What i comprehend of Iqbal’s ‘khudi’ is, it is attitude toward life. some sources translate ‘khudi’ as ego and others as self. ‘self’ may or may not be an equivalent word but i think this word is more appropriate to refer khudi. Khudi neither is selfishness that can make you look down on others nor is it selflessness that can lead you to follow rahbaniat ( seclusion) .
since a man without ideology is ‘nothing’ so what is practice of ‘khudi’ should be based on? that is Islam. by telling the strength of Islam, Iqbal has advised muslims at several places to know your own ‘self’ to know and learn how you can become a great nation again. for me, khudi helps me avoid getting influenced by pervasive trends set by proponents of capitalism and imperialism. it helps me gain confidence in a situation where only few people are of my kind.
So what is your understanding regarding ‘khudi’ of Iqbal?
When men forget himself, he degrades himself. This is what ‘so He made them forget themselves’ means i.e. they don’t have any concern for their state. Like another verse:
Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves
If his falsafa of khudi is what verse 13:11 is telling us then it is right but verse 59:19 is not about khudi. It about those people who are defiant, transgressors, sinners who have forgotten Allah then as a result they get involved in matters that brings about their moral degradation and spiritual downfall ending with loss of their peace of mind. So those who are full of themselves end up losing their own peace of mind as a result of forgetting Allah or swaying away from Him.
If his falsafa of khudi is what verse 13:11 is telling us then it is right but verse 59:19 is not about khudi. It about those people who are defiant, transgressors, sinners who have forgotten Allah then as a result they get involved in matters that brings about their moral degradation and spiritual downfall ending with loss of their peace of mind. So those who are full of themselves end up losing their own peace of mind as a result of forgetting Allah or swaying away from Him.
The verse start with wa-la takoonu (don't be from those). Its a message given indirectly. They are fasiq because they forgot Allah (His orders) and therefore they were forgotten by Allah. If Iqbal himself acknowledged that this is his inspiration of Khudi then for him Khudi seems to be originated from following orders of Allah and not following the same may bring non-followers in forgotten / degraded position.
I agree with Khudi to the extent what 53:39 tells us that
"And that man will have nothing but what he strives for"
Yes one has to strive and struggle achieve something but I don't feel very comfortable with what these poetic verses of Iqbal imply
apni duniya aap paida kar agar zindoon main hai
**sir-e-adam hai zameer-kun fakan hai zindagi
and
Khudi ko kar buland itna keh har taqdeer say pehlay
Khuda bandey say khud poochay bata teri raza kiya hai**
We ought to work and put forth our efforts but at the same time believing in Allah and submitting to His will. Khudi has limits.
muqawwee123 - I can tell you inshaAllah the full thought process of "khudi" connecting the verse to the use of the term ...
If one forgets Allah (SWT) then they forget themselves - therefore to remember Allah (SWT) is to remember oneself.
It is a well known concept from among spirituality that:
"In the heart that keeps a love for anything it cannot keep Allah (SWT), but the heart that keeps a love for Allah (SWT) it does not keep anything else ..." - So by people aligning to Allah (SWT) and in love of Him ... then Allah (SWT) caters for him ... but for the heart that is selfish then by focusing on itself - it cannot remember Allah (SWT) and as a result it forgets itself ...
How strange? That the very thing done to think of ourselves is the cause for forgetting ourselves ... It is because we have forgotten our purpose - our purpose is not to be self-centric but to be Allah (SWT) centric and by adopting that way we remembered our purpose correctly.
And the hidden wisdom in here is that by focusing on our purpose then Allah (SWT) focuses on our needs but if we focus on our needs He leaves us to fend for ourselves and who is better than Allah (SWT) at dealing with our needs?
So the "khud-prasti" should be exchanged for the true "khudi" - which is in reality to be focused to Allah (SWT).
muqawwee123 - I can tell you inshaAllah the full thought process of "khudi" connecting the verse to the use of the term ...
If one forgets Allah (SWT) then they forget themselves - therefore to remember Allah (SWT) is to remember oneself.
It is a well known concept from among spirituality that:
"In the heart that keeps a love for anything it cannot keep Allah (SWT), but the heart that keeps a love for Allah (SWT) it does not keep anything else ..." - So by people aligning to Allah (SWT) and in love of Him ... then Allah (SWT) caters for him ... but for the heart that is selfish then by focusing on itself - it cannot remember Allah (SWT) and as a result it forgets itself ...
How strange? That the very thing done to think of ourselves is the cause for forgetting ourselves ... It is because we have forgotten our purpose - our purpose is not to be self-centric but to be Allah (SWT) centric and by adopting that way we remembered our purpose correctly.
And the hidden wisdom in here is that by focusing on our purpose then Allah (SWT) focuses on our needs but if we focus on our needs He leaves us to fend for ourselves and who is better than Allah (SWT) at dealing with our needs?
So the "khud-prasti" should be exchanged for the true "khudi" - which is in reality to be focused to Allah (SWT).
how would you differentiate love for Allah(SWT) and love for creation of Allah(SWT)?
And the explanation you give for the bolded statement is insufficient, i think.
Tawwakkul is not the same as laziness
Knowing that Allah (SWT) is the Master of all acts, we can neither blame Him for our misdeeds nor our missed deeds ..
People who have gone astray conflate the 'Alam for dunya ... We are people of asbab (means) so we should use the world, but we should not accept be wordly (desirous of material) in the process.
We should pray for the bounties of this (world) ('alam) to be in our hands but not in our hearts ...
And we should use the asbab (means) to get things done - out of adab (respect) for Allah (SWT) ... Truly Sayyiduna Muhammad (SAW) could have commanded the trees, oceans and animals to his bidding, but his humble nature and perfect teaching was showing us that "how to make use of the asbab" without resorting to laziness ... What we should not do is battle with our fate, remorse too long or get frustrated with our destiny, if we have done our best and tried our hardest and it still does not happen then we should have tawwakkul ...
Abandoning responsibility is not from the Sunnah and not from Islam.
The people who are true to the balance of the Iman, Islam and Ihsan are of those who try the hardest and are least affected if things don't go their way ...
We must be without khudi in type 1 and focus on khudi in type 2 … Both are done for self-interest … the self-interest in type 1 is temporary but instant and often leads to evil the self-interest in type 2 is delayed but longer lasting and will lead to good.
Thanks for explaination.
Also we should map this theory as practice to our lives and know how the message can be derived from the poetry/compilations of Iqbal.
