Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

Lecture VI: THE PRINCIPLE OF MOVEMENT IN THE STRUCTURE OF ISLAM

1. The Qur’an maintains the divine origin of man by affirming that God breathed of His own spirit unto him as in verses 15:29; 32:9; and 38:72.

2. Constantine the Great was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. He was converted to Christianity, it is said, by seeing a luminous cross in the sky. By his celebrated Edict of Toleration in 313 he raised Christianity to equality with the public pagan cults in the Empire. For his attempt at the unification of Christianity, cf. Will Durant,Caesar and Christ , pp. 655-61, andThe Cambridge Medieval History , vol.1, chapter i.

3. Flavius Claudius Julianus (331-363), nephew of Constantine, traditionally known as Julian the Apostate, ruled the Roman Empire from 361 to 363. Studying in Athens in 355, he frequented pagan Neoplatonist circles. As emperor, he at once proclaimed himself a pagan, restored freedom of worship for pagans and began a campaign against the orthodox church. Cf. Alice Gardner,Julian and the Last Struggle of Paganism against Christianity , and Will Durant,The Age of Faith , pp. 10-19.

4. See J. H. Denison, Emotion as the Basis of Civilization, pp. 267-68.

5. The principle of Divine Unity as embodied in the Quranic proclamation:l«il«ha illa-All«h : there is no God except All«h. It is a constant theme of the Qur’an and is repeatedly mentioned as the basic principle not only of Islam but of every religion revealed by God.

6. Reference is to the Quranic verse 29:69. During the course of his conversation with one of his admirers, Allama Iqbal is reported to have made the following general observation with reference to this verse: ‘All efforts in the pursuit of sciences and for attainment of perfections and high goals in life which in one way or other are beneficial to humanity are man’s exerting in the way of Allah (Malfëz«t-i Iqb«l , ed. and annotated Dr Abë’l-Laith Siddâqâ, p. 67).

Translating this verse thus: ‘But as for those who strive hard in Our cause - We shall most certainly guide them onto paths that lead unto us’, Muhammad Asad adds in a footnote that the plural ‘used here is obviously meant to stress the fact - alluded to often in the Qur’an - that there are many paths which lead to a cognizance (ma‘rifah ) of God’ (The Message of the Qur’an , p. 616, note 61).

7. Cf. Abë D«wëd,Aqdâya : 11; Tirmidhâ,AÁk«m : 3, and D«rimâ,Kit«b al-Sunan , I, 60; this hadâth is generally regarded as the very basis ofIjtih«d in Islam. On the view expressed by certain scholars that thishadâth is to be ranked asal-mursal , cf. ‘Abd al-Q«dir, Nazarah,ÿ mmah fi T«rikh al-Fiqh al-Isl«mâ , I, 70 and 210, and Sayyid Muhammad Yësuf Binorâas quoted by Dr Kh«lid Mas‘ëd, ‘Khutub«t-i Iqb«l men Ijtih«d ki Ta‘râf: Ijtih«d k« T«râkhâ Pas-i Manzar’ ,Fikr-o-Nazar , XV/vii-viii (Islamabad, Jan-Feb. 1978), 50-51. See also Ahmad Hasan (tr.),Sunan Abë D«wëd , III, 109, note 3034 based on Shams al-Haqq, ‘Aun al-Ma’bëd li-hall-i Mushkil«t Sunan Abë D«wëd , III, 331.

8. These three degrees of legislation in the language of the later jurists of Islam are:ijtih«d fi’l-shar’, ijtih«d fi’l-madhhab andijtih«d fi’l-mas«’il ; cf. Subhâ Mahmas«nâ,Falsafat al-Tashrâ ’fi’l-Islam , English trans. F. J. Ziadeh, p. 94, and N. P. Aghnides,Mohammeden Theories of Finance , pp. 121-22. For somewhat different schemes of gradation of the jurists (for example the one laid down by the Ottomon scholar and Shaikh al-Isla`m Kem«l P«shaza`deh (d. 940/1534) in his (Tabaq«t al-Fuqah«’ ) and minor differences in nomenclature in different schools of law (Hanafis, Sh«fâ‘â’s and others), cf. Z«hid al-Kautharâ,Husn al-Taq«dâfâ Sârat al-Im«m abâYësuf al-Q«îâ , pp. 24-25.

It is the possibilities anew of the first degree ofIjtih«d - complete authority in legislation - that Allama Iqbal proposes to consider in what he calls (and this is to be noted) ‘this paper’ rather than ‘this lecture’ as everywhere else in the present work. This is a manifest reference to a ‘paper onIjtih«d ’ that he read on 13 December 1924 at the annual session of Anjuman-i Him«yat-i Isl«m. Cf. M. Khalid Mas‘ëd, ‘Iqbal’s Lecture on Ijtih«d’,Iqbal Review , XIX/iii (October 1978), p. 8, quoting in English the announcement about this Lecture published in the DailyZamând«r Lahore, 12 December 1924; and also S. M. Ikram,Modern Muslim India and the Birth of Pakistan , p. 183, note 19 where the worthy author tells us that he ‘was present at this meeting as a young student’.

