Chapter – V
THEISTIC PHILOSOPHY OF IQBAL
The debate pertaining to the existence of God has been carried on by
some of the most profound thinkers across the globe. Historically speaking,
ancient, medieval and modern thinkers have soulfully participated in this
debate. It is a perennial debate. Contemporary philosophers are engaged in the
God-Debate as fervently as ancients and medievals were Theologians, mystics,
historians, scholars and even natural and social scientific researchers have
carried on their interpretations, investigations and extrapolations against the
backdrop of God –Debate carried out throughout the annals of human history.
This perennial as well as global debate has had most crucial social, political,
ethical, philosophical cultural, educational and spiritual implications for the
upkeep of human civilization. Although God-Debate has been central to human
civilization, its impact has been most vitally felt within monotheistic. Semitic
religious societies comprising of Jews, Christians and Muslims. Broadly
speaking, two distinct approaches have been adopted by philosophers of
religious in their long drawn-out God-Debate:
1- Theological / rational
2- Mystical/spiritual
Most theistic philosophers and philosophical theologians, throughout
history, have adopted the theological/ rational approach. They have advanced
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theological/ rational arguments approach with a view to proving the existence
of God. They have offered scores of proofs. The most important proofs for the
existence of God are knows as -
1- Cosmological proof.
2- Ontological proof.
3- Telelogical proof.
Outstanding philosophers and theologians such as Aristotle, St.
Augustine, St. Anslem, St. Thomas Acquinas, Descartes, Al-Farabi, Ibn-Sina,
and Al-Ghazali etc., have offered different variants of these proofs. On the
other hand, mystics and spiritualists found across the domains of all the three
religions have always undermined the validity, truth and fruitfulness of all such
theological /rational attempts to demonstrate the existence of God. They have
put forward the thesis that God is essentially beyond the ken of rationalistic
argumentation and theological apologetics. He is beyond the beyond and
beyond the human cognitive faculties operating within space-time-causality
parameters .It is through faith that we can appropriate God and it is through
reason that we can ultimately vortex ourselves into Skepticism, agnosticism
and nihilism or logically demonstrable God need not be believed in. It is
through love, submission and commitment that God becomes the most
powerful spiritual force impacting and restructuring all the planes of human
existence; individual, societal, historical and civilizational. God is to be
realized not to be proved by any rational strategy. Experimentally verifiable
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God is not an object of rational investigation. Iqbal following Kant assembles a
critique of the classical proofs for the existence of God. Following mystics and
spiritualists of all times and climes, he advocates the appropriation of God by
recourse to mystical or what he calls religious experience.
Iqbal can’t be pigeonholed in any one of the three epistemological
schools of thought; the empiricist, the rationalist and the intuitionist .In his
philosophy sense –perception, reason and intuition are all synthesized together
to form an organic whole. Rationalism though not admired, is not wholly
condemned and discarded by him. According to him, rationalism, if not
divorced from concrete reality, represents truth. This is visible from his own
attitude and is also betrayed by his admiration for rationalists, whose endeavor
and yearning for coherent system of ideas on rational foundations is well
known (Reconstruction, p. 3). Iqbal says “Now since the transformation and
guidance of man’s inner and outer life is the essential aim of religion, it is
obvious that the religious truths which it embodies must not remain unsettled.
‘Religion stands in greater need of rational foundation of its ultimate principles than even the dogmas of science. Science may even ignore rational metaphysics; indeed it has ignored it’. Religion can hardly afford to ignore the search for a reconciliation of the opposition of experience and a justification of the environment in which humanity finds itself (Ibid., p.2).
However, rationalism as advocated by Iqbal was not based on logical
categories or more abstract representations, born and nurtured in the realm of
purely abstract ideas. Therefore, even while Iqbal embracing rationalism, Iqbal
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is not prepared to justify it at the cost of sense–perception. He criticized Plato
for avoiding visible reality as unreliable and misleading. Plato accuses sense-
perception as capable of giving mere opinions and not true and authentic
knowledge. He rests all knowledge upon pure reason and weaves the whole
fabric of supreme and Ultimate Reality out of ideas, taken as eternal and really
Real. Iqbal also attacks Ibn-Rushd on account of his doctrine of immortality of
Active intellect, taking a view opposed to what Qur’an teaches the value and
fate of human ego, and therefore obscuring man‘s vision of himself, his God
and his world. Similarly Al-Ghazzali’s philosophical skepticism is held by him
as an unsafe basis for religion; it is also not wholly consonant with spirit of
Islam (Reconstion, p. 4.7). He doesn’t encourage man’s contemplative spirit to
the extent that it lead’s to his withdrawal from the world of matter, which with
its temporal flux and shifting phenomena, is organically related to the Ultimate
Reality. Hence, for the purpose of knowledge it’s entirely inconceivable to turn
away from the material world and to withdraw into purely contemplative
circuit. There is no possibility of isolating thought from concrete experience
.One should take ones start from here because it is the intellectual capture of
and power over the concrete that make it possible for intellect of man to pass
beyond the concrete (Reconstion, p. 131). The concrete phenomenon are the
signs of Ultimate Reality or Godhead and it is the duty of man to reflect on
these signs and not to pass by them as if he is like the deaf and blind ,for he
who doesn’t see these signs in this life will remain blind to the realities of life
to come (Ibid, p. 128) .
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Following the Qur’an, Iqbal brings out that the Ultimate Reality
reveals its symbols both within and without (Reconstruction, p. 15). His
revelations within are mystical or intuitive. The realization furnished by
mystical or religious experience can neither be wished away nor explained
away. Iqbal while trying to figure out the nature and character of the mystical
or religious experience brings out its various salient features.
Firstly, this experience is immediate. Just as the normal sense data of
our sense experience can be interpreted into the world, so immediate data
supplied to our consciousness through intuitive experience can be interpreted
into God. Just as we can know the external world through immediate-sensory-
experience, so we can know God by recourse to immediate mystical experience
(Ibid., p.18).
Secondly, the mystical experience is characterized by unanalysable
wholeness. The mystic state brings us into immediate contact with the total
Reality. In such an experience all the diverse stimuli merge into one another
and form a single unanalyzable unity. In such an experience, the ordinary
distinction between subject and object is fizzled out (Ibid., pp.18, 19).
Thirdly the mystic state is a moment of intimate association with the
unique Other Self. It is a transcending and encompassing experience. It
suppresses, for the moment, the private personality of the subject of experience
(Ibid., p. 19).
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Fourthly, the quality or plenitude of mystical disclosure is such that it
can be experienced but not communicated. The mystic can interpret the
contents of his revelation in the form of a proposition but the content as such
cannot be so transmitted. Mystical experience is not discursive or intellectual
but essentially a matter of inarticulate feelings. These feelings when expressed
unavoidably mix up with cognitive elements. In view of the same a religion
starts with mystical or prophetic feelings and culminates into metaphysical
thought or theology (Ibid., pp. 21,22).
Fifthly, the mystical experience is an intimate association with the
Eternal. This gives the mystic a sense of the unreality of serial time. However
there is no complete break with serial time. The mystic state is soon followed
by the return of normal level of experience. However, so long as the mystical
state lasts, so long it can be deemed to be oblivious with the pangs of
incursions of serial time.
In view of these considerations, Iqbal claims that God can be
appropriated by recourse to mystical or religious experience. However the
realm of mystical or religious experience can’t be deemed to be merely
comprised of affective states and shorn of all cognitive content. Iqbal in his
first lecture in ‘Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam’ writes:
“For the purposes of knowledge, then the region of mystic experience is as real as any other region of human experience and cannot be ignored merely because it can’t be traced back to sense perception. Nor is it possible to undo the spiritual value of the mystic state by specifying the organic conditions which appear to determine it. Even if the
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postulate of modern psychology as the interrelation of the body and mind is assumed to be true, it’s illogical or discredit the value of the mystic sate as a revelation of truth” (Ibid., p. 23).
Iqbal on God:
In keeping with the world-view and value-system outlined in the Qur’an,
Iqbal believed in One God who is the First and the Last, the Manifest and
Hidden, the Originator, the Creator, the Sustainer, the Master and the Lord. The
Holy Qur’angives Him proper name Allah and defines Him in the Qur’an,
Surah Ikhlas (No. 113) as –“Say God is One, all things depends upon Him, He
begetth not, and He is not begotten, and there is none like unto Him. Therefore
God is Infinite, the most Unique Individual”.
Iqbals’ conception of God is the nucleus of his thought. It dominates his
whole philosophy and permeates his entire system. God in his eyes is not
something of an enchanting phantom conjured up by man’s imagination or a
dazzling fabrication of human reason. He believes God to be the Most Real,
and Ultimate Being, as the Self-Subsisting, Primordial and Necessary
Existence.
His God is the source of all existence varied and colorful as it is. He is
the ground of space and time and of the complexities of life and mind. He is the
Supreme Ego, the Supreme Self, the Supreme and Perfect Individual. He is the
creative Will and Dynamic Power, the Real and Eternal Light and Real and
Eternal Beauty .In short the vistas of Reality as Iqbal unrolls them comprise the
Ultimate Divine Existence or God-head. Iqbal conceives Ultimate Reality as
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Ego, the Creative Energy of the Ultimate Ego in whom deed and thought are
identical and function as Ego unities (Reconstruction, p.76).
Iqbal holds that He is everlasting Energy. There is none besides Him, to
put Him in limits. He is absolutely Free Creative Spirit. He is also Infinite.
