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Chapter
7:
Iqbal's Religious Views Derived from Ahmadiyya
Thought:
Links present on
this page:
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1.
Views
in Prose
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2.
Influence
of Ahmadiyya Views on Iqbal's
Poetry
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Views in
Prose:
Iqbal wrote as follows:
1. "Arab sufism dominates the
hearts and minds of the Muslims of India. They are unable
to understand Arab concepts. I am an ordinary man, but
even if the Holy Prophet Muhammad himself were to be born
again to preach Islam in this country I am sure that the
people of this land, in view of their present conditions
and the influences upon them, would probably not
understand Islamic truths.” (Makatib
Iqbal, Letters of Iqbal, Letter to Niyaz-ud-Din Khan, p.
53.) “
2. I believe that the Holy Prophet
Muhammad is alive, and the people of these times can
derive spiritual benefit from him just as did his Sahaba
(Companions). But in this age even the expression of a
belief of this kind would be unacceptable to most minds,
so I keep quiet.” (ibid.,
Part II, p. 317.)
3. "By life is not meant life with
the physical body. Hazrat Abu Bakr recited the verse of
the Quran: ‘Messengers before him have passed
away’, and this is the truth.”
(ibid., p. 40.)
The view expressed by Iqbal in this
quotation supports the Ahmadiyya interpretation that
Jesus is not alive in his physical body, and that he had
died before the Holy Prophet Muhammad just as all other
prophets were dead at that time.
4. “Would that the prayer of
Maulana Nizami be accepted in this age, and the Holy
Prophet Muhammad re-appear to unveil his teachings to the
Muslims of India.” (ibid., Part I, p. 41.)
Indeed, not only Maulana
Nizami’s prayer but the prayers also of countless
other people were accepted, and a servant, lover,
spiritual image (buruz) and self-effaced follower of the
Holy Prophet came and unveiled before the world the
original picture of the religion of the Holy Prophet and
the true teachings of Islam. But the world meted out to
him the same treatment which it does to all those who
come from God.
5. "To understand religious issues,
especially the religious teachings of Islam, requires a
particular kind of education. Regrettably, the new
generation of the Muslims is entirely unfamiliar with
this. With regard to Muslims, the cause of this trouble
is that education became completely
non-religious.” (ibid.,
Part I, p. 259.)
6. "The critic is wrong in saying
that Iqbal supports war in this progressive age. I do not
support war, nor can any Muslim do so in view of the
clear limits set by the Shariah. According to the
teaching of the Quran, there can only be two forms of
jihad or war: defensive and corrective. In the first
case, that is, when Muslims are persecuted and driven out
of their homes, they are allowed, not ordered, to take up
the sword.
"The second case, in which jihad is
obligatory, is given in 9:49 [in the Holy Quran].
Reading those verses carefully you will realize that what
was referred to by Sir Samuel Hoare as "collective
security" at the meeting of the League of Nations, the
Quran has explained the principle of the same with
simplicity and eloquence. If Muslim leaders and statesmen
had pondered over the Quran, a League of Nations would
have been established in the Islamic world centuries ago.
The history of the League of Nations founded in the
present day also shows that until the will of nations
follows the Divine law, no path to world peace can be
found. Besides the two kinds of war mentioned above, I
know of no other war. To wage war to satisfy territorial
greed is prohibited in Islam. By this reasoning, it is
also forbidden to raise the sword for the propagation of
the faith.” (ibid., Part
I, pp. 203 – 204, letter to Maulvi Zafar Ahmad
Siddiqi.)
7. "I believe that the task of the
propagation of Islam has priority over all other duties
at this time. If the aim of the Muslims in India is
merely to achieve independence and economic prosperity by
political means, and the defence of Islam is not among
their aims, as appears to be the case from the attitude
of the nationalists of today, then the Muslims shall
never succeed in their aims. I say this from personal
insight, and after a little experience of current
politics, that so far as the Muslims are concerned the
direction of politics in India is a great danger for the
religion of Islam. In my view, the threat of the shuddi
movement [A campaign by the militant Arya Samaj Hindu
sect to convert Muslims back to their ancestral Hindu
religion] is of no importance when compared to this
danger, or at least this too is an unperceived form of
shuddi.”(ibid., pp. 209 – 210.)
Influence
of Ahmadiyya Views on Iqbal’s
Poetry:
1. Regarding the continuation
of revelation from God, Iqbal wrote in poetic verse:
"If some audacious person
were to be the like of Moses, even now there comes
from behind the bush at Tur the call ‘fear
not’, [Translator: These words were
the revelation of Moses.]
"Until the Book is revealed to
your conscience, the knots cannot be unravelled by
either Razi or the author of Kashshaf,
[Translator: These are two classical
commentators of the Quran.]
"I am in communication with
Gabriel, the Amin, there is no rival, messenger or
doorman for me in this path.
“O God, the meanings which
You reveal to my soul like dew, through them I have
created a new world for wailing and crying.
“If a Shuaib could be
procured, it only takes two steps from tending sheep
to receiving Divine revelation.”
[Translator: The reference is to Moses’
stay with Shuaib, during which he tended sheep, and to
his receiving revelation while returning home after
that stay.]
