Critique: Knowledge and Religious Experience (Part 1)

Excerpt:

Ghazali’s chief opponent, Ibn Rushd, who defended Greek philosophy against the 
rebels, was led, through Aristotle, to what is known as the doctrine of Immortality of Active 
Intellect, a doctrine which once wielded enormous influence on the intellectual life of 
France and Italy, but which, to my mind, is entirely opposed to the view that the Qur’«n 
takes of the value and destiny of the human ego. Thus Ibn Rushd lost sight of a great and 
fruitful idea in Islam and unwittingly helped the growth of that enervating philosophy of life 
which obscures man’s vision of himself, his God, and his world.  [Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, Allama Iqbal]

Ibn Rushd is seen as having failed and blighted the light of religion by concurring and advancing the thought that originally is said to have emerged out of Greek minds.  This certificate of rejection by Allama Iqbal for Ibn Rushd, one of the greatest legal and intellectual minds of Arab-Muslim Andalusia, painfully reveals how Allama Iqbal has unwittingly demonstrated the lack of understanding of history and historical evolution of the mind.  That is unless Iqbal practiced intellectual dishonesty by choice.

Recall how the painting that describes the rise of western civilization, 'School of Athens', by Raphael, showcases Ibn-Rushd (Averros), engrossed in thought with the likes of Aristotle and his Greek predecessors.  While Allama Iqbal recognizes that Ibn-e-Rushd's carrying the torch of Greek thought enlightened the realms of Europe, but Iqbal goes to term this as a travesty as Rushd's rationalist approach, in Iqbal's view negating Quranic visions of the world as seen by Iqbal.

Allama Iqbal not only demeans the contributions recognized by the world of Ibn-e-Rushd, but states that the light people like Ibn-e-Rushd left for Medieval Europe was not worth emulating.

While throughout his lectures Allama Iqbal desperately wishes to give credence to religion by showing it as something comprehensive - an amalgamation of intuitive feeling, thought and action - reading passages such as the above reveal Allama Iqbal was perhaps more interested in promoting the idea that: real Islam has never been practiced in its entirety.

By promoting this idea, the present day jahalat of Muslims that surrounded Iqbal could be explained with simplistic solutions.  By ensuring through passages such as there, where even the best of Muslim scientists is seen as a delusional fool, Allama Iqbal could comfortably declare that the world has never given 'true Islam' a chance to show itself.

Whereas the fact is, the first 500-600 years of Islamic civilization negate Allama Iqbal.  Muslims were showcasing themselves as the sole global superpowers.  Iqbal and Iqbaliat cannot stomach these initial 6 centuries as within them science had begun to take root and uprooted the dogmas of faith, ways of life, deen, and akharat.  Only by denying, negating and demeaning the efforts of the scientists of the golden period of Muslim rule can Iqbaliat inspired ideologies promote a conceptually perfect vision of the world that can be self-conveniently compared with the flawed realities of witnessed in various global socio-political and economic systems.  By comparing perfect conceptions with flawed realities, Iqbaliat ideologies can continue to receive oxygen.  However, unfortunately before you can promote such a joke, you have to tarnish and truncate Islamic history as well.

Note on the project Critique of Iqbaliat and Other Myths

Allama Iqbal's first lecture, "Knowledge and Religious Experience", from the compiled 6 lectures "Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam", reveals several sides of the man.  The next series of blogs would primarily be an attempt to critique what is known as the man's philosophy based on these lectures.  All authors who make these critiques should also be presented with counter-arguments so that a debate can occur.  Allama Iqbal, more than anyone else needs to be scrutinized instead of turned into a holy cow - although the rest of the world refuses to give his philosophy any credit.  However, the objective should be to press the debate, the ideas and quest for knowledge forward rather than accept the pungent stagnancy that now defines Iqbaliat.

Iqbal inspires Mussolini's Fascism

When Iqbal went to England to attend the second round table conference in September 1931, Italian Government sent its emissaries to request Iqbal to visit Italy. While in Italy during November 1931, Iqbal received a message through Dr. Scorpa, the Italian Councilor in Mumbai that Mussolini wanted to meet him. Dr. Iqbal accepted his invitation and met the Italian Dictator on November 27 in his famous hall.

During the course of the meeting Mussolini asked Iqbal, “What you except we Italians to do?” Dr. Iqbal replied, “Europe has left with no moral values. Stop blindly following Europe and learn lessons from the East.”