God’s Infinity is intensive not extensive (Ibid., p. 64). It consists in the infinite
inner possibilities of His creativity. God is a Free Living Energy with infinite
creative possibilities. God is All-Powerful, Omniscient and Omnipotent. He is
Independent, Unique, Knower of every hidden and manifest entity. God, For
Iqbal, is not only Eternal Beauty, the source of all quests; but He also loves
Himself. The conception of Love dominates the whole philosophy of Iqbal, but
doesn’t present it only as a force of feeling that enables man to approximate to
God and have full vision of Divine Reality or Eternal Beauty. For Iqbal, love is
not only the means to an end but also in its essential nature an end in itself; an
Eternal and Infinite cosmic power. It is spaceless and Timeless (Jawaid-namah,
pp. 17-18).
God is the source and ground of the very space and time (Bal-i-Jibrail
p.18) . He is Comprehensive and Encompasses over and above all space -
events and all time-events (Payam-i-mashriq, p.18). Love forms the basis of
individuality; it covers the multitude of different rainbow color rays, the
dazzling and receding of lights and shadows, the constellation of atoms and
galaxies etc. The whole fabric of passing scenes and sights and smells has its
source and ground in it. It is divine in essence. It is the directing value of
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human existence. The Love of God gives the vision of dynamic power,
Creative Will and Super Celestial light. God as Self-Conscious Will as brought
out by Shaqiq Balkhi, Rabia and others Sufi Masters. According to this school
of thought, Ultimate Reality is Will the and universe is the visible
manifestation of it (Iqbal, The Development of Metaphysics in Persia, p.112).
For Sheikh-ul-Ishraq, God is Absolute Light and an Absolute and Eternal
Beauty. He is Reality and He is Beauty Himself and He is Beauty in Love of
Beauty. He is Absolute, Unqualified and Pure Beauty whose realization is
essential for the perfection of finite beings (Hafiz Malik, Iqbal Poet and
Philosopher, p. 229).
The whole world is reflected image of Eternal Beauty (Ibid., p.113). Al-
Jilli presents his God or Absolute undergoing three stages; Oneness, He-ness
and I-ness, reaching its external manifestation, self-redemption and
objectification (Asloob Ahmad Ansari, Iqbal the Visionary, p. 9). Iqbal doesn’t
identify his God with any single element in order to maintain the indivisible
unity of Divine Reality. He presents his God as Ego, as a Creative and
Dynamic power, as Infinite Thought. Iqbal doesn’t depict God in a mere
abstract and impersonal terms as some unifying and guiding and controlling
universal principle; as static, immutable and rigid law that underlies different
and multiple phenomena.
The Supreme Ego or God is Creative. He is a Conscious and Purposive
Being. He pervades, controls, directs and sustains the Universe as an Immanent
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and Transcendent Being. ‘God is the Great I am’. As a matter of fact, the
degree of the intuition of ‘I am’ determines the place of a thing in the scale of
Reality.The Infinite Ego or Allah is also capable of saying ‘I am’ but in His
case ‘I-amness’ is Absolute. It is Unconfined and Independent and arises out of
the distinction and differentiation between Self and Not-Self. ‘I am’ in the case
of Divine Reality is not confined and determined. Iqbal found the self -
revelation of ‘Great I am’ and the proof of God an Ego taken from the Quranic
verse “call upon me I will answer you” (Al-Ghaffir 40:60). Iqbal believes that
God is so near to man that he has to realize his consciousness and elevate
himself to such a height that he merges himself and knows true meaning of
God.
To the Ultimate Self, not- self presents itself as confronting other or as
an external Reality. Ego cannot afford to dispense with the entire world. It has
no spatial relation with the not-self or confronting other, hence not-self or
nature is only a fleeting moment in its life. Therefore, Divine ‘I am –ness’ is
truly, Independent, Necessary and Absolute (Reconstruction, p. 57). As
Leibnitz believes, God alone is the primary unity or original substance; monads
are products of His continuous exercise of Will. He through His continuous
exercise of His will allows the monads to unfold or develop their nature.
Monads have the faculty of perception and appetition. In the created monad
there is the limitation of God’s attributes. The influence of one monad over the
other can only have effect from the very beginning of thing; one monad
depending upon other monad. The Ego (monad) for Iqbal may be conscious of
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its individuality. All monads have perception but all are not self-conscious.
Iqbal aims at the development of individual ego to the extent that it may be
able to absorb God into itself; he doesn’t see eye to eye with those mystics or
Sufis who aim at the extinction of the individual ego by merging into the
Ultimate Ego. God is a Creator who called the world into being, giving it
certain definite constitution. God has given man the highest status in His
creation. An engineer makes a machine by fitting its parts together; so
constructing an instrument by means of which certain desired results can be
accomplished. God having great purpose in view, created the universe. We
ourselves and every living being and every element in nature are in continuous
intercourse and contact with God. Therefore, there is a moral relationship
between God and man which is the very essence of monotheistic creed and
foundation of all faith in the efficacy of prayers ( Encyclopedia of Religion and
Ethics edited by James Hasting vol-x, Edinburgh T and T Clark New York
p.175).
For Iqbal, God is Perfect Ego, the Most Perfect Individual but perfection
of Individuality means ‘Oneness’ that is over and above the tendency of
reproduction. As Bergson states, reproduction means separating of part from
individual organism to reproduce. It amounts to harbour one’s own enemy at
home, leading to the non- Absoluteness and imperfection of the Self. Iqbal’s
God is Creative power but he is above the tendency of reproduction and
hence fulfills the condition of Absoluteness of Existence. Iqbal says, God or
Allah, as the Qur’an puts forth “Is the one upon whom all things depends, who
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neither begets nor is begotten and none is like unto Him”. This is the evidence
of perfect individuality of the Divine Reality (A Critical Exposition of Iqbal’s
Philosophy, p.136).
Iqbal says that everything is changing from moment to moment. He
believes that the world is a continuous flow but even God is ever active .He
never sits idle for a single moment. The Qur’an says; ‘Everyday He is
employing Himself in an affair’ (Prof. Mohd Munawwer ; Iqbal and Quranic
Wisdom, 1988, Noor Publication, Delhi p.86). He can’t be said to be a static
God. It’s a wrong idea to believe that because everything perishes, therefore
God remains static. Life means continuity and activity and progress. We have
desires and ideals. We have success and failure. Life from our perspective is
change; change always indicating imperfection. Iqbal says, ‘The Ultimate Ego
exists in pure duration wherein change ceases to be succession of varying
attitudes and reveals its true character as continuous creation untouched by
weariness and unseizable by ‘slumber and sleep’ (Reconstruction, p. 61). To
conceive the Ultimate Reality as changeless in this sense of change is to
conceive Him as an utter inaction, a motiveless stagnant neutrality ,an absolute
nothing .The perfection of creative self consists not in mechanically conceived
immobility ,but it consists in the vaster basis of His creative activity and the
Infinite scope of His creative vision .God’s life is self-revelation, it is not the
pursuit of an ideal to be reached, the ‘not-yet’ of God means unfailing
realization of infinite creative possibilities of His being which retains its
wholeness throughout the entire process.
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The Ultimate Reality is rationally directed creative life, it can’t be
conceived except as an organic whole, something closely knit together and
possessing a central point of reference. This being the character of life, the
Ultimate Life can only be conceived as an Ego. The true nature of Reality is
very often darkened by our limited outlook, it conceives it as a kind of
universal current flowing through all things. God’s Light is like a niche in
which is a lamp and which in its own turn is encased in a glass which sparkles
like a lustrous star (Qur’an, 24:35). Hence it is quite clear that metaphor of
light used here to depict Divine Reality doesn’t present it as a formless Cosmic
Reality. Divine Light is not formless element identified with the universe ,it is
depicted as centralized ,which is further individualized by its encasement in a
glass likened unto a well-defined star (Reconstruction, p.64). The metaphor of
Light is not meant to suggest the Omnipresence of God, negating the
individualistic conception of Divine Reality. It is the nearest approach to God
when it is applied to God; it signifies His Absoluteness and not Omnipresence.
(Reconstruction, p. 64-65). The Infinity of Allah consists in the infinite inner
possibilities of His creative activity of which the universe as known to us ,is
only a partial expression. God entails an infinite series, but He is not in that
series (Ashraf, p.137). Hence unity of God is expressed through a multiplicity
of things. Iqbal asserts “I have conceived the Ultimate Reality as an Ego and I
must add that now from the Ultimate Ego only ego proceeds”. There are ego-
units in creative activity of God, Time in its ultimate nature is not spatialised, it
is Pure Duration, a single ‘now’ that is pulverized into a series of ‘nows’, like
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pearl beads in a thread (Reconstruction, p.49). As Fichte holds, the Ego is the
only Ultimate Reality. To Kant, the thing-in-itself is unknowable, to Fichte
thing-in-itself is Ego. In Ego’s self-consciousness both knowledge and
existence are identified; to know and to exist are not two things but one and the
same thing (Rastogi; Western Influence on Iqbal, p. 34). If the ego is to know,
it follows that there must be something to be known, and therefore the ego
posits non-ego. But non-ego which the ego contemplates and which is
necessary to make knowledge possible is not something alien to ego, its source
is self itself. The non-ego is posited by the ego to render evolution possible.
Beyond this conception of ego there is complete divergence between the views
of Iqbal and Fichte. Iqbal insists on the ego maintaining its individuality.
For Iqbal, the Ultimate Reality as a Self expresses itself in the laws and
behavior of nature .He is the Absolute ‘First’ and the ‘Last’. He is the Most
perfect Ego. For Iqbal space and time are not external and objective realities.
