Wasn’t Iqbal Wrong In Denouncing Western Style Democracy And Freedom? Hasn't His Romantic View Of Brutal Despotism In The Name Of Khilafat Radicalised Our Ulema And Youth, To The Present Ruination And Irrelevance Of Islamic Civilisation?
By Dr. Mohammad Ghitreef, New Age Islam
21September 2023
Knowledge Production In The Atmosphere Of Democracy, Liberalism, Openness, Freedom And Respect For
Human Rights, Is The Fountainhead Of Western Power And Unprecedented Influence
In The World
Main Points:
1.
Surprisingly, despite his call for reconstruction of
Islamic theology, and theological views that would get any other Muslim to be
denounced as a heretic, he remains the favourite philosopher of our ulema due
to his regressive political views.
2.
Iqbal was a superb
poet, but his political views have radicalised Muslim ulema and damaged Islamic
civilisation.
3.
The critique of the
West by Iqbal and his adherents must be carefully examined and scrutinized by
all those who want Islamic civilisation to once again acquire relevance.
4.
Because Western
society has both advantages and disadvantages, Muslims must interact with it
and should not completely reject it.
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Dr. Muhammad Iqbal
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Iqbal, the greatest Urdu poet, and philosopher no doubt was
a genius and the greatest mind Muslim India has produced in recent times. He
went to England and did his Ph.D. on “Metaphysical Roots of Iranian Tasawwuf”
from Oxford. And since it was necessary to have a good knowledge of German to
complete the doctorate in a Philosophical domain, that is why, he went to
Germany to learn German and have a degree in it from Munich. In Germany, Iqbal
encountered a beautiful and genius German woman scholar Ema Vegenast. There was
a good conversation between the two on many occasions, letters were exchanged.
Even after returning from Europe, Iqbal continued to write her letters from
India. Some people even say that there was an affair between the two. It is
possible because Iqbal married a lowly educated woman at his early age, and was
not satisfied with his marital life. But here we do not have to discuss this
issue.
Iqbal greatly influenced Muslim thought in India and Iran as
well. One of the main ideologues of 1979’s so-called Islamic revolution of
Iran, Ali Shariati was very impressed by Iqbal’s Persian poetry and thought.
Pakistanis wrongly and disputedly call him the ideological and visionary father
of their nation.
Iqbal remained in the West and experienced first-hand the
merits and drawbacks of Western civilisation.
Iqbal inaccurately prophesied the early death of European
civilisation, as you can see in the following couplet, and was not it a
self-deceit or illusion!
تہماری تہذیب خودآپ اپنے ہاتهون سے خودکشی کرے
گی
جوشاخ نازک پہ آشیانہ بنے گا ناپائدارہوگا
(Your civilization will commit suicide by its dagger,
for, the house built on a fragile foundation is always weak
and frail.)
Though Iqbal was a thinker and a versatile philosopher yet
in his political views he seems to me, tending to be a romantic and unrealistic
person. He had a nostalgic approach to the obsolete Caliphate system as he was
a firm believer in an autocratic rule. We can cite his famed couplet here:
چاک کردی ترک ناداں نے خلافت کی قبا سادگی اپنوں کی دیکھ اوروں کی عیاری بھی دیکھ
تا خلافت کی بنا دنیامیں ہوپھراستوار لاکہیں سے ڈھونڈکراسلاف کا قلب وجگر
(The ignorant Turk has torn the mantle of the Caliphate,
look at the simplicity of Muslims and see too the cunning of the others., bring
forth the hearts of the ancestors from anywhere, so that the foundations of the
Caliphate can be rebuilt again.)
It must be admitted that there is aversion towards God and
dislike of traditional religion in the West, the discourse of atheism is more
powerful than that of religion. Atheists use Darwinian evolutionary theory to
support and cement their ideology of negation of a supernatural being or
creator of the Universe. Nudity and obscenity are on the rise. But there is no
coercive aspect in it. That is why it fosters a culture of free thinking. And
this freedom as summum bonum is a great source of strengthening Western
civilization.
Iqbal had read the West closely and made sharp comments on
Western civilization. But the same Iqbal also remarked:
نے ز از رقص زنان بے حجاب قوتِ
مغرب نہ ازچنگ و رباب
ازہمیں آتش چراغش روشن است قوتِ مغرب از
علم و فن است
(The power of the
West does not come from the harp and musical tools and not from the dance of
naked women. Rather the strength of the West comes from knowledge and art,
their lamp is enlightened from this fire.)
