IQBAL AUR MAGHRIBI MUFAKREEN

Prof. Jaggan Nath Azad

Maktaba-e-Jamia, Delhi.

pp. 190 Price Rs.10.50

This illuminating treatise focuses attention on the philosophic make-up of one of the greatest philosopher-poets of Urdu. Iqbal's genius was too ebullient to be contained by any established philosophy and though inspired by Islam and Eastern philosophers, Iqbal never shut himself up from Western thinkers and poets. In ten brilliant chapters profusely studded with illustrative Urdu and Persian verses of Iqbal, Prof. Azad takes his readers on to a delightful voyage of Iqbal's affinities with and variations from the great Western thinkers.

Prof. Azad holds that though Iqbal admits the philosophic acumen of Plato, he is critical of his Theory of Ideas because it clashes with his own philosophy of Action. Iqbal's debt to Bacon's Inductive Reasoning and the deductive methods of Spinoza and Leibniz is explored in the next chapter. Iqbal accepts Kant's view that Intellectual effort often fails to resolve the ultimate problems of life, but unlike Kant, he regards moral law not as an external command but an inner compulsion of the Ego. Fichte feels that non-Ego which the Ego strives to realise has Self as its source and Berkeley regards matter as only a form of mind. Iqbal only partially agrees with these contentions.

Prof. Azad shows that Iqbal accepts Schopenhauer's notion that nothing is more injurious for an aim than its realization because fulfilment may mean death, but he rejects his notions' about Death and women. In the chapter "Iqbal and Marx" Prof. Azad asserts that Iqbal is wrongly regarded as an "Islamic Socialist". Both Islam and Marxism denounce Capitalism but Iqbal prefers Islam because it does not negate God, Soul and Faith. Iqbal was deeply influenced by Nietzsche's contention that "Hardness is a virtue beyond all prize". There are marked similarities between Nietzsche's Superman and Iqbal's Perfect Man, but the two are not identical. Iqbal's Perfect Man uses power and persuasion for fulfillment of his mission, but unlike Nietzsche's Superman, he is subject to good and evil. Iqbal recognizes Bergson's notions about the reality of Flux but differs with his concept of the "creative impulse" as it ignores human personality and ego.

The final three chapters deal with Iqbal and the great philosopher-poets Dante, Milton and Goethe. Prof. Azad feels that Iqbal's laved Name has much that echees The Divine Comedy but while Dante is concerned mainly with life-after-death, Iqbal discusses life itself. Iqbal's concept of Satan is more akin to Milton's than to Dante's, for his Satan is not only an embodiment of evil, but also a dynamic personality locked in a grim struggle. Iqbal holds Goethe in high esteem for regarding Action as a potent means for realizing Reality and for perceiving Beauty in nature that elevates man out of the morass of materialistic depravity.

Prof. Azad aptly concludes that though Iqbal was well-versed in all philosophies, he never allowed any to cloud his own vision of Reality and. life and his insistence on Ego and Action. He accepted, rejected or modified what Western thinkers believed according to his Oriental requirements and personal convictions Prof. Azad has brought in his extensive scholarship for bringing out a book of comparative study that can serve as a solid bed-rock for further investigation on the subject.

Prof. Azad Gulati