On the contrary, their concept arises out of the relation of events and these
events result from the creative activity of Divine Reality. They are mere
interpretations which thought places upon the creative activity of the Ultimate
Ego (Reconstruction, p.65). Hence it is Infinite that keeps alive within it the
flame of aspiration and serves as the sustaining power, the driving force of
human and universal evolution. It is a mistake to conceive it as an inconclusive
and fictitious unity because it is in its own way, the greeting of the finite with
the In finite (Reconstruction, pp. 6-7). Again Iqbal depicts God as Eternal,
Infinite and Ultimate Light underlying the entire spectrum of life, minds and
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matter. God is the Glorious Sun and the whole Cosmic and sensible reality is
grounded and pervaded by His Divine light (Zaboor-i-Ajam, pp. 207, 223, 215,
226). All the finite luminaries, the Sun, the Moon, forests, rivers etc., sparkle in
it (Payam-i-Mashriq, p.5) and has their source in it (Ibid., p.100).
Qur’an emphasizes on several occasions the unique Individuality and
Oneness of Allah. Islam for the first time declared in bold and clear voice that
God is One and we should pay reverence to and bow before One God. Islam’s
monotheistic conception of God was colored by many Muslim mystics; their
main purpose to interpret the Ultimate Reality pantheistically was perhaps to
emphasize the Absoluteness of God and His Omnipresence out of religious
fervor. Deistic conception of God is also not acceptable because it emphasizes
the transcendence of God and deems world to be apart from Him. God merely
becomes contriver .Iqbal believes both in Immanence as well as Transcendence
of God.
The universe we belong to is not yet be completed and perfected .it is
neither blocked nor locked universe. For Iqbal; “Every moment things are
being ordered to become and they are becoming”. Iqbal views that the process
of creation is still going on; to him it’s an organic world, he postulates the
process of recurrent creation and an ever expanding universe:
‘Everyday is He engaged in some new work’
‘He adds to creation what He will’. (Mohd Munawwer, p.86)
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As already underlined God for Iqbal is not a static perfection. For Iqbal,
perfection without change will render God as closed system with no
possibilities of novelty and spontaneity and this will deprive Him of His free
will .He brings about a compromise between eternity and change and conceives
perfection to be a synthesis of both. He applies all the three attributers to God.
God changes and moves along a line that is an organic whole which is itself
eternity and is revealed as change without succession and appears serial and
atomic because of the creative activity of the Ego (Reconstruction, p.77). Ibn
Arabi and his followers saw the world as a part of the eternal process of Divine
Breathing .Goethe recognized God’s breath in the systole and diastole of the
inherent polarities of creation ‘Be’. Iqbal sees the secret of man’s spiritual life
in his constant movement from prayer in the khalwa with God to jalwa.
Khalwa (concealment) and jalwa (public appearance) together form the fabric
of life, just as love and intellect constitute the warp and woof of human
existence (M. Ikram; Iqbal and Goethe, 2009, p.137).
Iqbal was against the Hellenistic interpretation of God ,which had turned
the living God of prophetic religion into an immovable Prima Causa and his
early sympathy with Nietzsche can be attributed to a certain extent to the fact
that the German philosopher attacked this Hellenized God of Christianity .Iqbal
wanted to emancipate the Islamic conception of God from such immobilizing
and paralyzing influences .To Iqbal God was Active ,Creative and Dynamic.
Since God is Eternal, therefore his Creativity and Dynamism are also Eternal.
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ATTRIBUTES:
Knowledge :
God is the Creative power and at the same time He is Omniscient, and
just as the Divine Creative activity is not limited or determined by any external
reality co-eternal with Him, Divine knowledge also doesn’t involve duality of
subject and object that characterizes finite knowledge, the fear of which had
induced thinkers like Mu’ammer and Abu-Hashim to divest Divine Reality of
its Omniscience with a view to saving its Absolute Identity. According to Iqbal
Divine knowledge, is not something in Himself, therefore implying duality in
His nature. It is not knowledge of something outside Himself, which leads to
duality and distinction of subject and object. The idea of subject moving round
and working upon a veritable other that confronts the subject as an external
entity per se can’t be predicted to Divine Reality without robbing Him of His
infinitude. Even if the term is widened and extended to Omniscience, it doesn’t
rise above the distinction between subject and object, perceiver and perceived,
knower and known. Knowledge in this sense is only relative and can’t be
attributed to the Supreme Ego, who is an All-Inclusive and All-Comprehensive
Reality with no external opposing object or confronting other existing per
se.He is rationally directed Reality, an organic Indivisible Whole, Supreme
Individuality or Self, a Reality closely knit together with a central point of
reference. The discursive knowledge or knowledge in the finite sense is
meaningless and even inconceivable with reference to God, who is the All-
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Inclusive Reality .He is the “Great I Am” and in Him thought and deeds and
cognition and creativity do not inhere as separate and distinct qualities but are
one and identical and form a single indivisible whole. He has no perspective or
knowledge as predicated to a finite self, but on the contrary, encompasses the
whole of Reality or the entire sweep of history as comprehended in an eternal
‘now’. It doesn’t mean that “eternal now” holds within it a determined and
fixed order of things and specific events. It will suggest the conception of
universe as a closed system of static and unalterable order of specific events
which like a superior fate, has once for all determined the whole direction of
Divine creation. The Omniscience of the Reality in this sense of fixed futurity
and pre -determined order, or in the same sense of a history which is only a
gradual revelation of a predetermined order of specific events, without any
possibility of spontaneity and novelty will imply passive reflection of an
already finished structure of things in all its details as perceived by finite
consciousness, imperfectly, partially and in a piecemeal manner. The
Omniscience that characterizes God is a single indivisible act which is identical
with His creative activity .Here we have no duality of subject and object and no
passive reflection of fixed order of events with definite contours and outlines
(Reconstruction, pp. 79-80).
Omnipotence :
God is Al-Mighty, All-Powerful and Omnipotent. His is not blind and
capricious Omnipotence. A limited quantum of power can’t be attributed to
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Divine Reality. He is, by definition All-Powerful. However all activity,
creational or otherwise, is a kind of limitation without which it’s impossible to
conceive God as a concrete operative Ego (Ibid, p. 81). God is Omnipotent but
at the same time He is All-wise and All-Good also. Divine will is rationally
directed and is also characterized with goodness. Divine Wisdom and Divine
Goodness put a limit upon Divine Omnipotence and Power. According to
Iqbal, in view of the ‘Divine Omnipotence as intimately related to Divine
wisdom, and finds the infinite power of God revealed not in arbitrary and
capricious ,but in recurrent ,the regular and orderly’(Reconstruction, p. 81). He
is Creative, Conscious Purposive Being in whom Power, Wisdom and
Goodness all are harmonized. He is personal Reality that is characterized with
Free Creative Activity. But He furnishes enough freedom to finite egos for the
fullest development of their personality. Thereby not leading to their
nullification and annihilation, but chooses them to be the participators of His
life. The limitation in His case is not externally imposed but is determined
internally and therefore brings a compromise between Power, Wisdom,
Goodness and Freedom.
Eternity :
God is Eternal, He is Eternal Will .He is Eternal Beauty and Eternal
Light and so on. He has no beginning and no end and is over and above
temporal and spatial order. According to Iqbal, time and space don’t exist as
external to and independent of the Supreme Ego. They are rather the outcome
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of Divine Creative Activity. Here he agrees with Mir Damad and Mulla Baqer
when they say that time is born with the act of creation by which the Ultimate
Ego realizes and measures, so speak, the infinite wealth of His own
undetermined creative possibilities (Ibid., p. 77-78).
Iqbal’s God is over and above space but this doesn’t mean that He is an
Unchangeable and Immovable Entity and is too Perfect to be amenable to
change or flux. God is dynamic and cannot be conceived as static Reality
whose perfection is disturbed even by the slightest idea of movement.
According to Iqbal, perfection without change will render God a closed system
with no possibility of novelty and spontaneity and this will deprive Him of His
free will .He works out a compromise between eternity and change and
conceives perfection to be a synthesis of both. God changes and moves without
succession and therefore comprehends in Himself change with permanence. He
doesn’t move in serial or atomic time. The movement of the Supreme Ego is in
pure time that is an organic whole which is itself eternity and is revealed as
change without succession and appears serial and atomic because of creative
activity of the human ego (Reconstruction, p.77). Hence “Divine Reality that is
All-Comprehensive Ego is Eternal. He has no beginning, no end. Liberated
from the net of causal sequence, the entire history is assimilated by the
Supreme Ego in a single super-eternal now (Ibid., p.76).
Hence Eternity is Divine Life or Reality in its entire wholeness, in its
completeness and permanence that comprehends in itself unity with variety and
change with permanence. It is identical with pure time or pure duration.
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Creativeness :
It is one of the important Attributes of Godhead. Iqbal’s God is the Real
Creative Power and the whole Reality is the outcome of His conscious and
purposive activity which is related to the universe as a creator to his creation.
