[Reader-list] Two Iqbals & One Faiz and AnalHaq

Wed Sep 12 18:08:04 IST 2007

Dear Rahul and Yasir and all other interested ones

  "These matters that with myself I too much discuss
    Too much explain"
  From Ash Wednesday by T S Eliot

  Picking up the threads...... 

  I would disagree with Rahul that Faiz was a "dehria" (atheist). I do not subscribe to the thought that Communism and more importantly Marxism automaticaly suggests atheism. Atheism is as much of an "I know the truth" declaration as Theism. It is equally presumptuous.

  I venture the thought that it would be very easy for a Muslim to subscribe to Marxism. In my opinion, some of the finest precepts of Islam are common to some of the finest precepts in Marxism. My qualified "some" is essential because I do not want to quibble over the "position and rights of women" and the "regularising of slavery" in Islam.

  For me, to inject a personal note, the Spirituality (as being distinctly different from Religosity) is in the Agnostic's "I do not Know and I am open to Knowing". That is also the essential attribute of the "seeking" at the ever expanding frontiers of science. It is progressive (correlations intended). I see Faiz as an agnostic.

  Getting back to Faiz, Yasir has spoken about the religious metaphors in Faiz's poem "Hum daikhaingay". You cannot ignore them. There is not any ambiguity either, I think.

  Faiz would not use a word like "Khudah" (God) just for the sake of poetic balances. I am sure Faiz knew what was meant by "Khudah". "Khalq e Khudah" is the people who are God's creations. Did Faiz mean only the Muslims? I do not think so. The people, the masses. Faiz does not mock or dismiss "Khudah".

  Faiz also writes "arz e Khudah kay Kaabe say, sabb butth uthwaye jaayaingay"( all the idols will be removed from Kaa'ba).  Certainly Faiz new that all idols had been removed/destroyed in Kaa'ba (Muslims call it the House of God) many centuries back. What Kaa'ba was Faiz referring to and who/what were the idols?

  Faiz uses the expression "hum ahl e safaa" (we the people lined up in the mosque or for namaaz). He includes himself. Hardly a Dehria. But, which/what mosque?

  Most interesting, for me is " utthayga an al haq ka naara, jo main bhi hoon aur tum bhi ho" (shouts will resound that I am the Truth, the Truth that you are, the Truth that I am too). In that perhaps is Faiz's attitude towards the formal, expected and usually found acceptable religious norms. 

  Is there a 'sufi' attitude also in it in addition to the political statement? I that am your Truth my Lord without any intercession, I and we the people my Lord and this our Earth that you made for us. Rahul wrote "Analhaq is a good summary statement of sufism". Sufism is one of the finest understandings of Islam (submission). Quite a submission. My opinion.

  To digress, was Mansur Bin Hallaj's  An-al-Haq influenced by his travels which included Hind (India)? 

  "An-al-Haq" mirrors the attitude of "Aham Bramhasmi, Aham Vishnur, Aham Mahesha" (I am the Creator, I the Preserver, I the Destroyer). In other words I am God's reflection in every sense and aspect. The Object and the Reflection are One, I am God. 

  Another digression. This precept from Dharma (being seen by me as distinctly different from Hinduism) is fascinating for me. It is the closest that a Theological idea comes to Scientific understanding. Anything, and I mean anything whatsoever whether material or even a thought has the aspects of being Formed, Have a Life Span and then Die. But Death is not an absolute, there is a Transformation and the cycle continues in a new form. Nothing ends, it only alters. Am not talking about things like "soul" and "after life" but in pure materialistic terms.

  Ahhhhhhhhhhhh. Such commonality. Is that the reason why "Sufi" attitudes, exemplified by "An al Haq" found themselves fairly easily understood and perhaps accepted in Hind (India)? There ware also other common threads such as Meditation and later the "Bakhti Rasa" (Devotional) expressed though song. 

  I know that some strongly believe that the "sufi" garb was just a devious strategy to make inroads and convert. That is another topic altogether. 

  Kshmendra Kaul

Rahul Asthana <rahul_capri at yahoo.com> wrote:
  Hi Yasir
That was a very interesting post.Are you saying that
sufism has been interpreted differently by different
scholars,and hence there is no essential nature of
sufism?In my simplistic understanding,sufism is
something very personal;between an individual and
God;to remove every obstacle/diversion between the
two.
Analhaq is a good summary statement of sufism. 
So when you say that Iqbal says "sufism was not an
abstraction but lay in re-engaging with the collective
community",I somehow find Iqbal's redefinition
unpalatable.
For example,as you yourself have said,Maududi cant be
called sufi by any stretch of imagination.
I hope you will excuse my limited understanding of the
subject.
My second question is about anal haq.I somehow find
Faiz's usage of this phrase disingenuous.Faiz would
have known its history,Im sure.What was his intention?
If this is about a movement against dictatorship,why
bring a phrase which has religious overtones and which
is connected with apostasy into it?
Thank you
Rahul
--- yasir ~ wrote:

> 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.
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