2. Iqbal and his admirers and
students consider it permissible to use the terms nabi
(prophet), paighambar (messenger), juzwi nubuwwat
(partial prophethood) etc., about non-prophets. Iqbal
wrote:
“I am, as it were,
prophet (nabi) of the land of poetry, on my lips runs
the word of Hali.
“If the aim of poetry be to
lead mankind, then poetry is the heir to
prophethood.
A biographer of Iqbal
writes:
“Wherever I have used
the word mujaddid and likewise the word paighambar for
the Allama, I have not meant them in their technical
sense in the Shariah but have used them in their
literal sense.” (Maulvi Muhammad Tahir Faruqui,
Sirat-i Iqbal, p. 210.)
Dr. Khalifa Abdul Hakim, an
interpreter and admirer of Iqbal, and famous Pakistani
religious writer and philosopher, writes in a poem in
praise of Iqbal:
“This is poetry which
is called a part of prophethood, this is poetry which
is a verse (ayat) coming from the discipleship of the
Beneficent God.
“This poetry is in reality
reared by Divine revelation, the blessing is highly
exclusive but the benefit is very general.
“One whose word is of this
kind is called kalim [one spoken to by God],
it is full of wisdom, he is called hakim
[wise].”
3. According to Dr. Iqbal, a man is
not a believer unless he reaches the rank of laulak.
[This term comes from the opening words of a
saying contained in Hadith according to which God said to
the Holy Prophet: “If it had not been for thee (lau
laka), I would not have created the world.”]
“The world is the inheritance
only of the fearless believer, he is not a believer who
has not reached the stage of laulak.
“The whole world is the
heritage of the true believer, the proof of my statement
is the subtle point of laulak.”
4. Iqbal has spoken of a believer
as being Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. Some of his
verses are quoted below, followed by an explanation by
one of Iqbal’s interpreters:
“No one knows the
secret that the believer, apparently only reciting the
Quran, is in reality the Quran.
“The world is a house of
idols, and the man of truth is khalil, this is the
idea which lies concealed in la ilaha. [The
reference in khalil is to Abraham who smashed the
idols of his people.]
“The true believer strikes
like lightening from the sky, his fuel is the cities
and uninhabited areas of east and west.
“We are as yet enveloped in
the darkness of creation, but he takes part in running
the world.
“He is kalim
[Moses], and Masih [Messiah], and
khalil [Abraham],he is Muhammad, he is the
Book, he is Gabriel.”
An interpreter of Iqbal, Professor
Yusuf Salim Chishti, explains these verses as
follows:
“It should be made
clear that in the 8th, 9th and 10th stanzas the advice
Iqbal has given to young people can be summed up as
follows: O young people, acquire the quality of faqr
[resigna tion to God]. However, this quality
cannot be created without the company of a spiritual
guide, as is proved by the lives of the Sahaba. So he
is describing the attributes of the perfect spiritual
guide: O reader! the appearance of the man of truth,
the perfect man, takes place according to the Divine
will. He comes from heaven. When God so wishes, He
raises for the reformation of His creatures a
righteous servant in whom the attributes of the Holy
Prophet Muhammad are reflected as an image. That man
of God, the perfect mentor, annihilates the forces of
falsehood. His characteristics [according to Iqbal
in the above verses] are as follows:
“a. While
people like us are merely conjecturing in the dark
about the creation, i.e. we are bound by time and
space, and are the subservient creation, he is
involved in the organization and running of the
system of creation. That is to say, he is the ruler
of creation. It should be made clear that by
‘one who takes part in the running of
creation’ Iqbal means the man with whom are
associated matters relating to creation, just as
with prophets are associated matters relating to
religious law. Hence Sura Kahf refers to such an
exalted person in the words ‘a servant from
among Our servants’ [ch. 18, v.
65].
“b. He is the
heir to the spiritual qualities of Moses, Jesus,
Abraham and Muhammad, peace be upon them all. In
him is manifested the image of the attributes of
the prophets. He is potentially a prophet, but not
actually a prophet because prophethood has come to
an end. This point has been explained by Mujaddid
Alif Sani in his Maktubat.
“c. All the holy
men of God derive spiritual benefit from his
person.
“d. He first of
all purifies the souls of human beings and kindles
the fire of Divine love in their hearts. Then he
shows them how to rule the world.” (Yusuf
Salim Chishti, Sharh Jawaid Nama, Ishrat Publishing
House, Anarkali, Lahore, 1956, pp. 1198
–1199.)
5. Regarding the mi‘raj
of the Holy Prophet, commonly believed to be a physical
rising to God, Dr. Iqbal writes:
“You have put Him on
the 'arsh, O preacher, what a God is He Who avoids the
people.”
6. As to the coming of the Mahdi
and the Messiah, he writes:
“Look to the descent
of God upon the minaret of your own heart, and stop
waiting even for the Mahdi and Jesus.
“Did Jesus die or is he
still alive? Are the Divine attributes distinct from
God’s person or identical with His
person?
“By the one to come, is it
meant the original Jesus or a Mujaddid possessing the
attributes of the son of Mary?
“Are not enough for Muslims
in this age, these idols carved out by theology?”
(Armaghan-i Hijaz.)
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