But this doesn’t mean that He is related to His creation as a box maker is to his
box, because in such a scenario. He will be analogous to a finite personality
limited and restricted by external environment and circumstances. The world
will be reduced to a “manufactured article which has no relation to the life of
its maker, and of which maker is nothing but a spectator. That way, the
universe might be said to have been a mere accident in the life of God. It might
not have been created at all. However, for Iqbal Gods’ creative activity lies in
His self-revelation, in the manifestation of His own Reality and in the
actualization of His infinite creative possibilities. There is no reality apart from
and independent of Him opposing or confronting Him as “Other”. He creates
the universe as the not-self out of His self; He rather manifests or affirms His
Reality and the result is the outcome of not-self or the whole universe (Asrar-i
–Khudi, pp. 10-11). Hence universe is not constituted of inert and dead
particles and is not manufactured by God at some definite time out of the
matter that itself is co-eternal with Him. On the contrary, He is Ego and
Dynamic Reality, a Continuous and Dynamic flow and the universe is an
outcome of His creative and dynamic activity, of His self-revelation and in its
real and ultimate nature is itself a ceaseless flux, a dynamic flow and
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continuous act which thought breaks up into a plurality of mutually exclusive
things (Reconstruction, p. 67).
God is the Ego, egos proceed from His Living and Dynamic Reality and
the universe, which is a fleeting phase in the Divine Life or continuous act
having its source and ground in the creative activity of God and has conscious
will, is constituted of colonies of ego’s. Iqbal says, I have conceived the
Ultimate Reality as a Ego’s; and he must add now that from the Ultimate Ego,
in whom deed and thought are identical, Proceed as ego-unities. The world in
all its details, from the mechanical movement of what we call the atom of
matter to the free movement of thought in the human ego is the self-revelation
of the Great I Am. Like the pearls do we live and move and have our being in
the perpetual flow of Divine Life (Reconstruction, pp.72-73). Iqbal fully
establishes the creative activity of God without impairing His Infinitude.
Iqbal as a great theistic thinker conceives God as the Supreme Ego, and
Perfect Person. The finite self can have contact and communion with Him
through Love and prayer and ultimately can have the full perspective of God
through intuition with bold affirmation of his own personality. Divine attributes
do not smack of limitations and finitude. Iqbal depicts God as Dynamic Will,
as Thought, Light, Love and Beauty. God is identified with anyone of these
elements but all the above mentioned attributes are apprehended in His
Essence. He is attributed with Creativeness, Omniscience, Omnipotence,
Freedom, Wisdom and Goodness. But these attributes and aspects don’t spell
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restriction, differentiation, distinction and duality in Divine Essence. God is an
organic whole in which all the above mentioned attributes are comprehended.
Iqbal while, describing all these attributes has the free use of human colours
portraying all in human light and shades and garbs Him in sensuous beauty
.Therefore Divine Reality is neither a personality in the anthropomorphic sense,
nor an abstract concept, but exists as concrete and Dynamic Reality, as
personal and transcendent and at the same time Infinite, Truly Perfect and
Immanent Reality.
Proofs of His Existence :
Religious experience according to Iqbal promises direct revelation or
vision of God. But this experience is personal and incommunicable.
Philosophers and philosophical theologians have advanced arguments with a
view to proving the existence of God. Kant has advanced compelling
philosophical considerations against the tenability of viability of the classical
proofs for the existence of God. Iqbal agrees with Kant. Iqbal begins with the
criticism of the classical proofs of the existence of God-Cosmological,
Teleological and Ontological as elaborated by scholastic philosophers.
Cosmological Argument - aims at scientific explanation or description of
God. It is based upon the principles of causality, hence reducing the whole
universe to a system of causes and effects. The Uncaused First Cause or the
Unconditional Absolute Necessity is conceived as the Divine Primordial
Reality. But this proof is not convincing because of the infinite regress from
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one contingent to another contingent. It stops at an Uncaused First Cause, causa
sui generic, that serves as the ground and source of all existence. This proof is
not conclusive. According to doctrine of causality, every cause itself is the
effect of the preceding one and so adinfinitum. Therefore, the assumption of an
uncaused First Cause implies only the glorification or the elevation of one of
the members of the series to the dignity of an Uncaused First Cause and
therefore nullifies the very principle from which it begins (Iqbal,
Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, (1985), Oriental Publishers and
Distributor, Delhi, p. 29). Iqbal points out that First Cause reached by the
theory excludes its effect from its being and is reduced to something finite.
This position contradicts the exclusive necessity of being for the First Cause
because in relation of cause and effect both the terms have an equal claim to
necessary existence (Ibid., pp. 20-29).
Iqbal asserts, “Real tries to reach the infinite by merely negating the
finite being. But infinite reached by contradicting the finite is a false infinite.
This couldn’t explain itself nor the finite which is therefore made to stand in
opposition to the infinite. The True Reality doesn’t exclude the finite being; it
embraces the finite without effacing its infinitude, and explains and justifies its
‘being’. The movement from the finite to infinite as embodied in the
cosmological argument is quite illegitimate and therefore argument fails in
Toto (Ibid., pp.30). Iqbal agrees with Kant in his criticism of this argument.
According to Kant “if the Supreme Being forms a link in chain of empirical
conditions, it must be a member of the empirical conditions, it must be a
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member of empirical series and like the lower member have its origin in some
higher member of the series. If on the other hand we disengage from the chain
and cogitate it as an intelligible being apart from the series of the natural
cause’s. How is it possible that latter is separated from the former? All laws
respecting the regress from effect to causes, all synthetical addition to our
knowledge relate solely to possible experience and the object of the sense
world apart from them, are without significance (Critique of Pure Reason, p.
348) .
Teleological argument - is entirely based upon the presence of design, purpose
and insight and adaptation in nature which renders it comparable with human
art (Critique of Pure Reason, pp. 350-351). It holds just as a sculpture implies a
sculptor, so does the world imply its creator or owner. According to Iqbal, this
argument gives only an external contriver or designer working upon an
independent, external and intractable matter co-eternal with His Divine
existence. The problem is not solved if God is assumed as a Creator of matter.
It will amount to a very illogical course on the part of God. First He creates
inert and intractable matter and then to work upon it as a potter works upon its
clay. Nature according to Iqbal, cant be explained as analogous to the work of
human artificer. A work of Art is a progressive selection or isolation of
material from, its natural integration, while nature is an organic systematic
whole with the perfect inter -dependence of its parts and with the evolution of
organic whole within it (Reconstruction, p.31).
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According to Iqbal, this argument leads us nowhere because it looks
upon thought as an agency working on things ab-extra; it creates an
unbridgeable gulf between ideal and real. Thought should be taken as potency
essential to the formation of its material and not as extraneous principle
organizing and integrating it. Consequently, thought or idea doesn’t remain
independent of original nature of thing but constitutes the very essence of their
being from the beginning to the end (Ibid., p.32). According to Iqbal, it is
discursive understanding which necessitates the dualism of thought and being.
The true significance of the argument can appear only when this dualism
disappears. It is possible if we carefully examine, interpret and analyze
experience. Conscious experience is the only privileged case of existence in
which we are in absolute contact with the reality and its analysis throws a flood
of light on the Ultimate meaning of existence. Here we find that life and
thought permeate each other and form a unity .It reveals the moment of life as
an organic growth involving a progressive synthesis of its various stages.
Progressive synthesis is determined by the ends and the presence of ends means
that it is permeated by intelligence. Therefore in conscious experience life and
thought permeate each other, and forms a unity. This interpretation of
conscious experience brings us to the conclusion that Ultimate Reality is
rationally directed, creative life an organizing principle of unity
(Reconstruction, p. 55-57). Nature is not a mass of pure materiality; it is a
structure of events organically related to Divine-Life.
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Ontological argument – This arguments runs like ‘if we say that an attribute
is contained in the nature or in the concept of a thing we seem to accept the
view that the attribute is true of this thing positively affirmed to be contained in
the nature or concept of God which ultimately proves that God exists’
(Reconstruction, p.31). Here Iqbal agrees with Kant in criticizing this
arguments. Objective existence can’t be inferred from the mere idea of a thing,
just as the existence of 100 dollars cant be proved from their notion in the
mind. Again this proof as Iqbal points out is reduced to the logical fallacy,
petittio-principii, because it passes from the logical to the real and hence for
Iqbal, it also falls down (Ibid. pp. 31-32).
Iqbal doesn’t reject the cosmological, Ontological and Teleological
arguments because reason is incapable of reaching God but because these
arguments create a dualism in Reality between thought and being, their true
significance can be realized only when the gulf between thought and being is
bridged. It means that he recognizes the validity of the arguments in true
forms. According to Iqbal, the organic unity of pure duration itself is not the
unity of all-embracing concrete self. He writes neither pure space, nor pure
time can hold together the multiplicity of objects and events. It is the
appreciative act of an enduring self only which can seize the multiplicity of
duration broken up into infinity of instants and transform it into the organic
wholeness of a synthesis (Reconstruction, p. 57).This Enduring and All-
embracing Self is Godhead or Divine Reality. Both the arguments of Iqbal
regarding the existence of God are supplementary to one another. He takes the
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idealistic stand according to which physical thing can’t be conceived except in
relation to the experiencing mind. Iqbal agrees with scientific and realistic
position which doesn’t stop there. It’s the demand of the consistency and
coherence that there must exist a “confronting other”. Therefore, world loses its
independence and external existence with reference to the Absolute Being or
Ego. But it retains its independent, strong and objective character with
reference to finite mind.
