Iqbal- the 20th Century Reformer

by Ali Shariati

  This was then crystallized in the mind of people for it represented self-purification and the development of exalted human beings. Islam endowed this great spiritual, inward, and individualistic power with an external and social aspect. This was used to build human society, objective leadership, and a life for society in this world.

  Leadership: It was not meant to give ethical leadership to Christ and political leadership to Caesar.

  Life: It was not meant to build up the life of the next world on the basis of religion and to build up material life on the basis of reasoning.

  Human being: It was not meant to build up his introversion with love, faith, and gnosticism and his extroversion with materiality and knowledge, without any universal explanation and foundation in a world view.

  Islam founded its individual, social, material, and spiritual school on the basis of monotheism. As was said earlier, monotheism is not confined within a philosophical and literal boundary as recorded in history or as has existed in the minds of some thinkers.

  Monotheism, in the sense of the unity of the Essence of God, has logical, material, and spiritual repercussions and guarantees in this world.

  Belief in monotheism forms the infrastructure of the class unity of human beings. It is the inundation of the common origin and unity of being from which the human being evolves in nature.

  This is what is meant by Islamic monotheism. It is not just a philosophical and religious infrastructure but an infrastructure which holds a philosophy of history, a sociology, an ethics, and the knowledge of the way of life of humanity as well.

  In this monotheistic religion, Ali and other great personalities who are directly reared by the Prophet and the school of Islam, are men of two dimensions: concerned with both the spiritual and the material. They are like Ali, a man who, in a state of inner attraction, recalls a person delivered of existence and who, in his devotions, knows the paths to heaven better than the paths of this world. Yet such a spirit does not sleep from night to morning “for fear that someone in a remote corner within the Islamic lands may have fallen asleep while being hungry.” He is a person who is so sensitive to the problem of hunger in society, even the hunger of an individual in any part of the earth, that, like a leader who loves humanity, he is concerned with their material life while in his other dimension, he is a meditating, solitary philosopher who does not seem to think at all about this world.

  This man of sword and speech, love and thought, a man who brings death by his sword and inspiration with his tongue, is a specimen of the universal prototype or perfect human being. Like the great companions, he is typical of the ideal men presented by the Prophet to human history and to the Islamic ummah so that they develop themselves to be like the Holy Prophet: perfect human beings, ideal human beings, among those people sociology refers to as total human beings, that is, human beings who have perfected all human dimensions.

  Imam: one of the meanings of Imam is exalted example or exemplary human being. The personality of Ali and the school of Islam have remained, but they have been made to disintegrate just as though I exist but my hand and foot have been amputated or my eyes and brain have been removed from my body. I still exist. I may even be praised, but I cannot move nor can I remain fully alive.

  The mystic dimension of Ali in Islamic history develops into a pure, exalted, and profound Sufism, as a mature and sublime human mysticism. As a warrior, from his sense of manliness (muruwwa) and generosity, he develops his social dimension, separate from and seemingly unconnected to his mystic dimension. In relationship to philosophy and knowledge of the Quran, he is a source for the interpretation and understanding of Islam, the sunnah of the Prophet and Islamic theology.

  The way of thought of Ali develops as a symbol of meditation, eloquence, and knowledge. His political aspect manifests itself as a symbol of the desire for justice and truth among the oppressed masses of history in such a way that the Just God becomes the support of the oppressed masses in history.

  We see that Ali and Islam have survived but have been separated from each other. This is why, in our culture we see the Quran exists and outstanding personalities brought up in the school of Islam exist/ but each is seen from only one angle.

  What do we mean by self-reconstruction?

  Reconstruction means to return to our own culture in all its meaning and with all of its body of knowledge. It means to seek the known elements of these thoughts among the records, documents, history, and biographies. It requires a search among these personalities to find the element of sensitivity and emotion and the authentic dimension of the exemplary human being whose personality was nurtured by Islam. We must come to know them in their real and objective form, not as symbols or myths or legendary heroes and/ then, reconstruct these personalities in this great school. At that point, we will be able to once again nurture exemplary human beings, rebind the pages and chapters of Islamic history as they originally were for every chapter and every page is the life of one individual or another.

  A spirit thrives only in a complete body and as a part of a total reality. If the elements are separated from one another, they will have no effect. No matter how much we praise these elements which have separated from the whole, no matter how much we help these separated elements to grow and evolve, the spirit and personality will still be beyond our reach because the spirit reappears only after the general reconstruction of the body.

  The present Islam [nine years before the Islamic Revolution] produces no movement in us but, rather, plunges us into silence, inactivity/ and contentment (in the sense given to it by us, not in the sense of which Islam really is since the two are very contradictory). It generates disappointment and pessimism towards nature, life, society, and even Islam itself. It causes us to defer all hopes to ‘after death’, which is then interpreted as Toeing religious’.

