Javed Nama

INTRODUCTION

Iqbal mourns that the real dynamic spirit that moved the Muslims of the old seems to have left us altogether. The Qur’an is there with us as the great “Fount of Wisdom” but unfortunately we no longer derive inspiration from it to perform deeds that may transform our destiny.

We in the East have become blind imitators of the West in all walks of life. Our arts and sciences, our conceptions of politics and religion are all derived from them. The result is that we have lost out identity and whatever we do in the field of art, science and industry is hardly of any worth in the eyes of the world. If we wish to maintain and develop our identity, and contribute something fruitful towards the betterment of the people of the world, we must turn to our own heritage on the basis of which alone we can lay the foundation of a healthier culture. In the words of Rumi, “We must come back to our mother who alone can help us to recover from our ailments which have been aggravated through treatment by alien hands.”

In order to help the new generation to lay the foundation of a new culture that maintains its contact with the ancient cultural heritage, Iqbal tried to provide an intellectual basis in his Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam. This basis expressed in the framework of modern thought, as he himself says, can be improved upon in the light of new knowledge.

As knowledge advances and fresh avenues of thought are opened, other views, and probably sounder views than those set forth in these lectures, are possible.
But what we need today is not only an intellectual equipment of highest order but also, and rather more, if we truly interpret Iqbal, an intuitional approach to Truth that gives warmth, richness, beauty and charm to one’s life. Iqbal calls this approach by different names such as junun (love, madness), faqr, dhikr. Thus the best and only way is to lead a life that is a synthesis of dhikr and fikr. The present educational system patterned as it is after the alien ideals needs to be replaced by one that is more in consonance with the spirit of our own culture. We need an educational system that caters to the demands of the body as well as of the soul, and besides enlightening the minds of the young people tries to maintain and develop the moral and spiritual values characteristic of our culture. Not only must it attempt to provide our young people an opportunity to attain to the highest intellectual achievements, but it must also see that these achievements are made and used in the context of those spiritual values that flow from our faith and are inspired by our ideology.

Iqbal feels that in the present circumstances when materialistic approach to the problems of life has almost dulled the moral conscience of the people, the main guiding principle should be the Law, i.e. the Shari’ah, to be followed in spirit as well as in letter. He particularly insists that young people should scrupulously avoid all those means of livelihood that are unlawful and prohibited, for these tend to create mischief in the land, and dissatisfaction and frustration among the people. Complete and total submission to the Law of Islam is, thus, most essential.

This submission to the Law must lead one to the cultivation of (a) a spirit of loving-kindness towards all, irrespective of race, creed and colour, and (b) of simple, austere life, characterized by faqr and qalandari which stand for an attitude of absolute detachment amidst affluence, for, as he states, a life of affluence steels the heart of compassion and sympathy for others.

The present day Muslims unfortunately are in a strange predicament for lack of proper leadership which broadly speaking is constituted of three kinds of people:

(i) Religious preceptors who more often bypass the Qur’an and ignore its explicit injunctions.
(ii) Sufis, with their long hair, are no more than “predatory wolves”. There is much zest and charm in what goes on in the monasteries but Sufism practiced there is a shell empty of the wine of true and real ecstasy;
(iii) Europeanized Muslims who are trying to seek the “Water of Life” from the mirage.

All these people are unfortunately unaware of the spirit of true faith; they are vultures accustomed to prey on the dead. Rooted to the earth they are disdainful of the soul and whatever is of the soul. We are badly in need of a man of the heart who should burn us in the fire of spirit, i.e. impart his ecstasy to us and, thus bestow on us kingdom both of the earth and of the heaven. Without him, we are only base metals, insignificant, unproductive and worthy only of being thrown away. The greatest tragedy of our time is that body is preferred to spirit and material values are considered to be the only values worth pursuing which have made it almost impossible for us to lay our hand firmly on a “man of heart”, even if he should be physically before our very eyes. They are men all around us but the Man that we most need today is not there. Iqbal suggests that we should not give up our search for him, whatever the difficulties we may have to face in this undertaking. Until we find him, we should, Iqbal recommends, turn to Rumi who “walks in the street of the Beloved with a sure foot and knows right from wrong and good from bad.” His celebrated Mathnawi is the storehouse of true wisdom and true ecstasy born of “soul’s dance” that produces “wisdom and knowledge” characteristic of prophets.

