And imbue the idle looker-on with restless impatience.And advance hotly on a new quest.And become known as the champion of a new spirit."Let us begin at the end. What is the far-off goal on which his eyes arefixed? The answer to that questionwill discover his true character, andwe shall be less likely to stumble on the way if we see whither weare go-ing. Iqbal has drunk deep of European literature, his philosophy owesmuch to Nietzsche andBergson, and his poetry; often remians us of Shelly; yet he thinks and feels as a Muslim, and just forthis reason hisinfluence may be great. He is a religious enthusiast, inspired by the vis-ion of a NewMecca, a world-wide, theocratic, Utopian state in which allMuslims, no longer divided by the barriersof race and country, shall beone. He will have nothing to do with nationalism and imperialism. -These,he says, "rob us of Paradise": they make us strangers to each Oth-er, destroy feelings of brotherhood, andsow the bitter seed of war. Hedreams of a world ruled by religion, not by politics, and con-demnsMachiavelli, that "worshipper of false goods," who has blinded somany. It must be observed that whenhe speaks of religion he alwaysmeans Islam. Non-Muslims are simply unbelievers, and (in theory,atany rate) the Jihad is justifiable, provided that it is waged "for God'ssake alone." A free andindependent Muslim fraternity, having the Ka'baas its centre and knit together by love of Allah anddevotion to theProphet-such is lqbal's ideal. In the Asrar-i-Khudi and the' Ramuz-i-Bekhudi lie preachesit with a burning sincerity which we cannot but ad-mire, and at the same time points out how it may beattained. The formerpoem deals with the life of the individual Muslim, the latter with the lifeof theIslamic community.The cry "Back to the Koran! Back to Mohammad!" has been heard before,and the responses havehitherto been somewhat discouraging. But onthis occasion it is allied with the revolutionary force ofWestern philo-sophy, which Iqbal hopes and believes will vitalise the movement andensure its triumph.He sees that Hindu intellectualism and Islamic pantheism have des-troyed the capacity for action, basedon scientific observation and inter-pretation of phenomena, which distinguishes the Western peoples"andespecially the English." Now; this capacity depends ultimately onthe conviction that Khudi (selfhood,individuality, personality) is realand is not merely an illusion of the mind. Iqbal, therefore, throwshimself
3
Leave a Comment