Published by Daily O
This year, in 2017, Guruparb i.e. birth anniversary of Guru Nanak fell on 4th of November—five days earlier of Allama Iqbal’s birthday (9 November). It is beautiful that today we remember Allama Iqbal through Guru Nanak and vice-versa.
In his poem Bolshevik Roos (Bolshevik Russia) from anthology Zarb-e-Kaleem (Rod of Moses), Allama Iqbal (1877-1938) writes:
Yeh Wahi Dehriyat-e-Roos Par Hui Nazil
Ki Tod Daal Kalisaaiyon Ke Laat-o-Manat
यह वही दहरियत-ए-रूस पर हुई नाज़िल
कि तोड़ डाल कलीसाईयों के लात-ओ-मनात
On Non-believers of Russia the divine command descends
Smite all the Baals and Dagons of the Church !
With this couplet, Iqbal made a strong case to expunge all kinds of exploitation that the Church orchestrated in the name of ‘religion’ through self-made concepts like Baals and Dagons—the two idols. And Iqbal calls it a ‘divine duty’ of humankind to demolish such perceptions that had been exploiting humanity since antiquity. It was, according to Iqbal, what ‘God’ commanded to ‘non-believers’ of the communist Russia! Vouching for ‘social justice’ and ‘equality’ is a deed for which the God exhorts even the non-believers !
Similar references were made by Allama Iqbal with respect to the cunning Mullahs and imposter Sufis from among the Muslims. Iqbal’s works are replete with such criticisms. Take one from Iqbal’s Armughan-e-Hijaz:
Nikalkar Khanqahon Se, Ada Kar Rasme Shabbiri
Come out of the monasteries and revive the traditions of Shabbir.
Shabbir i.e. Imam Husain was the grandson of Mohammad who challenged the tyrant Yazeed in the Karbala (Iraq) and was martyred in the battleground. Iqbal wants the Sufi to challenge the tyrants and exploiters of the day instead of sitting idle in the hospices.
For Iqbal, exploitation and deceit in the name of the God is disgrace to the religion; for it relegates the very material purpose of life i.e. social justice and equality. This would be more clear when Iqbal’s poem Nanak from his Bang-e-Daraa is re-read as below:
Qaum Ne Pegham-e-Gautam Ki Zara Parwa Na Ki
Qadr Pehchani Na Apne Gauhar-e-Yak Dana Ki
The nation could not care less about Gautama’s message
It did not know the price of its unique pearl!
Ah! Bad-Qismat Rahe Aawaz-e-Haq Se Be-Khabar
Ghafil Apne Phal Ki Sheerini Se Hota Hai Shajar
Poor wretches! They never heard the voice of truth:
A tree does not know how sweet its fruit is.
Aashakar Usne Kiya Jo Zindagi Ka Raaz Tha
Hind Ko Lekin Khayali Falsafe Par Naaz Tha
What he revealed was the secret of existence,
But India was proud of its fantacies;
Shama-e-Haq Se Jo Munawwar Ho Ye Woh Mehfil Na Thi
Barish-e-Rehmat Huwi Lekin Zameen Qabil Na Thi
It was not an assembly‐hall to be lit up by the lamp of truth;
The rain of mercy fell, but the land was barren.
Aah! Shudar Ke Liye Hindustan Gham Khana Hai
Dard-e-Insani Se Is Basti Ka Dil Begana Gai
Alas, for the shudra India is a house of sorrow,
This land is blind to the sufferings of man.
Barhman Sarshar Hai Ab Tak Mai-e-Pindar Mein
Shama-e-Gautam Jal Rahi Hai Mehfil-e-Aghyar Mein
The Brahmin is still drunk with the wine of pride,
In the assembly‐halls of foreigners burns Gautama’s lamp.
Butkada Phir Baad Muddat Ke Magar Roshan Huwa
Noor-e-Ibraheem Se Azar Ka Ghar Roshan Huwa
But, ages later, the house of idols was lit up again–
Azar’s house was lit up by Abraham!
Phir Uthi Akhir Sada Touheed Ki Punjab Se
Hind Ko Ek Mard-e-Kamil Ne Jagaya Khawab Se
Again from Punjab the call of monotheism arose:
A perfect man roused India from slumber.