  When will the spirit return to its initial form? A form that in a quarter of a century changes and develops savage men into ‘makers of civilization’, into ‘makers of a new history, and into those who changed the course of history? When will this school again be able to convert a Jandab ibn Janabah, an illiterate bedouin Arab, who knew nothing about the world or his homeland, into an Abu Dharr Ghifari, a man who even today is a living symbol, a man who still inspires movement towards human well-being, and a man who generates hope in the abased and plundered people? When?

  Chapter One: A Manifestation of Self-reconstruction

  and Reformation

  If one were to reconstruct the form of Islam which has been made to degenerate in the course of history, re-assemble it in such a way that the spirit could return to a total body, transform the present dazed elements into that spirit as if the trumpet of Israfil were to blow in the 20th century over a dead society and awaken its movement, power, spirit, and meaning, it is, then, that exemplary Muslim personalities will be reconstructed and reborn like Muhammad Iqbal.

  Muhammad Iqbal is not just a Muslim mystic (Sufi) who is solely concerned with mysticism or gnosis as Ghazzali, Muhyi Din ibn Arabi, and Rum! were. They emphasized individual evolution, purification of the soul, and the inner illuminated ‘self. They only developed and trained a few people like themselves but, for the most part, remained oblivious to the outer world, having been almost unaware of the Mongol attack and the subsequent despotic rule and suppression of the people.

  Iqbal is also not like Abu Muslim or Hasan Sabah or Saladin Ayyubi and personalities like them who, in the history of Islam, are simply men of the sword, power, war, and struggle and who consider the exercise of power and the defeat of the enemy enough to effect reform and revolution in the minds of the people and in their social relations.

  Nor is Iqbal similar to those learned individuals like the Indian, Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, who imagine that no matter in what situation Islamic society be (even if it be under the domination of a British viceroy), it can be revived with modern scholarly interpretations or with 20th century scientific and logical commentaries on Islamic tenets and
Quranic verses as well as through profound philosophical and scholarly research.

  Iqbal is not among some Western people who consider science to be sufficient for human salvation, for evolution, and for the cure of anguishes. He is not one of those philosophers who thinks meeting economic needs is tantamount to meeting all human needs. Nor is he like his fellow countrymen, that is, the great Hindu and Buddhist thinkers who consider peace of mind and spiritual salvation to be transmigration or who consider the cycle of karma to nirvana to be the fulfillment of the mission of humanity and who imagine that in a society, where there is one hungry person, where slavery, deprivation, and disgrace exist, one can still develop pure, elevated spirits and disciplined, educated people who have attained well-being and even a sense of morality!

  No. Iqbal shows with his very being and with his school that thoughts which are related to Islam are thoughts which, while paying careful attention to this world and the material needs of humanity, also give the human being a heart as he himself says, “I find the most beautiful states of life in the yearnings and meditations of daybreak to dawn. “

  He is a great mystic, with a pure spirit, delivered of materiality and, at the same time, a man who respects and honors science, technological progress, and the advancement of human reason in our age.

  He is not a thinker who debases science, reason, and scientific advancement having had his emotions aroused by Sufism, Christianity, the religion of Lao Tzu, or Buddha. Neither is he a proponent of dry science like the science of Francis Bacon or Claude Bernard which is limited to the discovery of relations between phenomena or material manifestations and the employment of natural forces for material life. At the same time, he is not a thinker who assembles philosophy, illumination, science, religion, reason, and revelation together in an incongruous way as some have done.

  Rather, in his outlook and attitude towards this world, he regards reason and science in the very sense they are understood today as allies of love, emotion, and inspiration in the evolution of the human spirit, but he does not accept their goal.

  The greatest advice of Iqbal to humanity is: Have a heart like Jesus, a thought like Socrates, and a hand like the hand of a Caesar but all in one human being, in one creature of humanity, based upon one spirit in order to attain one goal. That is, Iqbal himself: A man who attains the height of political awareness of his time to the extent that some people believe him to be solely a political figure and a liberated, nationalist leader who is a 20th century anti-colonist. A man who, in philosophical thought, rises to such a high level that he is considered to be a contemporary thinker and philosopher of the same rank as Bergson in the West today or of the same level as Ghazzali in Islamic history.

  At the same time, he is a man we regard as being a reformer of Islamic society, who thinks about the conditions of human and Islamic society, a society in which he himself lives and for which he performs the jihad for the salvation, awareness, and liberation of Muslim people. His efforts are not just casual and scientific forms or of the kind that Sartre called ‘intellectual demonstrations of political, pseudo-leftists’ but rather of the kind exhibited by responsible individuals. He strives and endeavors and, at the same time, he is also a lover of Rumi. He journeys with him in his spiritual ascensions and burns from the lover’s flames, anguishes, and spiritual anxieties. This great man does not become one-dimensional, does not disintegrate, does not become a onesided or one-dimensional Muslim. He is a complete Muslim. Even though he loves Rumi, he is not obliterated in him.

