REMEMBERING ALLAMA IQBAL (9th November): "Islam Itself Is Destiny And Will Not Suffer Destiny." -- Iqbal

 

"Islam Itself Is Destiny

And Will Not Suffer Destiny"

–- Allama Iqbal

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“Nations are born in the hearts

of poets; they prosper and die

in the hands of politicians”

– Allama Iqbal

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(M. Javed Naseem)

9^th of November is the birth anniversary of one of the greatest thinkers of the East, the poet-philosopher of Asia Dr. Sir Mohammad Iqbal, affectionately known in the Sub-continent as Allama Iqbal. Pakistan was the brain-child of that visionary. He was born on 9^th November, 1877, in Sialkot (Pakistan), and died on April 21, 1938, in Lahore (Pakistan). His original works are written in Persian, Urdu and English but have been translated in many languages.

(Note: There was some confusion about his date of birth in the past but the Government of Pakistan did some research and declared 9^th November, 1877, as the correct date.)

It was Iqbal who first came up with the idea of 2-nation theory – meaning a separate homeland for millions of Muslims of India who were suffering from discrimination, racism and apartheid at the hands of racist and extremist RSS Hindus. Those were the nationalist Hindus who didn't respect their own 'Father of Nation' – Gandhi – and eventually assassinated him. Today, in the year 2020, Indian Muslims are suffering the same misery and are being killed ruthlessly.

Iqbal – the thinker, philosopher, barrister, law-maker, reformer, sufi, interpreter of the Quran, scholar and a visionary politician, is also called the "Spiritual Father of Pakistan" for his contributions to the nation. Iqbal's poems, political contributions, and academic and scholarly research were distinguished and highly respected in international forums. He inspired the Pakistan Movement in the biggest British colony – India. Personalities like him are born in centuries.

Allama Iqbal's poetry delivered a universal message of self-esteem, justice, peace and struggle for righteousness. It brought awareness among Indian Muslims and guided them on the right path to achieve a closer relationship with their Creator – Allah, and at the same time waking them up to take the responsibility of leading the nation to freedom and salvation. To the seekers of Divine, he suggested to look inside because the Creation could not be separated from its Creator.

The 'Father of Nation' – Mohammad Ali Jinnah (Quaid-e-Azam), was a great admirer of Allama Iqbal. Here's what he said about him in his Iqbal Day's message in 1943:

“Dare and Live!”

“Iqbal never believed in failure. he believed in the superiority of mankind over all the rest that God created. In fact he was convinced that man is a collection of all that is best in God’s universe. Only man does not know himself. Man has but to utilize his great potentialities and to use them in the right direction for the realization of that “self” which finds itself so near to God; and Islam is the code which has prescribed easy ways and means for that realization.”

“Iqbal was not only a philosopher but also a practical politician. He was one of the first to conceive of the feasibility of the division of India on national lines as the only solution of India’s political problem. He was one of the most powerful though tacit precursors and heralds of the modern political evolution of Muslim India.

Iqbal, therefore, rises above the average philosopher, as the essence of his teachings is a beautiful blend of thought and action. He combines in himself the idealism of a poet and the realism of a man who took practical view of things. In Iqbal this compromise is essentially Islamic. In fact it is nothing but Islam. His ideal therefore is life according to the teachings of Islam with a motto “Dare and Live.” – M. A. Jinnah (The Dawn, March 21, 1943).

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"When a nation dies,

it rarely rises from

the grave!"

– Iqbal

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Iqbal's “Javid-nama”

‘Iqbal’s magnum opus’, writes his biographer S. A. Vahid, ‘is the Javid Namah. Within a few years of its publication the poem became a classic, and one great scholar proclaimed that the poem will rank with Firdausi’s Shah Namah, Rumi’s Mathnawi, Saadi’s Gulistan and the Diwan of Hafiz. Nor was this tribute an exaggeration, as subsequent criticism showed.... In judging a poem we have to consider two things: the style and the substance. So far as the style is concerned, Javid Namah belongs to the very first rank of Persian verse. It is unsurpassed in grandeur of expression, in beauty of diction and in richness of illustration. As regards theme, the poem deals with the everlasting conflict of the soul, and by telling the story of human struggle against sin, shows to mankind the path to glory and peace. In every line the poet makes us feel that he has something to say that is not only worth saying, but is also fitted to give us pleasure. Thus, as regards style as well as theme the poem is a masterpiece.’

The Javid-nama, having been frequently reissued in lithograph – the edition on which the present translation is based was published in 1946 at Hyderabad (Deccan) – was first translated, into Italian, by Professor Alessandro Bausani under the title II Poema Celeste (Rome, 1952). A version in German verse, Buch der Ewigkeit (Munich, 1957), has come from the pen of Professor Annemarie Schimmel. A French version, by E. Meyerovitch and Mohammed Mokri, has the title Le Livre de l’Éternité (Paris, 1962). In 1961 a translation in English verse was published in Lahore, The Pilgrimage of Eternity by Shaikh Mahmud Ahmad. The poem has thus reached a truly international public, and has already taken its rightful place amongst the modern classics of world literature.

Here's the English translation of excerpts from the Persian Javid-Nama:

The Divine Presence

Though Paradise is a manifestation of Him

the soul reposes not, save in the vision of Him.

We are veiled from our Origin;

we are as birds who have lost our nest.

 

If knowledge is perverse and evil of substance

it is the greatest curtain before our eyes;

but if the object of knowledge is contemplation

it becomes at once the highway and the guide,

laying bare before you the shell of being

that you may ask, 'What is the secret of this display?'

Thus it is that knowledge smooths the road,

thus it is that it awakens desire;

it gives you pain and anguish, fire and fever,

it gives you midnight lamentations.

From the science of the interpretation of the world of color and scent

your eyes and your heart derive nourishment;

it brings to the stage of ecstasy and yearning

and then suffers you like Gabriel to stand.

Zinda-Rud

What law governs the world of color and scent,

but that water once flowed returns not to the stream?

Life has no desire for repetition,

its nature is not habituated to repetition;

beneath the sky, reversion is unlawful to life

once a people has fallen, it rises not again.

When a nation dies, it rarely rises from the grave;

what recourse has it, but the tomb and resignation?

The Voice of Beauty

Life is not a mere repetition of the breath,

its origin is from the Living, Eternal God.

The soul near to Him who said, 'Lo, I am nigh' –

that is to take one's share of everlasting life.

 

The individual through the Unity becomes Divine,

the nation through the Unity becomes Omnipotent.

Life is both transient and everlasting;

all this is creativity and vehement desire.

 

Are you alive? Be vehement, be creative;

like Us, embrace all horizons;

break whatsoever is uncongenial,

out of your heart's heart produce a new world –

it is irksome to the free servitor

to live in a world belonging to others.

(Courtesy: http://www.allamaiqbal.com/works/poetry/persian/javidnama/translation/index.htm)

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