We see that Iqbal and his staunch follower Maulana Maududi
were wrong in the assessment of Western civilization. Though Iqbal was a bit
honest in confessing and giving some credit to this civilization as we quoted
above. Yet in his Urdu poetry he treated Western civilization with utmost bitterness
and unusual harshness as once he remarked:
اٹھاکرپھینک دوباہرگلی میں نئی تہذیب کے انڈے ہیں گندے
(The eggs of the new civilization are dirty so throw them
out in the street)
Iqbal was anti-democracy; he mocked with this polity by
saying:
جمہوریت وہ طرزحکومت ہے کہ جس میں بندوں کوگناکرتے ہیں تولانہیں
کرتے
(Democracy is a form of government in which the people are
counted and not weighed)
How many rivers of dust and blood has the West passed
through, to reach modern democracy? How many sacrifices have its thinkers,
artists, writers, and scientists made to get rid of the clutches of the
tyrannical monarchy and the oppressive church, regardless of all this,
democracy is a devilish curse for Iqbal, what a surprise!
There is a poem in his anthology: Iblis ki Majlis Shura
(Consulting body of Satan) in which Iblis(Satan) tells one of his disciples
that democracy is our creation:
ہم نے
خودشاہی کوپہنایاہے جمہوری لباس
توسمجھتاہے کہ آزادی کی ہے نیلم پری
(We have worn the kingship a democratic dress, you believe
that it is a beautiful Fairy of freedom!)
In religious circles of Muslim masses, Iqbal has been
received like a prophet, that is why, even though there are several academies
and organisations in Pakistan and India specifically dedicated to studying
Iqbal, it is unacceptable to criticise or examine his ideas. Iqbal’s poetry was
translated into Arabic too, and through it one can trace his impact on Arab
scholars and thinkers.
No one can deny that the Western civilization still is a
dominant civilization of our times. It is still flourishing and a leading force
in the world of economy and global polity and culture. Notwithstanding the big
clams of Islamists and many predictions makers for the West to be declining
very soon, there is no big sign of its nearby fall or decay. Contrasting of it
the house of Islam is in disorder, as many Muslim countries are always fighting
each other in Asia and Africa as well. Some Mid-Eastern countries and small sheikhdoms
in recent times have made a tremendous developmental drive on materialistic
grounds. For example, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain Qatar, et al are witnessing an
upsurge in development, prosperity, and emergence of big malls and skyscrapers,
etc.
Yet, this phenomenal growth and developmental model is also
based on a Western capitalist model not on an Islamic model.
Compare that to the occurrence of radicalization, religious
dogmatism, sectarian conflict, rising intolerance, animosity towards others,
and widespread religiosity devoid of a genuine spiritual or religious sense.
People more frequently follow their traditional tribal cultural ethos and
rituals in many Muslim cultures and refer to them as Islamic traditions, like
in Afghanistan. Many YouTubers and clerics are naively converting people to
false beliefs like the return of a Messiah, Mahdi, or the emergence of a
monster called Dajjal, etc. Contrast this with the most palpable civilizational
values of the West such as honesty, justice, equality, valuation of merit,
respect of other’s faith, rule of law, freedom of expression, freedom of faith,
and of course dignity of humans. These values are now very deeply rooted in
Western societies and are playing a pivotal role in preventing that
civilization from falling.
For Maulana Maududi, who never travelled to the West and
only visited America to meet his son, a doctor there, for treatment of his
terminal illness, Iqbal served as an inspiration. Maulana Maududi produced a
body of anti-Western writing unmatched by anybody in the modern age. He sees
nothing positive in the West. He published many books since he was a skilled,
eloquent, and rapid Urdu prose writer. And because there are most contemporary
educated people in Jamaat-e-Islami, the hatred of the West was instilled in his
audience and readers and through them to general Muslims like poison.
Similarly, Syed Qutb was influenced by Maulana Maududi in the Arab world.
Although he stayed in America for two years on an education tour he also saw
nothing but very negative aspects of Western society as he mentioned later in
his famous memoir اميركة
التي رائيت (The America that I Saw). After his return and joining the
ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood, he lashed out against the West in his powerful
Arabic prose.
Both were followed by more rigid and narrow-minded Maulvies,
second-hand writers, columnists, preachers, and scholars. The result was a
severe kind of hatred and disgust, blended with ignorance, jealousy, and enmity
toward West permeating the Muslim mindset. This enmity and negative mentality
spread throughout the Muslim societies around the world.
The Islamic world was ruled by European imperialism when
Iqbal composed his poetry and Maududi wrote prose, thus it is but logical that
their ideas were widely embraced. After that time, however, their glorification
should have been stopped and their ideas ought to have been subjected to a
critical and impartial examination.
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A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Dr. Mohammad
Ghitreef is a Research Associate with the Centre for Promotion of Educational
and Cultural Advancement of Muslims of India, AMU, Aligarh.
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic
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