Dare and Live: Pakistan Remembered

May Pakistan be remembered, on this Independence Day, in the light of the words of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Allama Iqbal, and the historian, screenwriter, educationist, and Iqbal scholar, Khurram Ali Shafique.

Go here to read the words of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah on the occasion of the celebration of Iqbal Day in 1943.

View this excellent video created by MarghdeenTV.  It includes beautiful art, photographs of Iqbal, and some of Iqbal's most lovely passages from Javid Nama.

Go here to read about the release, on this auspicious date, of Khurram Ali Shafique's new book entitled, 2017: The Battle for Marghdeen.  As he describes:
 

"Marghdeen is the name of the ideal society conceived by Iqbal, the foremost Muslim thinker of modern times, in 1932. It is a world where life is inside-out, people know their destinies and there is no poverty, neediness, crime or injustice. In 2017: The Battle for Marghdeen, the author shows how such a society can be achieved in a short space of time, as long as we are prepared to change our perception of history and other domains of knowledge. 

This book presents the basic principles for achieving Marghdeen. They are illustrated with examples from modern history. There is a special emphasis on Pakistan and the Muslim world, but the principles can be applied anywhere in the world."

“One of the finest achievements of the human mind is to see, to understand, and to put the things seen and understood into a greater perspective. With Khurram Ali Shafique, some kind of thinking of the heart has returned into the arena: a greater perspective, so to speak.” Dr. Thomas Stemmer

I am personally very excited about the release of this new book, 2017: The Battle for Marghdeen.  My hope and prayer is that it will, God willing, spread by tongue, thought, heart, and soul, and contribute to nothing less than a new world born.

Marghdeen Now

In the Javid Nama, Allama Iqbal shares a journey through 7 stations. He is guided through these 7 by the spirit of Mawlana Rumi. One of the stations includes the planet Mars. Here Iqbal introduces Marghdeen.  Read this excellent abridged version of this Mars journey at:

 

http://therepublicofrumi.com/iqbal/works/javidnama06.htm 

Marghdeen is, we learn, a world that was the outcome of Barkhia, a Martian ancestor, refusing an offer made by Farzmurz to have a world free of any religious restriction. Indeed, this world offered by Farzmurz to Barkhia would be unknown to God. Barkhia resisted this offer, declined it, with the outcome being that God rewarded the descendants of of Barkhia with Marghdeen.

The people of Marghdeen are described as advanced in science and spirituality. What distinguishes them from earthly humans is that their knowledge is solely dedicated toward improving life. Selfless and simple, they are a race of beings who live soulfully. It is explained that, while the hearts of humans are contained in their bodies, the bodies of the Martians are contained in their hearts.

Marghdeen is described as a world in which no one is poor. No one is ruled by any other. A Martian astronomer offers a dramatic clarification, when asked about whether one might have a destiny of, for instance, being a beggar. He shares that there is no shortage of destinies, and that one only needs to ask God. He explains a secret of destiny: Change yourself and your world changes.

The Martian alludes to earthly humans, stating that they have forgotten themselves, and thus also genuine faith. Humans, he explains, conform to what is outside of themselves (including religion), while, however, leaving unsought and unrealized what is genuinely precious within themselves.

What was Iqbal communicating in this story of Marghdeen?

I propose that he points to a formula for how we human beings may choose to live. I also propose that he was not merely being poetic for the sake of sharing beautiful words. 

He was, I believe, giving something to us in this world, here and now, which, if understood, could be a pathway to a newly created world.  I emphasize that I do not view Marghdeen as merely poetic.  I believe Iqbal was pointing to something that is to be actually (for real) manifested in this place we call the world.

Iqbal believed strongly that all people should seek consensus with each other. That seems very achievable when we love one another. Indeed, love seems to be the way.  It is, I believe, the pathway toward creating a Marghdeen here and now.  

I believe that Marghdeen may consist of genuinely choosing to connect with other people through an ethos founded on Love, instead of through bodies. So we depart from connecting with other people as things. Rather, we connect on the basis of love which has the power to generate the offspring of sincere respect for the opinions of all people. The genuine respect for the opinions of all people is a manifestation of love (and not merely, in the absence of love, what is just tolerance).

