I R QBAL EVIEW Journal of the Iqbal Academy, Pakistan April 1967 Editor Bashir Ahmad Dar IQBAL ACADEMY PAKISTAN Title : Iqbal Review (April 1967) Editor : Bashir Ahmad Dar Publisher : Iqbal Academy Pakistan City : Karachi Year : 1967 DDC : 105 DDC (Iqbal Academy) : 8U1.66V12 Pages : 257 Size : 14.5 x 24.5 cm ISSN : 0021-0773 Subjects : Iqbal Studies : Philosophy : Research IQBAL CYBER LIBRARY (www.iqbalcyberlibrary.net) Iqbal Academy Pakistan (www.iap.gov.pk) 6th Floor Aiwan-e-Iqbal Complex, Egerton Road, Lahore. Table of Contents Volume: 8 Iqbal Review: April 1967 Number: 1 1. IQBAL DAY AT LAHORE ........................................................................................ 4 2. IQBAL DAY CELEBRATION HELD AT THE ISLAMIC CULTURAL CENTRE, LONDON ................................................................................................ 19 3. IQBAL DAY CELEBRATION IN COLOMBO ................................................. 33 4. IQBAL DAY FUNCTION AT ROME .................................................................. 39 5. IQBAL DAY AT DELHI .......................................................................................... 42 6. IQBAL DAY IN INDONESIA ............................................................................... 46 7. IQBAL DAY IN WASHINGTON .......................................................................... 61 8. IQBAL DAY at the Leiden University, Netherlands ............................................. 86 9. IQBAL DAY IN TUNISIA ....................................................................................... 94 10. IQBAL DAY AT KARACHI .................................................................................. 118 11. IQBAL DAY IN CAIRO ......................................................................................... 135 12. IQBAL DAY IN IRAN ............................................................................................ 168 13. IQBAL DAY IN ZAHIDAN .................................................................................. 209 14. IQBAL DAY IN AFGHANISTAN ...................................................................... 235 15. IQBAL DAY IN MOROCCO ................................................................................ 251 IQBAL DAY AT LAHORE1 Address by MR. JUSTICE S. M. MURSHID Chief Justice, East Pakistan High Court INEED hardly apologise addressing you in English because my purpose is not merely to reach my countrymen, but also to seek audience beyond our national frontiers. My theme, though local in topic, is universal in its sweep. And truly has Saadi said: ینایرس ہچ یناربع ہچ یئوگ ںید رہب زک نخس اسلباج ہچ اکلباج ہچ یئوج قح رہب زک ناکم No matter whether the words thou utterest in the way of righteousness are in Hebrew or Syriac ; Whether the place where thou seekest God is Jabalka or Jabalsa. On this momentous day, when a thousand golden remembrances link the years together, I have come, with a deep sense of duty and in humble devotion, to mingle my voice with millions in their multitude, and to bow in reverence to the sanctified memory of one whose effulgence shall never be dimmed. It was a life of pure flame. While the drums of destiny are incessantly beating to summon him to higher and yet higher glory, across echoing leagues and resounding years, he has abolished death and had brought eternity to light. Amid the war of elements and dissolution of matter, he has joined the invisible choir of the immortals. This is Iqbal, the seer, the singer, the thinker, the philosopher, the poet, dreamer of dreams, and, above all, the prophet and teacher whose life, like a multi-coloured dome, stains the white radiance of time and space. Age cannot wither nor time efface this perennial spring of eddying and ebullient life. From the tumult of life's fitful fever and the thundering chariot-wheel of time, his voice rises above his fellowmen, speaking the language and rhetoric of eternity. When the winds 1 With the kind permission of the Central Iqbal Committee, Lahore. are blowing and the stars are shining we shall greet and salute him. Thus he spoke about himself (Z.A., 143): دنیوگ یم و دنب ایرد و دنناوخ نم رعش نم سپ ےہاگآ دوک درم کی درک نوگ رگد ار ےناہج After me they will read my poetry, grasp it and say: A man who knew his self has revolutionised the world. We estimate a poet's work absolutely, but his genius relatively. When a country has produced not a few poets of great stature and yet one of them towers above the rest, it must be acknowledged that such a one has transcended the limitations of mortal minds. And when one recalls his sweep of epic measure, his range of lyric songs, his depth of thought, his loftiness of idealism, his luxuriance of images, his sincerity of purpose and lucidity of expression, he takes a pride of place amid the