THE ORIGINS AND SOURCES

OF IQBAL’ S PHILOSOPHY

DR. WAHEED ISHRAT[1]

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

DR. M.A.K. KHALIL[2]

INTRODUCTION

This paper was first read on November 1, 1987 during the Iqbal week celebrations at the Govt. Foreman Christian College, Lahore, Pakistan. It was published in ‘Iqbaliat’, Vol. 28, No. 4 January-March 1988, pp. 393-424. This translation has been prepared with the permission of the author for the benefit of those who do not know Urdu.

Though Iqbal is universally admired and respected as an intellectual, philosopher and, above all, as an eminent Islamic thinker, like all other intellectuals he is, sometimes, not given his proper place as a thinker and Islamic revivalist. This is due either to an incomplete comprehension of his thinking or to a myopic view of the main subject of his thought and discussion, i.e. Islam itself. In this medley of criticism his alleged lack of originality is often orchestrated. This criticism is very ably answered by the author in this paper. In the first place the author rightly points out that “the history of philosophy does not have the concept of any completely original thought”. All scholarship and high thinking is the joint heritage of humanity on whom it is bestowed by Allah (S.W.T.) either in the form of revelation through His prophets or by inspiration through His wise men. This being so all knowledge has to he a continuous and evolutionary process. This fact will be obvious to students of revealed books as well as to those of philosophy. Secondly, the paper clearly brings out that in the multi-dimensional sphere of Iqbal’s thought the Holy Qur’an occupies the central position, like the nucleus of the atom or that of a biological cell. Like the former the Holy Qur’an emanates the light of the Truth, and like the latter it controls all the details, which together, constitute Iqbal’s thought. That the raison d’etre of Iqbal’s poetry is the elucidation and elaboration of the wisdom of the Holy Qur’an and of being ‘a vehicle of its secrets, as well as to be the instrument of the renaissance of the Muslim Ummah and its consolidation into a united entity, as required by the Holy Qur’an, is clear from a study of his works as well as from his own admission. He says:

Do not consider my seemingly disjointed song as poetry

As I am aware of the inner secrets of the tavern

I have opened the secrets of qalandari[3]

So that the thinking of the school and the monastery may be freed[4]

There is a vast difference between poetry and me, poetry is only an excuse

I am pulling the unbridled she camel into the line

This truth is contained in Iqbal’s “Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam” like a seed and blossoms out in his poetical works. Serious study of references No. 3, 7, 24, 31 and 45 as well as the following book is strongly` recommended for a clear understanding of the issues discussed in this paper.

Ansari, Muhammad Abdul Haq (1986), “Sufism and Shari’ah; (A study of Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi’s Effort to Reform Sufism); Published by the Islamic Foundation, Leicester, UK.

A word about the translation itself appears appropriate. Translation of technical terms of tasawwuf (Islamic mysticism) is a difficult task. Though mysticism and its literature exists in the west and its terminology is found in Western languages, including English, the West has not been fortunate enough to experience Islamic or Qur’anic mysticism, which is called tasawwuf. The acquisition of mystical knowledge or irfan (gnosis) by the special sources of kashf and ilham (Explained later in the paper) is peculiar to tasawwuf Hence; in the absence of appropriate words in English the method of annotation has been used in preference to translation. The annotations are given in foot notes when the term appears first to maintain continuity of the text. In all subsequent uses of the term the original term in Arabic or Persian is used in italics without repeating the annotation. Full names with dates and short notes on persons referred to in the text are also given. References cited are indicated by Arabic numerals at the end of each citation.

TRANSLATION

The search for the sources of thought of an eminent and multi-dimensional philosopher like Iqbal is the most difficult task, especially so as his thought is creative as well as harmonizing. It is creative in the sense that he showed a new direction to his period by his philosophy of “Khudi”[5], and theory of dynamism. It is harmonizing in the sense that, looking critically into the thoughts of the Eastern and Western philosophers in the light of his creative theory he established harmony between them and gave his own opinions. The history of philosophy has produced either those philosophers who presented their creative thought and the results of their creative thinking about life and the universe, or those who established harmony and relationship between the philosophers preceding them and reconciled the theories and thoughts of different thinkers. Allama Iqbal is one of the few philosophers in the history of philosophy who themselves fixed the orbit of their creative thinking, established some basic premises of their thought and then tested the thoughts of different philosophers and sages on the basis of them and gave their own opinion after critical study. These are the dimensions of creative and harmonious thinking, overlooking which creates difficulties in grasping the sources of Iqbal’s thought. Those who study Iqbal’s philosophy superficially sometimes ignore its ethical aspects, and sometimes consider Iqbal’s philosophy as mere gleanings from different philosophers on account of faulty comprehension of his harmonizing aspect. In my opinion both these attitudes result from failure to distinguish between the creative and harmonizing aspects of Iqbal’s thinking.

Perhaps nobody has so far claimed the existence of a complete system of thought in the creative aspect of Iqbal, or that Iqbal had developed a philosophic order from his thought. In fact, if Plato [430-347 B.C.] is the first link in the chain of European philosophical system then Hegel [Ernst W. Kaufmann Hegel (1770-1831) is its last link. Nobody after Hegel attempted organizing his philosophical thoughts into a system. The system of Marx [Karl Marx 1818-1883 C.E.] was not philosophical and we do not count it as a philosophical system. We see the best organization of a philosophical system in Iqbal, after Hegel, though Iqbal himself has never claimed it. In fact, like some eminent philosophers he has denied being a philosopher. For this reason perhaps it may appear unreasonable and an exaggeration, at first sight, but Iqbal has the components of a partially organized philosophical system in his concepts of the self, Truth, the universe, spiritual reality, the Mard-i-Mumin[6] or the Fard-i-Musaddiqa,[7] the Khudi and its political interpretation, and spiritual democracy and its political interpretation. These should be researched just as the scattered pearls of wisdom of Socrates [469-399 B.C.] were researched and consolidated into a philosophical system by Plato. Perhaps nobody has looked upon Iqbal from this angle, because most of the work on Iqbal to-date has been of the nature of compilation, translation and explanations. Iqbal has not yet been researched and discovered in his entirety because, for this purpose, a creative and all embracing mind was needed after Iqbal as was created in the person of Plato after Socrates.

I want to state a basic fact before dealing with the sources of Iqbal’s philosophy. This is that no philosophy develops in a vacuum. Every philosophy needs a special soil, air and environment for its cultivation and growth. If you want to witness this you can see that the Greek thought... grew in a special sophisticated social and cultural environment of the second millennium before Christ. When this environment ceased to exist the Greek philosophy disappeared with it forever. Moreover, if you also look at the thoughts of Socrates and Plato they were not original in the sense that nobody had previously expressed such thoughts. A careful study and analysis of the thoughts of Socrates and Plato will reveal the echo of the thoughts of Socrates and Plato about God in Xenopheus [430-355 B.C.], a thinker of the period of the Illiad. In the same way the poems of Parmenides, [d. 475 B.C.] “The Way of Truth” and “The Way of Syllogism” provide material. for Plato’s “Discourses” and the concept of “Wahdat-ul-Wujud[8] “of Parmenides and Xenophius, which hypothesizes one existing entity is the basis of the main thought of Plato. In the same way the thoughts of philosophers such as Plotinus [A.D. 204-70] Kindi [d. 870 C.E.] Farabi [Abu Nasr Muhammad Ibn-i Muhammad Ibn-i-Tarkhan Ibn-i-Afzalgah Farabi 870-956 C.E.] and Hegel etc., have the elements of their preceding philosophers. In other words the existence of the effects of the thoughts and theories of preceding philosophers in the thinking of some philosophers is not a reflection on the originality of his thoughts. This is so because the study of the evolution of thought in the history of philosophy will clearly show that in the field of thinking the currents of thought run in a continuous stream and a philosopher draws inspiration only from the thoughts of his predecessor philosophers and after renovating their thinking with his originality presents them according to the objective conditions of his time. So it is not surprising to find some reflections of the thoughts of earlier philosophers in Iqbal’s thinking and does not negate the originality of his thought. What is important to find out is whether Iqbal has read and presented the thoughts of philosophers preceding him in a historical and unquestioned manner or has critically reviewed them to organize his own thoughts. Serious study of Iqbal’s “Lectures”[9] and other works gives strong impression of his critical approach to the works of earlier philosophers and will create the feeling that Iqhal has adopted an academic and critical approach in grasping and adopting them. Therefore, people who say that Iqbal’s thinking is not original and that he has indulged in gleaning from such and such a philosopher appear to be ignorant of the history of human thought.. The history of philosophy has no concept of any completely original thought, and the torch of thinking progresses through many hands. All this leads to the conclusion that Iqbal was an original thinker and grasped and adopted the earlier philosophies in a critical manner.