  Iqbal goes to Europe and becomes a philosopher. He comes to know the European schools of philosophy and makes them known to others. Everyone admits that he is a 20th century philosopher, but he does not surrender to the West. On the contrary, he conquers the West. He lives with a critical mind and the power of choice in the 20th century and in Western civilization. He is devoted to and a disciple of Rumi to an extent that does not contradict and is not incompatible with the authentic dimensions of the Islamic spirit.

  Sufism says:

  As our fate has been pre-determined in our absence

  If it is not to your satisfaction, do not complain.

  Or,

  If the world does not agree with you or suit you,

  You agree with the world.

  But Iqbal, the mystic, says:

  If the world does not agree with you,

  Arise against it!

  The world means the destiny and life of human beings. The human being is a wave, not a still shore. His or her being and becoming is in movement.

  What do I mean? It is to be in movement. In the mysticism of Iqbal, which is neither Hindu mysticism nor religious fanaticism, but Quranic mysticism, the human being must change the world. Quranic Islam has substituted ‘heavenly fate’ in which the human being is nothing, with ‘human fate’ in which the human being plays an important role. This is the greatest revolutionary as well as being progressive and constructive principle which Islam has created in its world view, philosophy of life, and ethics.

  The greatest criticism that humanism and liberal intellectuals have leveled and continue to level against religion is that because religious beliefs have been interpreted as being founded on absolute determinism or Divine Will, therefore, the absolute subjugation of human will, the human being is logically reduced to being weak in terms of free-choice in relation to the Absolute. If this were true, it would be a disgrace. It would be servitude and a means for the negation of power, freedom, and responsibility. It would be to submit to the status quo, to ‘whatever will be, will be’, to accept any fate which is imposed upon the human being in this world and to admit to the futility and uselessness of life.

  As the past, present, and future events have been and will continue to be dictated by fate, in this view, any criticism or objection, then, or efforts to attain our hearts’ desires or to change the situation, must be subjugated to ‘whatever has been pre-destined for us’. In this way, the human being’s ability to change, convert, and amend the status quo becomes impossible, unreasonable, and ill-advised.

  But in the philosophy of Islam, although the One God has Absolute Power and is Almighty and although for Him is the Creation, Guidance, Expediency, and Rule over the universe, “His is the Creation and the Command,” (7:54) at the same time, the human being, in this extensive universe, is considered in such a way that while one cannot dissociate oneself from the rule of God and from Divine Sovereignty, one can live freely.

  A Muslim has free will and the power to rebel and surrender. Thus, he or she is responsible and the maker of his or her own image. “Every soul is held in pledge for what he earns” (74:38) “And the human being shall have nothing but what he strives for.” (53:30)

  In his mystic journey with the Quran, Iqbal attained this principle—that is, authenticity of deed and responsibility towards human beings—that which humanists, existentialist, or radicals endeavor to help humanity achieve by negating religion and denying God.

  These people, quite rightly, see the religion and the God conceived by the minds of human beings to be incompatible with human freedom, esteem, authenticity, and responsibility whereas Islam, without resorting to philosophical justification and interpretation, clearly declares that “the day when the human being shall see what his two hands have sent before.” (78:40)

  With his attitude, his orientation to faith and his Islamic mysticism, Iqbal passed through all philosophical and spiritual stations of this age. It can be said that he was a Muslim mi grant who appeared in the depths of the ocean of India and rose to the highest peaks of honor of the majestic European mountains, but he did not remain there. He returned to us to offer his nation—that is, us— whatever he had learned in his wondrous journey. Through his personality, I see that once again Islam in the 20th century presents a model, an example, for the anguished but confused generation which is aware of itself.

  A polished spirit, full of Eastern inspiration, is selected from the land of the heart of spiritual culture an
d of illumination. The great thoughts of the West, the land of civilization, intellect, knowledge with the power of creativity and advancement are placed in his mind. Then, with all of this investment, he becomes knowledgeable of the 20th century.

  He is not one of those reactionaries and worshippers of the past to have enmity towards the West and whatever is new, to oppose a new civilization without sound reason. He is also not like those who imitate and are absorbed in the West without having the courage to criticize and to choose. On the one hand, he employs science and, on the other, he senses its inadequacies and shortcomings in meeting spiritual needs and the evolutionary requirements of humanity. He offers solutions for its completion. Iqbal is a person who has a world view and he has developed philosophical-spiritual interpretations which he offers the world and people, based upon it.

  Iqbal is a person who bases his social school upon his world view and, then, offers his spiritual and philosophical interpretations to it. Based upon the culture and history which he is connected to, he develops a person based on the standard of an Ali, to the extent that the material for developing a human being in our century allows.