Among Allama Iqbal’s letters discovered only recently are the four of them addressed to Professor M. Muhammad Shafi’ of University Oriental College, Lahore (later Chairman:Urdu Encyclopaedia of Islam ). These letters dating from 13 March 1924 to 1 May 1924, reproduced with their facsimiles in Dr Rana M. N. Ehsan Elahie, ‘Iqbal on the Freedom of Ijtiha`d’,Oriental College Magazine (Allama Iqbal Centenary Number), LIII (1977), 295-300, throw light, among other things, on the authors and movements that Allama Iqbal thought it was necessary for him to study anew for the writing of what he calls in one of these letters a paper on the ‘freedom ofIjtih«d in Modern Islam’. A few months later when the courts were closed for summer vacation Allama Iqbal in his letter dated 13 August 1924 to M. Sa‘âd al-Dân Ja’farâ informed him that he was writing an elaborate paper on ‘The Idea ofIjtih«d , in the Law of Islam’ (cf.Aur«q-i Gumgashtah , ed. Rahâm Bakhsh Shaheen, p. 118). This is the paper which when finally written was read in the above-mentioned session of the Anjuman-i Àim«yat-i Isl«m in December 1924; the present Lecture, it is now generally believed, is a revised and enlarged form of this very paper.

9. Cf. M. Hanâf Nadvâ, ‘Mas’alah Khalq-i Qur’an’ in ‘Aqliy«t-i Ibn Taimâyyah (Urdu), pp. 231-53, and A. J. Arberry,Revelation and Reason in Islam , pp. 23-27.

References to this hotly debated issue of the eternity or createdness of the Qur’an are also to be found in Allama Iqbal’s private notes, for example those on the back cover of his own copy of Spengler’sDecline of the West (cf.Descriptive Catalogue of Allama Iqbal’s Personal Library , Plate No. 33) or his highly valuable one-page private study notes preserved in Allama Iqbal Museum, Lahore (cf.Relics of Allama Iqbal: Catalogue , I, 26). It is, however, in one of his greatest poems ‘Iblâs ki Majlis-i Shër« (‘Satan’s Parliament’) included in the posthumousArmugh«n-i Hij«z that one is to find his final verdict on this baseless scholastic controversy:

Are the words of the Qur’an created or uncreated?

In which belief does lie the salvation of the ummah?

Are the idols of L«t and Man«t chiselled by Muslim theology

Not sufficeint for the Muslims of today?

10. Cf. Ibn Qutaibah, Ta’wâ l Mukhtalif al-Àadâth, p.19.

11. Cf.Development of Metaphysics in Persia , p. 54, where it is stated that rationalism ‘tended to disintegrate the solidarity of the Islamic Church’; also W. M. Watt, ‘The Political Attitudes of the Mu‘tazilah’,Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1962), pp. 38-54.

12. Cf. Muhammad al-Khudari,T«râkh al-Tashrâ’ al-Isl«mâ , Urdu trans. ‘Abd al-Sal«m Nadvâ, p. 323; Ibn Qutaibah,Ma‘«rif , p. 217, and J. Schacht,The Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence , p. 242. According to A. J. Arberry, Sufy«n al-Thaurâ’s school of jurisprudence survive for about two centuries; cf.Muslim Saints and Mystics , p. 129 translator’s prefatory remarks.

13. On the distinction ofz«hir andb«tin , see Allama Iqbal’s article ‘Ilm-i Za`hir wa ‘Ilm-i Ba`tin (Anw«r-i Iqb«l , ed. B. A. Dar, pp. 268-77) and also the following passage from Allama Iqbal’s article captioned as ‘Self in the Light of Relativity’ (Thoughts and Reflections of Iqbal , ed. S. A. Vahid, pp. 113-14): ‘The mystic method has attracted some of the best minds in the history of mankind. Probably there is something in it. But I am inclined to think that it is detrimental to some of the equally important interests of life, and is prompted by a desire to escape from the arduous task of the conquest of matter through intellect. The surest way to realise the potentialities of the world is to associate with its shifting actualities. I believe that Empirical Science - association with the visible - is an indispensable stage in the life of contemplation. In the words of the Qur’an, the Universe that confronts us is not ba`til. It has its uses, and the most important use of it is that the effort to overcome the obstruction offered by it sharpens our insight and prepared us for an insertion into what lies below the surface of phenomena.