In love, one’s personal ego would be eclipsed in the greater being of the collective awareness/consciousness (manifesting as genuine respect for the opinions of all people in one's culture).  Marghdeen can then arise because of a love-rooted acknowledgement and respect for other people.  One truly desires what is best for one's neighbor. 

This awareness of the larger, collective group (culture, nation, all the world) is not merely being aware of the collective self, but actually being a part of it, essentially dousing the personal ego in the waters of the larger, collective self. Adab brings us along this path, acting as a check and balance on one’s personal, willful, self, allowing the natural growth of something much larger to occur.  

Acknowledging our Common Source, and loving This Source (and all people as expressions of It), we can come together with a shared vision of principles upon which all people can agree. It is a like-mindedness of heart, and not merely another contrived way of putting forward a particularized agenda. 

If there's an agenda, it's one of love, adab, and proactively seeking consensus with everyone in one's culture, nation, world.  It is being big enough (by being small enough) to put aside one's personal agendized drive and, instead, holding the Good of All as supreme.

Quenching one’s personal ego by consciously placing it in the larger context, the larger self, of one’s culture, one’s nation, and even all of humanity essentially dethrones the head, and elevates the heart into her rightful, sovereign place. This replicates what is described in the Javid Nama of the bodies of the inhabitants of Marghdeen being inside their hearts.

Our hearts can indeed become like those described in Marghdeen. If they are now different than Marghdeen hearts, perhaps it's only because a very subtle, but powerful, shift (change) has not occurred.

Can we not enable this shift by requesting a new destiny?

Sain Zahoor: Pakistan's Mystic of Music

In the most current issue of the magazine "Sufi" (Issue 83, Summer 2012) is a brief interview/article entitled Sain Zahoor: Pakistan's Mystic of Music.  There were a few bits of this interview (by Sheniz Janmohamed) that stand out.

 

Lines were quoted presumably sung by Sain Zahoor at a 2011 music festival in Canada:

 

Parh parh ilm te faazil hoya

Te Kaday apnay aap nu parhya ee na

 

You read to become all knowledgeable

But you never read yourself

 

The interviewer asked a question about the sectarian violence in Pakistan.

 

Sain Zahoor responded: We are here for a short time, ultimately we are going to meet the dust.  When our souls fly off, what will count is our deeds, not the differences between us.

 

The article ended with a quote by Bulleh Shah.

 

When I acquired the knowledge of love,

I dreaded the mosque.

I fled to my Lord's dwelling,

Where a thousand sounds reverberate.

Jumping Off a Cliff with Ray Bradbury

Science fiction writer, Ray Bradbury, died this last week at the age of 91.  Go here to read a brief but very inspiring article about him.

What immediately struck me, while reading this article, was Bradbury's deep knowing that what he wrote about were possibilities.   Perhaps, though, even more than writing about possibilities, his writings inspired others to pursue possibilities, to reach for horizons yet unknown, to quest. What interests me, and is inspiring to me about Bradbury is less about space exploration, but about that innate core in humankind through which we quest for what is Great.

From a poem in Bradbury's "Mars and the Mind of Man" are the lines:

"I send my rockets forth between my ears, hoping an inch of will is worth a pound of years, aching to hear a voice cry back along the universal mall: We've reached Alpha Centauri. We're tall, oh God, we're tall."

Reading about Bradbury led me to consider Allama Iqbal's writings on the creation and birthing of Ideals.  Iqbal states (in the article, "Our Prophet's Criticism of Contemporary Arabian Poetry"):

"The highest art is that which awakens our dormant will-force, and nerves us to face the trials of life manfully."

Bradbury wrote:

 "Anything you dream is fiction, and anything you accomplish is science.  The whole history of mankind is nothing but science fiction."

I propose that Bradbury is an example of an artist (writer) through which Truth exposed itself, exemplifying an awakening of dormant life-force of which Iqbal speaks.  What is best in humans showed Itself through Bradbury, a man whose writings inspired many others to make manifest the depths and heights of the organ of imagination.

Iqbal wrote that "The ultimate aim of all human activity is Life-glorious, powerful, exuberant."  Bradbury is quoted as saying: "Go to the edge of the cliff and jump off.  Build your wings on the way down."  Both of these quotes speak to me that Life is lived from the inside out, and that belief in mankind is itself Faith.