Basically, in its origin, Iqbal’s philosophy is an extension of the tradition of Islamic thought alone. Iqbal’s thought is organically linked to his own Muslim background. Iqbal’s concept of the Truth, God, the universe, Khudi and Mard-i-Mumin themselves have roots in Islamic thinking. He himself traces the roots of each of his concepts to the history of Islamic philosophy, and when he finds the affirmation and support of his concepts in Western science and philosophy he cites them as additional support. He also criticizes the philosopher whose thinking is not in conformity with the foundations of his thought. In this connection he criticizes Plato, Aristotle [382-322 B.C.], Hegel, Marx and several other Western thinkers and even the Muslim writers of his own circle, such as Ibn-ul-Arabi [Muhiuddin Ibn-ul-Arabi d. 1240 C,E.] and Hafiz Shirazi [Muhammad Shamsuddin d. 1389 C.E.]. In his creative thinking he first presents his own theories about the Truth, life and the universe and then tries to obtain further explanation and proof from Western learning and researches of Western philosophers. Dr. Annemarie Schimmel has unveiled this attitude of Iqbal in her famous book “Gabriel’s Wing”,

“Iqbal continued to establish connection between Islamic traditions and new Western research by these comparative studies. His stand was that Muslims should learn Western knowledge and wisdom for, as the West has been indebted to Islamic civilization for learning and wisdom, Muslim would not lose anything by learning Western science and technology”.(1)

Iqbal is not among the philosophers who get engulfed in abstract concepts and theories and engage themselves only in the superfineness of linguistic and logical excellence. Iqbal is a revolutionary philosopher, and in accordance with the saying of Marx that the much greater function of philosophy is to alter the normal conditions existing around it rather than subjective analysis of the universe. Iqbal also, with his original thinking, established a system of thought which aimed at revolutionizing the conditions existing in his time. The main aspect of his entire system of thought was practical, dynamic and revolutionary. He discarded, after criticism, every thought, concept and theory which preached inaction, and which a great obstacle to Iqbal in the task was also of’ changing and activating the existing conditions of Muslims. As Dr. Ishtiaque Hussain Quraishi explained after detailed analysis, in his paper “The Psychological Sources of the Philosophy of Iqbal”(2) that the centuries old static life of the Muslim Ummah, their declining preparedness, the destruction of the khilafah, the fall of Samarqand, Bukhara and Spain, the Hindu stratagem of absorbing the Muslims in, and the conditions militating against their organization as a political power, in the Indian Sub-continent were movers for disturbing Iqbal and creating a storm within him. He criticized all those theories which were against the concept of dynamism in life and the universe. Iqbal’s concept of life and the universe was that of having a soul in motion. Motion or dynamism is the basic component of his philosophy.

Motion or dynamism is the principle which molded Iqbal’s thought. He writes about dynamic thinking:

In its essential nature, then, thought is not static; it is dynamic and unfolds its internal infinitude in time like the seed which, from the very beginning, carries within itself the organic unity of the tree as a present fact. Thought is, therefore, the whole of its dynamic self-expression, appearing to the temporal vision as a series of definite specifications which cannot be understood except by a reciprocal reference.”(3)

The greatest opponent of Allama Iqbal’s dynamic philosophy of life and the universe was the belief of Wahdat-ul-Wujud. This belief in Wahdat-ul-Wujud whose rationale was based on Plato’s theory of the universe, developed later in his system as a static monastic way as part of mysticism, diverted Muslims from the. Islamic thinking of conquest and consolidation of the world towards the shame-ridden attitude of divorcing all worldly relations. As a result of this the Islamic world developed the monastic attitudes of inaction, pacifism and other worldliness, and the whole Islamic world was engulfed in a paralytic mystic state. Becoming estranged from the understanding of the universe, and from performing an active role in the reconstruction, shaping, conquest and organization of the world, it became progressively caught into slavery. The Arab writer Najla Izzuddin [19531 has analyzed this state of affairs as follows:

“The decline of the internal creative power and expeditionary zeal of the Arab civilization was more devastating than the misfortunes and catastrophes that befell if from outside. The ardent desire for intellectual inquiry and the pride of performance which were characteristic of the early times were throttled by the strong pressure of religious dogmas and centralization. Freedom of thought was banished and conservatism reigned supreme. Unbridled search for Truth was branded as atheism and irreligious. The fearless and bold people of the earlier times were relegated to obscurity. The brain trust engaged itself in preparing the explanations and abstracts of well-known subjects instead of using their intellect in discovering new avenues of knowledge. “(4)

This was the state of affairs which perturbed Iqbal. He revolted and rejected every theory which was against his dynamic concepts. This hit Aristotle most after Plato because Aristotle believed in the eternity of the universe. In the words of Dr. Schimmel:

“Aristotle’s concept of the eternity of the universe is antithetic to the Islamic concept of God, because according to this religion only the Living and Dynamic God is eternal and not the universe. Iqbal considers life also as fleeting. Life is not only beauty and balance; it is also action and power. “(5)

According to Dr. Schimmel the strongest reason for Iqbal’s intellectual revolt against Greek thought was:

“In Iqbal’s view Greek philosophy is extremely abstract and conjectural and man cannot perform any productive work under its influence. It is an impractical philosophy and cannot even meet God through its concept devoid of Love. “(6)

See Iqbal’s Asrar-i-Khudi, section VII titled “Exposition that Plato the Greek who’s Thought greatly influenced the Mysticism and Literature of the Muslim Nations followed the Sheep’s Doctrine and that We must beware of and eschew his Thought and Theories”. The climax is reached in the last verse which says:

Full many a nation poisoned by his intoxication Sank into deep sound slumber and lost the thrill of action’s bliss

The whole purpose of this detail is to lead you to the basic concepts of Iqbal’s thought. What permeates the whole world of his philosophical organization like a principle is the concept of a Living and Dynamic God, Who is not identical with the universe, but Who is Unique, Unparallel, Unequal in His own Being and Essence. The universe and life are expositions of His Creativeness which are vibrant with life. Dr. Ishrat Hassan Enver in his book “The Metaphysics of Iqbal” has explained that to Iqbal God’s Zat[10] is dynamic and extremely creative. His words are:

