[Reader-list] Two Iqbals & One Fai

[yasir ~]

KK and Rahul

various people - muslim writers/"reformers" - have reacted to worked
through, sufi ideas differently in hindustan. this wasn't always to
reassert orthodoxy of the time, but also a somewhat intertwined
attempt to engage with the collective.

so you have mujjadid alf saani against chishtis and shias, shah wali
ullah working with various schools including sufi and shia,

iqbal a scholar of arabic, persian metaphysics and german idealism of
goethe, hegel and nietzche saying that the higher stage of sufism was
not an abstraction but lay in re-engaging with the collective
community,

maududi (the other widely-read/known scholar with iqbal) reacting
against his sufi legacy and the deoband school to engage with the
collective socius and work towards asserting power though electoral
party politics (such as in pakistan),

and faiz, not unlike iqbal but in his own way) re-worked urdu poetry's
mythological legacy (which is both metaphysivcal and sufi) to engage
with society through his poetry - faiz being a founding? member of the
progressive writers movement/association, whose membership in general
was revolutionary communist.

i was trying to sketch here, with my ignorance, as helpful as that
might be, to illustrate how people have worked variously through/with
sufi ideas.

best

yasir




On 9/6/07, Kshmendra Kaul :


>
> For me there is not much of a contradiction. Both were revolutionaries. Both
> had a "sufi" bent of mind. Both seemed to celeberate "khudi".
>
> In my opinion the seeming contradiction might arise out of a limited
> understanding of Iqbal. More philosopher than "Islamist" (also more
> Philosopher than Poet). A purist (a Salafi???) who primarily stuck to the
> finest precepts from the "Quran" (somewhat a Parvaizi). A "Shikvah" is not
> the work of an ordinary soul subscribing to the "expected".
>
> In my opinion, Iqbal's politics (the egging on of Jinnah) was more towards
> "a Nation for Muslims" rather than an "Islamic (shariah) Nation". The 1940
> Lahore resolution and Jinnah's Constituent Assembly speech are just 2
> pointers.

& Rahul Asthana :

Faiz was a "dehria" communist,if you know what I
mean.Iqbal was an Islamist.Being a poet and a
philosopher is not contrary to being an Islamist.So,in
that sense,there can be no greater contrast.
Iqbal's philosophy of religious existentialism-
mard-e-momin, khudi etc was based on Islam.I do not
see the same celebration of "khudi" in Faiz.
Also,Iqbal was not sufi either.Iqbal wrote a lot in
Persian.Poetry in every language has a soul of its
own.When you write in Persian,you cant but help poets
like Hafez and Rumi whispering in your ear;and the
mysticism rubs off on you.That can be found in Iqbal
too.But,Iqbal's philosophy has nothing to do with
sufism.In fact,my impression is that in his dialog
Iblees o Jibrael, he is deriding sufis-
"Main khataktaa hoon dile yazdaan mein kaante ki
tarah,
tu faqat, alla hoo alla hoo ,alla hoo."
This IMO, is Nietzsche style existentialism.