Iqbal’s poem is hinged mainly upon four themes namely Gautama Buddha (563BC-483BC) and his teachings, essence of Truth and Monotheism, spirit of social justice and equality, and Guru Nanak (1469-1539). Out of eight couplets in the poem, first six couplets are dedicated to the first three themes; while the last two couplets are dedicated to the Guru Nanak—the founder of Sikhism and the first of the ten gurus in Sikhism.
Iqbal says that Indian nation never valued and cherished Buddha and his teachings. Buddha called for the spiritual augmentation in one’s life by shunning all kinds of obsessions for worldly desires. For Iqbal, Buddha was a ‘gem’ and India could not identify the worth and value of its ‘own gem’; for they were particularly tinkering with the worldly pursuits of prestige, power and property. While Buddha was ferrying them to the spiritual path of salvation but they, owing to their own ignorance, were unaware of this. Alas ! unfortunate Indians were unmindful of the divine Truth revealed by Buddha, in a similar way as a tree remains in oblivion of sweetness of its own fruits !
Buddha’s teachings are premised upon the Four Noble Truths which establish that the sufferings in human life can be quelled by disentanglement from worldly obsessions and desires. These are manifested in the form quest for power, prestige and property. It was the divine Truth of life revealed by Buddha to his people. But Indians had their own fantasy of four social classes devised by them in the name of religion! Discriminating hierarchies and social hiatus prevalent at that time is evocative of reluctance Indians had towards the Truth and divine light. India, then, was a barren land where heavenly rains, in the form of Buddha’s teachings, fell but nothing yielded!
Speaking on the long precedence of subordination and exploitation of Shudra—the lower most caste in India—Iqbal says with anguish, ‘India had always remained an abode of sorrow as the Indian society was devoid of humanitarianism and compassion’. Brahmins in India were intoxicated with the wine of ego and pride by the dint of the self-framed casteist dogmas. While the message of Buddha was embraced by people in foreign lands like China, Japan; India remained un-benefitted with the divine light.
In the last two couplets, Allama Iqbal, the Sufi poet, has talked about Guru Nanak and the faith of Monotheism. ‘The idol workshop, i.e. India, was now illuminated after a long span by the birth of Guru Nanak in Punjab; monotheistic commandments would be rejuvenated in the Punjab’, says Iqbal.
Now, the word monotheism should be analyzed in broad perspective and it needs due consideration in today’s Islamophobic world. Monotheism means believing in and submitting to only One God. It must not be confined to the religion of Iqbal or of any other Muslim. Apart from Islam and Sikhism, Christianity and Judaism are essentially monotheistic in nature. References are also found in Vedas about monotheistic nature of their religion. And it is sine qua non with monotheistic literature of religions that religion must promote firstly the spirit of social justice and equality. For instance, when Moses was issued the Ten Commandments by his Lord, he was directed by his Lord to firstly challenge the Pharaoh. He was not directed, at first, to meet his people and teach them the rituals as to ‘how to offer prayers!’ Rituals were secondary, revolution was the primary task for Moses. Muhammad—the [last] Prophet of Islam—commanded proscription of ‘a man bowing before a man’. For the man is born free and they must not be subjected to any sort of exploitation, submission and oppression by the other man. And it is foremost duty of a monotheist to help masses purge of such submission and exploitation. With such vision, Guru Nanak, the mard-e-kamil (the Perfect Man) of Iqbal started his mission and awakened the slumbering souls of India.
The poem Nanak is of high relevance in contemporary India. When there is an exponential bout in unpleasant rituals and innovations within religions promoting thereby the unhealthy altercation among followers, environmental pollution, ignorance at the cost of rationality and scientific temper, believers must come forward to unravel those tenets of their religion that call for material betterment of humanity.
As per the religious tenets, spiritual augmentation through rituals is a private business of a believer; material betterment and social reconstruction, as one of the religious appurtenances, should be an explicit and perceptible reality in the society. Alas ! we are witnessing the reverse trends now a days. A system promoting casteism, enmity among religions, can be any absurd thing but not the religion. What should be the duties of a believer (a Muslim in Iqbal’s case), Allama Iqbal puts:
Yahi Maqsood-e-Fitrat Hai, Yahi Ramz-e-Musalmani
Akhuwwat Ki Jahangeeri, Muhabbat Ki Faravaani !
This is the destiny of nature, the secret of Being Muslim
World‐wide brotherhood, An abundance of Love !
Author is research fellow at the Department of Political Science, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. He tweets @NavedAshrafi
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