“Consequently, the nature of God as revealed by intuition is, firstly, dynamic and highly active in its essence. “Reality is one infinite life. It is a self-directing, self-conscious energy, continuously active. Every act of it is itself life which in turn is a self-directing energy. Looked at from outside these acts are spatial things and events. Some of the acts in the course of development have become self-conscious. These are ‘I’ and ‘You’“.(7)

Detailing Iqbal’s concept of the universe he writes:

“There is a gradual rising note of ego hood in the whole universe. We are conscious of it firstly in our own self; secondly, in the objective nature before our eyes; and thirdly in the ultimate principle of all life, viz. God. Iqbal’s philosophy is thus the Philosophy of Ego hood. Ego hood is, for him, the pivot of all reality.”(8)

Khudi, which can also be called “Gnosis of self” or “Gnosis of Zat” is found in Socrates’ philosophy as “Know Thyself” and which also appears in the famous saying, “He who knows his Self knows his God.” Iqbal himself writes in his Fourth Lecture:

“What then is matter? A colony of egos of low order out of which emerges the ego of a higher order, when their association and interaction reach a certain degree of co-ordination… The emergent, as the advocates of the Emergent Evolution teach us, is an unforeseeable and novel fact on its own plane of being, and cannot be explained mechanistically… We have seen that the ego is not something rigid. It organizes itself in time, and is formed and disciplined by its own experience. “(9)

A well-known professor of philosophy, Dr. Absar Ahmad explains Allama Iqbal’s concept of Khudi thus:

“In Iqbal’s thinking “Khudi” is that unit of intellect which is ‘Self Knowing’ and ‘Self Cognizant’ and is conscious of its tat and its goals. “Khudi” here does not mean mind or discretion but is something which has to be kept well in mind or on account of which man has mind and discretion. The same faculty in man calls himself ‘I’ on account of being self-knowing or self-cognizant. So Iqbal calls it ana’, or ‘ego’ or ‘I’.(10)

In Iqbal’s view this “Khudi” passes through three stages in its evolution which he has described thus in Javid Namah:

“Whether thou are alive or dead or the verge of death

Depend on three things

A sense of one’s own existence

One’s own self to see with the help of one’s own inner light

The secondly,

A sense of existence of others; one’s own self to see with the help of the light of others

And, thirdly, a sense of the existence of God,

And the power to see One’s Self in the light vouchsafed by God’’(11)

This means that in the first stage Man requires a witness on himself through the intellect of his own existence, assays the limits of his own objectives, organizes his essence, sees himself in the light of his existence and shapes his faculties and potentialities. When he passes from this stage to the second one he tests himself with the intellect of others or with the eyes of history and makes history as a witness for his actions and character. In this way he fixes his place in the pages of history. In the third stage he makes the Zat of God a witness over his existence, presents himself to God and organizes his “Khudi” or his Zat within the premises of the purpose of submission to God. Iqbal states the following purpose of these stages of “Khudi”

“Life lies in reaching one’s own destined station

It lies in beholding the One Central Self without a veil”(12)

That means that man reaches a stage where the Zat manifests itself to him with all its profundity. Surin Karkigard, (May 1813 - Oct. 1855) the founder of the concept of Wujudiyat[11] has also described similar three stages in his philosophy which are beneficent, ethical and religious. However, Karkigard could not reach the depths of thought traversed by Iqbal though his beneficent, ethical and religious periods also reflect the different stages of development of Man’s personality.(13)

In the process of explaining the sources of Iqbal’s philosophy on the one hand we have to point out the internal sources which are subjective and are a part of his internal self without which Iqbal could not have been what he was and on the other hand we have to discover those objective sources which formed the basis for the formation of his thinking. Maulana Syed Abut Hasan Ali Nadvi in his book “Nuqush-i-Iqbal” has very beautifully referred to the creative elements which have played a very important role in the formation of Iqbal. During a lecture at the Cairo University in 1951 he said:

“In fact Iqbal acquired the creative elements which created and developed his personality in his own internal school. There are five creative components which made Iqbal’s personality everlasting”.(14)

Enumerating these five components he said:

“The first of these components which Iqbal acquired on the very first day of his entering his internal school is “Faith and Belief” This very belief is Iqbal’s first patron and mentor and is the sources of his power and strength and is the fountainhead of his wisdom and intelligence. The second component of Iqbal’s personality is what is present today in every Muslim home, though alas the Muslims themselves are deprived of its light and have made themselves devoid of its knowledge and wisdom. I mean the Holy Qur’an. The third component which has greatly affected the development of Iqbal’s personality is cognizance of his soul and Khudi: The fourth component which made and nourished Iqbal’s personality is the early Morning Prayer and lamentation. It was Iqbal’s rising in the small hours of the morning, prostrating before his Lord and lamenting and crying which continuously provided a new happiness to his soul, a new light to his heart and new intellectual nourishment to him. Iqbal has himself highlighted the importance of early morning lamentations. For example he says:

“It may be Attar, or Rumi, or Razi, or Ghazali,[12]

Nothing is achieved without early morning lamentation(15)

Though the winter air had the sword’s sharpness

Even in London I did not lose the habit of early morning rising(16)

And the fifth component which constituted the basis of Iqbal’s thought was the study of Rumi’s “Mathnavi”

The three components stated by Maulana Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi or Ali Mian are subjective whereas the Holy Qur’an and Rumi’s Mathnavi are objective and are the fountainheads of his genius In fact the deep study of and constant meditation on the Holy Qur’an was the criterion on which he tested all the old and new philosophies. Whatever he felt to be close to the teachings of the Holy Qur’an he regarded as the Mumin’s missing wisdom and accepted it. Similarly, he rejected, after examination and criticism what he considered as remote from this current of thought. Iqbal dived into the Holy Qur’an and adopted it as the basis and standard of his entire thinking.

Regarding the study of the Holy Qur’an the anecdote which lqbal himself stated is very important. Accordingly Iqbal’s father had advised him to study the Holy Qur’an as if it had been revealed to him.(17) This changed Iqbal’s view of the Book of God so he says:

“As long as the Book is not revealed to your heart Neither Razi nor the author of Kashsha[13]f will clarify the meaning

The Holy Qur’an itself on being revealed to Iqbal’s heart opened the hidden aspects of his thought. Therefore, he always considered his whole thought and poetry to be the tafsir[14] of the mystery of Iman[15]

“Walayat,[16] kingship, the universality of the knowledge of things,

What are all these? Only tafsirs of the secret of! man”

He has prayed to God for a curse on himself in the sense that if he had included anything in his thinking and poetry outside the explanations of the Holy Qur’an he be deprived of the honor of paying the most humble homage to the Holy Prophet by kissing his feet on the Day of Judgment. This is a curse which no Muslim can impose on himself.- On this basis alone it can be said that Iqbal himself, not only considers the Holy Qur’an to be the sources of his thought and poetry, but calls his thought and poetry to be a tafsir of the Holy Qur’an.(18) He says:

“If my heart is a mirror with no worth

And in my word if anything except the Holy Qur’an is concealed

O Thou who art the Light of the morning of time

Thy eye sees what is in our hearts

Dry up the wine in my grapes

Throw poison in my pure wine

Make me wretched and ignominious on the Judgment Day

Deprive me of kissing the feet (of the Holy Prophet)(19)

Syed Nazir Niazi, who has translated “The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam” into Urdu, considers in his introduction to the “Lectures” the Holy Qur’an to be the fountainhead of Iqbal‘s thought.(20)

“In fact the real fountainhead of this thought is the Holy Qur’an, as stated earlier. And to the Holy Qur’an alone we will have to take recourse in solving all problems and difficulties which may appear in explaining it. If the author of “The Lectures” has used the present day terminology it is so for the sake of us westernized people, because he is really addressing us and the rest of the world through us”(21)

Another pious researcher of Iqbal, Dr. Raziuddin Siddiqi[17] has, written in the preface to Dr. Yusuf Husain Khan’s books, “Rooh-i-lqbal”:

“In poetical aspects and in the light of modern knowledge Iqbal’s works are a ‘complete commentary of the Holy Qur’an. If the Mathnavi of Maulana Rumi was considered “The Holy Qur’an in the Persian Language” eight hundred years ago, we can give the same status to Iqbal’s works in this second millennium”(22).