14. The founder of Z«hirâ school of law was D«wëd b. ‘Alâb. Khalaf (c. 200-270/c. 815-884) who flourished in Baghdad; Ibn Haïm (384-456/994-1064) was its founder in Muslim Spain and its most illustrious representative in Islam. According to Goldziher, Ibn Hazm was the first to apply the principles of the Z«hirite school to dogmatics (The Z«hiris: Their Doctrine and Their History , p. 112); cf. also Goldziher’s articles: ‘D«wëd B. ‘Alâ B. Khalf’ and ‘Ibn Hazm’ inEncyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics , V, 406 b and VII, 71 a.

15. Cf. Serajul Haque, ‘Ibn Taimiyya’s Conception of Analogy and Consensus’,Islamic Culture , XVII (1943), 77-78; Ahmad Hasan,The Doctrine of Ijm«‘ in Islam , pp. 189-92, and H. Laoust, ‘Ibn Taymiyya’,Encyclopaedia of Islam (New edition), III, 954.

16. Cf. D.’B. Macdonald,Development of Muslim Theology , p. 275.

17. Suyëtâ,Husn al-Mëh«darah 1, 183; also ‘Abd Muta’«l al-Sa’idâ, Al-Mujaddidën fi’l-Isl«m , pp. 8-12. Cf. also Allama Iqbal’s ‘Rejoinder to The Light’ (Speeches, Writings and Statements of Iqbal , pp. 167-68) wherein, commenting on the tradition that mujaddids appear at the head of every century (Abë Dawëd,Mal«him : 1), he observed that the tradition ‘was probably popularised by Jal«lud-Dân Suyëti in his own interest and much importance cannot be attached to it.’

Reference may also be made here to Allama’s letter dated 7 April 1932 addressed to Muhammad Ahsan wherein, among other things, he observes that, according to his firm belief (‘aqâdh ), all traditions relating tomujaddidiyat are the product of Persian and non-Arab imagination and they certainly are foreign to the true spirit of the Qur’an (cf.Iqb«ln«mah , II, 231).

18. For Allama Iqbal’s statements issued from time to time in clarification on meanings and intentions of pan-Islamic movement or pan-Islamism see:Letters and Writings of Iqbal , pp. 55-57;Speeches, Writings and Statements of Iqbal , p. 237;Guft«r-i Iqb«l , ed. M. Rafâq Afîal, pp. 177-79 and 226 - the earliest of these statements is contained in Allama’s letter dated 22 August 1910 to Editor:Paisa Akhb«r reproduced in Riaz Hussain, ‘1910 men Duny«-i Isl«m kü H«l«t’ (Political Conditions of the Islamic World in 1910),Iqbal Review , XIX/ii (July 1978), 88-90.

In three of these statements Allama Iqbal has approvingly referred to Professor E. G. Browne’s well-grounded views on ‘Pan-Islamism’, the earliest of which were published (s.v.) in Lectures on theHistory of the Nineteenth Century , ed. F. Kirpatrick (Cambridge, 1904).

It may be added that Allama’s article ‘Political Thought in Islam’,Sociological Review , I (1908), 249-61 (reproduced inSpeeches, Writings and Statements , pp. 107-21), was originally a lecture delivered by him in a meeting of the Pan-Islamic Society, London, founded by Abdullah Suhrawardy in 1903 - the Society also had its own journal: Pan-Islam. Incidentally, there is a mention of Allama’s six lectures on Islamic subjects in London by his biographers (cf. Abdullah Anwar Beg,The Poet of the East , p. 28, and Dr Abdus Sal«m Khurshâd,Sargudhasht-i Iqb«l , pp. 60-61) which is supported by Allama’s letter dated 10 February 1908 to Khwa`jah Hasan Niz«mâ, listing the ‘topics’ of four of these lectures as (i) ‘Islamic Mysticism’, (ii) ‘Influence of Muslim Thought on European Civilization’, (iii) ‘Muslim Democracy’, and (iv) ‘Islam and Reason’ (cf.Iqb«ln«mah , II, 358). Abdullah Anwar Beg, however, speaks of Allama’s extempore lecture on ‘Certain Aspects of Islam’ under the auspices of the Pan-Islamic Society, which, it is said, was reported verbatim in a number of leading newspapers the next day (ibid.).

19. Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Wahh«b’s date of birth is now more generally given as 1115/1703; cf., however, Khair al-Dân al-Zikriklâ,Al-A’l«m , VII, 138 (note) andA History of Muslim Philosophy , ed. M. M. Sharif, II, 1446, in support of placing it in 1111/1700.

