Iqbal: His Life and Our Times

Iqbal never took it upon himself to tell the community what it should do.  Instead, he placed his intellectual energies at the disposal of his people.

Born to serve rather than dictate, he became the conduit through which the collective dreams of the masses were articulated into the language of the elite, rather than the other way around.  This was a journey in which he and his people underwent three distinct stages of evolution, and the chapters of the present volume have been arranged accordingly.

The above is a quote from the brand new book, Iqbal: His Life and Our Times.  In the Introduction, it is written that this book fulfills the need for a simple and reliable introduction to the life and work of this unmatched genius, highlighting the practical relevance of his ideas for those who wish to consider them for implementation.

This book definitely does fulfill this.  Indeed, turning to Iqbal's philosophy for practical implementation in one's world is precisely why I like this book so much.  It has ignited for me new understandings of, and passion for, Iqbal's philosophy.

There is so much to this new book.  It is indeed, as it states at the beginning of the book, a fine introduction to Iqbal.  It is, however, so much more.  The connections, for instance, between Iqbal's political philosophy and that of the American thinker, Mary Parker Follett, and the Bengali visionary C.R. Das are explored. The author also describes in detail how Iqbal's poetry and prose are actually a coherent system of thought.

The author, Khurram Ali Shafique, is an historian and educationist, and the author of biographies, screenplays, and numerous articles in English and Urdu.  Well known in the field of Iqbal studies, he is the founding director of the Marghdeen Learning Centre which provides unique online courses in Iqbal's philosophy.  He is also a research consultant at the Iqbal Academy, Pakistan.

It can be ordered now directly from Createspace Website.

This book is presents fresh insights about Iqbal.  For scholars, and particularly for those who desire to be change-agents in this world, helping themselves, their societies, and all of humanity, we highly recommend this book!  

Do not force your children

Do not force your children to behave like you, for surely they have been created for a time which is different to your time.

~ Hazrat Ali

Allama Iqbal - Shikwa (Complaint to Allah) - Munshi Raziuddin, Ustad Baha Uddin, Manzoor Niazi

Why must I forever lose, forever forgo profit that is my due,

Sunk in the gloom of evenings past, no plans for the morrow pursue.

Why must I all attentive be to the nightingales lament,

Friend, am I as dumb as a flower? Must I remain silent?

My theme makes me bold, makes my tongue more eloquent,

Dust fills my mouth, against Allah I make complaint.

We won renown for submitting to Your willand it is so;

We speak out now, we are compelled to repeat our tale of woe.

We are like the silent lute whose chords are full of voice;

When grief wells up to our lips, we speak; we have no choice.

Lord God! We are Your faithful servants, for a while with us bear,

It is in our nature to always praise You, a small plaint also hear.

That Your Presence was primal from the beginning of time is true;

The rose also adorned the garden but of its fragrance no one knew.

Justice is all we ask for. You are perfect, You are benevolent.

If there were no breeze, how could the rose have spread its scent?

We Your people were dispersed, no solace could we find,

Or, would Your Beloveds following have gone out of its mind?

Before our time, a strange sight was the world You had made:

Some worshipped stone idols, others bowed to trees and prayed.

Accustomed to believing what they saw, the peoples vision wasnt free,

How then could anyone believe in a God he couldnt see?

Do you know of anyone, Lord, who then took Your Name? I ask.

It was the muscle in the Muslims arms that did Your task. 

~ Translation by Khushwant Singh

The Question

For centuries Eastern heart and intellect have been 

absorbed in the question – Does God exist? I propose to 

raise a new question – new, that is to say, for the East – 

Does man exist? 

~ Allama Iqbal (Stray Reflections, 1925 Section)

Live Now

Failures are often the results of timidity and fears; disappointments are the results of bashfulness; hours of leisure pass away like summer-clouds.  Therefore, do not waste the opportunity of doing good.

~ Hazrat Ali

The Weak and the Strong

The weak lose themselves in God; the strong discover 

Him in themselves. 

~ Allama Iqbal (from Stray Reflections, 1925 Section)

There are only ego-sustaining and ego-dissolving acts

"Life offers a scope for ego-activity, and death is the first test of the synthetic activity of the ego.  There are no pleasure-giving and pain-giving acts; there are only ego-sustaining and ego-dissolving acts.  It is the deed that prepares the ego for dissolution, or disciplines him for a future career.  The principle of the ego-sustaining deed is respect for the ego in myself as well as in others.  Personal immortality, then, is not ours as of right; it is to be achieved by personal effort.  Man is only a candidate for it.  The most depressing error of Materialism is the supposition that finite consciousness exhausts its object.  Philosophy and science are only one way of approaching that object.  There are other ways of approach open to us; and death, if present action has sufficiently fortified the ego against the shock that physical dissolution brings, is only a kind of passage to what the Quran describes as 'Barzakh.'"

~ Allama Iqbal (from The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam)