Focus
Muhammad
Iqbal lived during the period between two epochs, the old feudal
society and modern capitalism. Given the station of his birth, his
education, and his travel in Europe he could appreciate the pluses
and minuses of both systems. The poet—for certainly he was first
and foremost a poet by temperament—saw and responded to the
quietism of the Muslim community and the internal crises which faced
Islam. He could admire the achievements of the West—its dynamic
spirit, intellectual tradition, and technological advances. However,
he was equally critical of the imperialism of European colonialism,
the moral bankruptcy of secularism and the economic exploitation of
capitalism. Therefore, he advocated a return to Islam in order to
construct an Islamic alternative for modern Muslim society.
Like
most Muslim revivalists, Iqbal attributed the weakening of Islam to
the Muslim community’s departure from Islamic principles. His
political theory, like all of his thought, is characterized by a
conscious turning to the past to rediscover those principles and
values which could provide a model for the present as well as the
future.
Iqbal’s
great contribution was his rekindling of an awareness of the dynamic
spirit of Islam. He represented to the community those Islamic
ideals that could bring new life to the Islamic polity. He
reconstructed fundamental principles in a poetry that could move his
fellow Muslims, literate and illiterate, to an intuition of what
ought to be and fire their minds with a desire to find ways of
realizing such ideals.
It
is possible to speak of an earlier Pan-Islamic ideal in Iqbal’s
political thought which would have necessitated a caliphate.
However, political events during his lifetime called for some
modification. This did not mean a total abandonment of a Pan-Islamic
ideal. It was the goal of his counsel, that each Muslim nation
should look within and strengthen and rebuild itself so that the
Muslim nations might enter into a “League of Nations” like
relationship. Such a “League” would be rooted in the common
ideal of its members. This common “like-mindedness” would spring
from their Islamic traditions with their common ideals of equality,
fraternity, and solidarity and their common law—the shariah. Thus,
Muslim nations could avoid the divisive pitfalls of nationalism with
its tendency toward the disintegration of society into rivaling
tribes.
Iqbal,
like most men, was limited by his temperament. A poet draws heavily
upon his feelings and emotions as he attempts to convey his
intuition of reality. He could write of social injustice or
political ideals while at the same time moving his reader to an
experience which enabled him to empathize with the victim of
injustice or to be aroused by the nobility of the ideal. However,
neither poetic temperament nor the poem itself is concerned with the
practical implementation of social reforms or the realization of the
ideal.
Muhammad
Iqbal articulated those Islamic political principles which he
believed were fundamental for a rejuvenation of the Islamic
community while leaving the practical implementation to the
politicians, sociologists, economists, etc. He expressed the need of
the Muslim community when he called for the formation of Pakistan
but its practical implementation was to fall to Jinnah and others.
Still there is a place in our world for the idealists. To have
clothed his insights in poetic form and thus to have fired the
hearts and minds of millions to pursue and implement these ideals is
an extraordinary achievement, one which more than justifies the
great esteem that Muhammad Iqbal had enjoyed.
(From Voices of Resurgent Islam by (ed.) John L. Esposito, pp. 187-89)