JAVED NAMA
(ADDRESS TO JAVID)

This charming array of words is useless,
What is in the recesses of the heart hardly comes to the lips. 
Although I have expressed several points without any difficulty,
I have something which cannot be expressed in words.
If I say it, it becomes all the more knotty,
Words and sounds make it more mysterious.
Catch its warmth from my look,
Or from my morning lamentation.


You got your first instruction from your mother;
It was her breeze which helped open your bud.
It was her breath that made you what you are;
O dear one, your worth is all due to her.
You gained immortal riches (of the spirit) through her,
And learnt la ilah through her lips.
O son, have from me the joy of vision
And burning in [the fire of] la ilah.
If you say la ilah, speak it from the depth of your heart
So that your body may smell of soul.
The sun and the moon revolve through burning in la ilah;
I have seen this “burning” in mountains and grass.
These two words la ilah are not mere words;
La ilah is nothing but a sword from which there is no escape.
To live with its burning is to attain power;
La ilah is a stroke very telling and effective


A believer and to pay obeisance to others;
A believer and to be disloyal, beggarly and hypocrite!
He sold away his religion and community for a trifle
And burnt away the household goods as well as the house.
His prayers were once inspired by la ilah though not now;
His submission [to God] had once a grace of its own.
His prayer and fasting have lost all [spiritual] light;
No longer is there any [divine] manifestation in his universe.
He whose source of strength was only God,
Has fallen prey to love of money and fear of death.
He has lost that ecstasy, ardour and zest that once characterized him;
His religion is in the Book and he is in the grave.
The modern age has adversely affected him;
He learnt his religion from two prophets;
The one was from Iran, the other from India;
The former disapproved of hajj, the latter of jihad
When hajj (pilgrimage) and jihad (holy war) are no longer religious duties,
Prayers and fasting lose their inner essence.
When prayers and fasting are deprived of their soul,
Individual loses his balance and society becomes disorganized.
When the hearts lack warmth of the Qur’an,
There can be no hope of good from such people.
The Muslim lost his Khudi;
O Khidr! help us, for the situation has gone beyond our control.


Prostration which causes tremors to the earth,
And to whose bidding the sun and the moon revolve,
If it casts its imprint on the stone
That stone would melt into thin air like smoke;
That prostration these days is nothing but bending down of the head,
And is nothing but old age’s weakness.
It no longer has the grandeur of ‘God is High’.
It is [due to] our fault or any defect in it?
Everybody is moving fast on his own path.
Like a bridleless dromedary and without any goal.
The upholder of the Qur’an, with no zest for search.
How strange it is!


If God grants you insight,
Look at the times in which you live.
Reasons are impudent and hearts impervious to compassion,
Eyes lack modesty and are immersed only in appearances.
Art and science, religion and politics, reason and heart – 
Each concerned only with water and clay.
Asia, that land of the rising sun,
Looks towards others and is hidden from herself.
Her heart has ceased to have new experiences.
Her [intellectual] products are not worth a farthing;
Her life in this ancient world
Is stationary, frozen and without any urge for movement.
She has fallen prey to Mullas and Kings;
Her thought, being lame and cripple, can’t soar high.
Her reason, faith, wisdom and honour
Are all tied to the apron-strings of the lords of the West.
I made an assault on her world of thought
And tore the veils from over her secrets.
My heart has bled within my breast
Thus have I been able to revolutionise her world.


