NOTES AND REFERENCES
Lecture I: Knowledge and Religious Experience
1. Reference here is to the following verse from the mystical allegorical work:ManÇiq al-ñair (p. 243, v. 5), generally considered the magnum opus, of one of the greatest sufi poets and thinkers Farâd al-Dân ‘AÇÇ«r’ (d.c. 618/1220):
2. A. N. Whitehead, Religion in the Making, p. 5.
3. Ibid., p. 73.
4. Cf. H. L. Bergson, Creative Evolution, pp. 187-88; on this intuition-intellect relation see also Allama Iqbal’s essay:Bedil in the light of Bergson , ed. Dr Tehsin Firaqi, pp. 22-23.
5.Allahumm«arin« haq«’iq al-ashy«kam«hâya , a tradition, in one form or other, to be found in well-known Sufistic works, for example, ‘Alâb. ‘Uthm«n al-Hujwayrâ,Kashf al-MaÁjëb , p. 166; Mawl«n« Jal«l al-Dân Rëmâ,Mathnawâ-i Ma’nawâ , ii, 466-67; iv, 3567-68; v, 1765; MaÁmëd Shabistarâ (d. 720/1320),Gulshan-i R«z , verse 200, and ‘Abd al-RaÁm«n J«mâ (d. 898/1492),Law«’ih , p. 3.
6. Qur’an, 16:68-69.
7. Ibid., 2:164; 24:43-44; 30:48; 35:9; 45:5.
8. Ibid., 15:16; 25:6; 37:6; 41:12; 50:6; 67:5; 85:1.
9. Ibid., 21:33; 36:40.
10. Cf. F. M. Cornford:Plato’s Theory of Knowledge , pp. 29;109; also Bertrand Russell:History of Western Philosophy , chapter: ‘Knowledge and Perception in Plato’.
11. Qur’an, 16:78; 23:78; 32:9; 67:23.
12. Ibid., 17:36. References here, as also at other places in theLectures , to a dozen Quranic verses in two sentences bespeak of what is uppermost in Allama Iqbal’s mind, i.e. Quranic empiricism which by its very nature gives rise to aWeltanschauung of the highest religious order. He tells us, for example, that the general empirical attitude of the Qur’a`n engenders a feeling of reverence for the actual and that one way of entering into relation with Reality is through reflective observation and control of its perceptually revealed symbols (cf. below, pp. 11-12, italics mine; also Lecture V, p. 102, not 9).
13. For anti-classicism of the Qur’an cf. Mazheruddân Âiddiqâ,Concept of Muslim Culture in Iqbal , pp. 13-25; also Lecture V, note 21.
14. See R. A. Tsanoff,The Problem of Immortality (a work listed at S. No. 37 in theDescriptive Catalogue of Allama Iqbal’s Personal Library ), pp. 75-77; cf. also B. H. Zedler, ‘Averroes and Immortality’,New Scholasticism (1954), pp. 436-53. It is to be noted that Tsanoff marshals the views of S. Munk (Mé langes de philosophie , pp. 454 ff.), E. Renan (Averroes et I’averroisme , pp. 152, 158), A Stockl (Geschichte der Philosophie des Mittelalters , 11, 117, 119), de Boer (Geschichte der Philosophie , p. 173) and M. Horten (Die Hauptlehren des Averroes , pp. 244 ff.) as against those of Carra de Vaux as presented by him in his work Avicenne, pp. 233 ff., as well as in the article: ‘Averroes’ inEncyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics , II, 264-65, and clinches the matter thus: ‘certainly - and this is more significant for our purpose - it was as a denier of personal immortality that scholasticism received and criticised Averroes’ (p. 77, II, 16-19). For a recent and more balanced view of ‘Ibn Rushd’s doctrine of immortality, cf. Roger Arnaldez and A. Z. Iskander, ‘Ibn Rushd’,Dictionary of Scientific Biography , XII, 7a-7b. It is to be noted, however, that M. E. Marmura in his article on ‘Soul: Islamic Concepts’ inThe Encyclopedia of Religion , XIII, 465 clearly avers that Ibn Rushd’s commentaries on Aristotle leave no room for a doctrine of individual immortality.
15. Cf. Tsanoff, op. cit., pp. 77-84, and M. Yënus Farangi Mahallâ,Ibn Rushd (Urdu; partly based on Renan’sAverroes et l’averroisme ), pp. 347-59.
16. See Lecture IV, pp. 93-98, and Lecture VII, pp. 156-57.
17. Reference is to the expression lawÁ-in mahfëzin used in the Quranic verse 85:22. For the interpretation this unique expression of the Qur’an see M. Asad,The Message of the Qur’an , p. 943, note; and Fazlur Rahman, Major Themes of the Qur’a`n, p. 98 - the latter seems to come quite close to Allama Iqbal’s generally very keen perception of the meanings of the Qur’an.