Maulana Saeed Ahmad Akbarabadi in his “A View on Iqbal’s Lectures” has attested similarly that:

“The high calibre of thought in “The Lectures” leaves no doubt that the Holy Qur’an is their real fountainhead”.(23)

Maulana Dr. Ghulam Mustafa Khan in his book “Iqbal and the Qur’an(24) has documented the encirclement of Iqbal’s thought by the Holy Qur’an and a study of Professor Muhammad Munawwar’s book The Reasoning Of Iqbal” shows the sovereignty of the Holy Qur’an on Iqbal’s thought. Though it is not possible to go into details, selections from Iqbal’s verses, letters, speeches, statements and lectures give us the message of Iqbal that:

“If thou want to live as a Muslim

It is not possible except living by the Holy Qur’an”(25)

This is the all pervading wisdom of his thought. This is so because he considers the Holy Qur’an to be a means of creating an exalted and elegant understanding of the varied innate relationships of Man and the surrounding universe. Iqbal got the greatest stimulation from the Mathnavi of Rumi in obtaining the philosophical understanding and depth of thought of the Holy Qur’an. Therefore, Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi’s “Maulvi’s Intellectual Mathnavi”, which has been described as the Holy Qur’an in the Persian language, is the basic source of Iqbal’s philosophy. Iqbal took Maulana’s Mathnavi as a means of obtaining the insight into the Holy Qur’an:

 “Like Rumi I am calling for prayer (azan) in the Haram[18]

I have learnt the secrets of life from him

He lived in the days of the mischief of the old

I live in the mischief of the current age”(26)

In the seditious age in which beliefs and concepts were being destroyed and Muslims had become frustrated Maulana Rumi restored Man’s beliefs and confidence and stabilized Faith and perceptions. This disunity, distress and helplessness of thought and insight were also the characteristic of Iqbal’s times. The harmony and mature thinking, the affection and attachment to the Holy Qur’an were the meeting points for these eminent thinkers. The mysticism and mystics who had rendered knowledge to be a great veil had forgotten the Qur’anic edict that knowledge and science were the greatest virtues in its view. To Iqbal Maulana Rumi is the opener of the secrets and wisdom of the Holy Qur’an. He goes more into the intrinsic rather than the extrinsic values of the Qur’anic injunctions. The wisdom of Deen is his special field. The doctrine of Taqdir[19] is the most important point of companionship of Rumi and Iqbal. Iqbal got the theory of Will in his concept of Khudi from Rumi, that the Khudi on reaching its climax embraces God’s Will. Iqbal and Rumi both think that the wrong understanding of Destiny has done much more harm to Man’s Khudi and ethical life. Following Rumi Iqbal gave a new meaning to human freedom and free will. Both believe in immortality and evolution, and are the philosophers who create the fervour for subjugation of the universe.

It is often stated in describing the influence of Maulana Rumi in shaping Iqbal’s thought that Iqbal’s concept of Wahdat-ul-Wujud has been taken from Maulana Rumi. There is a long line of people who regard Maulana Rumi to be a believer in Wahdat-ul-Wujud. But whether Maulana Rumi was really a believer in Wahdat-ul-Wujud is no longer considered as fully proven. There are several indications denying his belief in Wahdat-ul-Wujud. Professor Nicholson who is a researcher in Islamic learning writes:

“Some people get the impression at first sight that Maulana Rumi believed in Wahdat-ul-Wujud. I had the same belief earlier when I was not so well versed in the history of Islamic mysticism as I am now”.(27)

Actually Nicholson even denies that Mansur Hallaj was a believer in Wahdat-ul-Wujud. Just as fixation of fundamentals of Iqbal’s philosophy is the result of Maulana Rumi’s influence the shaping of the aspects of Iqbal’s thinking was done by Hadhrat-i-Mujaddid Alf Thani.[20] The concepts, of Wahdat-ul-Wujud which started creeping into Muslim society through Plato, Platoneus and Ibn-ul-Arabi[21] and brought the doctrine of sukr,[22] which paralyzed the entire Muslim society, met with strong opposition. Commenting on the Schopenhauer’s theory (Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860 C.E.) of Wahdat-ul-Wujud, a philosopher has said that this belief was veiled atheism. This veiled atheism sowed the seeds of withdrawal from the world, asceticism and inaction in Muslim society. This poison rendered Muslim minds unproductive and pushed Muslims into decline. The teachings of Mujaddid Alf Thani are an important source for molding Iqbal’s thought:

“Junaid Baghdadi,[23] adopted the system of sahv[24] as opposed to sukr. Maulana Rumi taught Khudi in spite of being inclined towards Wahdat-ul-Wujud and Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi, Mujaddid Alf Thani criticized and rejected Shaikh Muhiyuddin Ibn-ul-Arabi’s theory of Wahdat-ul-Wujud and presented the theory of Abdiyat[25] in opposition to it strongly supported their efforts”.(28)

Iqbal’s intellectual and cordial relationship with Hadhrat Mujaddid Alf Thani can be judged from the fact that he said about Nietzsche (Friedrich Nietzsche d, 1900 C.E.) that if he were alive in the time of Hadhrat Mujaddid and had been associated with him he would have been remunerated with eternal happiness:

 “If God granted that he had lived in the time of Ahmad He would have attained eternal happiness”(29)

Iqbal got evidence from Hadhrat Mujaddid Alf Thani against the theory of Wahdat-ul-Wujud. Commenting on Ibn-ul-Arabi’s theory of Wahdat-ul-Wujud Hadhrat Mujaddid said that the great Shaikh, Muhiyuddin Ibn-ul-Arabi could not distinguish between Wujud[26] and Zat.[27] He could not rise above Wujud to reach the Zat of God. He said the same thing about Plato, that he became besieged with Wujud and could not reach the Zat, because the Zat is higher than and separate from Wujud. The Zat is Unequalled and Unique and Solitary. Hadhrat Mujaddid said:

“The glorious Shaikh (Shaikh Muhiyuddin Ibn-ul-Arabi) did not view their depravity, defects and discord, and fixed the truths of the possible as the cognitional forms of Allah (S.W.T.), because these forms have assumed and external form after being reflected in the eminent Allah’s Mirror of Purity. This has been so because nothing existed outside it. He has not differentiated between these cognitional forms and the Attributes of Allah (S.W.T.). So he asserted the positive opinion of Wahdat-ul-Wujud. And he called the Wujud of the possible as identical with the Wujud of Allah (S.W.T.)”(30)

Dr. Burhanuddin Ahmad Faruqi in his “Hadhrat Mujaddid’s Conception of Tawhid” has described Ibn-ul-Arabi’s concept of Wahdat-ul-Wujud thus:

“Ibn-ul-Arabi’s position with regard to Tawhid is that. Being is one, - it is that which exist. This Being is Allah. Everything else is His manifestations. Hence the world is identical with Allah”. (31)

