Adil Najam
To me, the 23rd of March is a day to reflect on the message of Mohammad Iqbal, just like the 14th of August is to ponder on the legacy of Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
We, as Pakistanis, have not really been kind to the legacy of either man. We turned both into idols. And once we convinced ourselves that these were ‘supermen’ we conveniently absolved ourselves of the responsibility to learn from – let alone emulate – either. We are fond of celebrating but incapable of incorporating either the actions of Mr. Jinnah nor the thoughts of Mohammad Iqbal.
After all, once we turned Mr. Jinnah into the ‘Quaid-i-Azam’ and conferred near-divine status on him it became all too easy to say that we, mere mortals, could not be expected to act in the way – or even on the principles – that he did. His blemishes were to be denied, not just because we hold him in reverence but also because to acknowledge them is to accept that maybe ordinary – even flawed – human beings can stil have principles worth following. We have done the same to Iqbal. Because his the ‘the’ Allama, he is to be put on a pedestal. His work read with respect and honor; to be savored, but not really to be understood. Certainly not to be questioned, and absolutely not to be allowed to influence that we do. After all, he is an Allama; and we are not.
The Allama-ization of Iqbal, just like the Quaid-i-Azam-ization of Jinnah has been a disservice to both. For ultimately it has turned these two giants into mere statues; the iconography of the ‘Allama’ and the ‘Quaid’ have enabled us to turn them into dieties of reverence while at the same time distancing ourselves – if not outright disowning – the thought of the first and the actions of the later.
We at ATP have been rather remiss in not paying enough tribute to Mohammad Iqbal. This is a mistake I have been wanting to rectify. Today, the eve of Pakistan Day is a good time to begin doing so. The events and the idea behind the 23rd of March owes more to Iqbal than anyone else. And as a first offering of tribute to Iqbal I offer you this wonderful video. I found it on YouTube:
I do not really know who produced it although for some reason the voice sounds familiar. The selection of poetry as well as the pictures are excellent. Indeed, I wou urge you to focus on both. The pictures are not the ones you usually see of him and many of them evoke a humanness that is lost in many of our ‘official’ portraits on the man. But also focus on the ideas. This is a work less known that, say, Shikwa and Jawab i Shikwa, but it has ideas that are so contemporary that he may as well have been talking about the events of last week. For example:
anpay watan meiN houN kay ghareeb-ud-diyar houN
Darta houN daikh daikh kay iss dasht-o-dar ko meiN
Can anyone recommend a good book on Iqbal’s life?
Lets not turn the ‘Allama’ into a ‘Maulana’ please. He was interested in religion, but never in religosity!
His goal was never to turn people into ‘good’ muslims who were paband-i-soat-o-salat. He wanted people to be ‘thinking’ muslims. Able to talk to the Almighty in the tone of a Shikwah. When he is talking of ahkaam-i-illahi, he is certainly not referring to the hudood ordinance!
Link 1
Link 2
Above might or might not be true but it was certainly helpful in knowing Dr Iqbal better.
The text of the Allahabad address is here
Ramla, the problem is the self proclaimed intellectuals, who have no contribution towards any thing constructive, take out their frustrations on real life achievers. As the saying goes asmaan pay thooka mohn pay hi wapis attaa hai. When its hard to distinguish between rumours and realities, keep an eye on the solid contributions of these giants. No nation can exist without ideals. Many nations are so desperate that they creat legends out of thin air (look east for example), in order to survive.
We are very fortunate that we have solid, hisortically proveable facts spanning last 1400 centuries.
I am “feeling” rather than “thinking” about this post – and I am feeling: “About time we bring the heroes home!”
This whole making-superhumans-out-of-humans has made a great deal of knowledge and wisdom inaccessible to humanity. On the other hand, the bewildering notion that a “hero/ine” could do no wrong is making pygmies out of potential contemporary giants.
You know what I mean? Jumping down people’s and our own throats – without forgiveness – without realizing that some mistakes our true EXPERIMENTS. All things evolve. So do people.