August 11, 2002

IN Dr Farman Fatehpuri’s book Iqbal sub ke liye, the work of Iqbal has been made comprehensible for all. It is a detailed study of the poet-philosopher covering all aspects of his life and work extensively. Written in a readable and cogent style, the book should be welcomed by the general reader and would be particularly useful for college and university students of Urdu literature and their teachers. It is extremely suitable for being prescribed as a textbook.

One distinguishing feature of the book is its elaborate table of contents which gives a list of topics or rather a brief outline of what is available in the various chapters.

The introduction contains a sort of justification or raison d’etre for the author having undertaken yet another study of Iqbal’s life and work. He has inter alia expressed his dissatisfaction, in general terms, with the other books on Iqbal. He also points out certain lapses and misconceptions, which he tries to rectify through his own research and understanding.

The main text of the book starts with a description of the intellectual, cultural and political milieu in which Iqbal was born and grew up. He was a product of the renaissance which took place among the Muslims of the subcontinent under the influence of Sir Syed’s movement. It also gave birth to a new era in Urdu literature.

Hali, Azad and Shibli initiated a new trend in poetry by enlarging its scope. They wrote poems on nature and on subjects of moral, social and national importance. Iqbal basically followed this trend and added a philosophical dimension to it while carrying it to glorious heights in his poetry.

All aspects of Iqbal’s personal life, his ancestry, his teachers, his educational qualifications, his marriages, his profession, his intellectual interests, the traits of his personality have been discussed in the book. Iqbal’s ancestors were Sapru Brahmins from the Kashmir valley who converted to Islam and moved to Sialkot in the late eighteenth century. Iqbal was born on November 9, 1877. He had his early education at home and in a Madressah.

Later he joined the Scotch Mission School, from where he did his Intermediate. He then went to Government College Lahore from where he did his BA and MA in philosophy. In 1905 he was admitted to Cambridge for his tripos and then went to Munich for his PhD. After doing his bar in London he returned home in 1908. Legal practice was his profession, but poetry and other intellectual pursuits and involvement with public affairs were his passion and kept him busy most of the time.

Although Iqbal is best known for his poetry, his work in prose is equally important. He started by writing some textbooks for school and college students, which he compiled in collaboration with others. Then there were lectures, public addresses on various subjects, letters both in English and Urdu and also the Urdu translation of Iqbal’s famous English lectures, “The reconstruction of religious thought in Islam”. Iqbal’s message, his philosophical thought and the special meanings of the concepts of khudi and bekhudi with which his Urdu and Persian poetry is replete have been explained and discussed in the book in a manner and language which is easy to understand and comprehend by an average reader. Dr Fatehpuri has tried to clarify many a misconception attached to these concepts and has also traced the influence of Eastern and Western thinkers on Iqbal’s mind. He has tried to establish his stature as a thinker in the world of philosophy and literature.

The concept of khudi is pivotal to Iqbal’s philosophic thought. At an individual level khudi means awareness of one’s self and one’s potentialities, a will to assert oneself and lead a life of activism and struggle to create a world of one’s own. It includes the conquest of nature for the benefit of mankind and to establish man’s supremacy in the universe.

Iqbal’s Persian poem Asrar-i-Khudi explains the concept in detail. In another long Persian poem Ramooz-i-Bekhudi, Iqbal has delineated the relationship between the khudi of an individual and the collective khudi of a nation, millat. He stresses the fact that in order to develop his khudi an individual needs a society which has developed its own collective khudi. Such a society must maintain a standard of high moral values in which no distinction of colour, cast and creed exists and in which equality, freedom and justice prevails. In Iqbal’s view only Islam provides the basis of such a society.

Dr Fatehpuri has devoted an exclusive chapter to Iqbal’s views on our educational system. By doing this, he breaks new ground in research on the great poet. Throughout his life Iqbal sustained his interest in education and was associated with many educational schemes and projects. Education, in his thinking, was closely related to his concept of khudi. He was critical of the prevailing education system because it did not develop khudi in the people. It failed to develop faith in the individual and only equipped his intellect for material pursuits without enlightening his soul.

Hence Iqbal pleaded for the inclusion of religious studies in the educational system. But he also insisted that scientific knowledge should not be neglected, as the West has greatly progressed through science.

Another exclusive chapter in the book deals with Iqbal’s political thought and his involvement in Muslim politics. He had a deep interest in the various issues pertaining to the Muslims as a minority community vis-a-vis the Hindu majority as also with the Muslim League.

As for the system of government, Iqbal did not favour Western democracy which according to him counted heads and did not weigh them. He was also against any political system, which is divorced from religion. That is why in spite of preferring Russian Communism to Western democracy he did not approve of it. He was influenced by Jamal-ud-Din Afghani’s concept of the grand unity of the Islamic world. He believed religion and not a territorial homeland was the basis of nationhood.

Iqbal was involved in practical politics and became a member of the Punjab Legislative Assembly in the mid-twenties. He presided over the Muslim League session of 1930 where he delivered his famous address in which he proposed the partition of the subcontinent and the creation of a Muslim homeland. In the early thirties he attended the Round Table Conference in London. From 1936 he was the President of the Punjab Provincial Muslim League until the day he died (April 21, 1938). It was during this period that he wrote his famous letters to Jinnah concerning Muslim affairs at home and abroad.

From a discussion of Iqbal’s involvement with the national politics of Muslims, the author moves on to Iqbal’s deep interest in the problems of the Muslim Ummah in other parts of the world and discusses his reflection on the state of affairs in Afghanistan, Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Morocco and other Arab countries.

Having discussed Iqbal’s philosophical and political thought the writer embarks on a study of Iqbal as a poet. There is a chapter on his theory of art and literature as it developed and took shape from the beginning to the end. He then discusses Iqbal’s concepts of love and reason and the implications attached to them in his poetry. Their interaction happens to be one of its basic themes. In this context the author surveys the entire range of Iqbal’s Urdu poetry his poems and ghazals as also his Persian poetry with detailed references to all his works.

In the fitness of things there is a chapter of the book entitled “Iqbal and the new generation — a generation which he constantly addresses in his poetry”. He then goes on to discuss Iqbal’s influence on the intellectual and literary world here and abroad. In a separate chapter, which deserves special mention the author also traces the influence of Western philosophers and thinkers such as Nietzsche, Goethe, Bergson and others on Iqbal. But he rightly maintains that the main source of Iqbal’s inspiration was of course the Holy Quran and the Prophet of Islam (PBUH). In addition the two great personalities of Muslim history whose thought and message determined Iqbal’s outlook were Rumi and Shaikh Ahmed Sarhandi, Mujaddid-i-Alf-Sani.

Iqbal considered Rumi as his mentor and referred to himself as Murid-i-Hindi and was influenced by him in his philosophic concept and poetry. Shaikh Ahmad Sarhandi was Iqbal’s guide in his political thinking. The author of the book under review has rightly highlighted the influence of these two Muslim thinkers on Iqbal.

 

Iqbal sub ke liye

By Dr Farman Fatehpuri

Al-Wiqar Publications, PO Box 7104, Lahore.

560pp. Rs450

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