18. This comes quite close to the contemporary French philosopher Louis Rougier’s statement in hisPhilosophy and the New Physics p. 146, II, 17-21. This work, listed at S. No. 15 in theDescriptive Catalogue of Allama Iqbal’s Personal Library , is cited in Lecture III, p. 59.
19. Reference here is to Tevfâk Fikret, pseudonym of Mehmed Tevfik, also known as Tevfik Nazmâ, and not to Tawfik Fitrat as it got printed in the previous editions of the present work. Fikret, widely considered the founder of the modern school of Turkish poetry and remembered among other works for his collection of poems: Rub«b-i Shikeste (‘The Broken Lute’), died in Istanbul on 18 August 1915 at the age of forty-eight. For an account of Fikret’s literary career and his anti-religious views, cf. Niyazi Berkes,The Development of Secularism in Turkey , pp. 300-02 and 338-39; also Haydar Ali Dirioz’s brief paper in Turkish on Fikret’s birth-centenary translated by Dr M. H. Notqi inJournal of the Regional Cultural Institute , 1/4 (Autumn 1968), 12-15.
It is for Turkish-Persian scholars to determine the extent to which Fikret made use of the great poet-thinker Bedil (d. 1133/1721) for ‘the anti-religious and especially anti-Islamic propaganda in Central Asia’. Among very many works on both Bedil and Fikret that have appeared since Allama’s days and are likely to receive the scholars’ attention, mention must be made of Allama’s own short perceptive study: ‘Bedil in the Light of Bergson’, and unpublished essay in Allama’s hand (20 folios) preserved in the Allama Iqbal Museum (Lahore); cf. Dr Ahmad Nabi Khan,Relics of Allama Iqbal (Catalogue) , 1, 25, with photographic reproduction of the first sheet.
20. Cf. John Oxenford (tr.), Conversations of Goethe with Eckermann and Sorret , p. 41.
21. The Qur’an condemns monkery; see 57:27; 2:201; and 28:77. Cf. alsoSpeeches, Writings and Statements of Iqbal , ed. A. L. Sherwani, p. 7, for Allama Iqbal’s observations on the respective attitudes of Christianity and Islam towards the problems of life, leading to his keenly profound pronouncement: ‘The religious ideal of Islam, therefore, is organically related to the social order which it has created’.
22. There are many verses of the Qur’an wherein it has been maintained that the universe has not been created in sport (l«’ibân ) or in vain (b«Çil-an ) but for a serious end or with truth (bi’l-Áhaqq ). These are respectively: (a) 21:16; 44:38; (b) 3:191; 38:27; (c) 6:73; 10:5; 14:19; 15:85; 16:3; 29:44; 30:8; 39:5; 44:39; 45:22; 46:3; and 64:3.
23. See also the Quranic verse 51:47 wherein the phrase inna la-mu`si’u`n has been interpreted to clearly foreshadow the modern notion of the ‘expanding universe’ (cf. M. Asad,The Message of the Qur’a`n , p. 805, note 31).
24. Reference here is in particular to the Prophetic tradition worded as:l«tasubbëal-dahra fa inn All«h huwa’l-dahru , (AÁmad Àanbal,Musnad , V, 299 and 311). Cf. also Bukh«râ,Tafsâr : 45;TauÁâd : 35;Adab `: 101; andMuslim , Alf«z 2-4; for other variants of theÁadâth SaÁâfa Hamm«m-Bin-Munabbih (ed. Dr. M. Hamidullah)Áadâth 117, gives one of its earliest recorded texts.
In an exceedingly important section captionedAl-Waqtu Saif-un (Time is Sword) of his celebratedAsr«r-i-Khudâ , Allama Iqbal has referred to the above hadit`h thus:
Life is of Time and Time is of Life;
Do not abuse Time!’ was the command of the Prophet. (trans. Nicholson)
25. Reference is to the Quranic verse 70:19 which says: ‘Man has been created restless (halë’an ).’
26. This is very close to the language of the Qur’an which speaks of the hardening of the hearts, so that they were like rocks: see 2:74; 5:13; 6:43; 39:22; and 57:16.
This shows that Allama Iqbal, through his keenly perceptive study of the Qur’an, had psychically assimilated both its meanings and its diction so much so that many of his visions, very largely found in his poetical works, may be said to be born of this rare assimilation; cf. Dr Ghul«m Mustaf« Kh«n’s voluminousIqb«l aur Qur’an (in Urdu).
27. Qur’an, 41:35; also 51:20-21.
28. Reference here is to theMathnawâ , ii, 52:
The bodily sense is eating the food of darkness
The spiritual sense is feeding from a sun (trans. Nicholson).