It is significant to note that whenever Allama Iqbal thought of modernist movements in Islam, he traced them back to the movement of Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Wahh«b cf.Letters and Writings of Iqbal , pp. 82 and 93. In his valuable article ‘Islam and Ahmadism’ Allama Iqbal observes: ‘Syed Ahmad Khan in India, Syed Jamal-ud-Din Afghani in Afghanistan and Mufti Alam Jan in Russia. These men were probably inspired by Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahab who was born in Nejd in 1700, the founder of the so-called Wahabi movement which may fitly be described as the first throb of life in modern Islam’ (Speeches, Writings and Statements , p. 190). Again, in his letter dated 7 April 1932 to Muhammad Ahsan, Allama Iqbal, explaining the pre-eminent position of Jam«l al-Dân Afgh«nâ in modern Islam, wrote: ‘The future historian of the Muslims of Egypt, Iran, Turkey and India will first of all mention the name of ‘Abd al-Wahh«b Najadi and then of Jam«l al-Dân Afgh«nâ’ (cf.Iqb«ln«mah , II, 231).

20. Cf. article ‘Ibn Tëmart’ in Encyclopaedia of Islam (New edition), III, 958-60, also inShorter Encyclopaedia of Islam and R. Le Tourneau,The Almohad Movement in North Africa in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries , chapter 4.

21. This is a clear reference to the well-known saying of the Prophet:innamal-a’m«lu bi’nniyy«ti , i.e. ‘Actions shall be judged only by intentions’. It is to be noted that thisÁadâth of great moral and spiritual import has been quoted by Bukh«râ in seven places and it is with this that he opens hisAl-J«mâ al-SaÁiÁ .

22. For this Áadâth worded: ‘al-arÁu kulluh«masjid-an ’, see Tirmidhâ,Sal«t : 119; Nas«â,Ghusl : 26;Mas«jid : 3 and 42; Ibn M«jah,Tah«rah : 90, and D«rimâ,Siyar : 28 andSal«t : 111. This superb saying of the Prophet also found expression in Allama’s verse, viz.Kulliy«t-i Iqb«l (F«risâ),Rumëz-i Bekhudâ , p. 114, v. 3, andPas Chih B«yad Kard , p. 817, v. 8:

Through the bounty of the ruler of our faith,

the entire earth became our mosque.

The King of the Faith said to the Muslims:

The whole earth is my mosque’ (trans. B. A. Dar).

23. Cf.The Muqaddimah , trans. F. Rosenthal, I, 388-92.

24. For the Khawa`rij’s view of the Caliphate, see Allama Iqbal’s article ‘Political Thought in Islam’ (Speeches, Writings and Statements of Iqbal , pp. 119-20); also W. Thomson, ‘Kharijitism and the Kharijites’,Macdonald Presentation Volume , pp. 371-89, and E. Tyan,Institutions du droit public musulman , ii, 546-61.

25. Cf. F. A. Tansel (ed), Ziya Gö kalp kü lliyati ‘i: Sü rler ve halk masallar, p. 129. On Allama’s translation of the passages from Ziya G’kalp’s kulliyati, Dr Annemarie Schimmel observes: ‘Iqbal did not know Turkish, has studied his (Ziya Gö kalp’s) work through the German translation of August Fischer, and it is of interest to see how he (Iqbal) sometimes changes or omits some words of the translation when reproducing the verses in the Lecture’ (Gabriel’s Wing , p. 242).

It may be added that these changes of omissions are perhaps more due to August Fischer’s German translation as given in hisAus der religiö sen Reformbewegung in der Tü rkei (Religious Reform Movement in Turkey) than to Allama. The term ‘esri’, for example, has been used by Ziya Gö kalp for ‘secular’ and not for ‘modern’ as Fischer has put it. Again, a line from the original Turkish text is missing in the present passage, but this is so in the German translation.

For this comparative study of the German and English translations of passages from Gö kalp’skü lliyati , I am very much indebted to Professor S. Qudratullah Fatimi, formerly Director: Regional Cooperation for Development, Islamabad.

26. This is a reference to the Quranic verse 49:13.

27. Cf.Ziya Gö kalp kü lliyati , p. 112. According to the Turkish original, the second sentence in this passage should more fittingly have begun with ‘in this period’ rather than with ‘in every period’ as rendered by A. Fischer. Again the next, i.e. the third sentence, may be said to be not so very close to the text; yet it is quite faithful to its German version.

28. Cf.ibid ., p. 113; also Uriel Heyd,Foundation of Turkish Nationalism: The Life and Teachings of Ziya Gö kalp , pp. 102-03, and Allama Iqbal’s statement ‘On the Introduction of Turkish Prayers by Ghazi Mustafa Kemal Pasha’ published in the WeeklyLight (Lahore), 16 February 1932, reproduced in Rahim Bakhsh Shaheen (ed.),Memontos of Iqbal , pp. 59-60.

29. On Ibn Tumart’s innovation of introducing the call to prayer in the Berber language, cf. Ibn Abâ Zar’,Raud al-Qirt«s , Fr. trans. A. Beaumier,Histoire des souverains du Magreb , p. 250; I. Goldziher, ‘Materalien zur Kenntniss der Almohadenbewegung in Nordafrika’,ZDMG , XLI (1887), 71, and D. B. Macdonald,Development of Muslim Theology , p. 249. This practice, according to Ahmad b. Kh«lid al-Sal«wâ, was stopped and call to prayer in Arabic restored by official orders in 621/1224; cf. hisAl-Istiqs«li Akhb«r Duwal al-Maghrib’l-Aqs« , II, 212.

