Befuddled intuition of Iqbal

It is a tragic epitaph on the literary life of Iqbal that his poetry is more often employed by the religious clerics in their public sermons to further their obscurantist message and by the military to strengthen the morale of their profession, than by the practitioners of natural, liberal or secular sciences. A study of his poetry clearly reveals that this direction of Iqbal's poetry is well deserved. This series of articles will draw attention to a few dichotomies in the ideology of Iqbal as enunciated in his poetry. His poetical progression was divided in two phases; the first as an articulator of an Indian nationalist and the second as a proponent of Islamic revival. These articles will propound the confusing signals that emanate in the second phase of his literary journey. Iqbal was a beneficiary of education from Murray College in Sialkot. Without this missionary school, he wouldn't have stepped on the first ladder of the steep elevator that took him to the British established Government College Lahore, Trinity College University of Cambridge and University of Munich. Along the way, he was called to the bar from Lincoln's Inn and earned a PhD in Philosophy. He was therefore well aware that nations cannot attain respectable levels of social or economic progress without sound education, and that the only educational institutions of any value were of western origin imparting liberal and secular education. His was a clear example of the fact that a good education can elevate a person and his/her family in only a few decades from centuries of poverty and ignorance, and propel him to an everlasting fame, wealth and social status. He should have given a clear message to the youth to emulate this example in following educational and research oriented path. Instead, his poems deliver a message of orthodoxy and withdrawal from the world. While he was acutely conscious of the magnitude of social drag caused by Muslim religious leaders -a class that he deeply abhorred- Iqbal failed to appreciate the contributions of the liberal stalwarts of the Islamic Golden Age. Some of these 8th to 11th century thinkers subjected all traditional truths to criticism, a trend that emerged in Europe only in the eighteenth century. Iqbal took pride in the Muslim achievements in Khurasan and Spain in yet he consistently composed verses to degrade the rational thinkers, who were primarily responsible for that Golden Age. Iqbal adored Jalaluddin Rumi of Balkh and Fariduddin Attar of Nishapur, and censured Ibn Sina of Bukhara, Al-Razi of Rey and Al-Farabi of Kazakhstan. However, all these scholars were different aspects of the same literary environment in the medieval age. They all belonged to Khurasan and were products of tolerant attitudes in that land. Iqbal's differentiation between these figures is like criticising Newton, Einstein and Heisenberg and praising Kant, Hobbes and Voltaire. You cannot have one set without the other. While the latter forge the social and moral grounds, it is the former who create prosperity and development. If the Golden Age of Islam was due to the mystics, then we in Punjab and Sindh, with the poetry and conviction of Bulleh Shah, Khawaja Ghulam Farid and Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, should have been counted among the advanced nations of the world. Similarly, while Tariq Jamil and Tahir-ul-Qadri comfort the hearts of millions, it is Abdus Salam, Qadeer Khan, Salimuzzaman Siddiqui and Mehboob-ul-Haq who usher in economic prosperity and scientific development. There are a number of verses in Iqbal's poetry to support his befuddled thinking. He says in Bal-e-Jibril that; Heeran Hai Bu Ali Ke Main Aya Kahan Se Hun, Rumi Ye Sochta Hai Ke Jaun Kidhar Ko Main "Ibn Sina is absorbed in the origins of humanity, whereas Rumi is worried about its future." In this verse, Iqbal is under rating the scientific quest implied by Bu Ali (Ibn Sina) as compared to the spiritual reflections represented by Rumi. It is not difficult to visualize that these two fields are not mutually exclusive. Rumi was a mystic and a poet. Perhaps being a poet himself, Iqbal associated himself more with Rumi than with Ibn Sina, overlooking the fact that a scientist too is as much concerned with the origins as with culminations of time, matter and events. The following Rubai -four verse poem- of Iqbal in Bal-e-Jibril conveys the same context, Jamal-e-Ishq-o-Masti Ne Nawazi, Jalal-e-Ishq-o-Masti Be-Niazi Kamal-e-Ishq-o-Masti Zaraf-e-Haidar, Zawal-e-Ishq-o-Masti Harf-e-Razi "The allure of love is melody of flute; The majesty of love is elegant indifference; The pinnacle of love