This means that it would be correct to say that Ibn-ul-Arabi considers Being and Allah or the universe and God as identical to’ each other. He writes:

“The identity of the world and Allah is conceived on the basis of the identity of His Zat-o-Sifat or Existence and Essence - substance and attributes; the world being only a Tajalli[28] or manifestation of His, Sifat or Attributes”(32)

This means that it would be correct to say that Ibn-ul-Arabi considers Being and Allah or the universe and God as identical to each other. He writes: “Maulana Jami (1414-92 C.E.), while explaining the Wahdat-ul-Wujud of his eminent Shaikh Muhiyuddin Ibn­ul-Arabi said:

“The Being is indeterminate; it is the stage of La-ta’ayyun or Indeterminateness of the Unity. In Its descent or Determination it passes through five stages. The first two are Ilmi or Cognitive and the last three are Khariji or Existential. In the first Descent, the Unity becomes conscious of itself as pure Being, and the consciousness of Sifat is only Ijmaii, i.e. general - it is implicit. In the second Descent the Unity becomes conscious of itself as possessing the attributes; that is the stage of Sifat-i-tufsilli, i.e., attributes in detail, - it is explicit. These two Descents seem to be conceived in conceptual or logical rather than actual; for they are out of time, and the distinction of Zat and Sifat or its attributes is only Zahni or logical. Then began the real actual Descents. The third Descent therefore is Ta’ayyun-i-ruhi or the determination as spirit or spirits, the Unity has broken itself up into so many spirits, for example angels. The fourth of its Descents is Ta’ayyun-i­mithali or ideal determination; thereby the world of Ideas comes into being. And the fifth Descent is Ta’ayyun-i-jasadi or physical determination; it yields the phenomenal or physical beings. These stages are only gradual realizations of the capacities that were already latent in the attributes”; (33)

This means that this series of Descents or Determinations resembles the theory of Emanation of Plato, Platonius and Ibn ‑I ‑ Sina (Abu Alai Ibn-i-Sina 980-1050 C.E.).(34) Ibn-i-Sina also, basing it on his rationality believes in “Emanation of the material universe from God and admits the universe and God to he each other’s shadow and identical. But these philosophers seem to fail to visualize any Zat above and beyond the level of Wujud. That is so because Wujud is the Shuhud[29] of Zat and Wujud is contingent on makan[30] while Zat is La makan.[31] How can the Wujud contained in makan and the La Makan Zat he the same?  Hadhrat-i-Mujaddid Alf Thani criticised the philosophers on this point and said:

“The Creator of the universe (Subhanahu wa Ta’ala) has none of the above relations proven to exist between Him and the universe. The comprehension of and approach to Allah (S.W.T.) is not of Zat but is one of Ilm [32]  as has been accepted by the Ahl-ul-Haq[33] and He (S.W.T.) is not united with anything and Allah is Allah and the universe is universe. That Unique and Indescribable Zat (S.W.T.) cannot be identical with non-unique and the describable. The Eminent Wajib[34] cannot be said to be identical with the Mumkin.[35] The Mumtana-ul-Adam[36] Zat cannot be identical with the Jaiz-ul-Adam.[37] The changing of the Truth is impossible intellectually and according to the Shari’ah. One cannot be borne by the other”.(35)

The “Creator”[38] and the “created” have the relationship of the person reasoning and the article reasoned about. Hadhrat-i-Mujaddid says:

“Though the universe is the theater for the display of the reflections of the perfection of Sifat and appearance of Divine Names, but the view of the Real is not visible and the shadow of the Real is not the Real, a is the religion of the people who believe in Wahdat-ul-Wujud”.(36)

“The One who is identified by symbols (Allah) cannot he contained in the times and cannot exhibit His Self in the articles which only have the quality of Mumkinat. The La makani Zat cannot be contained in makan”.(37)

Hadhrat-i-Mujaddid also passed through the stage of Wahdat-ul-Wujud. He says about this stage of his:

“If this faqir[39] had accepted Wahdat-ul-Wujud it was on the basis of kashf[40] and not through taqleed[41] My denial of it now is also on the basis of ilham[42] and ilham does not have room for denial, although it is not an argument for others either”.(38)

Here Hadhrat-i-Mujaddid has stated three things which deserve consideration. One is that his belief in Wahdat-ul-Wujud was not through taqleed but through kashf. This means that taqleed is had and kashf is a stage of knowledge experienced by all believers in Wahdat-ul-Wujud. The next higher stage is ilharn which is the most reliable way of attaining knowledge for those who are not prophets. The stage higher than ilham is wahi[43] Being directly from God wahi is an argument for those who are not prophets and obeying it is essential, whereas ilham is for non-prophets and, through it does not have room for denial, obedience to it is not binding on others. However, one point is clear, that is iiham-i-Wahdat-ut-Shuhud is one stage higher than kashfi Wahdat-ul-Wujud; and Hadhrat-i-Mujaddid’s acceptance of the Zat of Allah as Unique and denial of the identity of the makani objects with the La makani Zat is a logical truth. The poetic romanticism presented in the Wahdat-ul-Wujud has strengthened this concept so much in poetic tradition that our poetry has lost the potential of rising above the Wujud and reaching the La makani Zat and merging into the Wahdat-ul-Wujudi Being is considered to be the end all and the climax of poetry. The Eastern as well as the Western poetry is imprisoned in the Wujud-i-Makani and does not guide us to the highest level which is Abudiat or Abdiyat. Hadhrat-i-Mujjaddid has explained this stage of Abdiyat thus:

“The stage of Abdiyat is the highest stage because it is the most perfect and complete in all respects. Only the loved ones are honoured with this stage and the lovers enjoy the pleasures of the vision. The pleasure in Abdiyat and affection for it is special for the loved ones. The lovers are attached to the vision of the beloved but the loved ones derive happiness from the Abdiyat of the beloved”.(39)

“This one prostration before God which you consider difficult

Frees Man from a thousand prostrations

This very stage of Abudiat (عبودیت) echoes in Iqbal’s philosophy of Khudi. Whereas Iqbal wants stability and immorality of Khudi and protection of its individuality he is not in favour of merging it with God but wants to see it elevated to the stage of Abudiat as this is the same stage which God bestowed upon Man. In Hadhrat Mujaddid’s view the only curtain between Man and God is his own nafs.[44] This is so because Man desires his own nafs and so, that really is the curtain. What is Tajalli-i-Zati[45] for Mujaddid Alf Thani is the stage of Khudi according to Iqbal.

There are several other personalities, in addition to Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi and Hadhrat-i-Mujaddid Alf Thani who have nourished Iqbal’s thought, out of which three deserve special mention. They are Abdul Karim Al-Jelli, Davvani and Iraqi.

Jalaluddin Muhammad Ibn-ul-Asad Davvani. He was born in Davvan, District of Gazrun. His father was a qadi, was educated in Shiraz and appointed qadi of Faris. He wrote treatises and annotations on philosophy and tasawwuf. In Persian he wrote the well-known book, “Lavama-ul-lshraq(40) if makarim-ul-Akhlaq”, which is also called, “Akhlaq-i-jalali”. Iqbal has referred to his book “Zavvar” in the theory of time and has compared his theory of time with that of Professor Royce, according to which:

“… if we take time to be a kind of span which makes possible the appearance of events as a moving procession and conceive this span to be a unity then we cannot describe it as an original stage of Divine ‘ activity, encompassing all the succeeding states of that activity. But the Mulla (Mulia .Jalal-ud-Deen Davvani)(41) takes good care to add that a deeper insight into the nature of succession reveals its relativity; so that it disappears in the case of God to Whom all events are present in a single act of perception”.