30. Cf.Ziya Gö kalp kü lliyati , p. 133. The word ‘sun’ in the second sentence of this passage stands for Gunum in Turkish which, we are told, could as well be translated as ‘day’; some allowance, however, is to be made for translation of poetical symbols from one language into another.

31. Cf.ibid ., p. 161. It is interesting to note how very close is late Professor H. A. R. Gibb’s translation of this passage as well as of the one preceding it (Modern Trends in Islam, pp. 91-92), to that of Allama’s even though his first reference is to the French version of them in F. Ziyaeddin Fahri’sZiya Gö kalp: sa vie et sa sociologie , p. 240.

32. Cf. Bukh«râ,I’tis«m : 26; ‘Ilm : 39;Jan«’iz : 32;Marad« : 17, and Muslim,Jan«’iz : 23 andWasâyyah : 22; see also last inSahih Muslim , English translation by A. H. Siddiqi`, III 870, note 2077.

33. For further elucidation of Allama’s observations on Luther and his movement here as also in a passage in his ‘Statement on Islam and Nationalism in Reply to a Statement of Maulana Husain Ahmad’ (Speeches, Writings and Statements of Iqbal , p. 254), see his most famous and historical ‘All-India Muslim League Presidential Address of 29 December 1930’, ibid., pp. 4-5. Cf. also the closing passages of the article: ‘Reformation’ inAn Encyclopedia of Religion , ed. Vergilius Ferm, p. 642.

34. Cf. Subhâ Mahmas«nâ,Falsafah-i Sharâ‘at-i Isl«m , Urdu trans. M. Ahmad Ridvâ, pp. 70-83.

35. This acute observation about the development of legal reasoning in Islam from the deductive to the inductive attitude in interpretation is further elaborated by Allama Iqbal on pp. 140-41. It may be worthwhile to critically examine in the light of this observation the attempts made by some of the well-known Western writers on Islamic law to analytically trace the historical development of legal theory and practice in early Islam, viz. N. J. Coulson,A History of Islamic Law , chapters 3-5; J. Schacht,Introduction to Islamic Law , chapters 7-9 and his earlier pioneer work:Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence , by General Index especially under ‘Medinese and ‘Iraqians’.

36. This is a reference to a passage in Lecture I, p. 7.

37. Cf. M. V. Merchant,A Book of Quranic Laws , chapters v-vii.

38. Cf.Briefe ü ber Religion , pp. 72 and 81. The passages translated here are as under:

"Das Urchristentum legte keinen Wert auf die Erhaltung von Staat Recht, Organisation, Produktion. Es denkt einfach nicht ü ber die Bedingungen der Existenz der menschlichen Gesellschaft nach."

Also entweder man wagt es, staatslos sein zu wollen, man wirft sich der Anarchie freiwillig in die arme, oder man entschliesst sich, neben seinem religiö sen Bekenntnis ein politisches Bekenntnis zu haben.

Joseph Friedrich Naumann (1860-1919), a passage from whose very widely readBriefe ü ber Religion (‘Letters on Religion’) has been quoted above in Lecture III, pp. 64-65, was a German Protestant theologian, socialist politician, political journalist and a champion ofMitteleuropa plan. He was one of the founders and the first president of German National Socialist Party (1896) which both in its name and in its policy of according great importance to the agricultural and working classes in the development of the State adumbrated Hitler’s Nazi Party (1920). His Mitteleuropa published in 1915 (English translation by C. M. Meredith in 1916) stirred up considerable discussion during World War I as it revived, under the impulse of Pan-Germanism, the idea of a Central European Confederation including Turkey and the Balkan States under Germany’s cultural and economic control. It also contemplated the expansion of the Berlin-Baghdad railway into a grandiose scheme of empire extending from Antwerp in Belgium to the Persian Gulf.

Except for the year 1912-13, Naumann was the member of Reichstag (German Parliament) from 1907 to 1919. Shortly before his death, he was elected as the leader of Democratic Party. Naumann known for his wide learning, acumen and personal integrity was very influential with German liberal intellectuals of his day. For the life and works of Naumann, cf. the two articles: ‘Naumann, Friedrich’ and ‘National Socialism, German’ by Theodor Heuss in theEncyclopaedia of Social Sciences , XI, 310 and 225a; alsoThe New Encyclopaedia Britannica (Micropaedia), VIII, 561. For some information given in the above note I am deeply indebted to the Dutch scholar the Reverend Dr Jan Slomp and his younger colleague Mr Harry Mintjes. Mr Mintjes took all the trouble to find out what he said was the oldest available edition ofBriefe ü ber Religion (Berlin, Georg Reimer, 1916, sixth edition) by making a search for it in all the libraries of Amsterdam. Dr Jan Slamp was kind enough to mark the passages inBriefe quoted by Allama Iqbal in English and mail these to me for the benefit of all Iqbalian scholars.