When Mussolini requested Dr. Iqbal to give some exceptional suggestion for him, Iqbal advised, “Don’t allow overcrowding of the cities. Limit the size of the population of a city and after that limit instead of allowing them to settle there, create new settlements and cities for them.”

Bemused, Mussolini requested Iqbal to elaborate further. Iqbal said, “As population of a city increases, its moral values and economic power start waning. Worst, immoral activities start challenging the cultural strength.”

Mussolini looked towards the Indian Great in disbelief for a moment but in the next moment stood from his chair and shouted with excitement, “What an excellent idea!”

Iqbal's Birthday

Today is Sir Allama Iqbal's 132nd birthday. The man was a master in the control and flow of language. While his popular is mostly confined to Pakistan, him being declared the national poet, he is known in India as the man who wrote and composed the national anthem, saray jehan say acha [our home is the greatest in the world], it is Iran where the poet finds quite a large literati audience as Iqbal wrote much of his poetry in Persian.

It is said that Iranians always saw Iqbal as a 'persian' poet and only found out after the revolution that he's in fact from Lahore. When Majid Majidi spoke to the NCA students (in his local Persian language), he often mentioned Iqbal as a person we could be inspired from in the realm of art and called the man 'Iqbal Lahori'.

The poet Iqbal has many credentials. Mostly positive - even those who do not like his poetry.

But it is the philosopher Iqbal that causes severe problems. Iqbal has been put on a pedestal of philosophy. He's been glamorized to fill the intellectual void ringing in echos across Pakistan. The sad reality though is, the louder these echoes become, the more virulent the praise for Iqbal.

Unfortunately, there is nothing in Iqbal's so-called 'philosophy' that can save those basing their life's outlook on Iqbal's thoughts. That Iqbal is even considered a legitimate philosopher in the first place itself reflects the decadent minds of today's Pakistan. However, not only is he categorized with the likes of 'great philosophers', he's seen by many political leaders as their motivating spirit.

It won't be off the mark to say that most people who are impressed with Iqbal's philosophy are those who have not read it (as compiled under 'Reconstruction of religious thought in Islam'). Those who have read Iqbal's gibberish will be startled at how banal it is.

Iqbal one love, three wifes and four marriages

The following is not meant to shed doubt on Iqbal's personal life - merely to show his human side. It is easy to find solutions for others, but ironically difficult to find solutions in one's own life.

read the following on Ale's blog

from Iqbal's one love, three wifes and four marriages by Dr. Sohail

laazim hai dil ke paas rahay paas-baan-e-aql
lekin kabhi kabhi isay tan-ha bhi ch-hoR day

(It’s good to keep the heart under the guardianship of wisdom
but sometime the heart needs to be left alone)
Iqbal

When we study the psychological aspect of Iqbal’s life, we find out that despite having a sensitive heart and a brilliant mind, he had to struggle against many romantic contradictions through out his life. These contradictions appeared for the first time when Iqbal went to Europe in the pursuit of higher education. Upon reaching Europe, he discovered that his personality possessed certain charm that the opposite sex found irresistible. He could not have come to this realization in the traditional and suppressed romantic climate of his homeland where women were conditioned not to act upon such attractions. Iqbal, soon, had a coterie of female friends including women from the West as well as the East and among the latter was Atiya Faizi.

The relationship between Iqbal and Faizi developed quite rapidly and soon they were dining together quite frequently. These dinners were followed by long walks during which the two talked about many mysteries of life. Iqbal, besides being smitten by Atiya’s beauty, was impressed by her intellectual prowess as well which is evident from the fact that Iqbal sought her opinion about his Ph.D. thesis.

When we read Atiya Faizi’s diaries, we observe that she mentions Iqbal in a way one mentions a lover and not just a friend. [1] Her relation with Iqbal had reached the stage where it becomes difficult to differentiate between friendship and love.