In addition to Jalaluddin Davvani Iqbal also talked about the famous sufi poet Fakhruddin lbn-ul-Ibrahim Iraqi (d. 1289 C.E.) in connection with his concept of time. Iraqi was a Persian sufi poet, hafiz[46] and was brought up in Hamadan. He was a disciple of Shaikh Bahauddin Zakariya of Multan, meditated at Multan and became sahib-i-hal[47] sufi. He was married to the daughter of Khwaja Bahauddin Zakariya, served his Shaikh for twenty five years, travelled to Asia Minor (Konia), Egypt and Sham (present day Syria and Iraq) and settled in Damascus. He is associated with the book titled, “Suluk-i-Iraqi” and “Kuliat-I Lama’at” is his famous book.(42) Iqbal has given great importance to Iraqi also in his concept of time. He writes:

“The sufi poet Iraqi has a similar way of looking at the matter. He considers infinite varieties of time, relative to the varying grades of being intervening between materiality and pure spirituality. The time of gross bodies which arises from the revolution of the heavens is divisible into past, present and future; and its nature is such that as long as one day does not pass away the succeeding day does not come. The time of immaterial beings is also serial in character, but its passage is such that a whole year in the time of gross bodies is not more than a day in the time of an immaterial being. Rising higher and higher in the scale of immaterial beings we reach Divine time - time which is absolutely free from the quality of passage, and consequently does not admit of divisibility, sequence and change. It is above eternity; it has neither beginning nor end. The Eye of God sees all the visible, and His ear hears all the audiles in one indivisible act of perception. The priority of God is not due to the priority of time; on the other hand, the priority of time is due to God’s priority. Thus Divine time is what the Qur’an described as the ‘Mother of Books’ in which the whole of history, freed from the net of causal sequence, is gathered up in a single super-natural ‘now”.(43)

The method of investigation of Iraqi in relation to time worked like a source for Iqbal’s thought on the problem of time. Allama Iqbal wrote an entire paper on Abdul Karim Al-Jelli (d. 1408 C.E.), which explains his theory of “Absolute Unity”. Al-Jelli’s concept of the Insan-i-Kamil[48] is the foundations of Iqbal’s concept of Mard-i-Mumin[49] or Insan-i-Kamil of Iqbal himself. Iqbal himself has said about this “He combined in himself poetical imagination and philosophical genius”.(44)

A review of the influence of Abdul Karim Al-Jelli on Iqbal needs volumes. We have sampled only a few prominent and representative personalities of the tradition of Muslim thought, otherwise scores of Muslim thinkers are included in this vast study from whom Iqbal has nurtured his mind and after strengthening them with the study of modern knowledge and thought has presented them in a purified form.

The study of Western knowledge and wisdom has a key position as a representative source of Iqbal’s thought, because the study of Islamic learning and its comparison with the verification and confirmation from Western learning is common in Iqbal’s works. Iqbal considered Islamic civilization as the fore-runner of Western civilization, or considered the Western civilization as having evolved from Muslim civilizations. He thought that if the Islamic civilization had not become static and had grown in its natural way it would have been prosperous like the Western civilization. Moreover, the Islamic civilization, on account of its spiritual components would have been free from the evils which have appeared in the West due to relinquishing religion and compartmentalizing religion and politics.

“It may be the majesty of kingship or the fun of democracy If religion is separated from politics, the latter becomes mere tyranny

Iqbal appreciates the intellectual heights and scientific and technological achievements of the West but is vehemently critical of the confinement of the Western civilization to materialism and relegating religion and ethics to an unimportant position separating them from state craft. He is not dazzled by the glamour of Western civilization, but descending into its interior he has pointed out the branch on which this civilization is standing and moving towards its end. Iqbal has viewed the fruits of Western knowledge and arts with open eyes and has adopted and accepted them after testing them on a special standard and has presented them as an argument and affirmation of the fruits of his thought. He has also traced the origins of the products of Western knowledge in the Islamic knowledge and arts and in the works of Islamic theologians, orators and philosophers. In the whole Eastern world Iqbal’s philosophical evaluation of Western knowledge is distinct and unique. Iqbal has not adopted the attitude of the defeatist, apologist or blind follower, but one of criticism and creativity. Iqbal adopted this attitude during the period when the sun did not set on the Western civilization and the whole East, excepting a few countries, was under the political subjugation of the West. Under these conditions it was strange for a person to adopt towards the West a critical attitude at the intellectual level, to trace the origins of Western civilization and pronounce judgment on its merits and demerits. In the entire Islamic world Iqbal alone was thus favored to reach this intellectual level.

However, in spite of all this it is not wrong that the acquisition of Western knowledge played an important role in molding Iqbal’s thought. About benefitting from Western knowledge Dr. Ishrat Hasan Enver, describing the two stages of Allama Iqbal’s thought pre-Intuitional and Intuitional, says:

™“The thought of Iqbal seems to have passed through two stages–the Pre-Intuitional and the Intuitional. In the first stage, Iqbal follows the traditional ways of thought which due to their affinity with Pantheism appealed most to the broken and tottering society of the Muslims of the time, But his visit to Europe energized his spirits, strengthened his will, and brought in its wake a political reaction in him. He began to emphasize action, activity and self-assertion, rather than passivity, indifference and self-negation. He gained strength for his thought from the study of Bergson (Henri Bergson 1859-1941 C.E.), Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) and Mctaggart (1866-1925). This led him to accept the reality of the self and the force of the will as fundamental”.(45)

It is not impossible to infer from this that Western knowledge had influenced Iqbal’s thought to some extent. The study of Western learning helped him in arriving at and molding the end results of this thinking. The evidence of benefiting from Western knowledge is amply available in his works. However, the benefits derived by Iqbal from the West are in the detail and not in the principle. As far as principles are concerned his thoughts are not only Eastern but really an extension of Islamic thinking. Still his works show the trend of benefiting from Western knowledge in the organization, shaping and explanation of details… For example, Allama says:

“A greater part of my life has been spent in the study of Western philosophy. and this point of view has become second nature to some extent. Consciously or unconsciously I study the truths of Islam from this angle.(46)

“I draw my wine from the tavern of the West

I purchase a headache for myself

I have sat with the good men of the West

But I have not seen a day more futile than that. “(47)

Here Iqbal has accepted the Western trend in his thinking and its influence on the study of Eastern and Islamic learning. The following letter indicates the extent of westernization in his thinking and philosophy. Hence, denying the influence of Western knowledge on Iqbal is neither factual nor realistic. Iqbal says:

“I admit that I have benefited from Hegel, Goethe (Johanne Wolfgang von Goethe. 1749-1832 C.E.) Mirza Ghalib (Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib d. 1869 C.E.), Abdul Qadir Bedil (d. 1722 C.E.) and Wordsworth (William Wordsworth 1770-1850 C.E.). Hegel and Goethe have guided me in penetrating the internal truth of things. BediI and Ghalib taught me how to keep the spirit of the East alive in my feelings and their expression in spite of absorbing the values of Western poetry and Wordsworth helped in protecting me from materialism during my educational days”.(48)