The Morn of Resurrection

In Allama Iqbal's poem, "The Conquest of Nature" (from his second book of poetry, "Message of the East"), is the passage below, "The Morn of Resurrection."  In this section, humanity now stands before God at the Day of Judgment.  Earlier, the devil refused to bow to Adam.  Now, at the point at which humanity gives a collective accounting, the devil bows.

After this passage (below), I share my reflections.  I can only, of course, offer reflections according to my personal capacity.  My intention, however, is for this to be helpful.  

Personally, I consider all such reflections on Iqbal's works as (potentially) highly practical, and supportive of humankind's genuine role.  So it is in this spirit, that is, a practical support for realizing collective unity, in this world, now, that this post is offered.  

         

The Morn of Resurrection
Adam in the presence of God

You, whose sun gives the star of life its splendour,
With my heart you lit the candle of the sightless world!
My skills have poured an ocean into a strait,
My pickaxe makes milk flow from the heart of stone.
Venus is my captive, the moon worships me;
My reason, which does great deeds, subdues and controls the universe.
I have gone down into the earth, and been up into the heavens,
Both the atom and the radiant sun are under the spell of my magic.
Although his sorcery deluded me, excuse my fault, forgive my sin:
If his sorcery had not taken me in, the world could not have been subdued.
Without the halter of humility, pride could not be taken prisoner.
To melt this stone statue with my hot sighs, I had to don his zunnar.
Reason catches artful nature in a net and thus Ahriman, born of fire,
Bows down before the creature of dust!

[Translation by Mustansir Mir]

The above passage speaks to me of hope, of the potentiation of the gold of humankind that is made discoverable by the very seduction of the world.  Without the world, and the devil ever tempting, how could the mettle of humankind be tested?  How could lead be transformed into gold?

But it takes patience to live in the world, and yet not be seduced into thinking that all is lost.  Around us everywhere is (seeming) destruction, negativity, and man's inhumanity to man.  It is the easiest thing in the world to give up hope.  

Loss of hope is a gift of the world.  I can only speak for me, but I refuse to extend my hand to accept that gift.  No matter what evidence may be presented in front of these eyes (and there's a lot of it everyday) to try to convince me that hope is only a dream or wishful thinking, I refuse to accept it.

I sense that this poem speaks to the abiding nature of hope, and to the fact that it is ever-present, if only one does not buy the program of the world.  You buy the program of the world at the cost of hope.  Buying of the program of the world is not the same as being in the world.  The latter is possible without the former occurring.  

According to me, it's the easiest thing in the world to accept loss of hope.  You simply passively accept what the world is saying.  You believe what the physical eyes see.  It actually takes strength and sustained striving to maintain hope, to not be intoxicated with all the apparent hopelessness (which I say is utterly specious), and to look - with intention - at the stars.

I very much like "The Morn of Resurrection."  To me (and I do not pretend to understand it, but only to appreciate it according to my capacity), it speaks to the triumph of humanity.  It is a triumph, however, that seems (to me) to be entirely dependent upon Adam's earlier seduction out of heaven and into the world. Had the temptation of Adam not been successful, would we have this ending?

Similar (I propose) to King Arthur attaining the throne by pulling the sword out of the stone, so too is the halter of humility hidden in the burning world of materiality.  It says in this poem:

"If his sorcery had not taken me in, the world could not have been subdued."

The Devil, and his burning, was a trap. But only by entering the trap could we be set free from it.  By entering the trap, there was some kind of activation of potentiation of self. With the status of heaven gone, now Splendor or Disaster could be willingly chosen.  

I could see (though no one seems to ever talk about it) that the Devil was a bit worried all along that humanity would discover the subtle gold hidden in the dark places of the world.  Or perhaps not, as he might have a role much deeper than the insipidly simple one which most people seem to attribute to him.  Some might say that the devil could be the worthy opponent without which humankind would be without struggle, and thus the opportunity for Overcoming and Triumph.

But...some say, what to make of all the seeming horrors of the world when what is (seemingly) "good" gets trampled over by what is (seemingly) "bad?"  Why cannot justice occur here and now?  That line of thinking, to me, leads to a dark place absent of hope.   