is nobility of Ali; The decline of love is rational of Razi." In his these elegant words, Iqbal has demolished the whole rational movement of Islam. Among his other scientific achievements, Razi was the founder of paediatrics, a pioneer in ophthalmology, the first to differentiate between smallpox and measles, and contributor to medical ethics, chemistry and pharmacy. In philosophy, he was proto-Kantian in promoting reason and criticism. During his life, his philosophical reasoning was misconstrued as his religious beliefs. Iqbal too targeted Razi on the basis of his philosophy; an unfair trend that continues to this day in Pakistan. Iqbal's this thinking is evident by yet another verse; Ne Muhra Baqi, Ne Muhra Bazi, Jeeta Hai Rumi, Haara Hai Razi "In the tussle for the heart and mind, It is Rumi who won and it is Razi who lost." Iqbal celebrates this victory of Rumi, at the expense of Razi, for the soul of Muslim society. Considering the current state of Muslim society, it is true that the rational thinking is in retreat. However, it is a matter to grieve and not to rejoice. Razi's lose is the very reason that Muslims find themselves in a state of abject poverty and ignorance. The rational Muslim thinkers in Khurasan were the bloodline of excellence in literature, philosophy and sciences. However, in an illogical verse, Iqbal comments that they were the ones who failed to understand the reasons for the excellence of that era. Iqbal says, urūq-murda-e-mashriq meñ ḳhūn-e-zindagī dauḌā samajh sakte nahīñ is raaz ko siinā o fārābī "The blood of life ran in the dead veins of east Ibn Sina and Farabi cannot understand this perplexity." Reading this verse, one wonders as to who provided energy to the sch', olarship of Khurasan if not Farabi, Ibn Sina, Khawarzmi, Razi and Al-Biruni and scientists like them. Clearly, Iqbal could not comprehend the contribution of rational thinkers in giving birth to the Islamic Golden Age; the very age that he often felt nostalgic about. In another verse, written below, Iqbal regarded the achievements of Muslim scientists as nothing but measurements of physical quantities. It is again a strange thought on his part because measurement of physical phenomena is at the heart of scientific development. Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry are nothing if not measurements and co-relations. In his poem 'Zikr-e-Fikr', Iqbal considered a ritualistic repetition of holy words better than the intricate scientific measurements. Maqam-e-Zikr, Kamalat-e-Rumi-O-Attar Maqam-e-Fikr, Maqalat-e-Bu Ali Seena Maqam-e-Fikr Hai Pemaish-e-Zaman-o-Makan Maqam-e-Zikr Hai Subhana Rubi Al Aala "The pinnacle of deliberation is measurement of time and space The apex of contemplation is 'Praise thee, the supreme sustainer. The apex of contemplation are the wonders of Rumi and Attar The pinnacle of deliberation are the treatises of Bu Ali Sina." It is strange that Iqbal comapres prayers and logic, finding the earlier superior. The strangeness doesn't lie in his conclusions but in the very comparison of two ways of life. To a clear mind, the two are independent of each other. Even a diehard extremist-conservative islamic cleric would find it hard to indulge in this kind of comparison that Iqbal had so brazenly undertaken. Iqbal's message has been looked at with concern by other modern thinkers. In an article in the daily Tribune of 9 Feb 2013, Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy also laments the failure of 'reason' in Pakistan as represented by Sir Syed and the triumph of 'tradition' as defined by Iqbal. This article does not deal with the religious, social and political issues addressed by Iqbal. Its focus is only on his unfair treatment of Muslim scientists of the medieval era. His verses on the subject display indifference on his part about the contributions these scientists made in advancement of medicine, optics and chemistry. A large number of these scientists have been honoured in our modern era by International Astronomical Union by naming moon craters and minor planets after them. Razi, Khwarzami, Avicenna, Averroes, Al-Biruni, Omar Khyyam, and many others have been thus honoured because their work remains relevant even today. Ironically, Iqbal chose to downgrade them in his poetry. A separate article studies how historical nostalgia of Iqbal affected his thoughts. This article, in a slightly modified form, first appeared in the weekly The Friday Times on 25th Jan 2019 Parvez Mahmood retired as a Group Captain from PAF and is now a software engineer. He lives in Islamabad and writes on historical and social issues. He can be reached at parvezmahmood53@gmail.com