Iqbal’s return to India in 1908, after completing his education, resulted in a psychological crisis for him. After sampling the liberalism of the West, Iqbal could not cope with the conservatism of his own society. In such a mental state, Iqbal wrote a letter to Atiya Faizi in which he described his thoughts very candidly. This letter is mentioned by many commentators including Iqbal’s biographer Abdul-Majeed Salik in “Zikr-e-Iqbal”. The letter became one of the most talked about of all the letters Iqbal ever wrote. In the letter, Iqbal expressed his frustration and anger towards his life. To a certain extent, Iqbal blamed his wife to be the cause of his miseries. He wrote that his father had wedded him at a young age against his will and this marriage had now become an unwanted burden for him. Iqbal wrote that he sometimes wished to drown his frustration in alcohol because he felt that alcohol made committing suicide easy. Iqbal wrote that he was perfectly willing to support his wife financially for the rest of his life but he just couldn’t bear the torture of her being part of Iqbal’s daily life. In the same letter, Iqbal wrote that being a human being, he had the right to be happy and if society tried to deprive him of that right, he would rebel against it. The only choices he was left with, he wrote, were to either leave the cursed country or become an alcoholic to numb his feelings. According to Iqbal, dead and barren pages of books could not give him happiness and he had enough fire in his soul to burn those books along with the Eastern traditions to cinder. [2]

This particular letter betrays the depth of despair Iqbal was going thru at the time. His suppressed rage—against his wife, the outdated values of his society and traditional nature of his family—was coming to the surface. Atiya Faizi responded to this profound letter in a very sympathetic manner and advised Iqbal to seek psychological comfort in the company of his friends.

It seems that Iqbal’s life at this point had come to a crossroads. He had turned sour not just towards his marriage but towards his culture, traditions and religion as well. He was experiencing a conflict between the traditional demands of his society and his desire to live in the open society of Europe which enticed him with economic opportunities as well as the proximity of Atiya Faizi.

It is quite possible that Iqbal wanted Atiya Faizi to become his life partner. If that was the case, he never overtly expressed that desire—maybe for the lack of courage. Despite his admission that he was extremely unhappy with his marital life, Atiya never made any suggestive moves towards Iqbal. She was a wise and seasoned woman who knew that what Iqbal needed was a psychiatrist and not a second wife.

The realization that Faizi was not going to become his life partner may have intensified the psychological crisis in Iqbal. When someone is thru an emotional and psychological crisis, one tends to make emotional decisions guided by the frustration and rage—and that is exactly what happened to Iqbal. He decided to marry again and, without seeking anyone’s counsel, Iqbal chose Sardar Begum to be his second wife. Soon after the nikah, the religious ceremony of wedding, and before the traditional departure of the bride to the house of her newlywed husband, Iqbal received anonymous letters questioning Sardar Begum’s character. Iqbal was so disheartened by those letters that he decided to divorce Sardar Begum.

In the meantime, Iqbal received a proposal to marry Mukhtar Begum, the daughter of the famous Dr. Subhan Ali from Ludhiana, Punjab. Iqbal’s sister, Karim Bibi, went to Ludhiana to meet Mukhtar Begum. Upon her return, Karim Bibi praised the beauty of Mukhtar Begum in such persuasive manner that Iqbal immediately agreed to marry Mukhtar Begum.

Iqbal and his new bride arrived back at Lahore after the marriage ceremony. The next day, when Iqbal had the first real opportunity to see his wife closely, he was utterly dismayed because she was nothing like how Iqbal’s sister had described her. She was not beautiful at all. It was later revealed that Iqbal had been conned into marrying Dr. Subhan Ali’s niece whose name was also Mukhtar Begum. By the time Iqbal came to know this, it was too late because he had consummated his marriage. It is still a mystery as to who was responsible for this deception. At the outset, it seemed that Iqbal’s sister was deceived on her visit to Ludhiana but it is hard to rule her out as an accomplice because of the statements of Rasheeda Begum (Iqbal’s daughter-in-law who married iqbal’s elder son Aftab). Rasheeda Begum alleges that Iqbal’s sister had a soft corner for Iqbal’s first wife and she was the one who wrote the anonymous letters against Sardar Begum. It’s quite possible that when Karim Bibi saw that her brother was determined to marry again even after getting disheartened by Sardar Begum affair, she deliberately sabotaged Iqbal’s marriage with Mukhtar Begum by misleading her brother into marrying a woman who was not as beautiful as Iqbal expected.