39. Hence, The Introduction of Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act or Indian Act VIII of 1939. Cf. Maul«n« Ashraf ‘Alâ Th«nawâ,Al-Hilat al-N«jizah lil-Halâlat al-’ÿjizah , p. 99 and A. A. A. Fyzee, Outlines of Muhammadan Law, pp. 153-61.

40. SeeAl-Muw«fiq«t , II, 4: also Ghaz«lâ,Al-Mustasf« , 1, 140.

41. Cf. al-Marghin«nâ,Al-Hid«yah , II,Kit«b al-Nik«h , p. 328; English trans.The Hedaya or Guide by C. Hamilton, p. 66.

42. Cf.Speeches, Writings and Statements of Iqbal , p. 194, where, while making an appraisal of Ataturk’s ‘supposed or real innovations’, Allama Iqbal observes: ‘The adoption of the Swiss code with its rule of inheritance is certainly a serious error . . The joy of emancipation from the fetters of a long-standing priest-craft sometimes derives a people to untried courses of action. But Turkey as well as the rest of the world of Islam has yet to realize the hitherto unrevealed economic aspects of the Islamic law of inheritance which von Kremer describes as the supremely original branch of Muslim law.’ For some recent accounts of the ‘economic significance of the Quranic rule of inheritance’, cf. M. A. Mannan,Islamic Economics , pp. 176-86 and Shaikh Mahmud Ahmad,Economics of Islam , pp. 154-58.

43. Marriage has been named in the Qur’an asmâth«q-an ghalâz-an , i.e. a strong covenant (4:21).

44. Cf. M. V. Merchant, op. cit., pp. 179-86.

45. Cf. I. Goldziher,Muhammedanische Studien , English trans. C. R. Barber and S. M. Stern,Muslim Studies , II, 18f. This is the view held also by some other orientalists such as D. S. Margoliouth,The Early Development of Mohammedanism , pp. 79-89, and H. Lammens,Islam: Beliefs and Institutions , pp. 65-81.

46. This is the closing paragraph of chapter III ofMohammedan Theories of Finance: With an Introduction to Mohammedan Law and a Bibliography by Nicolas P. Aghnides published by Columbia University (New York) in 1916 as one of itsStudies in History ,Economics and Public Law . A copy of this work as reported by Dr M. ‘Abdulla`h Chaghata`’i was sent to Allama Iqbal by Chaudhry Rahmat ‘Ali`Kha`n (President: American Muslim Association) from the United States and was presented to him on the conclusion of the thirty-eighth annual session of Anjuman-i Àim«yat-i Isl«m (Lahore), i.e. on 31 March 1923 or soon after. Dr Chaghat«‘âs essay: ‘Khutuba`t-i Madra`s ka Pas-i Manzar’ in hisIqb«l kâ Âuhbat Men and the section: ‘Six Lectures on the Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam’ with useful notes in Dr. Rafâ al-Dân H«shimâ’sTaÄ«nâf-i Iqb«l k« TaÁqâqâ-o Tauîâhâ MuÇ«la’ah throw light on the immediate impact that Aghnides’s book had on Allama’s mind. It seems that Aghnides’s book did interest Allama and did play some part in urging him to seek and study some of the outstanding works onUsël al-Fiqh such as those by ÿmidâ, Sh«Çibâ, Sh«h Walâ All«h, Shauk«nâ, and others. This is evident from a number of Allama’s letters to Sayyid Sulaim«n Nadvâas also from his letters from 13 March 1924 to 1 May 1924 to Professor Maulavâ M. Shafâ’ [Oriental College Magazine , LIII (1977), 295-300]. It is to be noted that besides a pointed reference to a highly provocative view ofIjm«’ alluded to by Aghnides, three passages from part I ofMohammedan Theories of Finance are included in the last section of the present Lecture, which in this way may be said to be next only to the poems of Ziya Gö kalp exquisitely translated from Fischer’s German version of them.

47. This is remarkable though admittedly a summarized English version of the following quite significant passage from Sh«h Walâ All«h’s magnum opus Hujjat All«h al-B«lighah (I,118):

This is the passage quoted also in Shiblâ Nëm«nâ’sAl-Kal«m (pp. 114-15), a pointed reference to which is made in Allama Iqbal’s letter dated 22 September 1929 addressed to Sayyid Sulaim«n Nadvâ. There are in fact three more letters to Sayyid Sulaim«n Nadvâ in September 1929, which all show Allama’s keen interest in and preceptive study of Hujjat All«h al-B«lighah at the time of his final drafting of the present Lecture (cf.Iqb«ln«mah , pp. 160-63).

