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| October 25, 2003 | Saturday | Sha’aban 28, 1424 |
‘Mard-i-Momin needed to do good to mankind’
ISLAMABAD, Oct 24: If Iqbal were living in this age, he would be deeply anguished by the Bush doctrine to divide Muslims of Iraq in three parts.
National Language Authority chairman Prof Fateh Mohammad Malik made this comment on Thursday in reply to a question about Iqbal’s relevance in the changed world after the 9/11 incident.
Prof Malik is a prominent expert on Iqbal.
He spoke at the Islamabad College for Boys, G-6/3, on approaches to the understanding of Nietzsche’s concept of superman and Iqbal’s Mard-i-Momin. The event was part of literary activities of Soch Samunder Forum.
With regard to the question, Prof Malik equated Iraq’s division as one appearing to be the devil’s handiwork, an obvious reference to Allama Iqbal’s famous poem Satan’s address to Parliament, which Prof Malik likes to rename as “Satan in Politics”.
He said Iqbal’s Mard-i-Momin (the courageous man) must be found now to solve the multifarious problems faced in the current context of Afghanistan, Iraq or Palestine.
The man, Mard-i-Momin, was modelled in the image of the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him) — a complete man and a benefactor for the whole world, irrespective of one’s colour, place of origin or faith.
Mard-i-Momin must be found with an ambition to do good to all mankind and build a society on acts of kindness and piety for which God had created mankind. “We need such a man and it is a domineering concept in Allama Iqbal’s works that recognized the ascendancy of human beings as the most sublime creation of God.”
Thus, in Iqbal’s concept, there was no room for Nietzsche’s superman, where the superman was positioned a notch higher than man.
Prof Malik said nothing could rise above man. The Holy Prophet was the most pious, the noblest and the greatest man ever to live on the face of this earth. This being the position, there was no space available for supermen in the human pantheon.
Iqbal did not favour a superman dominating the world stage even if he wanted to reorganize a society free of materialist ideas that had taken hold of the western civilization based on purported Christian values as reflected in Nietzsche’s work.
Notwithstanding this difference, Iqbal was indebted to Nietzsche for stimulating his thought and philosophy. A number of documents have been found after Iqbal’s death, which show that he wished to write a grand poem, based on Nietzsche’s work.
Iqbal who lived in the same age as Nietzsche was deeply inspired by the latter’s concern about decay in human values in a materialistic world. But, Iqbal also wanted to organize societies, which also embraced spiritual content in conduct and behaviour, not on secular thoughts as espoused in Nietzsche’s atheistic ideas.
On the other hand, Iqbal contends that prophetic experience, though authoritative, had ceased, and mystical experience, which had not ceased, could not be regarded authoritative. Hence, the Muslim society must take into account ongoing advances in knowledge and build a humane society, Prof Malik said.
This discourse on different concepts as regards Nietzsche and Iqbal had surfaced after William Boykin’s bizarre speeches against Islam in the United States.
Prof Malik said Iqbal and Nietzsche were both engaged in taking on obscurantism in their different ways. Nietzsche was against inhuman dogmas of Christian priests, and Iqbal challenged obscurantist Mullas.
Earlier, ICB principal Prof Rafiq Mali, in his welcome speech, highlighted the objectives of the Soch Samandar Forum. He said it was promoting creative thinking among teachers with a view to improving educational standards.
In the end, Federal Directorate of Education director-general Brig Maqsoodul Hassan (retired) lauded the activities of the forum and urged teachers to take part in its activities. — Jonaid Iqbal
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