers of the Millar 7

 Disassociation with the Centre signifies death of a nation : But if attached with the Centre, self-awareness turns into Divinity.

Millat and Internationalism, Iqbal believed that, in substance, the Islamic unity was more comprehensive than the contemporary form of international organisations such as the League of Nations. By definition, international associations recognised only sovereign national States and individual human beings have little direct involvement in international affairs. On the contrary, the Islamic unity does not recognize the modern idea of the national State, as fundamentally in its essense, it aimed at creating a global human society—genuinely universal in its scope, humanistic in its goals, and ecumenical in its approach. In a poem entitled Mecca and Geneva Iqbal compares and contrasts Islamic theory of universal unity with the League of Nations, and says:

 In this age, association of Nations has become widespread; However, the unity of Mankind still remains out of sight. The goal of the Western policy was to maintain distinction of all Nations;

But the goal of Islam was only to preserve the Community of Adam.

Mecca gave this message to the land of Geneva; What was the true goal? The league of Mankind or the League of Nations.

Elsewhere, in his poem, "Jam`iyyat-i-Aqwām" (The League of Nations) Iqbal says:

The poor (League) has been suffering from death pangs for some time;

I am afraid lest I may give out foreboding of bad news (about its end).

It is destined to die but the high priests of the Church have been praying for its life.

Probably this old mistress of Europe may get a lease of life under the spell of satanic amulet.

This poem was written during the last phase of his life, and appears in the Armughan-i Hijāz. In the above verses, Iqbal, after analyzing in his mind the causes of failure of the League of Nations, had acutely felt that it was doomed to failure. He calls it "old mistress of European powers" as it was originally designed to serve their interests. At another place, Iqbal had succinctly described it as "a society of thieves" for distribution of grave-yards. It is true that the Great Powers were successfully exploiting this international forum for theirnefarious imperialistic designs, and national interests at the expense of the exploited nations and peoples. Consequently, the League had completely failed to achieve its objectives of establishing international peace, and was unable to prevent recurrence of another world war. Therefore, for Iqbal, the League was doomed to failure under continuing pressures of imperialism, colonialism, and nationalism. In his poetic vision, he could clearly see that durable international peace could be established only if the League of Nations were transformed into a genuine League of Mankind—free from all forms of exploitation, colonialism, imperialism, and nationalism. As a matter of fact, he believed that such an organisation could very well be set up in the Orient with its centre at Tehran rather than Geneva. It could take in its initial stages the form of a League of Oriental Nations, as Iqbal says:

 If only Tehran could take the place of Geneva for the

Oriental world

Then hopefully the fortune of this good earth might turn

for the better !

38. Ibid., p. 618.     39. Ibid., p. 609

In the above poem entitled The League of Oriental Nations, Iqbal had clearly envisioned the emergence of the Third World which has remained for centuries the object of exploitation by the Western Powers. Like Iqbal, many other intellectuals of the world of Islam were also thinking along the same lines.[40] In the end Iqbal came to the conclusion: "It seems to me that God is slowly bringing home to us the truth that Islam is neither nationalism nor imperialism but a League of Nations, which recognizes artificial boundaries and racial distinction for facility of reference only and not for restricting the social horizon of its members",[41]

Millat and Two-Nation Theory. Iqbal, after elaborating the basic postulates of Islamic ideology and its relevance to individual, society, and mankind, turned his attention to the Indian Muslims who were simultaneously menaced by British imperial-ism, an l danger of permanent Hindu domination. Caught in the vortex of Indian politics, therefore, the basic problem of the Indian Muslims was how to regenerate their individual and collective selves, and also preserve their Islamic identity. A satisfactory solution of the problem implied policies and actions at three different levels: (1) reconstruction of Muslim society in the Indian subcontinent according to the Islamic ideology ; (2) facing the upsurge of Indian nationalism in order to preserve the Islamic identity of the Indian Muslims ; and (3) integration of the Indian Muslims with the rest of the Islamic Millat.

Iqbal had intensely felt the progressive decline of the Muslim society in general, and the Indian Muslims in particular; and, therefore, he was deeply concerned with the problem of reconstruction of religious thought in Islam. In his' philosophical works, Metaphysics and Reconstruction, Iqbal examined Islamic thought in all its aspects, and attempted to present the Quranic interpretations in the light of twentieth-century requirements in a coherent form. In his poetical works, he went further to elaborate a set of concepts—Self, Community, socio-political implications of the Islamic doctrine of Tawhīd, Islamic democracy, economy and other relevant concepts. Iqbal advised all Muslims to restore

Islamic values in theory and practice in order to bring about the much-needed Islamic renaissance. In short, Iqbal offered Islamic ideology as an alternative to all contemporary ideologies.

