What I think of Iqbal (allama Iqbal)

excerpts from an e-mail I sent to a friend on Iqbal ... and it still holds true for me:

[[I am glad you liked Iqbal ... Iqbal went through several stages in his life; to put it briefly, they can be summed up as follows:

1 - Initial "budding poet" phase; you can almost sense his 'reluctance' and lack of confidence

2 - Staunch Indian nationalism; way beyond the confines of any religion..."mazhab nahin sikhata, aapas mein baer rakhna; hindi hein hum watan hai, hindustan hamara"......and "ya baaham peyar ke jalsay thay, dastoor-e-mohabbat qayam tha; ya behes mein urdu-hindi hai, ya qurbani ya jhatka hai"......just to quote examples

3 - when he first had contact with the west.....he was mesmyrised; "hum mashriq ke makeenon ka dil maghrib mein ja atka hai"....or "meykhana-e-europe ke dastoor niraale hein....." etc; he was also well taken in by the philosophy that was behind the rennaissance of western civilisation...other examples from this period would be his famous "shikva"

4 - Strong inferiority complex.....when he had no answers to the west anymore, he started the "pan-islamism" and "the lost glory" spiels........."Haspania tu khoon-e-musalman ka ameen hai; maanind-e-haram-e-pak hai tu meri nazar mein"; he was also deeply engrossed in "Rumi" and many other mystics.....basically trying to figure out his place in the world

5 - Staunch Islamism; including the resurgence of the "two-nation" concept and politicising Islam as a valid force....till his death


In short, he was trying to figure out HIMSELF most of his life; nothing wrong with that but it rules him out as a reliable source of reference and 'guidance' as portrayed]]