While Iqbal was still suffering from this shock, he received a letter from Sardar Begum, his second wife, who he had mentally divorced and who was still living with her parents. Sardar Begum wrote to Iqbal that she was waiting for him to take her to his home and if Iqbal rejected her, she would never marry again. She expressed her profound sorrow that a person of Iqbal’s mental caliber had judged her only on the basis of gossip and rumor. The letter was bound to make Iqbal feel guilty and he became extremely sad when he later found out that the anonymous letters regarding Sardar Begum were probably written by an advocate by the name of Nabi Bakhsh who wanted Sardar Begum to marry his own son (Rasheeda Begum, as quoted above, disagreed with it and maintained that the letters were the handiwork of Iqbal’s sister). Iqbal talked to some of his friends who knew Sardar Begum’s family and they told Iqbal that there was no truth in the allegations. Embarrassed and guilt-ridden, Iqbal wanted to bring Sardar Begum to his house but there was still an obstacle. Iqbal thought that he had divorced Sardar Begum in his mind and according to some of his friends with religious bent, once divorced, Iqbal could not marry her. She first had to marry someone else, get divorced and only then could Iqbal marry her again according to the religious concept of halala. Confused, Iqbal sought the opinion of a Muslim cleric who told him that what Iqbal’s friends had suggested didn’t apply to Iqbal’s situation because Iqbal had not consummated his marriage with Sardar Begum. Still somewhat confused, for the satisfaction of his mind, Iqbal went thru the marriage rites again with Sardar Begum before bringing her home and so Sardar Begum, who Iqbal married twice, became his second and fourth wife. In the period of two years, Iqbal had added three marriages and two wives to his life. Interestingly, Iqbal’s first wife, who was living in Sialkot till that time, also decided to live with him in Lahore with his other two wives. Iqbal had two kids, Aftab and Mairaj, with his first wife, so, at a certain point in his life, Iqbal was living with three wives and two kids.

This polygamous setup of Iqbal’s household was not very practical and could not last long. One day, the mother of Iqbal’s first wife came over, told Iqbal that he was a very irresponsible husband and took her daughter and her daughter’s kids away with her. [3]

Iqbal’s various biographers agree that Sardar Begum was Iqbal’s favorite wife who was the most beautiful of the three. Iqbal had two kids, Muneera and Javed, with her. With the passage of time though, the love started to fade away from his relationship with Sardar Begum as well. Iqbal was not someone equipped with the abilities of coping with the demands of traditional family life. Sardar Begum also realized that though Iqbal was a successful poet and philosopher, he was a failure at being a good husband. This feeling led Sardar Begum to become irate towards Iqbal. Iqbal’s son, Javed Iqbal, describes the relationship between his parents by writing, “we were always short of money for household expenses so my mother wanted my father to take his law practice seriously. We were also renting at that time and my mother wanted us to buy a house. I can still recall the usual scene of my mother crying and cursing at my father and telling him that while she was working like a servant and making every effort to save some money, my father was busy lying down writing poetry, and my father laughing his embarrassed laugh.” [4]

This description of Iqbal’s household tells us that Iqbal, the great intellectual who could stare any politician, poet or intellectual in the eyes, could not give any satisfactory answer to his wife’s objections. If such was his relation with his favorite wife, one can imagine the state of his relationship with his other wives.

While living with three wives, Iqbal continued his correspondence with Atiya Faizi. Iqbal’s love life was so typical of the life of an Eastern poet; he couldn’t marry the woman he loved and he couldn’t love the women he married.

Iqbal never moved to Europe but he maintained contacts with European ladies. They used to come over to India and meet Iqbal and Iqbal showed equal enthusiasm meeting them. After the death of Sardar Begum, instead of hiring an Indian woman, Iqbal hired a German governess for Javed and Muneera who used to call her aunt Doris. It seems that Doris was serving dual purpose of looking after the kids and assuaging Iqbal’s nostalgia about Europe.

As a psycho-therapist, Iqbal’s love life came to me as a surprise. I am surprised to note that The Poet of the East, who had a solution for every problem afflicting his nation, remained clueless about the solutions of his own romantic and marital problems. I find it hard to believe that he got separated from his first wife and their kids after sixteen years of marriage, that he divorced his second wife based only on anonymous letters, that he realized that he was deceived only after he had consummated his marriage with his third wife, and more surprisingly, that he sought an edict from a cleric and then ignored the edict before marrying Sardar Begum a second time.

I guess Iqbal must have concluded from these experiences that it was easier for him to have a successful creative life than a successful marital life. Words came easy to Iqbal but the answers to the tough questions of his romantic dilemmas did not. Maybe that is why he wrote,

Iqbal baRa updeshak hai, mun baton main moh laita hai.
Guftaar ka yeh ghazi to bana, kirdaar ka ghazi ban naa saka.

