Allama Iqbal is neither a genuine poet nor a genuine philosopher but a genuine preacher of the Muslim World.

Definition of a poet: A writer of poems.

Definition of a poem: “A piece of creative writing in verse, esp one expressing deep feelings or noble thoughts in beautiful language, written with the intention of communicating an experience”. ( Oxford Learner’s Encyclopaedic Dictionary). The stress is on‘ creative.’

A poet is an artist who creates something new with the help of words and phrases.

Before commenting further on Iqbal’s poetry, it is well advised to see the true nature of poetry and other forms of art.

It is an admitted fact that all great literature should be essentially based upon ethical views. But at the same time it is also true that the artist should not be deliberately didactic or blatantly ethical. Further to elucidate : the cult of art for art’s sake cannot hold water. The purpose of art is aesthetic, but the effect is moral in the true sense. Although literature does no aim at making us moral, it profoundly influences our moral nature because it quickens our capacity to realize the hopes and sorrows of our fellowmen as intimately and poignantly as we do our own. By sharpening our finer sensibilities it changes the entire orientation and character of our lives. The imaginative, emotional and moral aspects of our life are closely connected not only with one another, but with our ways of reflecting upon life. Our self ought to be an integrated whole.

The renovating power of literature lies in its being able to move and transform our entire nature. The literature of the highest order frees us from torpor and hardened prejudices, rouses our finer emotions and sensibilities, and dilates our imagination by endowing us with the power of getting beneath the skin of others. The moral needs not be a life limited by codes or conduct. It is a life that creates its code of conduct as it moves towards progress and perfection.

The end of poetic art is not to preach but to give aesthetic pleasure. There is the other side of the picture of art which is based upon the concept of morality. We do not mean a system of metaphysics. In the artist’s region, we find no doctrine or injunction. Art helps us with motives, not by indoctrination. The artist conveys the tone and philosophy of our life rather than the systematic logic contained in the book of philosophy. He does not preach directly. He does not argue and discuss; he simply reveals the facts and exalts them by his magnetic ego. Further morality in art is different from dogmatic religion. In dogmatic religion all questions are directly answered and all doubts are endeavoured to be removed. The term morality in art does not connote didacticism, a teacher, a preacher, in the real sense orf the word. In fact he is a creator, revealer and an exhibitor. He has the creative bent of mind which can approach truth through its joy, in creative effort. In other words, the artist does not force the reader to particular dogmas. The reader may accept his cult by the spell of his personality which indirectly convey the deepest and profoundest thought of humanity. But the artist is not like an escapist to shirk humanity He repeats, arranges and he clarifies the lessons of life. He disengages us from our experiences and show us the rich realities . of life to lead us to the path of eternity.

According to Stevenson, a piece of art is “ not as we can see it for ourselves but with a singular change—that monstrous consuming ego of ours, being, for the none, struck out” In other words, the artist’s morality is not ready made. Chesterton feels that the bad fable has a moral, while the good fable is moral. In this manner, we can differentiate between Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Pope’s Essays on Man. While the former is moral, the latter has a moral. It is now quite apparent that morality in art does not imply a systematised metaphysics or logic of dogmatic religion or didactism. Hence morality in art means an insight into the reality, into the mystery of life and into the divine essence. And in this sense that all great art is moral and all great artists are moralists. And in this sense that Goethe, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Milton, Virgil, Wordsworth, Keats, Tolstoy are moralists. Iqbal does not come up to this standard because he sings the virtues of and excellences of a certain faith, creed with the dearth of the deepest and profoundest though of humanity.

In the vision of the above cited discussion I do believe that Allama Iqbal is a tremendous genius of his time. He has deep understanding of Eastern and Western knowledge. Perhaps he is the solitary example of his time in which a Muslim scholar have Eastern and Western knowledge and used it successfully.

At the same time I painfully admit philosophy, science and poetic art demand free inquiry, independent from all sorts of prejudices of faiths, convictions, creeds likes and dislikes. Free and unbiased investigation in search of truth whether it is physical or psychological is considered a pre-requisite, and without it, any struggle to find truth, in the language of science and philosophy is false and therefore unreliable. Though it is painful, yet it is factual that if Iqbal’s works is fathomed on this yardstick, he is neither a poet nor a thinker because both poetry and philosophy require free flight, not tinged and hued with personal trends.

