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Iqbal lived before his age. His envisioned state was born after he lived long enough to witness it. Still we owe a heavy debt upon our shoulders, to this man, who takes us, at the one hand for a ramble betwixt the stars, and at the other, pierces within the " hearts of our hearts "
These are the* last sentence** of this marvellous piece of literature written in 2000 …after getting topped in** Electrical Engineering **from UET,Lahore (87% marks )…and atlast ..in 2001..he won the most prestigious scholarshipship of the world…Rhodes Scholarship…of Oxford…only one boy from Pakistan…receives this scholarship annually..and **2001 *winner was Muhammad Sabeh Anwar …
Before leaving for England..in 1905..Iqbal..the greatest philospher of past 600 years…went to tomb of Nizamud Din Aulia..in Delhi…and said this beautiful verses standing* right at his grave** …*
Chaman ko chor kai nikla hoo Misla-i-Nikhata-i-Gul
hua hai Sabar ka imtahan manzoor mujh ko
Chali hai lai kar Watan kai* Nigar Khanai** sai*
Sharab-e-Ilm kee Lazzat* kusha kusha mujh ko*
Nazar hai Abr-e-Karam pai ,Darkht-e-Sahra hoo
kia na* Khuda** nai Mohtag-e-Baghba mujh ko*
“”" Maqam hum safrau sai hau is qadar aagai
kai Manzala-i-Maqsood samjhai karvan mujh kau “”"
Phir a kai rakhoo Qadma-i-Madr-o-Pidar pai jabee
kia jinhau nai Mohabbat ka razdaa mujh kau
**Translantion **
“I say farewell to my garden, like a rose’s scent
Now I have submitted myself to the test of patience
My desire to satiate my thirst of knowledge
Is pushing me out of the gallery I call my homeland
I am a solitary tree in a desert, my eyes are clung to the laden clouds,
Their shower can make me flower without the aid of the gardener
O Lord, always keep me miles ahead of my kindred
So that they can take me as their destination
O Lord, grant me the chance, once again, to lay my head at the feet of my parents
By whose blessing, I possess the secret of love.”
*while Sabieh Anwar leaving for **Oxford…**reminding the same land where Iqbal..left..reminding the same verses ..which **Iqbal…*quoted…the same man..can be found in the traces of this below article ..which was written ..7 years ago..in 2000 !!!
MUHAMMAD IQBAL (1877-1938) was undoubtedly amongst the profoundest thinkers of the previous century. He was not an ordinary poet, but a man of Vision. His verse is not a romantic lullaby. Instead it is a slogan of Valour, incessant action and Self-realization. His poetry is not for one nationality alone. His message is far-reaching, and transcends any geography.
He is not a confused philosopher…However, many a time, he is seen posing questions, one after the other, inducing elegant dialogue between his personified conversants. He commits to such exercises of inquiry, not only to reach at answers himself, but also to put his message across. Many of his poems are representative of this dramatic plot. In short, he was not the kind of philosopher who would say, “I am a philosopher, for I have a problem to every solution!”
Iqbal’s standards are unconventional. He is difficult to understand – not because of the choice of his words, but because they carry a characteristic meaning. Iqbal, therefore, like all worthwhile discourses, needs to be learnt from someone, and cannot be learnt on its own – for one needs the Blessing of the Eye – an inspired teacher, just like the teachers of Iqbal himself. His poetic terminology is not new, but its meaning is indeed unique to him. The moth and the candle, the nightingale and the glow-worm, the Tulip and the Rose – are all well-retained traditions in Persian and then Urdu poetry, but they assume an altogether new appeal in his cavalcade of ideas. Even the roles of Prophets like** Abraham and Moses** find unique meanings in his thought cycles. The parables of Mahmud and Ghaznavi, Farhad and Shirin, Laila and Majnun are all there, in full show, but viewed from a totally different angle – cast in an altogether new die. Mu’min, Darwesh and Qalandar and Kafir, Barhaman and Zandeeq are all new symbols. It could be said that he took all the stock of gold from his predecessors in literary tradition and then remoulded it to his ambition’s desire. Very rightly, Omar Khayyam says:
Ah Love, could Thou and I with Fate conspire?
And grasp this sorry scheme of things entire?
Would not we shatter it to bits and then?
Remould it nearer to the Heart’s Desire?
Iqbal’s works are not an emblem of contradiction, rather they are an amalgam. Being a devoted lover of the Prophet (PBUH) and his companions, he derives inspiration from the fountain-head of the Qur’an. Seeking Qur’anic instruction from his exemplary teacher Maulvi Mir Hasan at Sialkot, he was advised by his father,
My Son! You should always read the Qur’an as if it were revealed upon you.”
He often reminded himself of this adage in his later life as well. In my view, this one advice could have had an enormous impact on his thought-process and his expressive faculties. Nevertheless, in his quest to intellectually steer his nation he seeks refuge and guidance, from the** Prophet (PBUH).** Like a submitting Muslim, he supplicates to the Prophet (PBUH) and shares his complaints with his Ultimate Master. Sometimes, he goes a step ahead and establishes a direct communion with God. Sometimes, he assumes the role of a stray observer, eavesdropping dialogues between Sa’di and Hali, Lenin with God and sometimes Satan with God. So much so, at times, he goes to the blasphemous extent of praising Satan
All these seemingly paradoxical ideas fit in well, with his consistent themes that I shall outline below. They are pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that may seem very inchoate at first glance, but once pulled together, form a glorious portrait of Vision and Warmth both together.