Iqbal’s Critique of Wahadat-al-wujud :
The ontocosmological doctrine of Whadat-al-Wujud (Unity of Being)
advanced by Ibn Arabi is apparently diametrically opposed to the philosophical
position of Iqbal. The philosophy of Ego so powerfully underlined by Iqbal is a
powerful critique of the redoubtable Ibn Arabi. Wahadat-al–Wujud
emphatically negates the importance of individuality and there lies the crux of
the conflict. Iqbal is vehemently opposed to the doctrine of the Unity of Being
of Ibn-Arabi to the extent that he calls his Fusoos-al-Hikam as the compendium
of atheism and blasphemy. Iqbal’s wide studies in history, sociology and
philosophy convinced him that the deteriorating condition of Islam was due to
importation of Platonic and neo-Platonic ideas, which regarded the world as a
mere illusion not worth striving for .These ideas corresponding to those based
on the Vedanta found their culmination in the doctrine of Wahadat-al-Wujud as
formulated by Ibn Arabi ostensibly with reference to certain verses of the
Quran.
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This doctrine engendered the belief in an Immanent God and the whole
world as His emanation.Therefore a pantheistic doctrine was substituted for a
personal and transcendent God of Islam. Ideas based on this doctrine,
according to Iqbal, sapped the energies of the people spurring a life of activity
and exertion. The doctrine of Wujud asserts that everything that exists can only
exist because it is an aspect of Divine Reality and hence an aspect of Divine
Unity itself.
For Iqbal popular mysticism was mere means of exploiting the ignorance
and credulity of the people. About the downfall of Ummah, Iqbal was of the
view that the masses of Islam were swayed by the kind of mysticism which
blinked actualities, enervated the people and kept them steeped in all kind of
superstition. It gradually and invisibly unnerved the Will of Islam and softened it
to the extent of seeking relief from the rigorous discipline of the laws of Islam.
His teachings can’t be understood without having a close look into Iqbal’s life,
and factors that influenced him. Since the age of four, Iqbal had been hearing
about Ibn-Arabi and his work (Fusus and Futuhat). Owing to this mystical
influence in the early periods of his poetic production, Iqbal exhorted mainly
Hindu masses of India to discard their old gods and worship the motherland.
There is a consensus that Iqbal also subscribed to the doctrine of Wujud
until at least 1907, the year in which he submitted his doctorial dissertation. (In
the Introduction, Iqbal has paid a glowing tribute to Ibn-Arabi).Iqbal’s
admiration for Arabi was not the outcome of his two years of research for his
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dissertation, but was the product of the philosophical orientation he inherited
from his parents and from his early teachers. Probably he had completed the
better part of his doctoral research before he arrived in Europe Iqbal’s
subsequent studies carried him farther away from Ibn-i-Arabi. Writing his
foreword to the first edition of Asrar-i-Khudi, in 1915, Iqbal repudiated Ibn-
Arabi’s philosophy of Wujud. He complimented Ibn-Taimmiyya and Wahid
Mahmud for raising their voice high against the life –negating impact of Al-
Arabi. Also he advised his readers to look to the western nations of Europe in
order to learn the meaning of life. By virtue of their will to action, the Western
nations are pre-eminent among the nations of the world .For this reason and in
order to appreciate the secret of life, their literature and ideas are the best guide
for the nations of the East.
Among the western nations he singled out Britain with the plea that the
world is indebted to the British for their pragmatism and their ability to
comprehend situations more sharply in comparison to other nations. For this
reason, no high –flown philosophic system, which fails to stand up in the light
of the facts, has gained popularity in England.Therefore the works of British
thinkers have a place of their own in the world literature. After benefiting from
British ideas, the mind and the heart (philosophy and literature) of the East
must revise their intellectual legacy. It seems imperative in this context to
explore the genesis of the Sufi doctrine Wahadat-al-Wujud and make a brief
scrutiny of the channels through which it flourished, before focusing on the
expostulation of Ibn-Arabi. Although it is not possible to draw a distinct line of
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demarcation between Sufism and metaphysics, it can be said that the doctrine
of Wujud does not have as much connection with Sufism as it has with
metaphysical problems ,which owing to the passage of time and to different
environments and circumstances have been mixed with Sufism and has turned
into theoretical problems most intricate and difficult to understand. The
evidences corroborate the fact that doctrine of Wujud made its way into Sufism
through neo-Platonism, established as an independent school of thought in the
third century A.D as the result of interpretations and commentaries of Plato’s
ideas. The ideas of Neo-Platonism uphold that “Existence” is actually ‘One’
and that existence alone is the main source of all other existences and finally
have to go back to that “One Existence” ,the whole world has emerged from.
Whatever exists is merely a reflection of the One Being and does not have a
permanent existence of its own. In Sufi terminology this doctrine is called
‘HamaUst’ . If God and universe were the same, God can’t be attributed with
anything. Any interpretation of God as ‘Existence’, ‘Being’, ‘Essence’ or ‘Life’
is incomplete, God is above all these attributes.
Furthermore, thought cannot be made applicable to God, as it
presupposes two things, the thinker and the object of thought .Thought
necessitates the precondition that the thinker requires a state of mind other than
that which exists within himself .This leads to dualism, which is against the
fundamental Islamic concept of Tawhid (Unity).The harmonizing of Greek
philosophy with Islam begun by al-Kindi was continued by al-Farabi and
completed by Ibn-Sina. It is generally believed that the doctrine of Wujud
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entered in the Islamic mysticism through the efforts of Dhun-L-Nun of the
Egypt (D.861).Following him, the well-known Persian mystic Abu-Yazid of
Bistam, became the leading exponent of pantheistic philosophy, highlighting
the doctrine of Wujud. The conflict between the extreme form of Sufism and
Shariah (the canon or law of Islam) came to a head on collision in the time of
the well known mystic, Hussein Ibn mansoor-al-Hallaj ,whose life was
sacrificed at the alter of the Shariah. However, it was the Islamic scholar
Sheikh Muhy-al-Din- Ibn-Arabi, a Spanish –Arab ,who successfully brought in
vogue the pantheistic monism. Ibn-Arabi firmly believed that things pre-exist
as ideas (Ayan –tahbitah) in the knowledge of God whence they emanate and
whither they return.The world is merely the outer aspect of God ,who is its
inner aspect .Between the essence and attribute, (God and the universe) there is
no real difference according to Arabi.To search for God beyond this universe,
the true mystic in fact has to be guided by the inner light. Ibn-Arabi insisted
with utmost assurance that pantheistic monism was the only true interpretation
of Islam .He sought support of his assertion in the Qur’an and in the traditions
of the prophet Mohammad .For instance the Qur’an says , ‘And we are nearer
to man than his life-artery’. He believed that this verse of the Qur’an implied
that ‘God Himself is the limbs and parts of the body of the servant’.
Interpreting the tradition (He created Adam in the image of Himself), he said
that man possessed all the attributes of God.
This pantheistic theory (Wujud) popularized by Arabi had a deep impact
on contemporary Sufis and also on those who came after him. Gradually the
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principle of this doctrine became so common among Muslims that almost all
learned people with an inclination toward Sufism came under its spell .The
Arabic, Persian and Urdu Poets who pretended to be Sufis interjected these
ideas into their verses. In this way Muslim mysticism was Hellenized, and the
real spirit (Tawhid) of Islam generally vanished. These alien Platonic and Neo-
Platonic ideas became familiar among Muslims because of Ibn-Arabi, and in a
true sense he alone was responsible for their popularity. Iqbal believed that the
root cause of the negation of ‘Khudi’ for individuals and nations was an
unhealthy impact of pantheism ,the doctrine of Wujud .His elegant verses
repeatedly pointed out that as long as the Muslims focused their attention upon
realizing their ‘Khudi’ they were crowned with glory and power; their decline
started with the loss of ‘Khudi’. Only the nation ,according to him, which
realizes the value of its self and makes it strong can survive in this world .The
crux of Iqbal’s thought is ‘Khudi’. Therefore, contrary to Ibn-Arabi, gnosis of
God is dependent upon the realization of self, maintenance of self and the
firmness of the idea of self. Qur’an asserts that God has created the universe as
Real and with the purpose (Qur’an, 29,44). At another place it says that “ If you
follow the right path which may be different from ancestor’s path ,you will not
harm those who follow the wrong path .After all human actions are judged
according to Allah’s Law of Mukafat” (5:105).
It is on this Quranic view that Iqbal has based his philosophy of ‘self’
which is an eternal reality, a binding force for the scattered and unlimited states
It is salient force which is anxious to come in action. The self is strengthened
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by taking part in His creative activity .Other factors which have positive
impact on self are Love, Faqr, Sabr and Living on lawful earning. For Sufis
Faqr stands for the renunciation of the worldly desires, not to live on people’s
alms and favors. Iqbal rejects this kind of Faqr. His Faqr is dynamic and has
the potential to subdue the earth and heaven. He also rejected the notion of
Sabr prevalent in Sufism as it indicates the passivity and toleration of all
injustice. Therefore moral ideal of man is not self-negation but self-
affirmation. His capacity and potential for self-realization is not like drop of
water which passes and loses its existence .It is rather like drop of water which
becomes a pearl in the sea. Therefore, Iqbal doesn’t seek union between
Creator and creatures as is advocated by the Sufis. Iqbal remarked that how he
can meet God, for, ‘I am the servant and He is Lord’. My relation is only
that of servant. If God is coming to meet me I shall run far away because if the
ocean unites with a drop of water, it certainly loses its existence. The station of
union or the absorption into God claimed by devotees under the influence of
Wujud is but a transitory stage. Servant hood is perpetual since God is God
and man is His creature.
Iqbal believes that servanthood is the highest achievement of man
freeing him from all bondage. For Iqbal God’s servant is elevated and
nourished by His love; even the accomplishment and appropriation of Islam is
dependent upon love. It is dangerously unacceptable to associate any animate
object with the unity of God. The Qur’an asserts : “Verily thou (Muhammad)
art a human being ,it is revealed to thee that verily thy God is One God ,those
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who have desire to meet their God should do good deeds in the service of God,
none else should be associated with Him” (Qur’an: 17-110).