I have spent many years working in fields directly related to man's inhumanity to man. I don't understand it, though I work in the world of mitigating it, in the context of human-determined justice. I sense (meaning simply that I don't know, but merely intuit) that man's justice may be qualitatively different than divine justice. I don't know what is divine justice, but I doubt that it is what is in my mind when I think of justice (as we know it here in creation, in the world).

It is my opinion that the "normal" modern person (any culture, any religion) has an awareness/consciousness that is excessively focused outwardly.  Inwardly focused awareness/consciousness is rare.

I am of the opinion that the bad stuff in the world is a consequence of long-term abandonment, in collective humanity, of an inner orientation.  This is visible (any culture, any religion) in how, for instance, confused and fearful people hijack religious understanding/realization, and/or nationalistic fervor, and/or both, and give it their own, very worldly (burning) spin.  They then mistreat the beautiful, loving, and tolerant aspects of a religion, making it twisted and hurtful, and thus mistreat their fellow man by denying them beauty, love, and tolerance.  And, of course, the mistreated parts of the religions themselves are cited as justificatory reasons for this insanity.   

Then bad is perpetuated, with the justification being simply what can pointed at in the outer world.  Our greatest enemy, then, runs amuck, unchecked, while all problems are projected outwardly onto others.

For me, I very much consciously try, to the degree that I am able, to divorce myself from societal, national, and worldly conditioning (conditioning is ever-present from birth onward). This takes sustained effort to be aware of such conditioning.  I try to lift myself up out of this so that I do not get swept away in the apparent insanity, while, at the same, remaining receptive to currents of collective consciousness. 

I refuse to give up hope that humanity, as a collective whole, will discover its Splendor.  I refuse to give up believing in what all the great ones tell us repeatedly about how people can transform into true human beings. 

I refuse to accept the scissors of separation that are so openly and daily given to us from the world.  I do not want to cut and cut and cut.  I would rather have a needle so that I can sew things together.

I realize, as I write this, that I am denying on the one hand, and affirming on the other. If I don't say "no," with intention, then I'm too easily fooled into believing that "yes" does not even exist.  For me, I have found this to be true.  I must say "no" to this, while saying "yes" to something else.

All of this is, for me, not merely a pleasant myth with which I can be distracted from the challenges of the world.  At the day of humanity's collective accounting, I want the Morn of Resurrection to be the Reality.    

I like it when messages manifest in music, poetry, etc. that highlight humanity's drive for a better world.

Sometimes they're messages with which I might whole-heartedly agree.  Sometimes, I might like part of it, or even just the intention behind it.

People with intentions to make the world a better place for everyone (not just a select few, group, or portion)...I like that very much.

THE DEVIL'S REFUSAL

"Faust Making His Contract with Mephistophiles" ~ Franz Sinn

                                   
                              The Devil’s Refusal

In Allama Iqbal's poem, "The Conquest of Nature" (from his second book of poetry, "Message of the East"), is the passage below, "The Devil's Refusal."  Adam's birth has already occurred.  The angels now bow to Adam, but the Devil refuses.  Iqbal shares "The Devil's Refusal" as the devil's response and perspective. 

After this passage, I share my reflections.  Personally, I consider all such reflections on Iqbal's works as (potentially) highly practical, and supportive of humankind's genuine role.  So it is in this spirit, that is, a practical support for realizing collective unity, in this world, now, that this post is offered.                             

The Devil’s Refusal 

I am not such a foolish angel that I would bow to Adam!

He is made of dust, but my element is fire.

It is my ardour that heats the blood in the veins of the universe:

I am in the raging storm and the crashing thunder;

I am the bond that holds the atoms together, and the law that rules the elements;

I burn and give form - I am the alchemist's fire.

What I have myself made I break in pieces,

Only to create new forms from the old dust.

From my sea rises the wave of the heavens that know no rest – 

The splendour and glory of my element fashions the world.

The stars owe their existence to You, but they owe their motion to me:

I am the soul of the world, the hidden life that is seen by none.

You give the soul to the body, but I set that soul astir.

You rob on the highway by causing sloth, I guide along the right path with burning passion.