Iqbal believed that the Islamic ideology could not be effec­tively implemented without attaining independence from British colonial rule. However, at the same time, he wanted indepen­dence in order to reconstruct Indian Muslim community in accordance with the Islamic ideology. Therefore, Iqbal was con-fronted, as other Muslim leaders were, with the upsurge of Indian nationalism. If Iqbal were to accept the thesis of the All-Indian National Congress that all Indians were a single nation, the Muslim minority would be submerged with the Hindu majority, and thus they would loose their Islamic identity and hence would be permanently segregated from the rest of the Muslim world. Therefore, Iqbal felt constrained to redefine the political status of the Indian Muslims in accordance with the modern theory of nationalism as a nation distinctly different from the Hindu majority. The crux of the Hindu-Muslim conflict arose from the fact that Hindu-dominated Congress believed in secular nationalism.

On the other hand, for Iqbal religion was a comprehensive code of life. Dilating on the unity of religion and politics, during his Madras lectures, Iqbal had observed:

I strongly feel the necessity of religious instruction in your educational institutions. The fact is that I, as an Indian, give precedence to religion over Swarajya (political independence). Personally, 1 shall have nothing to do with a Swarajya divorced from religion.[42]

The above observation of Iqbal clearly brings out the altogether different Muslim approach to political independence. For Indian Muslims political independence implied an opportunity to reconstruct their society in accordance with the Islamic ideology. This view was inherently opposed to the cult All-India political ongessn. Therefore which was being preached by Iqbal proceeded to demolish the premises on which the Congress view of united Indian nationalism was founded. Firstly, the Congress argued that the Indian people, irrespective of their diffessences of race, religion, and language, were a political nationality through their common- subjection to the British rule. Secondly, the Congress argued that India had always been in the course of its chequered history, a single country. Thirdly, they were of the view that the religious groups like Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and Sikhs were only religious communities which composed the political nationality of all Indians. Ultimately all these premises were based on the general assumption that religion could not be a genuine basis for nationalism. Obviously such a view of nationalism was in direct conflict with the Islamic ideology which Iqbal had elaborated in his works.

In response to the Congress view of a common Indian nation­ality, Iqbal put forward his theory of religio-cultural nationalism according to which Hindus and Muslims constituted two separate nationalities. In tracing the impact of Islam on the Indian Muslims, Iqbal had observed:

"It cannot be denied that Islam, regarded as an ethical ideal plus a certain kind of polity by which expression I mean a social structure regulated by a legal system and animated by a specific ethical ideal, has been the chief formative factor in the life-history of the Muslims of India. It has furnished those basic emotions and loyalties which gradually unify scattered individuals and groups and finally transform them into a well-defined people. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that India is perhaps the only country where Islam, as a people-building force, has worked at its best."[43]

Therefore, Iqbal's view was not acceptable to the Congress leaders who were not willing to concede a separate national status to the Indian Muslims. However, they were willing to provide in the future constitution of India for safeguards to all the religious communities including the Muslims. Consequently, the All-India Muslim League was described as communal organization. This would have reduced the Indian Muslims merely to a religious minority. Also this would have ultimately undermined the unique character of the Indian Muslims as a community in two ways—firstly, it would imply a complete break from the universal Millat; and secondly, it would reduce them to a helpless minority. In defending Muslim communalism, Iqbal observed in his famous Presidential Address of 1930:[44]

"And as far as I have been able to read the Muslim mind, I have no hesitation in declaring that if the principle that the Indian Muslim is entitled to full and free development on the lines of his own culture and tradition in his own Indian homelands, is recognized as the basis of a permanent communal settlement, he will be ready to stake his all for the freedom of India, the principle that each group is entitled to free development on its own lines is not inspired by any feeling of narrow communalism. There are communalisms and communalisms. I entertain the highest respect for the customs, laws, religious and social institutions of other communities. Yet I love communal group which is the source of my life and behaviour and which has formed me what I am by giving me its religion, its literature, its thought, its culture, and thereby recreating its whole past as a living factor in my present consciousness.[45]