Iqbal’s conception of Tawhid corroborates with the Sufi proposition of
Hama- Az -Ust (All is from God). After creation man became independent, he
attained this status because of the mercy of God .Had there been no God, Iqbal
believes man’s existence also would not have been possible. In this context
Iqbal seems to be highly influenced by the theory of Sirhindi who believed that
“the last station of a devotee is not Wahadat-al –Wujud but (abdeyat) the stage
of servanthood (Maqam-i-abdeyat), in which the devotee (salik) realizes and
experiences his true self.Iqbal criticized vehemently the theory of Wujud so
much so that he called it blasphemy as it diverts the minds of Muslims. While
elaborating the spirit of new times, Iqbal championed creative activity and
struggle as the true expression of man’s essence; being convinced that world is
not something to be merely seen or known through concepts but something to
be made and remade by continuous action. “The ultimate aim of the ego’s quest
is not to see something but to be something, the end of ego’s quest is not mere
emancipation from the limitation of its existence. It is the vital act which
deepens the whole being of the ego and sharpens his will (Reconstruciton, p.
197). He asserted that mysticism ruined the true egos creative freedom and
therefore medieval mystic formula could not satisfy a method for recognizing
truth.
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Iqbal based his whole world view on intense faith and believed in the
inescapable connection of God with man and nature .His philosophy, therefore
reflected the progressive tendency to renounce the blind following of the
orthodox dogmas and to develop and nourish the creative activity of man’s
reason through recognizing his own dynamism and will.
SELF :
Everything cannot be mechanistically explained. According to Iqbal,
there are manifestations of Divine Effulgence and Divine Glory in the world.
Man is not a mere accident in the evolutionary process. He is not mere speck in
the vast and mighty Cosmos. God brings out the whole Cosmos to serve as the
basis and ground for the emergence and perfection of Ego. Man is the essential
feature in the whole gamut of creation .Man is the real and authentic story for
which universe is a mere preface. He is the highest in the apex of Divine
creation.The finite ego exists eternally in Divine Infinite Ego. He is eternal
because, he exists as a possibility in the Divine Creative Power, in the Supreme
Eternal Ego. The ego as a possibility in the Divine Reality is eternal but his
emergence in the universe is from Divine command and Divine creation and is
realized through the evolutionary process. Hence he is eternal as a possibility
of the Divine Reality, his emergence in the world has beginning in time
(Reconstruction, p.116). Iqbal accepts the Quranic view according to which
ego emerges within the spatio-temporal order out of fine clay. God says, “Now
of fine clay we have created man: There placed him, a moist germ, in a safe
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abode; then made We the moist germ a clot of blood: then made the clotted
blood into a piece of flesh; then brought –forth man of yet another make”
(Quran, 23:12-14).
Therefore man owes his existence to Divine Will and Planning. Iqbal discards
the notion of purely physical level in the sense of possessing a materiality,
elementally, incapable of evolving the creative synthesis we call life and mind,
and needing a transcendental Deity to impregnate it with the sentient and
mental capability” (Reconstruction, p.106).
Matter itself is an outcome of Divine Creative Will; it is the outward
expression of Divine life; the Absolute Reality or Ego. The Ultimate Ego is
Immanent in it and we have throughout the entire gamut of being, the gradually
rising note of egohood which ultimately culminates in man. For Iqbal, the
notion of self or ego conspicuously runs through his entire philosophy. Iqbal
assert ‘Khudi’ is the root of all existence, and the human ego has a central place
in the universe; while it is at the same time assimilated with the Ultimate Ego
that is God. Iqbal says:
‘Throughout the entire gamut of being runs the gradually rising note of egohood, until it reaches perfection in man. That is why the Qur’andeclares the ultimate Ego that is God to be nearer to man than his jugglar vein’ (Reconstruction, p.72)
Iqbal holds that one can intuit the self and can directly see that it is real and
existent. Action, effort and constant struggle etc., open to man the deep
recesses of his own being and by virtue of this he directly perceives the
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existence of his self. Iqbal holds that the self is revealed as the nucleus of all of
our activities and consequently it is our ‘ego’ (Latif Hussein kazmi, p.12). Iqbal
believes that life of ‘self’ lies essentially in its ‘will attitude’. Its varying
existence, in fact, depends upon wishing and desiring. In ‘Asrar-i khudi’ Iqbal
vehemently stresses that the entire system of the universe originates in the self
and therefore, the continuation of the life of all individuals depends on the
strengthening of the self. (Nicholson R.A(tr.) Secrets Of Self published by
Sheikh Mohd Ashraf Lahore, Pkt 1955, Introduction, p.16). Ego provides
desires, creativity yearning or soz. This creativity is the essence or core of
human personality. In his ‘Asrar’ Iqbal asserts that self or ego is nourished by
love or ishq, all desires are cherished and become forceful in love.
The Ego attains its glory and freedom only by sweeping all obstruction
in its path. For Iqbal, distance from Ultimate Reality (God) weaken’s the self
or lessens man’s individuality and as soon as he absorbs God, his self gets
enlightened and becomes a complete person (Ibid; p.12). Iqbal points out that
Qur’an emphasizes individuality and uniqueness of man. God has chosen man
for His vicegerency; in order to achieve the highest stage, which is the main
target of human ego, man has to cross two stages –obedience to Divine Shariah
and self-control. Iqbal with all his intellectual dynamism and philosophical
passion tries to underscore the importance and the uniqueness of the self and
with equal vehemence argues against all philosophical tendencies that try to
denigrate or negate the individuality of ego. He rejects Descartes dualistic
approach with regard to mind and body, and say that they being two self-
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sufficient substances is perfectly gratuitous (Reconstruction, p.104). Iqbal also
rejects the Leibnitz’ doctrine of ‘pre –established harmony’ between mind and
body. This conception reduces the soul to merely passive note. For Iqbal the
characteristic of the ego is spontaneity; while the acts composing the body do
repeat themselves (Ibid., p.105). The Body do accumulated actions or habits of
the soul and as such undetectable from mind. Man is ultimately characterized
by limitless divine potentialities and qualities. Man is unanalysable,
unpredictable and is free as an open possibility. In his remarkable poem ‘Man’
in Bang-i-Dara, Iqbal brings out that while all other objects in the phenomenal
world are hedged in by some degree of passivity; man alone enjoys the
distinction of being alert, wakeful, creative and moving. Iqbal say
‘Tasleem ke khogar hai Jo cheez hai duniya main Insan ki har quwat sargarm-I-Takaza Hai’ (Everything in this world is reconciled to its fate, however every potentiality of man is insistently demanding).
For Iqbal, man is finite yet boundless. A man is the ocean that is vast
and free. Its every drop is like a boundless sea (The Rod of Moses, p.53).
Iqbal says, according to the Qur’an, man is not a stranger on the earth
‘and we have caused you to grow from the earth’ (Reconstruction, p.84), the
unique creativity bestowed by God on man. God has created everything ,lofty
mountains ,vast plains ,roaring streams etc on the earth; Sun, Moon, the clouds
and starry heavens for the service of man and he has bestowed him with the
capability to conquer all that is in between heavens and earth .Man has only to
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develop his hidden potentialities through vigorous action and all the earth and
heavens will move at his order.
In Asrar-i Khudi, Iqbal declares that the aspiration of finite self is not in
losing its identity, but in enhancing itself and evolving within the framework of
its finitude and seeking in proximity with the Infinite Self or God. The
relationship between God and finite self is not that of complete identity, it’s a
dialectical relationship of identity and diversity .The finite self is not static
being but a dynamic principle of creation. God creates the finite self of man in
his own image and places him in a world full of challenges and promises.
Therefore, man conquers the world of nature by mastering all the faculties
bestowed upon him by his Creator (Hafiz Malik; Iqbal Poet Philosopher,
p.251). In this whole process of conquest, Iqbal believes God becomes co –
worker and helper of man. The end of the ego’s quest is not emancipation from
the limitations of individuality. The final act is not individual act but vital act,
which deepens the whole being of the ego and sharpens its’ will with the
creative assurance that the world is not seen or known through concepts but
something to be made and remade by continuous action (Rastogi, p. 41). The
creative activity of the world has a single purpose; the perfection of man’s
potentialities through the long drawn-out evolutionary process.
The main purpose of Qur’anis to waken in man the higher consciousness
of his manifold relationship with God and universe. For Iqbal, the journey of
man begins with love and ends at beauty (that is Reality or God). For Iqbal, the
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ego of man is deeply rooted in to the Ultimate Ego which is the fount of
awareness of the higher consciousness. The ego of man when fully developed
becomes related with the Ultimate Ego. Man comes in direct contact with God
when one becomes aware of it; one knows that the world has been created for
him and he is for the world .The man marching onward, his self –knowledge is
transformed into action with full involvement into world’s affairs as vicegerent
of God. For Iqbal, love is the force which brings man nearer to God and
consolidates his ego, which enables the growth of the personality and without
which real life can’t exist. Intellect looks at the surface ,whereas the self by the
light which it has created, sees into the very heart of things. Ibn –arabi says,
‘God is percept and man is concept’, that is we perceive God directly, while we
can only conceive of the world and man. Ishq is a dynamic force, it is the light
that equips a man with power and gives him the courage and strength to tackle
tasks, which in the eyes of common people it would be sheer madness to
attempt .The man of intellect discovers a truth, believes in it and is content with
that, but with the man whose self has been awakened by love, the truth leads to
self-transformation and world-transformation. Intellect calculates, love goes
straight to action regardless of risks and dangers. For Iqbal, love rejoices in
affirmation of its self, love rejoices in self expression, for expressions of love
are inexhaustible and therefore love spells perennial celebration.
