Prof Sharif al Mujahid
Sheikh Muhammad Iqbal was a man of myriad and diverse ideas and he is spread out so much that it is difficult to pin him to one main idea at any point. He would like to be “Ravan” and “Dawann” in his poetic thought — as, e.g., “Dasht to dasht hain, darya bhi na chore hum ne, Bahr-e-Zulmaat mein daura diye ghore hum ne!”
He could claim of Arabian army’s escapades into the boundless Atlantic Ocean, but when Iqbal comes to concentrate his ideas in a cryptic way he said, “Ek hi saf main khare ho gaye Mahmoodo-Ayaz, Na koi banda raha aur na koi banda nawaz.”
This makes secularism the social voice of direct democracy with contemporaneous Islam. That means, to Iqbal, secularism has social space in explaining direct democracy in contemporaneous Islam.
Second, while welcoming modernism in Islam in the late 19th century by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and Chiragh Ali, Iqbal emphasizes that Islam is secular in the roots of its being and that it represents one side of the medallion. However, one side is secularism and the other side is Islam. That depicts that there are two sides of the medallion which are interlinked and intermixed.
The problem is how do we separate one side from the other. Except for denying any secular thought promoted by Iqbal, we have been trying to separate the two sides of the medallion and tried to prove Islam is dominant over the whole discourse. The fact is that despite eighty years of atrocious search and attempts we have not been able to separate the two sides of the medal. Hence, the only way out is to get away from this futile search and go on productive nation building with Unity, Faith and Discipline as the masthead of our flag. These triad symbols embodied in this motto have been mentioned by Quaid-e-Azam frequently, and they are for our convenience inscribed on the three hillocks on the road from Benazir Bhutto International Airport to Islamabad. In the circumstances, what else we could do except to go for productive national activities which would carry and promote the principles enunciated by both Iqbal and Jinnah. This is my final message on Iqbal Day for all Pakistanis. It is hoped that the two layers that are mixed up together are left to themselves for the time being and we consigned the controversy to be settled by time and memory as Disraeli said, ‘it happens’. Please remember that in his poetic works, Iqbal is throughout Islamist and he refers to secularism only in his prose works. The Indian Muslims are swayed by his poetic works which are essentially Islamic.
Pakistan Paindabad!
(The writer is HEC Distinguished National Professor, who has recently
co-edited UNESCO’s History of Humanity, vol. VI, and The Jinnah Anthology (2010) and edited in Quest of Jinnah (2007); the only oral history on Pakistan’s Founding Father)