At this stage of his political career, Iqbal was willing to accept the solution of Hindu-Muslim conflict within the framework of a paraphernalised federal system, in which the Indian Muslims would enjoy full autonomous status in the provinces in which they were in majority. However, the Congress was not willing to accept a weak central government, and, therefore, they were not to concede autonomous status to the Muslim majority provinces. Therefore full Iqbal proceeded to assert that the problem of India was "inter-national and not national" and submitted:

"We are seventy millions and far more homogenous than any other people in India. Indeed, the Muslims of India are the only people who can fitly be described as a nation in the modern sense of the word. The Hindus, though ahead of us almost in all respects, have not yet been able to achieve the kind of homogeneity, which is necessary for a nation, and which Islam has given you as a free gift. No doubt they are anxious to become a nation but the process of becoming a nation is a kind of travail, and, in the case of Hindu India, involves a complete overhauling of her social structure."[46]

In the above paragraph, Iqbal has clearly defined political status of the Indian Muslims as a separate nationality; and, therefore, they were entitled to claim a separate homeland in accordance with the recognized principle of national self-determination. In his famous Presidential Address, Iqbal, in outlining a progrāmme of political action for the Indian Muslims, mooted the idea of a separate Muslims State in the Indian subcontinent:

"I would like to see that Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan amalgamated into a single state. Self-government, within the British empire or without the British empire, the formation of a consolidated North-West Indian Muslim State appears to me the final destiny of Muslims at least of North-West India."[47]

In substance, Iqbal's vision of a separate Muslim State was incorporated in the famous Lahore Resolution of 23 March 1940 at the annual session of the All-India Muslim League under the leadership of late Mr. Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Subsequently, in 1946 at Legislators' Convention in Delhi, the new State was offi­cially named Pakistan. On 14 August 1947 Pakistan emerged as a new Muslim State on the map of South Asia.

However, for Iqbal the establishment of a Muslim State in the Indian subcontinent was not end by itself but it was a means to achieve a higher goal—consolidation of the World-Millat Thus the contradiction between Iqbal's theory of the Islamic Millat and his proposal for the establishment of a Consolidated Muslim State in the north-west Indian region was, in fact more apparent than real. In this connection sometimes question has been raised: how could Iqbal reconcile Islamic universlism inherent in his theory of Millat with his Two-Nation theory based on territorial nationalism for Indian Muslims. Early in 1930, Iqbal dealing with this question in his famous Presidential Address, had observed that the crux of the Indian problem was that the Hindu-Muslim conflict was a much deeper ideological cleavage between Islam and nationalism, and "therefore, the construction of a polity on national lines, if it means a displacement of the Islamic principle of solidarity, is unthinkable to a Muslim." In dilating upon the subject he further observed:

"India is Asia in miniature. Part of her people have cultural affinities with nations in the east, and part with nations in the middle and west of Asia."

The implication of the above statement was that Indian Muslims
had always constituted a distinctive community in the subcontinent. The Indian Muslims, by virtue of a common faith and history, are closely bound together with the rest of the Islamic Millat living in the West Asia, and at the same time have their peculiarly Indian features. Therefore, in lending support to Two‑Nation theory, Iqbal was chiefly concerned with the consolidation
of the Muslim community in the North-West Indian region where they constituted majority. For this purpose, he used the theory of modern nationalism in order to counter the arguments of the All-India National Congress in defence of a united Indian nationalism. Therefore,after consolidating Muslim community in the North-West region of the subcontinent in accordance with the precepts of Islamic ideology, the Muslims would naturally move towards achieving higher goals of political consolidation of the World-Ummah which may ultimately take the form of what Iqbal had described as League of Oriental Nations.

Iqbal's vision was, indeed, prophetic. The Islamic Republic of Pakistan bears testimony to his political insight and states­manship in so far as he had demanded the creation of a separate Muslim State based on his Two-Nation theory. On the other hand, the recent global resurgence of Islamic ideology throughout the length and breadth of the Muslim world, as witnessed in Pakistan, Iran, Libya, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Bangladesh, and elsewhere has generated a new political thrust towards creating an organisational framework for the Muslim world, in the form of institutions like Muslim Heads of States Conference, Muslim Foreign Ministers' Conference, Islamic Secretariat, and numerous financial institutions, such as Islamic Bank, Muslim Chamber of Commerce, Muslim News Agency, etc. In these developments, one can clearly see the emergence of Iqbal's vision of a Muslim Commonwealth of Nations as a reality. Pakistan as the Islamic Republic has incorporated in its Constitution provisions forging bonds of unity among Muslim States as a State policy; and this has remained a cardinal principle of her foreign policy. 

NOTES