THE WISDOM OF MOSES

As the Prophet establishes God’s decrees,
he repudiates Caesar’s law.¹
In his eyes the royal palace is like an old idol-temple;	115
his sense of honour makes him disobey the order of the other-than-God.
The imperfect become perfect through association with him.
He gives a new tumult to the age.
His message is that Allah is sufficient and all else is meaningless,²
so that the man of truth does not fall into anybody’s snare.	120
His moisture imparts fire to the vine’s twig
and his breath gives life to this handful of earth.
He is the meaning of Gabriel and the Qur’an,
and he is the custodian of God’s Law.³
His wisdom is superior to artful Reason,	125
his spirit gives birth to a people (Ummah).⁴
He is a ruler disinterested in throne and crown:
sans crown, sans army, sans tribute.
His look transforms autumn into spring,
and through him the dregs of every pitcher
become stronger than the wine.	130
In his morning lamentation lies life,
and the universe is renewed by the morning of his manifestation.
The sea and the earth are devastated by the intensity of his deluge,
and in his eyes there is a message of revolution.
He teaches the lesson of “they have no fear”⁵	135
he puts a heart into the breast of man.
He teaches man determination, submission (to the
will of God) and willing acquiescence;
and makes him radiant in the world like a lamp.
I do not know what magic he practises,
but he totally transforms the soul in the body.	140
In his society a piece of clay becomes a pearl;
and his wisdom gives abundance to the deficient.
He says to the downtrodden slave:
Arise and break into pieces every ancient deity.
O man of God, break the spell of this old world	145
with these words: God is the highest of all.
If you wish to gain Faqr, don’t complain of poverty;
well-being depends on one’s attitude and not on rank and wealth.
Truthfulness, sincerity, submissiveness, ardour and sympathy
these are needed and not gold or silver, nor red and yellow coins.	150
O living man, avoid these kings and nobles,⁶
walk around your own self and not around the palaces.
Thou hast fallen away from thy true station,
thou art born of a falcon, do not follow the ways of vultures.
A bird in a garden grove builds his nest to his own liking.	155
Thou who hast a heaven-traversing imagination
should not think thyself inferior to a bird. Rebuild these nine heavens⁷
and refashion this world according to thy own desire.	160
When he gets annihilated in God’s will,
the man of faith becomes God’ decree.
The four dimensions along with the blue heavens
are born out of his pure bosom.⁸
Annihilate thyself in the will of God like thy forefathers;	165
bring out thy pearl out of the oyster.⁹
In the darkness of this world of stone and bricks,
illumine thy eyes with the light of thy nature.¹⁰
Unless thou takest thy share of the majesty¹¹of God,
thou canst not enjoy Divine Beauty.	170
The beginning of love and ecstasy is majesty (qahiri);
the end of love and ecstasy is beauty (Dilbari).¹²
The man of faith is a symbol of perfect existence :¹³
he alone is real; all else is mere appearance.
If he gains ardour and zeal from “There is no deity (but God),”	175
the Sun and Moon will revolve only at his bidding.

1. Iqbal here brings into sharp contrast God’s Will and king’s will, keeping in mind perhaps the well-known saying of Christ: Render unto Caeser what is Caesar’s and render unto God what is God’s. Iqbal feels that it is not possible for one to be loyal to God’s will and yet to accept and follow the lead of ordinary mundane rulers.

2. Cf. the Qur’anic verse (xxxix. 36): “Is not Allah sufficient for His servants ?”

3. Cf. the Qur’anic verse (xxx. 30): “So set thy face for religion, being upright, the nature made by Allah in which He has created man.”

Allah s Nature, as the Qur’anic verse signifies, stands for Islam to which the Prophet is commissioned to give practical and concrete shape.

4. It appears that, according to Iqbal, the hikmat (wisdom) of the Prophet is not qualitatively different from reason only it is much higher than the latter.

Iqbal speaks of the Prophet (Rumuz, p. 117: Arberry’s translation (Mysteries of Selflessness, p. 20]):

[...through his wisdom -flows

The lifeblood of the whole Community;...
His was the breath that gave the people life;
His sun shone glory on their risen dawn.
In God the Individual, in him
Lives the Community. . . .]

In another place in the same book (pp. 103-04 : Arberry’s translation, p. 10), Iqbal speaks of the Prophet’s role:

[. . . At his fiery breath
A people leap like rue upon a fire
In sudden tumult, in their heart one spark
Caught from -his kindling, and their sullen clay
Breaks instantly aflame. .
The naked understanding he adorns,
With wealth abundant fills its indigence,
Fans with his skirts its embers, purifies
Its gold of every particle of dross.]

5. See the Qur’anic verse (x. 62) : “Now surely the friends of Allah have no fear, nor do they grieve.”

6. Kawus, name of a legendary king of Persia; kai, allied with Sanskrit Kay!, bard, stands for nobles.

7. Nine heavens. In the Qur’an, we usually meet with “seven” heavens. Cf. lxv. 12 In xxiii. 17. instead of seven heavens we have seven ways.

According to Lisan aI-’Arab, the word “seven” was used by the Arabs to denote multiplicity.

Iqbal’s use of “nine” instead of “seven” does not seem to be a departure from the classical tradition ; it may have been used to conform, not of course exactly, to the latest scientific research.

Javid Namah, p. 152

[Blessed is the man whose single sigh
causes the nine heavens circle round his dwelling.]

Zabur-i ‘Ajam, p. 210

[Happy the day when you master the world,
and pierce the heart of the nine heavens.]

8. Asrar, p. 55:

[He will subvert the course of time
and wreck the azure firmament.
By his own strength be will produce
a new world which will do his pleasure.]

See also Zabur -i ‘,Ajam, pp. 225-26, and Javid Namah, pp. 15-20.

9. See note 13 on line 74.

10. Light of nature, nur-i sir isht, the natural simplicity and righteousness of man, the basic nature (fitrat Allah) on which God created man.

11. Majesty ( jalal) and beauty (jamal) are the two antithetical but complementary aspects of God’s Essence. The former indicates might, wrath, awfulness, while The latter stands for beauty, mercy and loving-kindness.

Javid Namah, p. 226

[Both attain perfection through Tauhid,
Life for the latter is majesty, for the former beauty.]

“Both” here stands for individual and society.

Darb-i Kalim, p. 122

[If there be no Jalal, beauty is ineffective;
if the song lacks fire, it is mere sound.]

Javid Namah, p. 83

[May God protect us from “might” without “love”.]

In other words, social welfare and individual development demand synthesis of the two.

12. Dilbari, lit, art of heart-ravishing, heart-captivating, while qahiri, lit., is conquering power, might.

These two terms like jamal and jalal, khalwat and jalwat (Javid Namah, p. 83), form two complementary aspects of a higher synthesis.

Darb-i Kalim, p. 109

[The same eye has might and force,
the same eye has beauty and loving kindness.]

Javid Namah, p. 25

[Both are world-conquering, both seek immortality;
the one by guidance of force, the other by love.]

13. According to pantheistic mystics, wujud (being), as such, belongs to God alone; all else is devoid of wujud and if they possess it, it is only as a reflection (zill). Here Iqbal asserts that man alone has independent existence and enjoys fullness of being. By wujud, Iqbal means strong and rich personality (Darb-i Kalim, p. 28):

[What is existence ?-manifestation of Ego’s power.]

[EXPLANATORY NOTE]