In the above extract whereas Iqbal has admitted that Wordsworth saved him from materialism and Hegel and Goethe guided him in reaching the internal truth of all matter, he has also said with reference to Mirza Ghalib and Abdul Qadir Bedil that in spite of absorbing the values of Western poetry the ambition and motivation of keeping alive the spirit of the East in his emotions and expressions was derived from them. Iqbal’s entire thinking and manner of expression is represented by the conclusion that he absorbed the spirit of Western poetry and philosophy and benefited from western philosophy in the comprehension of the truth about matter, but at the same time he also retained orientalism together with the traditions of Muslim thought in a systematic way and reached their truth. These are the goals of the Holy Qur’an and Islam. He was impressed by Western thought, not because he had himself reached its Islamic origins, but because he considered Western civilization as only an extension of Islamic civilization. He points this out in his paper “Islam and the New Learning”:

Bacon (Roger Bacon 1216-1292 C.E.), Descartes (Rene Descartes 1596-1650 C.E.) and Mill (John Stuart Mill 1806-1873 C.E) are considered to be Europe’s most eminent philosophers, whose philosophy is said to be based on experience, but the fact is that Descartes “Method” is present in Imam Ghazali’s “Ihya-ul-Uloom” and they are so -similar that an English historian has written that if Descartes knew Arabic we would have admitted that he committed plagiarism. Bacon himself was educated at an Islamic university. The objection raised by John Stuart Mill against the first hypothesis of logic is exactly the same as raised by Imam Fakhruddin Razi and all the fundamental principles of Mill’s philosophy are present in the famous book of Shaikh Abu Ali Sina, “Shifa”. In short, all the principles which form the foundations of modern learning owe their existence to the beneficence of Muslims. In fact I claim that not only with respect to modern learning but there is not one good aspect of human existence which has not been enlivened by Islam’s extremely invigorating influence”:(49)

If Iqbal considered European civilization to be only an extension of Islamic civilization, the question arises as to why he did not content himself with the Islamic civilization and why he objected to Western knowledge and philosophy. There are three answers to this. First, Iqbal considered the European civilization to be an extension of the Islamic civilization and so considered benefiting from the thinking of European philosophers and thinkers as tantamount to retrieving the links of his own civilization. He considered it possible to create a stir in the centuries old static condition of Islamic civilization by accepting the products of Western learning in some measure. As this Western wisdom is not alien to Islamic wisdom its acceptance could bridge the gap which has occurred between the rise and present fall of Muslim civilization. Secondly, as his audience comprised of those who understood the language of Western learning it was necessary to talk in their own language. Thirdly, Iqbal knew that if the Islamic civilization had also continued to evolve, it would have positively produced the same results in science and technology as were produced by the West. Also, the products of many departments of learning have supported and confirmed Qur’anic concepts. So when the modern theories confirmed the truths of Islam Iqbal showed the world where their real source was.

Recently the Iqbal Academy has published a book by Dr. Muhammad Ma’ruf titled, “Iqbal and His Contemporary Western Thought”, in which the author has presented the study of the philosophers and schools of thought of the twentieth century whose influences are available in Iqbal’s philosophy. According to Dr. Ma’ruf this book will open up many hidden niches and will help in fixing the position of Iqbal’s thought in the world thought. In this book he has contradicted the thoughts of people like M. S. ,Raschid in the matter of comparison of lqbal with Western philosophers, that Iqbal’s concept of God was borrowed from Hegel’s concept of the absolute has considered thoughts as meaningless and prejudiced.(50) This is so because Hegel’s concept of the Finite cannot be concordant with Iqbal’s “Al-Hayy ul Qayyum”.[50] This book is very important in the study of Iqbal in which the concordance of Iqbal’s thought with Western thought has been viewed on philosophical basis and includes a comparative study of Hegel, conceptualists, Kant (Immanuel Kant 1724-1841 C.E.) naturalism, pragmatism and realism and other sociologists.

I will take about four Western philosophers who are said to have influenced Iqbal much. I have Nietzsche, Bergson, Goethe and Newton (Sir Isaac Newton 1642-1723 C.E.) in view, although each philosopher deserves a separate volume on account of his place and status. Kant and Dante (Alighieri Dante 1265-1321 C.E.) also deserve attention to some extent. This is so because it is said that Iqbal wrote his “.Javid Namah” in the style of Dante’s “Divine Comedy” “Divine Comedy” was certainly in Iqbal’s view but “Divine Comedy” itself was written in the style of Mi’raj Namahs written in Spain. There were several Mi’raj Namahs in Islamic literature apart from Dante’s but the Mi’raj[51] of the Holy Prophet was the greatest source of inspiration for Iqbal. Iqbal took neither the style nor the happenings of the intellectual journey of “Divine Comedy”. Still a gap would have remained if Iqbal had ignored Dante at the time of writing the story of his intellectual journey. It is an accomplishment of Iqbal that in view of his acquaintance with Western literature in addition to the Eastern he did not ignore the “Divine Comedy” but in fact praised some of its literary styles. In the same way he used the products of Immanuel Kant’s thought for affirmation of religion, because Kant had tried hard to demolish the excessive power of intellect by fixing its limits in his book “A Critique of Pure Reason” and had freed Faith from the bondage of pure reason. He was talking about the “reason” which, while affirming the existence of the problem in a partial way, fails to see the Truth in its fullness.

“Though reason is not far from the threshold

It is not fortunate enough to reach the Presence of God”

This means that while rationalism can guide Man to the Wujud of Allah (S.W.T.) it cannot comprehend and describe His Zat.

Analyzing the conditions of the eighteenth century Germany Iqbal says that at that time in Germany also reason was considered an ally of religion but when in a short period of time it became evident that dogmas could not be proved rationally the Germans had no alternative, but to eliminate the portion of dogma from religion. But by relinquishing dogmas morality became pragmatic and so religiosity held sway under the influence of rationalism. This was the state of affairs of religious meditation and thinking when Kant appeared in Germany. When the limitations of human intellect became evident from “A Critique of Pure Reason” the stratagem fabricated by rationalists about religion became a code of absurdity. Hence it was correctly asserted that Kant was the highest favour bestowed by God on Germany. Iqbal compares Kant’s doubts with those of Ghazali and obtains proof from him in the struggle between rationalism and religion. The products of the nature and limitations of rationalism in the works of Ghazali and Kant are echoed in Iqbal.(51)

As regards Nietzsche asserting that his “Superman” is in any way connected with Iqbal’s “Mard-i-Mumin” betrays ignorance of both Iqbal and Nietzsche. This is so because in calling Nietzsche Majzub-i-Farangi[52] and being unaware of God, Iqbal exposes the spiritual ineptness of Nietzsche.

 “If that Majzub-i-Farangi were alive at this time

Iqbal would have shown him the elegance of the Status of

God”

Again when Iqbal says that would God grant Nietzsche to live during the period of Hadhrat-i-Mujaddid not be associated with him he would have been rewarded with the truths of Eternal Happiness, it does not show even partial concordance and harmony between his and Nietzsche’s thoughts. Dr. Iqbal has himself cleared this state of affairs in his letter to Dr. R.A. Nicholson. He says:

“He could not understand my concept of Insan-i-Kamil correctly and, confusing the issue, assumed my Insan-i-Kamil and the German thinker’s “Superman” as the same. I had started writing about the tasawwuf’s belief of Insan-i-Kamil about twenty years ago, and this was the time when neither the sound of Nietzsche’s beliefs had reached my ears nor had I read his books. Nietzsche is a thinker of the school of Baqa-i-Shakhsi.[53] He asks all those who are anxious for acquiring subsistence whether they want to burden the earth permanently with their load. He has written like this because his concept of time was wrong. He never tried to understand the ethical side of the problem of time. On the contrary, in my view baqa is the highest longing of Man and is such a precious wealth on acquiring which Man concentrates all his powers. That is why I consider all forms and shapes of action, including conflict and war, to be necessary and. according to me, man attains increased stability and firmness through them. Therefore, in pursuit of this thought, I have rejected the concept of a static being and similar tasawwuf, which is based on mere conjecture. I consider conflict necessary in ethical and not political ways, although on this subject the centre of Nietzsche’s thought is perhaps politics”.(52)