I did not beg paupers to bow down before me: I am mighty, but do not need a hell;

I am a judge, but do not need resurrection.

Adam - that creature of dust, that short-sighted ignoramus -

Was born in your lap but will grow old in my arms!

[Translation by Mustansir Mir] 

For me, this poem is powerful in how it overturns the apple cart so often given to us by so-called religious authorities.  I don't pretend to understand it fully, though, and offer the following as intuitive reflections and honest commentary. 

I sense that the devil, in Iqbal's poem, traps and potentiates, at the same time.  In this poem, Iqbal writes:

" The stars owe their existence to You, but they owe their motion to me..."

and

"You give the soul to the body, but I set that soul astir."

and

"Adam - that creature of dust, that short-sighted ignoramus -

Was born in your lap but will grow old in my arms!"

Conveyed in these lines is the feeling (to me) that the devil is almost an associate of God, and not the simple adversary as which he is so often depicted.  The subtle implication seems to be that he is a part of a grand plan.

The devil is, in this poem, "the bond that holds the atoms together, and the law that rules the elements."  The devil here is, then, like the fire of the world, of the universe, which keeps things spinning in motion...and (potentially) keeping things trapped.

There is something here of the devil being what enables life ("life" as it's normally understood) to be possible, that is, the manifest life of physical things.  By being manifest humans, however, we are also granted the ability to *choose* to turn toward that which is veiled (God) by struggling against that which traps (the devil).

The devil seems to provide the ground on which this choosing can even be born.  He, then, provides the very opportunity, in (as) the world for remaining trapped and separated from the Divine or in discovering (and manifesting) the Divine in the world.  The devil's gift is, then, the gift of great risk and danger, but a gift that, if not accepted, bars all knowing of the Divine.  

It's as if it's a trap (of being absorbed in the external), but with it also comes the potential to willingly choose to turn toward the Divine. By being trapped, the very potential for struggle is tapped.  Without this struggle, man would be attenuated and weak, less than it is meant to become.  With it, due to the devil's work, wings can sprout.  The devil's tempting is (potentially) a tempering that brings about the very opportunity for the gold in humankind to be found.

Without the trap of being seduced into falling asleep in the arms of the world, how could struggle emerge, and inward striving be initiated?  In a certain sense, it seems this struggle (the devil's work) is a gift.

Reflecting on this leads me to consider that the devil may have an integral role in the process of the world, a role often over-simplified, a role that is central with the work of God and the unfolding of humanity's divine potential.  I sense it as a role more like a partnership with God (in the fullest imaginable context of Divinity, and even, perhaps, beyond what we can imagine through the "normal" lens of our constricted human personality) than an outright obstacle.  To understand the devil as merely an adversarial opponent, seeking only to do harm to others for some kind of self-gain is, in my opinion, short-sighted.

Holding this short-sighted understanding of the devil also, in my opinion, diminishes humanity's genuine nature.  It does so because, in light of Iqbal's writings (and of course my capacity to comprehend his intended meaning), I'm understanding the devil now as not necessarily a figure to fear and fight against in order to remain with God, but rather a dynamic of creation (for lack of a better term) which offers real trials and challenges through which, by willfully choosing to overcome them, we discover God.  The devil, then, offers the opportunity to gain the "with" of "with God." 

A true test of one's mettle is discoverable when there is a worthy opponent, an adversity who, by bringing great trials and challenges, forces you to either give in or discover and actualize what is deepest/highest in you that enables triumph.  That is what I sense the devil does - he is a triumph-enabler.  He doesn't give the triumph, but he certainly provides the arena for one to find it for oneself.

The devil, in the end, for me, in light of Iqbal's poem, is a guardian (I'm using this in a highly nuanced manner) of a threshold.  He is what bars humanity's progress.  He is also, however, what provides the very opportunity to progress, grow, and blossom.

Being granted access into the world could, then, be seen as a gift, a gift that, if not given, prevents discovery, actualization, and unfurling of the splendor of humanity.  We're introduced into an arena where the most worthy opponent waits to challenge, press, and push.  It is by overcoming the deepest, most subtle, fears that the devil is left empty-handed, and we find ourselves on a journey of discovering and growing the "Biggest Real" about ourselves.

May this journey continue for us all.