There is no reservation with love, no holding back and love seeks no
quarter. If love, commands, surrender thy life, surrender it joyfully because
love is the only beloved, its object is its own consummation and not the
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preservation of life (Ibid., p.23). Love has no delusion, it is not self –
concealed; its endeavors for the perfection of its lights are ceaseless,
unremitting, unsparing. The man who has realized his self keeps a very
watchful eye on the working of his own heart. He sits in ambush on himself,
turns the flashlight of criticism onto his inner self. Every beat of the heart
subjects the motives of his activities to close merciless scrutiny. Therefore, he
seeks to purge his self of all dross and to perfect his light.
As regard to the attainment of human freedom by the human ego, the
Qur’an recognizes that the ego is a free personal causality. The Ultimate Ego
by permitting the emergence of an ego with the capacity for initiative, has to
certain extent restricted his own freedom. By understanding and mastering its
environment the ego acquires and amplifies its freedom .The whole universe is
meant to be subjected by man who thereby attain’ s freedom-
For Iqbal, life is forward assimilative progress. It is only through action
that it prepares ego either for dissolution or immortality. Iqbal says that ego
must adjust its sacred activities to the common good of society, and must not
limit itself for personal satisfaction for that spells greed and lust.
Iqbal’s philosophy of man cannot be complete without mentioning the
concept of Momin (the perfect man) which is such a vital aspect of his thinking
.Islam has recognized that man though a created being, has tremendous
potential of creativity. He is the finest manifestation of the created universe,
and as a tribute to man’s great spiritual and intellectual power and his splendid
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sense of creativity, God has entrusted to him the vicegerency of earth. Iqbal’s
concept of perfect man is based on the beliefs and values outlined in the Quran.
The perfect man is not only an embodiment of all the Quranic principle but is
in fact, the Qur’an in action .He says that the secret which is hidden from
everybody is that the momin who apparently seems to be a reader of Qur’an is
in fact himself the Qur’an(Zarb-i-Kalim, p.57).
The concept of Perfect man has been a popular theme among Muslim
philosophers. Jilli has expressed stimulating ideas in this regard. He is of the
opinion that man is an entity by himself and is a manifestation of both God and
universe. Man is the image of God, and in reality, he is a link to unite God with
the universe. Man is the main objective behind all the creation. No other
creation has the requisite qualities to mirror the truly divine characteristics. The
Holy Prophet is the Supreme example of the perfect man, and anybody treading
the path of life in the light of his character is sure to appropriate the Supreme
ideal which life is capable of bestowing upon man. Similarly Ibn-Arabi
propagated the theory that Divine –consciousness reaches its culmination in the
perfect man. It is through the Perfect man that God knows himself perfectly
and its through him that unknowable becomes knowable. This attitude
according to him, is not to deify the Prophet as the manifestation of divine
knowledge and as the head of entire hierarchy of Prophets. The entity
Mohammad combining in itself both the spirit of Mohammad and the man is
for Ibn-Arabi the link between eternal and temporal. The spirit of the
Mohammad is eternal while Mohammad the man was born ,was active and
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died in time. The spirit of Mohammad exists in all eternity (The Philosophy of
Ibn-Arabi, p. 57). To Iqbal, man is an indomitable, self–conscious centre of
energy whose main characteristic is tolerance for others. Instead of merely
believing in God, his one aim in life is the establishment of the kingdom of
God on earth; and for this he has to be strong enough to defy all obstacles that
come in his way. Iqbal says-
‘A momin’s arm is really God’s arm dominant, efficient, creative, resourceful”. (Abdul Wahid, p.125).
Iqbal says that, the heart attains life by fire of ideals, and when it
attains life everything other than God dies for it.Iqbal asserts that Insane-i-
kamil or Mard-i-momin attains a state where he, living like other human beings
become acquainted with the realities of things. In that state he can be referred
to as seeing with the eye of God ( Encyclopedia of Islamic culture vol-16
edited by Mohd Tahir, Anmol publication, Delhi, 2006, p.62). Iqbal was
against all those concepts which killed individuality or tended to weaken the
existence of the ego. His Perfect Man is Mard-i-Momin (Valiant believer),
whose greatest qualities are power, vision, action and wisdom. These qualities
in perfect form are noticeable in the character of Holy prophet, who was also
complete embodiment of finest attributes. In Bal-i-Jibrail Iqbal has expressed
this idea by saying that Mard-i-Momin is powerful and is conqueror of
difficulties. He is the goal of reason, the sole harvest of love and all activities in
the universe can be attributed to him (Bal-i-Jibrail, p. 132).
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At another instance he says, that an infidel [munafiq] can be recognized
by the fact that he seeks absorption in the universe while the momin is he who
is himself the depository of the whole universe (Zarb-i-Kalim, p.39). Iqbal says
that Momin is the replica of the divine Qualities. Momin to Iqbal is a moral
creature, who is endowed with spiritual and religious qualities, and acting
within the boundaries of the canon law and is the master creator himself. His
momin also differs from the mystical concept of perfect man because there is
no element of renunciation in the life of momin; he doesn’t resign himself, his
entity is not lost in any Supreme Reality. His ceaseless struggle is directed
towards the conquest of the universe. Man’s highest achievement or distinction
according to Iqbal doesn’t lie in seeking self-negation or detachment from the
material world’ and in annihilation of his ego-hood in the ultimate Reality of
God as some Sufis proclaimed, but it is essentially rooted in self-affirmation
and conquest of the universe.
In brief, Khudi requires coupling of will to power with belief, eventually
realizing itself in the form of yaqeen or a deep inner conviction that serves as
the pivotal point for the ‘self’ to act and react to the sensual temptations of life.
However, this conviction will not actualize itself, unless the individual
understands that his life has individual as well as collective dimensions. The
evolution and ascension of the ego is not merely a detached, personal and
individual event.This spiritual development has a collective dimension too that
can not be ignored. Iqbal notes that a great deal of sacrifice and benevolence is
required to bring the individual, self -preserving ego in harmony with the
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collective ego. The process of self –realization requires tension to be present ,as
tension is well -spring of dynamism. The human being’s complete freedom
from the limitations of the material world and from materialism is contingent
upon the maintenance of this tension. In essence, the human beings’ aspiration
to achieve perfection is necessarily entailed on the achievement of a balance
between the individual ego and collective ego. In Iqbal’s words ‘the life of the
ego is a kind of tension caused by the ego invading the environment and
environment invading the ego. The ego doesn’t stand outside this arena of
mutual invasion. It is present in it as directive energy and is formed and
disciplined by its own experience (Reconstruction, p.102). This constant
interaction between the individual ego and environment provide the ideal
opportunity for self evaluation to the extent of becoming the architect of one’s
own destiny.
World :
For Iqbal, God is the Originator, the Creator, the Master and the Lord of
the universe. Iqbal formulates his conception of God substantially in keeping
with the Quranic conception of God. Following Quran, Iqbal appropriates
radical and unqualified realism. For him, the world of objects, plants, animal,
stars etc is categorically real. He is realist as far as he accepts the reality of
external world. The world, according to Iqbal, is revealed to us by an intuitive
insight. On the one hand, the reality of our self is also intimated to us by
intuition and on the other hand, we intuitively feel that we are pitted against a
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world of non-ego. We are obstructed by the forces of non-ego. We are
intuitively forced to accept the reality of the world as an obstruction of all our
volitions and actions. Our experience can’t be explained without accepting the
reality of the world. However, the question arises as to what is the nature of
external world. The common sense belief is that the physical world is the world
of matter extended in space and time. The common sense believes that zillions
of zillions of particles come in association with each other in space and time
and constitute the material world. However, such a view regarding physical
world is utterly unacceptable to Iqbal. Such a view is neither supported by
science nor by philosophical reasoning. Such a view of the world presupposes
a particular conception of space and time which is not defensible either on
grounds of research or on the basis of philosophical arguments. In view of
these considerations, Iqbal’s conception of space and time needs to be
outlined.Iqbal doesn’t accept the Absolutistic or Objectivistic conception of
space and time. For Iqbal, space and time are not objective frameworks. Space
and time as objective frameworks are untenable. For Space and Time are
themselves sustained on account of the objects. Space and Time without
objects will themselves shrink to a point and to a moment respectively.
However, Kant was wrong in underlying the subjectivity of space and time.
They are rather relative. For example, the apprehension of the world by one
sense can be radically different from the apprehension of the world by more
than one senses. The Snail views the world as one dimensional. Some other
creatures may apprehend it as two dimensional. Man, on the other hand,
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apprehends the world as three dimensional. The space and time according to
Iqbal are relative not only to different grades of being but also to different
levels of experience of the same being. For instance, Time appears to be just a
succession of moments to an ordinary person. However, upon deeper
reflection, we shall view time differently .Bergson advances the view that at the
intuitive level we don’t have the impression of time as succession. What
appears succession to an ordinary intellect, is experienced as duration by man
of intuition. In the light of these considerations, Space and Time, according to
Iqbal, are relative to the level of experience and mental capacities of the Ego.
Given such a nature of space and time .it is not logically justified to believe in
an external world that is comprised of fixed substances or things. The notion of
such a material world is furnished to us through sense experience or intellect.