From the study of these letters it appears that Allama Iqbal in his interpretation of at least the above passage fromÀujjat All«h al-B«ligah was much closer to Shiblâ Nëm«nâ than to Sayyid Sulaimân Nadvâ.

It is to be noted that Allama Iqbal was always keen to seek and study the works of Sha`h WalâAll«h, whom he considered to be ‘the first Muslim who felt the urge of a new spirit in him’ (Lecture IV, p. 78). Some of these works have been referred to by titles in Allama’s more than 1200 letters and it is noteworthy that their number exceeds that of the works of any other great Muslim thinker; Ghazz«lâ, Fakhr al-Dân R«zâ, Jal«l al-Dân Rumâ, Ibn Taimiyyah, Ibn Qayyim; Sadr al-Dân Shâr«zâ, or any other. In his letter dated 23 September 1936 to Maulavi Ahmad Rid« Bijnàrâ, Allama reports that he had not received his copies of Sh«h WalâAll«h’sAl-Khair al-Kathâr andTafhâm«t supposed to have been dispatched to him through some dealer in Lahore. He also expresses in this letter his keen desire to have the services on suitable terms of some competent Muslim scholar, well-versed in Islamic jurisprudence and very well-read in the works of Sh«h Walâ All«h.

48. Cf. Aghnides,op. cit. , p. 91. This is the statement which, according to Dr ‘Abdullah Chaghat«‘â (op. cit ., pp. 300-04) and Dr. Rafâ al-Dân H«shimâ occasioned Allama Iqbal’s fiqhi discussions with a number of renowned religious scholars which finally led to his writing a paper onIjtih«d in 1924; the present Lecture may be said to be only a developed form of that paper. On the impossible question of Ijm«’s repealing the Qur’an one is to note Allama’s two inquiring letters to Sayyid Sulaim«n Nadvâ and more importantly a letter also to Maul«n« Abul Kal«m Az«d (Iqb«ln«mah , 1, 131-35).

49. ÿmidâ, Ihk«m fi Usël al-Ahk«m, 1, 373.

50. Shauk«nâ,Irsh«d al-Fuhël , pp. 65-72.

51.Mu’awwidhat«n are the last twosërahs of the Qur’an, i.e. 113 and 114; they are called so because they teach man how to seek refuge with God and betake himself to His protection.

52. This is summing up of Karkhi`’s somewhat longer statement as quoted by Aghnides,op. cit ., p. 106; cf. also Sarakhsâ, Usul «l-Sarakhsâ, II, 105.

53. For Allama’s views on Persian constitutional theory see his articles: ‘Political Thought in Islam’ and ‘Islam and Ahmadism’,Speeches, Writings and Statements of Iqbal , pp. 118-19 and 195.

54. For Allama’s practical guidelines to reform the present system of legal education in the modern Muslim world especially in the subcontinent, see his very valuable letter dated 4 June 1925 to Sahibzadah Aftab Ahmad Khan (Letters of Iqbal , p. 155); also the last paragraph of his Presidential Address at the All-India Muslim Conference on 21 March 1932 (Speeches, Writings and Statements , p. 43).

55. For Sh«fâ’â’s ‘identification’ of Qiy«s andIjtih«d , cf. M. Khadduri,Islamic Jurisprudence Sh«fi’âs Ris«lah , p. 288 and J. Schacht,The Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence , pp. 127-28.

56. Cf. Shauk«nâ, op. cit., p. 199; ÿmidâ, op. cit., IV, 42ff; and Mahmas«nâ,op. cit ., Urdu trans. M. A. Ridvâ, p. 188.

57. Cf.Mohammedan Theories of Finance , p. 125. This is the observation, in fact, of the Sh«fi’âjurist Badr al-Dân Muhammad b. Bah«dur b. ‘Abd All«h al-Zarkashâ of eighth century and not of Sarkashâof tenth century of the Hijrah, as it got printed in the previous editions of the present work (including the one by Oxford University Press in 1934). ‘Sarkashâ’ is a palpable misprint for Zarkashâ’; Aghnides in the above-cited work spells it ‘Zarkashi’ but places him in the tenth century of the Hijrah. None of the Zarkashâs, however, given in the well-known biographical dictionaries, say, ‘Umar Rid« Kahhalah’s fifteen-volumeMu‘jam al-Mu‘allifân (V, 181; IX, 121; X, 22, 205, 239 and XI, 273) is reported to have belonged to tenth century - except, of course, Muhammad b. Ibra`hi`m b.Lu’lu’ al-Zarkashâ mentioned in VIII, 214 who is said to be still living after 882/1477 or as al-Ziriklâ puts it to have died sometime after 932/1526 (op. cit ., V, 302); but this Zarkashâ, though he may be said to have made name as an historian of the Muwahhids and the Hafasids, was no jurist.