Perhaps it will be ill-intentioned to say after this analysis by (qhat himself that he has taken his concept of Mard-i-Mumin from Nietzsche. This is so because the “Superman” is blind, materialistic power, while the Mard-i-Mumin is adorned with Wahl and is a Godly man, whose climax is Abudiat. In Iqbal’s view the model Mard-i-Mumin in the applied world is the personality of the Holy Prophet, which is guided by Wahi, is master of ethical eminence and revolutionary and which resurrects new values of life with his actions, while Nietzsche’s “Superman” in scholastic interpretation was Hitler, who was greedy for power and authority and was prepared to do anything to attain them. Iqbal’s Insan-i-Kamil is a mercy to the human race while Nietzsche’s “Superman” is a destructive blind force which brings about destruction after tumult and oppression in the entire world. The late Abdul Rahman Tariq in his book, “Jahan-i-Iqbal” has very beautifully brought out the distance between Iqbal and Nietzsche comparing their works.(53)

Dr. Annemarie Schimmel, being German, has very skilfully drawn parallels in the thoughts of Iqbal and Goethe. In her book, “Gabriel’s Wing”, which has been translated into Urdu by Dr. Muhammad Riaz(54) under the name “Shahpar-i-Jibreel” she has compared lqbal and Goethe. She tries to harmonize Goethe’s concept of God. “God, the Lord. Complete, Movement, in Eternal Endeavour and Action” with Iqbal’s concept of God. Secondly, Goethe considers the existence of .Iblees and Evil necessary for the evolution of life as does Iqbal shows his approval of the usefulness of Iblees and Evil. No doubt, Iqbal has praised Goethe as a visionary poet and a student of Eastern learning. But we have to realize that while the centre and orbit of Goethe’s longing and the limits of his thought is in orientalism he is reduced to the position of a pointer at best, which guides lqbal to his own real east. If so, why should Iqbal not be considered attached to the East through his thought and longings rather than through those of Goethe?

Iqbal praised Goethe only because he loves orientalism. Goethe’s disappointment with the West and his inclination to the East has been an important matter to Iqbal. Goethe’s own Divan,[54] titled “West-Oestlicher Divan” is known as “Movement of the East” in the history of German literature. In the words of Iqbal”.

Apart from Hafiz, Goethe is indebted for his ideas to Shaikh Attar, Sa’di (Shaikh Muslehuddin Sa’di d. 1292 C.E. j, Firdausi (d. 1020 C.E.), and Islamic literature in general,

Now, in the words of Iqbal, when Goethe tried to create Persian spirit in German literature, it is obvious that Iqbal was aware of the secret of the existence of Persian thinking in Goethe’s thought. Schimmel is right to the extent of the existence of unlimited resemblance between the mode of thinking of German philosophers and Iqbal. Goethe is not related in any way with the sources of Iqbal’s(55) thought. By praising Goethe’s Literature Schimmel cannot prove it to be the source of Iqbal‘s thought.

Bergson is given much importance as the source of Iqbal’s thinking Certainly the conclusions of Bergson’s intellectual thought had greatly influenced the shaping of Iqbal’ s thought. Bergson strengthened Iqbal’s thought by rejecting the materialistic interpretation of life, excessive emphasis on rationalism and the sameness of the body and the soul in the twentieth century. This is so because Bergson was intellectually a constructive and! Firm intellectual. In the words of the late Bashir Ahmad Dar: “What attracted Iqbal to Bergson was the fact that Bergson was a strong supporter of the deeper consciousness of human thought. In other words it can be said that he was a strong believer in the spiritual side of human existence and the function of intuition which creates the experience of motion”. (56)

“Based on solid facts Bergson exposed the reality of the evolution which was considered by the West to be the last nail in religion’s coffin”. (57)

“During the course of a meeting with Bergson Iqbal told him of the Hadith,[55] “Do not curse time because I am myself time” he was astonished.(58)

The front established by Bergson against science and materialism provided much strength to Iqbal’s thought. Professor Jagannath Azad in his book, “The Intellectual Proximity and Remoteness of Iqbal and Bergson” has very well traced the movements which were common between Iqbal and Bergson and has also detailed their intellectual remoteness. The limitations of the mechanics of the length of life imposed by materialism and the non-permanence of time brought Iqbal close to Bergson because this was Iqbal’s intellectual closeness to him. His intellectual distance from Bergson in Iqbal’s own words was that:

“For Bergson conscious experiences have merely the status of the past, the past; which running with the present, ultimately merges into it. Bergson ignores the fact that it is also an aspect of consciousness that it runs the future. Life is the practical realization of a thought and thought, assuming a practical form without any objective is in-explicable, irrespective of the practical form being conscious or sub-conscious. Not only is this, but the fixation of the activity of our perception and basic thought also governed by our immediate objectives”.(59)

In the same way the prolongation or permanence of time is purposeless in Bergson’s view, while time is meaningful to Iqbal, because if evolution has no objective it is entirely meaningless in Iqbal’s view

The relationship between Einstein (Albert Einstein 1879-1955 C.E.) and Iqbal is created by the theory of relativity. As the most important aspect of relativity is the discovery of time and space the prolongation of our life and the distance travelled by’ we in the vast field of time become absolutely unimportant. Appreciating the theory of relativity and fixing its usefulness lqbal says:

“The philosophical value of the theory is twofold. First, it destroys, not the objectivity of Nature, but the view substance as simple location in space–a view which led to materialism in Classical Physics. Substance’ for modern Relativity–Physics is not a persistent thing with variable states, but a system of inter-related events. In Whitehead’s (Alfred North Whitehead 1861-1947 C.E.) presentation of the theory the notion of ‘matter’ is entirely replaced by the notion of ‘organism’. Secondly, the theory makes space dependant on matter. The universe, according to Einstein, is not a kind of an island in an infinite space; it is finite but boundless; beyond it there is no empty space. In the absence of matter the universe would shrink to a point”. (60)

Iqbal saw identity in Einstein’s theory of relativity, which negated materialism. However, Allama had strong differences with Einstein in some matters. As Iqbal, like Bergson is a believer in the reality of time he does not agree with the discovery of Einstein, which apparently denies time. This theory considers even the existence of time as unreal. At any rate Iqbal has praised the positive aspects of the theory of relativity and has criticized its negative ones.

The truth emanating from a detailed study of this subject is that Iqbal’s mind was not imitative but creative, and was the one establishing connections between different thoughts. He established his theories and used the inferences drawn from the old and the new thinkers as his sources for the confirmation and elucidation of his own theories. Still he wanted religion to be defended in the present day world and had in view its explanation and interpretation in the language of the present age. Hence, he tried to benefit from the products of the thinking of the new thinkers with open eyes to explain the matter to the new minds in the new way and in doing so he did not allow the prejudices of the East and the West to blind him. He accepted everything good and criticized every faulty thought in the manner of a thinker endowed with enlightenment of the heart and the mind. In this way he brought into use his highest intellect in order to keep alight the torch of thinking of the human race. Still, if any single thing can he considered to be the source of his thought it is none other than the Holy Qur’an, because all the remaining products of Iqbal’s intellect were explanations of this simple secret of Faith.

“Walayat, kingship, the universality of the knowledge of things

What are all these? Only tafsirs of the secret of Iman.