canonised votaries of the Muses. Garami says of Iqbal: لابقا ترضح نارگن ینعم ۂدیرد تفگ ناوتن ربمیپ و درک ئربمغیپ In the eye of those who know the secret of things Iqbal fulfilled a prophet's mission but he cannot be called a prophet. In this assembly of the learned, I have come without any title to learning, but I do claim some acquaintanceship with his many-sided thought and work apart from interludes of personal association with him at various intervals in the thirtees of this century. It is impossible to put in words the overwhelming upsurge of emotions that have filled my heart and it is equally difficult to express all that one might say within the short compass of an inaugural address. This is a hymn of homage and an offering of the heart, not an appraisal of his vast literary and philosophical output. Indeed, he eludes classification and one cannot imprison or contain him in any standardised straight-jacket of arbitrary adjudication. I shall, therefore, confine myself to the barest outlines of the unbounded dimensions of his varied work. Thus he speaks (B.D , 84) The secret of the unity is submerged in multiplicity; What is radiance in the glow-worm is fragrance in the flower. The Pebbled Shore We see him lonelier than ever with his eyes peering in the vastness of infinity. His poetry has much of the open space and very little of the fireside. The untiring energy of his mind hardly allowed him to sink on the silken pillows of indolence. His profundity of thought and enquiry, his consummate mastery of expression, his impeccable metrical accomplishments, embroidered with flowers of loveliness and filled with a wealth of imagination, reveal his superb artistry and workmanship. The man who was familiar with the flux of existence was ever in search of unrevealed Beauty. He felt his way towards realisation of perfect Beauty in his own life. He maintained that the qualities of the infinite are not in extension but in perfection. It is this ceaseless quest which kept him from the captive enchantment of the visible world or a passive acquiescence in its snares. He says (A.H , 14) The melody that is silenced may or may not be heard again, A breeze from Hedjaz may or may not blow again; The days of this Faqir have come to an end, Another knower of secrets may or may not come. I was taught to think and, I believe that genius is not eccentricity, that virtue is not a mask, that love has a seat in the human breast and that life is not a mere mockery and a dream. In every human heart there lies a longing for immortality which inclines one first to hope and then to believe that God has implanted within him something which blossoms in the dust. As Hasrat Mohani says: This handful of dust, O Hasrat, will not go in vain; Some of it will be assimilated in the earth, and some in the sky. God created man to be immortal and made him the image of His own eternity. Such is man's origin and such is his mission. This is Iqbal's faith. It was his belief that the immortal parts of our lives shall endure and shall rise, like the sun, from the posternation of death. He taught us to breathe the sweet air of futurity and to hope beyond the shadow of dreams. He maintains that to him who believes in an eternal life this mortal intermission is only a waiting ground and that, although the sands are numbered in our allotted span of life, our journey, in fact, begins from the pebbled shore in the great beyond which is a suburb of Elysian life. Viewed thus, Life is n )t a map of misery or a bridge of groans across a stream of tears. Such was the hopeful anticipation with which Iqbal had ever looked forward. Lyric Poems Iqbal's entry into the enchanted land of poets began with his lyric outpourin s in ghazals and poems of exquisite charm and beauty. No g translation can recapture the sound and surge of the verses in which he uses his magic gift to the full. Lines swell and crash like waves. Not a word falters and not a line lags. An undertone of wistfulness pervades them like the soft and sweet sadness of the flute. While they exude the vigour of a virile spirit, they are mellowed by the mournfulness of subdued tears and the pensive beauty of the moonlight. He attains a pitch which throbs and glows in words whose beauty makes them immortal. One hears the notes which are to become familiar in later verses while thought and action move through a mist of dreams. His mood escapes from morbidity and glides into the heart of things. Flawless, magical in expression and knit together by glowing links, the verses melt into ecstasy. Packed with the perfumes of spring, the sweetness of scented blossoms, the enchantment of languorous day, the melody of singing birds and belter of gliding butterflies ; they are sustained by an ever- flowing fountain of impassioned outpourings. The effervescence of ideas