The savant Iqbal addresses the quintessential questions of Life and death.He preserves the sanctity of Life and death appears as a meager mirage in the Grand Scheme of this world –
a temporary interlude in the journey. His life is a life beyond calculative measures of the yester and the morrow. The ideal life always moves, never comes to a stop. It subsumes worldly pleasures and is not surmounted by them. It begets, but is not begotten. For example, at many instances he assures that the difference between a Mu’min and a Kafir would be one of Ishq, one of Khudi, one of being a subjugate to the Commands of Allah and the other being a victim of the Writ of Fate. Building upon Qur’anic concepts, he talks about the actions of the capable man, becoming consummate with the desires of God.
Ishq is the main ingredient of Life and is also its driving force – the prime mover behind all universal occurences. This Iqbalic Love would make man into a creator of and victor over his own ideals, **setting him into never-ending motion. Outreaching from one conquest to another, he is never subject to surcease. History is fraught with examples of Ishq making a difference between the right and the wrong. This Ishq, is distinct from Ilm or Aql. There are many junctures in one’s Life, when one reaches a divergence of passages. Reason alone cannot be the sole guide in such cases. Reason will always give one a sense of fear and deprivation; it safeguards interests in life, but Ishq creates life, procreates life and makes it grow beyond bounds and shine beyond glitters. A life of pure reason would drear death, a life of Ishq will welcome it. **
Iqbal is a believer in the anthropic principle. His bold dialogues with God represent his belief that Ishq could make man work miracles. But to the basic question as to how one could acquire this quality of zest, Iqbal provides a solution too.
It is the concept he introduced of … of Self-Realization: (KHUDI) seeking purpose in one’s life; awakening to the idea that this world is for you; grasp upon the personal gifts bestowed upon you by God and in return “seize the day
Khudi in turn leads to the qualities of Faqr – pride that never crosses the borders of conceit. Faqr represents Dignity and mutual respect, a state of being straight forth in the face of the vain pursuits of this little world. It is this attribute, that makes a man who is but the king of his heart’s world, to turn away from princely grandeur.
Moreover, Iqbal says that a man could only be dignified, if he is a free man. Freedom from all masters but one, is essential. The false hopes, fragile aspirations and misplaced desires that dwell in a slave’s heart, could never grant him the virtues of Khudi and hence most of his value in life would simply be lost.
Worshipping** deities** other than the Lord, either inhabiting within one’s heart or without, should shatter away any hope of progress. To the Muslims of the day, these figurines are the idols of sect, territory, rites and vain customs and above all false nationhoods.
A man of Faqr would never sell away his fortune in search of temporary goals. He is firm and strong in action. He can never be bent in the face of peril. He does not droop low to seek sustenance. **Such a man is likened to a Shaheen, an Eagle, whose niche is the echelons of honour and not the abysses of ignominy, like the habitat of a vulture. A nation, whose youth are armed with the double-edged sword of Khudi, would no longer need any weapons of mass destruction – it would be crowned with majesty. **
Muhammad Iqbal pinned his hopes in the **.**Youth and Hope were again some of the themes resonating throughout his work. Hope, as Iqbal believed was a natural outcome of **Faqr **and Yaqeen. The youth were Iqbal’s foremost addressees. Inculcating his Vision into the individuals of the day, as professed in the verse I have selected to be the masthead of this essay, was his prime desire.
Iqbal, being wary of the vices of modern western educationconflicted with an education that was void of Ishq or a recognition of Self. Wetern education, especially, remained a main target of his criticism.
The west never became the ideal world for Iqbal. **His Inner Eye could go beyond the veils and penetrate into the flaws of the modern society. **
He attacked western imperialism, their portrayals of democracy, their concepts of colour and race, and their emptiness of warmth or Soz, as Iqbal coins it. He had a sip of wine** from the cups of disparate** civilizations – both the east, being shuddered into the wormholes of ignorance and bigotry, as well as the west, with all its signs of teeming progress. To him, the west was all glitter, with false standards, and soul-less ideals. Their lives were mere lives of humanoids, mechanically adjusting to daily needs. Iqbal’s whole philosophy, on the other hand, had grown out of Purpose. Without Purpose, it would have taken to the ground in no time. Could the west contribute any purpose to life or any direction, at the least? The poet speaks of their scientific marvels – Copernicianism, Newtonianism, and Einsteinism, one after the other, and then raises the question if the self-same scientifically abler man, traversing the zodiac of galaxies, could ever resolve the complex trajectories of the ideas drifting in his own personal cosmos. Whilst capturing beams of sunlight, could he ever illuminate the dark alleys of his terrestrial barren life?
Without being a rejectionist, Iqbal also looked beyond mere romanticism with the past glory of Muslims. His vision flew him over and above the cities of Kufa and Baghdad, always waiting for new camps to be drawn, new roads to be taken and new thoughts to be aspired. He fascinates with the past to an overwhelming extent, but he does not blindly reject all that comes from the west or exhort all that is eastern.
He vehemently rejects asceticism. He arouses a constant clash between the madrassah and the khanqah – the abodes of the mullah and the sufi respectively. He does not respect the philosopher or the narrow mullah – one, he says, summons the death of the heart, and the other blindfolds the eye that looks boldly into the world. He only craves the Vastness of his heart and fails to find this opportunity in contemporary Modern Education or Sufism or even the Faqih, or further still, the ritualistic leader of our uninspired prayers.
How would they all know, after all, the means to guide a nation.Iqbal lived before his age. His envisioned state was born after he lived long enough to witness it. Still we owe a heavy debt upon our shoulders, to this man, who takes us, at the one hand for a ramble betwixt the stars, and at the other, pierces within the hearts of our hearts.