29. Qur’an, 53:11-12.
30. Ibid., 22:46.
31. Cf.Bukh«râ , Jan«’iz, 79; Shah«dah 3; Jih«d: 160, 178; andMuslim , Fitan: 95-96. D. J. Halperin’s article: ‘The Ibn Âayy«d Traditions and the Legend of al-Dajj«l’,Journal of the American Oriental Society , XCII/ii (1976), 213-25, gives an atomistic analytic account of the ah«dâth listed by him.
32. In Arabic:lau tarakathu bayyana , an invariable part of the text of a number ofah«dâth about Ibn Âayy«d; cf. D. B. Macdonald,The Religious Attitude and Life in Islam , pp. 35 ff.; this book, which represents Macdonald’s reputed Haskell Lectures on Comparative Religion at Chicago University in 1906, seems to have received Allama’s close attention in the present discussion.
33.Ibid ., p. 36.
34. Cf. Lecture V, pp. 100 ff.
35. The term ‘subliminal self’ was coined by F. W. H. Myers in the 1890’s which soon became popular in ‘religious psychology’ to designate what was believed to be the larger portion of the self lying beyond the level of consciousness, yet constantly influencing thought and behaviour as in parapsychic phenomena. With William James the concept of subliminal self came to stand for the area of human experience in which contact with the Divine Life may occur (cf.The Varieties of Religious Experience , pp. 511-15).
36. Macdonald,op. cit ., p. 42.
37. Cf. MuÁyuddân Ibn al-‘Arabâ’s observation that ‘God is a precept, the world is a concept’, referred to in Lecture VII, p. 144, note 4.
38.Ibid ., p. 145, where it is observed: ‘Indeed the incommunicability of religious experience gives us a clue to the ultimate nature of the human ego’.
39. W. E. Hocking,The Meaning of God in Human Experience , p. 66. It is important to note here that according to Richard C. Gilman this concept of the inextricable union of idea and feeling is the source of strong strain of mysticism is Hocking’s philosophy, but it is a mysticism which does not abandon the role of intellect in clarifying and correcting intuition; cf. his article: ‘Hocking, William Ernest’,Encyclopedia of Philosophy , IV, 47 (italics mine).
40. Reference here perhaps is to the hot and long-drawn controversy between the Mu‘tazilites (early Muslim rationalists) and the Ash’arties (the orthodox scholastics) on the issue of Khalq al-Qur’an, i.e. the createdness or the eternity of the Qur’an; for which see Lecture VI, note 9. The context of the passage, however, strongly suggests that Allama Iqbal means to refer here to the common orthodox belief that the text of the Qur’an is verbally revealed, i.e. the ‘word’ is as much revealed as the ‘meaning’. This has perhaps never been controverted and rarely if ever discussed in the history of Muslim theology - one notable instance of its discussion is that by Sh«h Walâ All«h in Sata’«t andFuyëz al-Àaramain . Nevertheless, it is significant to note that there is some analogical empirical evidence in Allama’s personal life in support of the orthodox belief in verbal revelation. Once asked by Professor Lucas, Principal of a local college, in a private discourse, whether, despite his vast learning, he too subscribed to belief in verbal revelation, Allama immediately replied that it was not a matter of belief with him but a veritable personal experience for it was thus, he added, he composed his poems under the spells of poetic inspiration - surely, Prophetic revelations are far more exalted. Cf. ‘Abdul Majâd S«lik,Dhikr-i Iqb«l , pp. 244-45 and Faqir Sayyid WaÁâd-ud-Dân,Rëzg«r-i Faqâr , pp. 38-39. After Allama’s epoch-makingmathnawi :Asr«r-i Khudâ was published in 1915 and it had given rise to some bitter controversy because of his critique of ‘ajami tasawwuf , and of the great À«fiz, he in a letter dated 14 April 1916 addressed to Mah«r«ja Kishen Parsh«d confided strictly in a personal way: ‘I did not compose the mathnawâ myself; I was made to (guided to), to do so’; cf. M. ‘Abdull«h Quraishâ’Naw«dir-i Iqb«l (Ghair MaÇbu’ah Khutët )’,Sahâfah , Lahore, ‘Iqb«l Nambar’ (October 1973), Letter No. 41, p. 168.
41. Cf. William James, op. cit., p. 15.
42.Ibid ., p. 21.
43. The designation ‘apostle’ (rasël ) is applied to bearers of divine revelations which embody a new doctrinal system or dispensation; a ‘prophet’ (nabâ ), on the other hand, is said to be one whom God has entrusted with enunciation of ethical principles on the basis of an already existing dispensation, or of principles common to all dispensations. Hence, every apostle is a prophet as well, but every prophet is not an apostle.
44. Cf. Lecture VII, pp. 143-144, where this point is reiterated.
45. E. W. Hocking,op. cit ., pp.106-107.