References:

1- Letters and diary of Atiya Faizi. Translation by Zia uddin Ahmad Burni. Iqbal Academy, Karachi, Pakistan, 1969.
2- “Zikr-e-Iqbal”, Abdul Majeed Salik, Chaman Book Depot, Delhi, India (p. 95)
3- “Iqbal and his elder son, Aftab Iqbal”, Rasheeda Aftab, Ferozesons Karachi, Pakistan, 1999 (p. 80)
4- “Apna garebaN chaak”, Javed Iqbal, Sang-e-Meel Publishers, Lahore, Pakistan, 2002 (p. 20)

Reponse to friend on Iqbal's thought: 1

I think we should be fair here. Greek philosophy does not begin with Socrates/Plato/Aristotle. Greek Alexandria or the Sophists (as pointed out by the article and yourself) were also major elements of Greek philosophy. The latter were focused on empiricism. And the conflict between 'rationalism' and 'empiricism' amongst Greeks only shows how vital Greek philosophy - predating the Muslim period of civilization by 2000 years - was. Both empiricism and rationalism emerged from Greek philosophy.

But I agree with your contention that there was much to criticize Greek philosophy on - and Muslims scientists did this in their dialectics throughout their years. While Greek philosophy may have 'concluded' or 'halted' on rationalism, it nevertheless spurred Muslim thought and allowed it to proceed further.

Iqbal's confusion (and flawed philosophy) can be best gauged from reading his lectures (collectively titled: "Reconstruction of religious thought in Islam"). In Iqbal's lecture 'Knowledge and religious experience' he uses redundant and self-congratulatory 'logic' to negate Greek philosophy and criticizes Muslim scientists who were enamoured to it. However, in his lecture 'Spirit of Muslim Culture', Iqbal uses the output of these same Muslim scientists and shows how Science was given life by these Muslims. In fact, Iqbal goes out of his way to praise those same scientists by quoting Francis Bacon who studied in the universities of Spain and who was all praise for the Arab scientists. I am not sure what to make of this flip flopping between lectures, but Iqbal's lectures are full of flip flops. This is why no one outside the Urdu/Persian world (other than the lonely Anne-Marie Schimmel :)) takes his philsophies seriously.

As I said, I (in my limited knowledge) may agree with Russell but I would value Russell's opinion or that of Al-Razi's more than Allama Iqbal. The former two were serious in their quest for pursuing knowledge and trying to keep it untarnished by personal motives or childhood beliefs. Iqbal subjects the discourse and struggles of humanity - whether the discourse and struggle were correct or incorrect - to his personal non-empirical, irrational desires. In fact, more than anything else, Iqbal's lectures reflect Iqbal's own frustration at being unable to withstand the conquest of science. This frustration is manifested in many belief systems - Muslim, Christian, Hindu etc - that are always trying to play 'catch up' to sustain themselves in face of science. Just compare the fatwas from 20 years ago, to those of 40 years ago to those of 100 years ago to today. It is as if the religious scholars are desperately competing in a marathon race hopping forward on one leg.

Alternative views on Iqbal

From time to time, this blog will attempt to critique Allama Iqbal, considered to being Pakistan's national poet and its leading 'intellectual'. Whereas all great philosophers and thinkers have numerous critics who critique, find flaws and reevaluate their philosophies, testing to see if they stand the test of time and expansion of knowledge, Allama Iqbal has no critics.

On numerous occasions I inquired from the Iqbal Academy (located on 6th floor of Aiwan-e-Iqbal, Lahore) to assist me on a book critiquing Iqbal's philosophy or poetry. However, the only book on 'criticisms of Iqbal' in their computerized database was 'Allama Iqbal's criticism of western philosophy'.

While Iqbal may have 'implored' Muslims of the subcontinent to 'think and contemplate', practically he has proven to be an extremely stagnant force in both the intellectual and philosophical realm. The reasons exist in the ideas expounded in his book, 'Reconstruction of religious thought in Islam', a series of seven lectures.

The only person who has attempted to 'critique' Iqbal without inviting accusations of 'unpatriotism' and such forth is Javed Iqbal, the poet's son. A open, broader discussion on Iqbal's philosophy, its limitations, potential and ramifications is needed.

Pakistanis will eventually come to understand that there is more to philosophy and intellect than Iqbal.

As Iqbal would say, 'sitaroan say aagay jehaan aur bhi hain..." [there are world's that exist beyond our imaginations...]