I have said a few words for the people of the age;
Two oceans have been condensed in two cups.
I have expressed my ideas in a technical language,
That I may win applause from the people;
It is in the difficult language, using the terminology of the West.
Ecstatic songs from the strings of a harp.
The origin of one is contemplation, the origin of other is thought,
May you be the inheritor of them both!
I may a rivulet, my water comes from both these sources;
My separation is both separation and union.
As the demands of the present age are different
I laid the foundation of a different phenomenon.


The young of today are thirsty and yet have an empty cup,
Charming to look at, with a clever mind but with dark soul;
Lacking in insight and conviction and hopeless of future,
Their eye didn’t see anything in the world. 
Poor in spirit, lacking faith in themselves, dependent on others,
The architect of the temple uses bricks made of their earth.
The school is unaware of its objective,
Hence it does not appeal to their innermost heart.
It robbed their souls of the light of nature;
Not a single graceful rose grew on its branch.
Our architect lays the foundation stone awry:
He cultivates the habits of a duck in the young one of a falcon.
Unless knowledge gets warmth of burning from life
Heart remains devoid of new experiences.
Knowledge is nothing but exposition of your stations
And commentary of your manifestations.
One must burn oneself in the fire of sense-impressions
So that one can distinguish between one’s silver and copper.
Knowledge of truth starts with sense-impressions and ends in vision,
Its end can’t be comprehended by reason,


A hundred books have you learnt through efficient teachers,
Far better is the lesson that you receive through sight.
From that wine that flows from sight, everybody
Gets intoxicated in his own way;
The morning breeze puts out the lamp
But it fills the tulip’s cup with wine,
Eat little, sleep little, talk little:
Move round yourself like a pair of compasses.
He who denies God is an unbeliever in the eyes of a theologian,
To me, he who denies himself is a greater unbeliever,
The one is called “hasty” because of denial of Being;
The other is “hasty” as well as “unjust” and “ignorant”.
Be steadfast in the way of sincerity
And free yourself from fear of kings and landlords.
Don’t swerve from the path of justice whether in anger or in peace,
Stick to the golden mean in affluence or in poverty.
The Law may be difficult; don’t seek escape from it;
Let none but your own heart be your guide.
Soul’s welfare: limitless remembrance [of God] and rational reflection;
Body’s welfare: self control in youth.
Position of authority in the world below and above
Cannot be attained except through body’s and soul’s welfare.
The object of journey is to enjoy moving about,
If your object is to return to the nest, then don’t start flying.
The moon revolves that it may become stationary;
For man’s journey, staying at any place is disallowed.
Life is nothing but enjoyment of flight;
Nest is incompatible with its nature.
The food of vultures and crows is in the earth of the grave,
The food of hawks is in the neighbourhood of the moon and the sun.


The essence of religion is: truthful speech and lawful mood;
To look at Beauty in solitude and in company.
Live as hard as diamond in the path of religion.
Be in constant touch with God and live without anxiety.
I tell you of the essence of religion
And relate to you an episode from the life of Sultan Muzaffar.
He was unique in his acts of sincerity,
A king enjoying the states of Bayazid.
He had a horse whom he loved as a dear son;
Like his master, the horse was hard hitting in war;
A black steed of pure Arab breed,
Faithful, faultless and of pure stock.
O man of intelligence! For a believer, there is nothing more dear
Than the Qur’an, a sword and a horse.
What can I say about that horse of noble stock?
He was like a mountain and moved over rivers like a wind.
On the day of battle, he was swifter than eyesight; 
A stormy wind encircling mountains and rocks.
Several tumults of Resurrection were in his swift running;
Stones would break into pieces under his hoofs.
One day, the horse, as noble as man,
Suffered from acute pain in his stomach.
A veterinary doctor treated him with wine
And thus the horse was relieved of pain.
The righteous king no longer used that horse;
The ways of taqwa are different from our ways.
May God grant you true heart,
See the submission of a true Muslim!