is never strained and the balance is perfect. The lamp flickers in the wind of dawn and flame of longing is unsurpassed for its intense brightness and ardour. In spite of the piling stock of well-worn metaphors and languid rhymes, and notwithstanding his adherence to old form and metres, he had a very clear measure of the road before him.It is impossible not to be transported when contemplating the beauties which the magic hand of the poet raises with all the enchantment of creative power. From the cares of gain, the toils of ambition, the noise, the hurry and vexation of weary world, we rise, on the wings of poetry, to an ethereal elevation where all is tranquil. They are superb in their appeal. Their arresting beauty exudes a restlessness of passion. They emerge from the sap of life and recapture its grand symphony. They lift the soul by their elegance and cadence. His Philosophy Iqbal's absorption in religious philosophy, his unabated and unbending theism, his flaming faith reveal his inner self. In these he had discovered not a mere undercurrent but the main steams of expression. Much of his lasting fame will rest on them. Philosophy is the art of arts and Iqbal's life is not measured by the time he lived. It is pure fire and fervour. He believed that we live by an invisible light which dwells within us. His language is the archive of history. His references to Cordova and Granda and allusions to Muslim history quiver with anticipations rather than with a longing, lingering look behind. His mind never lay fallow. He sought for his fellowmen a lofty aspiration and combined with a puritan austerity a catholic understanding of literature and philosophy. As a moulder of the nation's thought he never compromised with his ethics. All mental links seem present in the written words. From lyric songs to philosophical meditation the transit is so light that the reader is hardly conscious of the change of mood. He fully explores the flights of the soul which he mirrors so splendidly in a wealth of fervid imagery and fancy. They find in the poet a nobility of purpose which contracts with the stock-in-trade of lesser minds. His work is singularly rich in intu ition. His genius was born of a deep-seated religious faith. The world is not possessed of a plethora of such poetry and there is, by no means, an abundance of literature which exhibits such intensity of passion and peace and such power of revelation. Iqbal's philosophy is religious but he is not averse to spiritual speculations. He, however, turns to the moral fervour of Jalauddin Rumi rather than to Platonic contemplation and abstract dissertations. He thus refers to Rumi (A. R., 8): The pir of Rum turned earth into Elixir ; From the particles of my dust he raised heavenly visions. The influence of Jalauddin Rumi, whom he calls his master, permeates his thought and mind. He describes himself as a disciple of this great teacher: My Murshid, Rumi, the philosopher of pure descent Revealed to me the hidden secret of life and death. In the prologue to Asrar-i-Khudi he relates how Rumi appeared in a vision and bade him rise and sing. Though he rejects the doctrine of renunciation as practised and preached by those who are described as mystics, he interdicts self-indulgence and pursuits of creature-comfort. But, his belief in selflessness is not the same thing as advocating self-renunciation, It would not, however, be quite correct to say that he rejects tassuwuff or the philosophy of the Sufis. It is true that his mind revolts against popular extensions of Sufi doctrines which lead to complete renunciation of self and unrelieved asceticism, but the goal which he sets for himself is the same. Iqbal's philosophy is not inconsistent with the views of the great masters of Sufi doctrines. It is not opposed to them, as propounded by its highest exponents. For instance, he says (J.N., 14): To reach one's destination is the mission of life, To see 'unveiled' one's Self is the mission of life. Some of the popular professors of Sufi philosophy have, however, descended to undiluted self-renunciation, self-annihilation and to a profane pantheism. Iqbal strenuously resists their innovations. His insistence is on self-realisation. In repudiating self-renunciation his oal is the same as that of g the Sufis, namely, union of Self- with the Absolute. In the ultimate analysis, it would be apparent that the final goal can be reached by two different paths. The clash is in the methods that are adopted and not in the objective. There is no divergence in the oal, and indeed, Tribal has a enuine admiration for g g the Sufis. He speaks of them in glowing terms and refers to them with reverence. Thus he speak (B.D., 108): O God ! What a power is there in the hearts of these mystics, Their breath can re-kindle fire in the dead candle.