Muhammad Iqbal was an outstanding poet-philosopher, perhaps the most influential Muslim thinker of the twentieth century. His philosophy, though eclectic and showing the influence of Muslims thinkers such as al-Ghazali and Rumi as well as Western thinkers such as Nietzsche and Bergson, was rooted fundamentally in the Qur’an, which Iqbal read with the sensitivity of a poet and the insight of a mystic. Iqbal’s philosophy is known as the philosophy of khudi or Selfhood.
The purpose of life is the development of the Self, which occurs as human beings gain greater knowledge of what lies within them as well as of the external world. Iqbal’s philosophy is essentially a philosophy of action, and it is concerned primarily with motivating human beings to strive to actualize their God-given potential to the fullest degree.
Muhammad Iqbal was born at Sialkot in India in 1877. His ancestors were Kashmiri Brahmans; his forefathers had a predilection for mysticism, and both his father, Nur Muhammad, and his mother, Imam Bibi, had a reputation for piety. An outstanding student, Iqbal won many distinctions throughout his academic career.
In 1915, he published his first collection of poetry, the Asrar-e-Khudi (Secrets of the Self) in Persian. The poems emphasise the spirit and self from a religious, spiritual perspective. Many critics have called this Iqbal’s finest poetic work In Asrar-e-Khudi, Iqbal has explained his philosophy of “Khudi,” or “Self.” Iqbal’ s use of term “Khudi” is synonymous with the word of “Rooh” as mentioned in the Quran. “Rooh” is that divine spark which is present in every human being and was present in Adam for which God ordered all of the angels to prostrate in front of Adam. But one has to make a great journey of transformation to realize that divine spark which Iqbal calls “Khudi”. A similitude of this journey could be understood by the relationship of fragrance and seed. Every seed has the potential for fragrance within it. But to reach its fragrance the seed must go through all the different changes and stages. First breaking out of its shell. Then breaking the ground to come into the light developing roots at the same time. Then fighting against the elements to develop leaves and flowers. Finally reaching its pinnacle by attaining the fragrance that was hidden within it.
The Essay on Philosophy Of The Human Person
The last module discussed the gradual separation between mythology and philosophy in the Greek culture. Mythology had a great influence over the development of philosophy. It provided concepts, images and narratives that were appropriated, criticized or categorically rejected by philosophy. While there may be a “break” between mythology and philosophy, philosophy still relied on the mythological ...
Same way to reach one’s khudi or rooh one needs to go through multiple stages which Iqbal himself went through and encourages other to travel this spiritual path. Like not all seeds reach the level of fragrance, many die along the way incomplete. Same way only few people could climb this mount Everest of spirituality, most get consumed along the way by materialism. The same concept was used by Farid ud Din Attar in his “Mantaq-ul-Tair”. He proves by various means that the whole universe obeys the will of the “Self.” Iqbal condemns self-destruction. For him the aim of life is self-realization and self-knowledge. He charts the stages through which the “Self” has to pass before finally arriving at its point of perfection, enabling the knower of the “Self” to become the vicegerent of God
Iqbal undertook the task of uniting faith and knowledge, love and reason, heart and mind. In the case of a writer at once so prolific and so provocative, there is bound to be considerable controversy in the evaluation of the measure of his success. Some regard Iqbal’s thought as mainly eclectic, while others regard it as exciting and original. But surely it is true that if any thinker has succeeded – to whatever degree – in the task of building a bridge between East and West, it is Iqbal.
