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Rumi and Iqbal

Last Updated on Monday, 01 March 2010 04:06 Friday, 26 February 2010 22:15

The Rise of Khudi

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BY: Filza Khan

The researcher is a member of editorial team and thinktank at Pakistanfirst

I have no need of the ear of To-day

I am the voice of the poet of To-morrow

(IQBAL)

Let us begin at the end. What is the far off goal on which his eyes are fixed? The answer to that question will discover his true character, and we shall be less likely to stumble on the way if we see whither we are going. Iqbal has drunk deep of European Literature, his philosophy owes much to Nietzsche and Bergson, and his poetry reminds us of Shelly; yet he thinks and feels as a Muslim, and just for this reason his influence is magnetic. He is inspired by the vision of a Utopian State in which all Muslims, no longer divided by the barriers of race and country, shall be one.

Iqbal quite rightly points out that khudi is real and is not merely an illusion of the mind, he therefore throws himself with all his might against idealistic philosophers and pseudo-mystical poets, the authors, in his opinion, are responsible for the decay prevailing in Islam, and argues that only by self affirmation, self expression, and self development can the Muslims once more become strong and free. He appeals from the alluring raptures of Hafiz to the moral fervor of Jalalu’ddin Rumi, in the prologue of Asrar -i-Khudi Iqbal relate how Jalal’uddin Rumi, who is to him almost what Virgil, was to Dante, appeared in a vision and bade him arise and sing. Let us pay homage to Jalal’uddin Rumi and the influence he had on Iqbal.

MOLANA JALALUDDIN RUMI

I searched for God among the Christians and on the Cross and therein I found Him not.
I went into the ancient temples of idolatry; no trace of Him was there.
I entered the mountain cave of Hira and then went as far as Qandhar but God I found not.
With set purpose I fared to the summit of Mount Caucasus and found there only 'anqa's habitation.
Then I directed my search to the Kaaba, the resort of old and young; God was not there even.
Turning to philosophy I inquired about him from ibn Sina but found Him not within his range.
I fared then to the scene of the Prophet's experience of a great divine manifestation only a "two bow-lengths' distance from him" but God was not there even in that exalted court. Finally, I looked into my own heart and there I saw Him; He was nowhere else.

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

“The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along.”

“When I am with you, we stay up all night.
When you're not here, I can't go to sleep.

Praise God for those two insomnias!
And the difference between them.”

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing, there is a field. I will meet you there.”

“Oh soul,
you worry too much.
You have seen your own strength.
You have seen your own beauty.
You have seen your golden wings.
Of anything less,
why do you worry?
You are in truth
the soul, of the soul, of the soul.”

“Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.”

“You were born with wings. Why prefer to crawl through life?”

“Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.”

“Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don't claim them. Feel the artistry moving through and be silent.”

“Every tree and plant in the meadow seemed to be dancing, those which average eyes would see as fixed and still”

“He is like a man using a candle to look for the sun”