Of course Iqbal has written beautiful musical compositions in Urdu and Persion. His supporters feel anguished to find him on most occasions landed in the quicksand of a certain faith and past conventions and traditions. He has blind faith and ruthless devotion to some thoughts founded on myths and wonders quite against physical and psychological truths discovered recently by the great figures in the domain of science, philosophy and humanities. He was born a muslim, remained a Muslim throughout his life and died a muslim, though like Milton in his famous book “Paradise Lost” sometimes he strayed from his favourite trodden path:

Let us examine Iqbal’s own thought about Islam and Communism:

“ The author of Das Kapital ( Karl Narx ) who belonged to the Jewish race, was a Gabriel-less prophet. The falsehood of his writings is mixed with an element of truth. He possessed the heart of a believer and the head of an infidel. Since the Western nations are devoid of spiritualism, they are searching for their souls in their stomachs. But they would borrow its tint, hue and colour from the stomach. Communism is concerned with nothing except the body because the false prophet of this creed has founded it on the equality of stomachs. Equality can only be founded on fraternity and fraternity lies in the heart, not in the stomach. Similarly, Imperialism devotes itself exclusively to fattening the flesh. Its dark breast, too, is devoid of heart. Like a bee it sucks the juice of flowers, leaving all its petals apparently gay. Although the scent and play of colour continues to evoke the bird’s plaintive song, it is merely in appearance; the essence is taken away and only the shell is left behind. Hence both these organisations of human life are incomplete and insufficient. Both are inimical to the soul, both deny God and deceive Man. Communism thrives on class hatred and destruction whereas the aim of Imperialism is to extort money from the oppressed. Both these systems are two slabs of stone between which Man is ground like a piece of glass. Communism destroys knowledge, religion and art. Both these orders take their roots from materialism. They strive to brighten the body and darken the soul. But the aim of human life is not only to eat, drink and die like animals; it is to ‘ have and build’ i, e, to love God and to construct the world in accordance with HIS Injunctions.”

Iqbal in favour of his faith is deadly against the communism and capitalism. Iqbal advanced again and again the same viewpoint in a different way in his presidential address to the All India Muslim Conference Session held at Lahore on 2nd March, 1932. He says,:

“ The people of Asia are bound to rise against the acquisitive economy which the West has developed and imposed on the nations of the East. Asia cannot comprehend modern Western capitalism with its undisciplined individualism. The Faith which you represent recognises the worth of the individual and disciplines him to give away his all to the service of God and Man. Its possibilities are not yet exhausted. It can still create a new world where the social rank of Man is not determined by the caste or colour or the amount of dividend he earns, but by the kind of life he lives; where the poor tax the rich, where human society is founded not on the equality of stomach, but on the equality of spirits, where an untouchable can marry the daughter of a king, where private ownership is trust, and where capital cannot be allowed to accumulate so as to dominate the real producer of wealth”.

Sometimes he praised the author of Das Kapital ( Karl Marx) with glorious words “ a Gabriel-less prophet,” and on the other occasions he condemned his dialectic interpretation of history wrong and Satanic. In the preface of his famous book, “ The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam”,  he asserts,

“ It must, however, be remembered that there is no such thing as FINALITY in philosophical thinking. As knowledge advances and fresh avenues of thought are opened, other views, and probably sounder views than those set fourth in these lectures are possible. Our duty is carefully to watch the progress of human thought, and to maintain an independent critical attitude towards.”

“Iqbal is of the opinion that the object of the Quran is the implementation of a balanced social order based on fundamental human rights which ensures that no one can exploit another. It is precisely for this reason he rejects both Capitalism and Communism as extremist viewpoints and endeavours to achieve the ideals of equality, brotherhood and justice, through the Quranic social order i.e., Iqtisad (moderation) of the Welfare State of the Middle Class”. ( Javid Iqbal’s Ideology of Pakistan).

The opinion and advice in connexion with the Communism and Capitalism is visible in the following extract from his famous lecture he delivered in his address to All Indian Muslim Conference.

“The Faith which you represent recognises the worth of the individual and disciplines him to give away his all to the service of God and Man. Its possibilities are not yet exhausted. It can still create a new world where the social rank of Man is not determined by the caste or colour or the amount of dividend he earns, but by the kind of life he lives; where the poor tax the rich, where human society is founded not on the equality of stomach, but on the equality of spirits, where an untouchable can marry the daughter of a king, where private ownership is trust, and where capital cannot be allowed to accumulate so as to dominate the real producer of wealth”.

But one may asks : Who does not know that according to Shari’at the rights of a Christian subject are other than those of a Muslim, or those of a slave other than those of a free man, that women as witnesses must be two instead of one man etc”. ( Annemarie Schimmel).

A slave can be bought and sold like cattle. A slave woman can be legally sexually intercoursed, and her children as the result of this legal sexual encroachment have no rights of inheritance from their so called father side. How beautifully Shakespeare has explained his viewpoint through the mouth of Shylock in the famous tragic-comedy,” The Merchant of Venice” .