Religion is to burn from head to foot in search,
Its end is love and its beginning is correct behavior.
The beauty of the rose lies in its colour and smell;
One who is disrespectful is without honour.
When I see a young man, lacking in correct behavior,
My days become dark as night.
It increases pain in my heart
And the testament of Mustafa comes to my mind.
I feel ashamed of my own deeds
And hide myself in days gone by,
A woman’s protection is her husband or the grave,
A man’s protection is security from bad company.
It is wrong to speak ill of others;
Believer and unbeliever – all are God’s creatures.
Manliness is to respect man;
Be aware of the true position of man.
Man prospers by maintaining proper relationship with others.
Set your foot on the path of friendship.
Man of love tries to follow in the ways of God,
Is kind to all, believer and unbeliever alike.
Let belief and unbelief find room in the expense of your heart;
If your heart feels ill at ease, then God protect you!
Although heart is confined within water and clay.
This whole world is the world of heart.
Even if you are a lord of the land,
Don’t give up the attitude of faqr.
The ardour [of this faqr] lies hidden in your soul:
This old wine is an inheritance from your ancestors.
In this world seek nothing but pangs of the heart,
Ask blessings from God and not from kings.
It so often happens that a man of insight and God-oriented
Becomes blind through affluence.
Abundance of wealth deprives man of compassion,
Produces pride and uproots submissiveness.
I have moved round the world for years,
I have never seen tears in the eyes of the rich.
I love him who lives like a dervish;
Woe to the man who lives forgetful of God!


Don’t expect to find in Muslims that rapture and ecstasy
That faith, conviction and power [which were once their characteristics].
Scholars have set aside the teaching of the Qur’an,
Sufis are predatory wolves with long hair.
Although there is much activity in the monasteries,
There is hardly a person who has wine in his cup.
On the other hand, the West-oriented Muslims
Are seeking sweet water from mirage.
All are ignorant of the essence of religion,
They are men of deceit and malice.
Good and virtue are hardly to be found in the elite;
Sincerity and truth are found only among the masses.
Distinguish people of religion from the people of malice;
See the man of God and sit in his company,
The vultures have their own laws and customs;
The grandeur of the flight of the hawk is a different thing,


Man of truth comes down from the heaven like lightning;
His fuel is critics and towns of east and west.
We are still [wrapped] in the darkness of the universe;
He partakes in its management.
He is like Kalim, Messiah, Khalil;
He is Muhammad, the Book and Gabriel
He is like the sun for the universe of the people of the heart,
His rays impart life to the people of the heart.
First he burns you in his own fire 
Then teaches you kingship.
We are all people of the heart through his ardour,
Without him, we would be unreal image of water and clay.
I fear, the time in which you were born
Is immersed in body and is hardly aware of the soul.
When through dearth of soul, body is every where,
The man of truth hides himself within himself.
Search does not bring such a man to your view
Although you see him face to face.
Still you don’t give up your search,
Although you have to face a hundred difficulties.
If, however, you don’t find company of a wise man,
Get from me what I have from my forefathers.
Make Rumi your guide on the path,
That God may grant you ardour and compassion.
For Rumi knows kernel from shell,
He is steadfast in the way of the Beloved,
People have written commentaries on his works but none saw him,
His real intent missed our grasp like a deer.
People learnt from him bodily dance;
Dance of the soul was neglected absolutely.
Bodily dance leads to the revolving of the earth,
Soul’s dance upsets the skies.
From soul’s dance comes knowledge and judgment,
Earth as well as heaven is caught in our net.
The individual through it achieves Moses’ ecstasy,
Society becomes inheritor of a great kingdom.
To learn soul’s dance is a difficult task;
To burn other than God is not a child’s play.
So long as the heart does not burn in the fire of avarice and sorrow,
O son, the soul does not dance till then.
Sorrow is the sign of weak faith and affliction,
O young man! sorrow is half old age.
Do you know that avarice is modern faqr,
I am slave of him who controls of himself.
You will be a source of comfort to my impatient soul,
If you chance to learn soul’s dance.
I tell you the essence of Mustafa’s religion,
And shall pray for you in the grave too!