It is to be noted that the passage on the future prospects ofIjtih«d quoted by Allama Iqbal is only a more significant part of Zarkashâ’s somewhat longer statement which Aghnides gives as under:

If they [i.e., the people entertaining this belief] are thinking of their contemporaries, it is a fact that they have had contemporaries like al-Qaff«l, al-Ghazz«lâ, al-Razâ, al-R«fi’â, and others, all of whom have been full mujtahids, and if they mean by it that their contemporaries are not endowed and blessed by God with the same perfection, intellectual ability and power, or understanding, it is absurd and a sign of crass ignorance; finally, if they mean that the previous writers had more facilities, while the later writers has more difficulties, in their way; it is again nonsense, for it does not require much understanding to see thatIjtih«d for the later doctors (muta’akhirën ) is easier than for the earlier doctors. Indeed the commentaries on the Koran and the sunnah have been compiled and multiplied to such an extent that the mujtahid of today has more material for interpretation than he needs.’

This statement onijtih«d which Aghnides ascribes clearly to Zarkashâ, albeit of the tenth century of Hijrah, is in fact, as may be seen, translation of the following passage from Shauk«nâ’sIrsh«d al-Fuhël (p. 223):

From the study of the section ofIrsh«d al-Fuhël dealing with the ‘possibility of there being a period of time without a mujtahid, it becomes abundantly clear that the views embodied in the above passage are those of the Sh«fi’â jurist Badr al-Dân Zarkashâ of the eighth century of Hijrah and not of Sarkashâ, nor of Zarkashâof the tenth century. For an account of the life and works of Badr al-Dân Zarkashâ, cf. Muhammad Abë’l-Fadl al-Rahâm’s ‘introduction’ to Zarkashâ’s well-known,Al-Burh«n fi ‘ulëm al-Qur’an .

It may be added that the Persian translator of the present work Mr. Ahmad ÿr«m considers ‘Sarkashâ’ to be a misprint for ‘Sarakhsâ’, i.e. the Hanafâ jurist Shams al-ÿimmah Abë Bakr Muhammad b. Abâ Sahl al-Sarakhsâ, the author of the well-known thirty-volumeal-Mabsët , who died in near about 483/1090. Referring to ‘many errors and flaws’ that have unfortunately crept into the Lahore edition of the present work, Mr. ÿr«m is inclined to think that ‘tenth century’ is another misprint for ‘fifth century’ (cf.Ihy«-i Fikr-i Dânâ dar Isl«m , pp. 202-03, note).

Ahmad ÿr«m admittedly takes his clue from a line in Madame Eva Meyerovitch’s French translation:Reconstruire la pensee religieus de l’Islam (p.192) and perhaps also from the Urdu translation:Tashkâl-i Jadâd Il«hiy«t-i Isl«mâyah (p. 274) by the late Syed Nadhir Niy«zâ who corrects the name (Sarakhsâ) but not the date. This is, however, better than the Arabic translator who retains both the misprints without any comments (cf. ‘Abb«s Mahmëd,Tajdâd al-Tafkâr al-Dânâfi’l-Isl«m , p. 206).

58. Cf. article ‘Turkey’ inEncyclopaedia Britannica , (1953) XXII, 606-08. The French writer alluded to by Allama Iqbal is Andre Servier whose workL’Islam et la psychologie da Musulman translated under the intriguing titleIslam and the Psychology of a Musulman by A. S. Moss Blandell (London, 1924) aroused the curiosity of many. It is in the last chapter of his work dealing with French foreign policy that Servier makes some observations on Turkey such as the following:

(a) ‘The Turks constitutean element of balance . they form a buffer State between Europe and the Asiatic ferment’ (p. 267). (Italics mine.)

(b) ‘Our interests, therefore, make it our duty to protect them, to maintain them asan element of equilibrium in the Musulman World’ (p. 268). (Italics mine.)

59. This may profitably be compared with the following passage from Allama’s famous ‘Statement on Islam and Nationalism in Reply to a Statement of Maulana Husain Ahmad’: ‘The history of man is an infinite process of mutual conflicts, sanguine battles and civil wars. In these circumstances can we have among mankind a constitution, the social life of which is based upon peace and security? The Quran’s answer is: Yes, provided man takes for his ideal the propagation of the Unity of God in the thoughts and actions of mankind. The search for such an ideal and its maintenance is no miracle of political manoeuvring: it is a peculiar greatness of the Holy Prophet that the self-invented distinctions and superiority complexes of the nations of the world are destroyed and there comes into being a community which can be styled ummat-am muslimat-al laka (a community submissive to Thee, 2:128) and to whose thoughts and actions the divine dictate shuhada’a ‘al-an nas-i (a community that bears witness to the truth before all mankind, 2:143) justly applies’ (Speeches, Writings and Statements of Iqbal , pp. 262-63).