“ What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong?
You have among you many a purchased slave,
Which like your asses and your dogs and mules,
You use in abject and in slavish parts,
Because you bought them: shall I say to you,
Let them be free, marry them to your heirs?
Why sweat they under burdens? Let their beds
Be made soft as yours, and let their plates
Be season’d with such viands ? You will answer,
The slaves are ours: so do I answer you.” {Macbeth – Shylock}

Iqbal’s prescription for all the troubles of the Muslim world:

In his Rubaiyat, Iqbal gives a very simple prescription for all the predicaments of the Muslims . The original Rubayat is in Persion. Here under is its English rendering to understand the true significance of the poem.

“ Faith is like Abraham at the stake to be
Self honouring and God drunk, is faith Hear me
You whom this age’s way so captivate!
To have o faith is worse than slavery.
Music of strange lands with Islam’s fire blends,
On which the nation’s harmony depends
Empty of concord is the soul of Europe,
Whose civilization to no Makkah bends.
Love’s madness has departed: in
The Muslim’s veins the blood runs thin,
Ranks broken, hearts perplexed, prayers cold,
No feeling deeper than the skin.

Main idea of the Rubaiyat

In this modern age of fascination, faith strong like that of Hazrat Abraham (A.S.) is required. Though he was thrown in the fire by his opponents he was saved by his faith in God. Muslim harmony depends upon true faith in Islam. The Europeans are devoid of it and are suffering and fighting with one another. People have become materialistic and in pursuit of music and madness for modern civilization they have become slavish to the Europeans who are devoid of spiritual faith. The Muslims have departed from the true spirit of Islam. The lack of love for humanity has made the efforts of the Muslims fruitless.

There is no doubt we find some examples when some noble Muslims freed their Slaves. History witness that our Holy Prophet and his companions were very liberal in emancipating their slaves.

In India we find that in KHANDAN-E-GULAMAN rulers, there are some good examples of marrying a slave with the daughter of the king. But these are examples of good characters. We at the same time cannot deny that Islam allows to have slaves and keeps and has made it an article of our faith. It is a mockery in modern civilization where everyone is sounding slogans of human rights and emancipation of women from the hegemony of men in the society.

Contradictions in Iqbal’s thoughts

It is strange that Allama Iqbal gives more emphasis on the dynamic nature and character of the universe, and firmly denies that there is stagnation in the march of time. Every thing of this world is in progression towards from better to the best and nature abhors vacuum. He therefore believes in the theory of evolution in all aspects of life. We find such expression in his works. To quote him here: “ It must, however, be remembered that there is no such thing as finality in philosophical thinking. As knowledge advances and fresh avenues of thought are opened, other views, and probably sounder views than those set fourth in these lecturers.” ( Preface of The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam).

But it is sorrowful to say that he more firmly believes and contradicts his own viewpoint about the nature and character of the nature when he believes and professes strongly that Quranic Injunctions contain finality and there is no accommodation and provision for improvement and amendment. They are for all times and ages irrespective to the time and space.

In his famous book ‘The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam’, Iqbal has prescribed an antidote for all ills of the Muslim world. He has named it “spiritual democracy”. There are social democracy, political democracy, guided democracy, and he has engineered an other form of democracy unknown so far to the world. He says,

“ Let the Musalman of to day appreciate his position, reconstruct his social life in the light of ultimate principles, and evolve out of the hitherto partially revealed purpose of Islam, that spiritual democracy which is the ultimate aim of Islam.”

He possessed the capabilities of a poet, and his great part of the prose is poetic prose. When he felt that there is no cogent reason to convince his reader for the arguments given in the need of renaissance of Islam, he took poet flight. We see this flight in these lines :

“ The essence of religion, on the other hand, is faith; and faith, like the bird, sees its ‘ trackless way’ unattended by intellect which, in the world of the great mystic poet of Islam, only waylays the living heart of man and robs it of the invisible wealth of life that lies within. How this prose is poetic in the true meaning of poetry!”

In view of the above discussion, I do believe that Allama Iqbal is a tremendous genius of his time. He has deep understanding of Eastern and Western knowledge. Perhaps he is the solitary example of his time in which a Muslim scholar have Easter and Western knowledge and used it efficiently. At the same time I painfully admit that as I understand him, he has entangled himself badly in the religious dogmas, and no doubt used his great intellect and knowledge to prove that his creed is universal and in this way fought against dynamism of time in the blind enthusiasm to launch a renaissance of Islam. He forgot that an idea once dies never gets life, and a new idea more better takes its place. This is the lesson of history.

It can therefore be concluded that either I (a Lilliputian) could not understand Iqbal (a Brobdingnagian) or he is confused, vague and indefinite, rather self-contradictory. He ignored the ground realities in his enthusiasm to prove the validity and worth of his creed for today’s world.

Mr. Muhammad Asghar Butt is a  retired principal of the Government Degree College of Commerce, Sialkot and a veteran writer and scholar.

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