These faculties presuppose a rigid, fixed and static external world. They view
objects of the world in the traditional mould of space and time. They can’t
realize that every object is essentially a dynamic process of growth and
development. It is only the intuition that can reveal the true nature of physical
world.
According to Iqbal, we have a direct intuition of the self and our
intuition further tells us that the world can be conceived analogously through
intuition. Our intuition reveals that the physical world is in continuous
movement. The universe manifests a clear tendency to grow as an individual.
Although there is an inner unity among them all, all these aspects appear as
aspects of totality is the Ego of the egos.The universe is steadily progressing
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towards the realization of some end or purpose. The world, according to him, is
thoroughly oriented to Teleological evolution as an ego grows and rises to
higher level of being. Just as an individual grows in its efforts to realize new
ideals, so the universe is also ever-striving to realize newer and higher ideals.
The world is in nature of an ego, its life and activity, being creative in nature. It
is constantly growing. There is a reason, a purpose and a plan to it. Presently
man may not be able to fully appreciate the Theological character of the
universe. But, as it is, the world –process exhibits a tendency towards
realization of higher ideals. However, the world process is an infinite
progression .It has infinite potentialities and can endlessly go on realizing
higher ideals. The universe can never reach the final or ultimate state. It has
always to be an ongoing process.
Problem of Evil :
Iqbal boldly accepts the reality of evil. The following words of Iqbal do
testify to his profound appreciation of the enormity of the problem of evil:
“The Qur’an has clear and definite conception of nature as a cosmos of mutually related forces. It is therefore, views Divine Omnipotence as intimately related to Divine Wisdom, and finds Infinite power of God revealed, not in the arbitrary and the capricious ,but in the recurrent ,the regular and orderly. At the same time the Qur’an conceives God as ‘holding all goodness in His hand’. If then, the rationally directed Divine Will is Good, a very serious problem is arises. The course of evolution, as revealed by modern science, involves almost universal suffering, wrong doing. No doubt, wrong doing is confined to man only but fact of pain is almost universal, though it is equally true that men can suffer and have suffered the most excruciating pain for the sake of what
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they have believed to be good. Therefore two facts of moral and physical evil stand out prominent in the life. Nor can the relativity of evil and presence of forces that tends to transmute it be a source of consolation to us; for inspite of all this relativity and transmutation there is something terribly positive about it. How is it, then, possible to reconcile the goodness and Omnipotence of God with the immense volume of evil in His creation. This painful problem is the crux of Theism” (Reconstruction, p. 81).
While Iqbal works out a justification of the thesis that evil is relative to
the context and what appears evil in one context may be good in another
context, or the thesis that evil is unreal, that evil is not something of a
positively independent principle but only as absence of good, he neither accepts
the unwarranted optimism of Browning nor unmitigated pessimism of
Schopenhauer. Neither our historical evolution has equipped us with wisdom to
go in for the thesis that God is up above in the heavens and all is well with the
world nor to opt for the thesis that this world is one perpetual winter, wherein a
blind will expresses itself in an Infinite variety of living things which bemoan
their emergence for a moment and then disappear forever. In view of the same,
the issue of optimism vs. pessimism continues to be irresolvable. Our
epistemological and intellectual equipments are also inadequate so that we
cannot have an understanding of the final purposes and ends of Infinite
operations being carried out day in and day out by the Omnipotent and
Omniscient God. We are condemned to take a piecemeal view of things.The
Quran, according to Iqbal preaches neither facile optimism nor hopeless
pessimism .The Qur’an believes in the possibility of improvement in the
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behavior of man and his control over natural forces. It takes a melioristic view
of things and inculcates in us the hope of eventually overcoming evil. Iqbal’s
explanation, and justification of evil is anchored on the very creation of man. If
man is capable of achieving spiritual excellence and moral perfection is to be
achieved, then unavoidably and inevitably he has to be invested with autonomy
and freedom .Freedom is the achievement of moral and spiritual wisdom. It is a
precondition of morality or in Kant’s words, a postulate of morality. Only a
man who is capable of viciousness as well can be said to be capable of working
on righteous lines. A man who is endowed with the potentiality for viciousness
can be meaningfully said to be capable of being and becoming a morally
uprights person.
“Man’s first act of disobedience was also his first act of free choice ;and
that’s why according to the Quranic narration, Adam’s first act of transgression
was forgiven .Now, goodness is not a matter of compulsion; it is Self’s free
surrender to the moral ideal and arises out of willing corporation of free ego”.
A being whose movements are wholly determined like a machine can’t produce
goodness but to permit the emergence of finite ego who has the power to
choose after considering the relative values of several courses of action open to
him is really to take a great risk; that God has taken this risk shows His
immense faith in man. Now it is for man to justify this faith. Perhaps such a
risk alone makes possible to test and develop the potentialities of being who
was created out of the ‘goodliest fabric’ and then brought down to be lowest of
the low” (Reconstruction, p.85).
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Iqbal’s interpretation of the Quranic Legend of the Fall tries to bring out
a justificatory account of evil. According to Iqbal, the Quranic Legend of the
Fall has nothing to do with the first appearance of man on this planet .Rather,
the Quranic Legend aims at indicating man’s rise from primitive state of
instinctive appetite to the conscious possession of the free self .Such a self is
capable of doubt and disobedience. In the Legend of the Fall, the Qur’an tries
to explain man’s transition from simple consciousness to the first flash of self-
consciousness. At this stage, man is awakened from his natural slumber to a
consciousness of personal causality within. A vital consideration with a view to
justifying the presence of evil in human affairs is advanced by Iqbal with the
reference to the Quranic Legend of the Fall of Adam as well. Iqbal says that it
is in the nature of self to struggle for survival. This struggle entails knowledge,
as well as power and strategy of self-multiplication. Man’s quest for knowledge
has been symbolically outlined by the Quran. Adam is deemed to be superior
over the angels in remembering and reproducing the name of the things
(Qur’an, 2:31). This verse brings out the conceptual character of human
knowledge. Iqbal, further reminds us that with the ancient people the tree was a
cryptic symbol for occult knowledge (Ibid., p.86). Adam was asked by God not
to touch the fruits of a tree .In view of the fact that his mental constitution and
intellectual equipments didn’t suit the appropriation or internalization of occult
knowledge, but were more oriented to kind of knowledge that can be acquired
by long drawn out process of trial and error. The Satan, a perennial enemy of
man, by inspiring Adam to partake of the fruits of forbidden tree was only
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fixing him in an undesirable short-cut with a view to keeping him ignorant of
the joy of perpetual growth and expansion. As per the intellectual faculties
granted to man, human knowledge has got to be acquired in perpetual
installments; it has to be an ongoing affair. The life of a finite ego in an
obstructing environment depends on the perpetual expansion of knowledge
based on actual experience.
Man, as a finite ego has several possibilities open to him and he can
expand his knowledge by the method of trial and error. Therefore, error which
may be deemed to be an intellectual evil, is an unavoidable factor in man’s
quest for the knowledge which is essential for his survival. Secondly man’s
imperative of survival in the face of all-pervading death, has oriented him to
self-multiplication through engaging in sexual activity.
‘The eating of the forbidden fruit of the tree of eternity is life’s resort to sex-differentiation by which it multiplies itself with a view to circumvent total extinction’ (Ibid., p. 87).
However, the phenomenon of collective immortality can’t circumvent
the fact that life has to have a definite outline in a concrete individuality. The
mystical and spiritual revelations are always manifested in the concrete
individuality .However, the ever-expanding knowledge through trial and error
and achievement of collective immortality through ever-expanding
multiplication of the race by recourse to sexual intercourse, are not free of cost.
They exact insufferable price in terms of inter-personal competition and
domination. Each individuality fixes it gaze on the revelation of its own
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possibilities and seeks its own sovereign sphere of operation. Such state of
affairs inevitably leads to perennial struggle, which is awfully and
excruciatingly painful. This perennial conflict is both a boon and a bane of
human history. It is simultaneously both illuminating and darkening of the
historical existence of life. In case of man, the possibilities of wrong-doing get
all the more proliferated in view of the fact that human individuality deepening
into personality destined into finitude has got to face the imperfections of life.
As the Quran says:
‘Man has accepted at his peril the trust of personality whish the heaven and earth and mountain refused to bear’.(Qur’an,33:72)
Accordingly, the Qur’an exorts man to fully bear the ills and hardships
of life. Iqbal writes,
“This mutual conflict of opposing individualities is the world pain which both illuminates and darkens the temporal carrier of life. In the case of man in whom individuality deepens into personality opening up possibilities of wrong doing, the sense of the tragedy of life becomes much more acute. But the acceptance of selfhood” (Ibid., p. 88).
Iqbal suggests that there can be other vital considerations, which can
more fully demonstrate the justification of the presence of evil in human
affairs. However, at the present stage of evolution we cannot fully appreciate
the positive contribution of presence of evil in human civilization. We can say
that the driving power of pain brings more discipline in human life. It can also
be suggested that the Evil hardens the self against a possible dissolution.
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However, such suggestions cross boundaries of pure thought and at this point
we enter the jurisdiction of the faith. It is through faith that we are assured the
eventual triumph of goodness over evil. While God is supremely oriented to
purpose, fullness of the life and the universe, man is woefully unqualified to
appreciate the teleological import of Divine operations.
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3. Iqbal Mohd., Bal-i-Jubrail, Iqbal Academy Lahore, Pakistan, 1936.
4. Iqbal Mohd., Payam-i-Mashriq, Iqbal Academy, Lahore, Pakistan, 1971.
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