allama iqbal's reflections

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REFLECTIONS OF ALLAMAH DR. MUHAMMAD IQBAL ON PALESTINE

Dr. M. A. K. Khalil

Introduction

Islam and the Muslim world constitute the central theme of all the works of Allamah Dr.Muhammad Iqbal. The defeat and dismemberment of the Khilafat-i-Uthmania hurtAllamah Iqbals heart most severely. The problem of Palestine constitutes the greatesttragedy of this century for the Muslim world. This is a festering wound which hascontinued in the body politic of the Muslim world till today. It constituted the greateststress to Allamahs heart and its evidence exists throughout his writings and lectures.

As the Palestine problem is one of the most important problems of the present dayMuslim world I felt it appropriate to present this topic to Muslim intelligentsia. Recentlyan article entitled lqbal awr Masaalah-i-Filast in written by Maulvi Shams Tabriz Khanpassed my eyes. It has been included in a book entitled, Nuqush-i-Iqbalby Sayyid AbulHasan Ali Nadvi published by Majlis-e-Nashriyaat-e-Islam, Karachi, Pakistan in 1975.

This book is an Urdu translation of an earlier Arabic book entitled, Rawai Iqba

lby thesame author. Though the book Rawai Iqbal, was written to acquaint the Arab world

with the thought of Allamah lqbal it did not have any paper on Palestine. This graveomission was noticed by the translator of the book into Urdu and has been rectified byhim which is a very valuable addition. An English translation of this paper is presentedbelow for the benefit of English knowing Muslims.

Note. The material within parentheses in what follows has been inserted by me forclarification.

Translation

Iqbal had a very deep personal interest in the problem and future of Palestine andArabs. His personal letters, particularly those to Miss Farquharson, show his heart -feltintense dismay concerning the Palestine problem. In a letter to Mr. (Muhammad Ali)Jinnah he writes.

The Palestine problem has long kept Muslims in mental distress. The Palestinian Arabsperhaps may attain some benefit through the Muslim League. Personally, I am preparedto go to jail for any issue influencing both India and Islam. The forcible establishment ofa Western military cantonment at the gateway to Asia is fraught with dangers both toIslam and India.

He writes to Miss Farquharson:[1]

The Jews also have no right over Palestine. They had bid farewell to Palestine willinglylong before its occupation by Arabs. Zionism also is not a religious movement inaddition to the absence of any interest among religious Jews in Zionism. The PalestineReporthas brought out this fact to broad daylight.

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The advice and sympathies of Iqbal with Palestine were part and parcel of everyPalestine conference held in India. The Allamah made a statement against ThePalestine Reportin the Muslim Conference held at Lahore in which he said: [2]

The injustice meted out to Arabs has touched me intensively as it could touch any

person who is conversant with the conditions prevailing in the Near East. This problemprovides an opportunity to the world Muslims to declare with all the force at theircommand that the problem, the solution of which is the aim of the British politicians isnot only the occupation of Palestine but is a problem which will lead to the creation ofintense influence on the whole Islamic world. If the Palestine problem be viewed in itshistorical background it will be obvious that this is a problem which is purely Islamic. Ifviewed in the light of the history of Bani Israel, the Jewish problem in Israel had ceasedto exist thirteen centuries before the entry of Hazrat Umar in Jerusalem. The forcibleexpulsion of Jews from Palestine never occurred (through) Muslims but, as is pointedout by Professor Hocking. Jews had spread out of Palestine voluntarily and intentionallyand the larger part of their scriptures was written and organized outside Palestine. The

Palestine problem was never a Christian problem. The recent historical discoverieshave thrown a shroud of doubt over the existence of Peter the Hermit himself.

The most tragic result of the First World War was the infliction of severe damage on theIslamic world. On the one hand, the Islamic Khilafah of Turkey was disorganized and onthe other, the allies again freely used their old stratagem of injudicious division of thebooty. Consequently, the eastern part of Turkey was given over to Russia and thewestern provinces of Balkan, Hungary and Bulgaria etc. were declared completelyindependent. Iran and Syria were given over to France and Britain occupied Egypt andIraq. In this way the Islamic world was dismembered and distributed among imperialistEuropean nations. As the Palestine problem had international dimensions it was placed

under the guardianship of Britain to guide it to the path of progress and civilization.Iqbal throws light on this state of affairs and exposes the cunning stratagem of Europe.He shows how Europe first makes the weak countries the target of its tyrannies, thensheds crocodile tears over their misfortunes and shows sympathy, so as to retain itsacceptability in the world of Islam in addition to attaining its own ends

All applause to your compassionate heart, as for the sake of thawab

You have come to the funeral prayer of the one killed by your amorous glance

Europe designates this diplomacy to be a combination of discipline and guardianship

but it is nothing short of blood sucking.Iqbal has no doubts in its apparent civilityEurope is the guarantor of every oppressed nationHowever, Syria and Palestine break my heartPrudence fails to uncover this complex enigma

After coming out of the influence of the unjust Turks

These poor countries are now engulfed in the whirlpool of civilization

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Even at that time that the League of Nations (which was the predecessor of the presentday United Nations) had perpetrated discriminatory treatment against Arabs and Asianswhich continues till today. This was due to the overpowering influence of Jews andWestern countries over it. For this very reason Iqbal sometimes called the League ofNations Dashta-i-pirak-i-Afrang (a keep of the West) and sometimes presents it with

the similitude of shroud thieves who wanted to designate the East as a grave yardwhose graves they wanted to distribute among themselves for stealing their shrouds.

I do not know more than this that some shroud thieves)

Have formed an association for distributing the graves among themselves

Iqbal had understood the growing influence of Jews over Western politics. He hadconsidered it inevitable that Europe would some day fall a victim to their snare of fraud.

The usurious Jews are waiting since longTo whose deceit the prowess of the tiger is no matchThe West is bound to fall by itself like a ripe fruitLet us see in whose lap the West falls

He expresses the same thought in another poem titled, Europe and Jews

This prematurely dying civilization is in the agony of deathThe Jews will perhaps be the trustees of the Church

Since the Arab-Israeli war of June 5, 1967 opinion has been expressed by Jews andtheir supporters that because Arabs had expelled Jews from their homeland Jews arenot to blame if they have wrested their homeland again and that this land is thePromised Land where their return is inevitable, as the Zionists say.

Iqbal had responded to this to the effect that Jews had emigrated from Palestinevoluntarily and that this Diaspora had occurred even before the Arab conquest ofPalestine. Accepting this claim of Jews, Iqbal raised a pertinent but unwelcomequestion. This was that if Jews had their rights over Palestine why could not Arabs havetheir rights over Spain, Sicily and other European lands previously owned by them? Thisclaim of Jews is equivalent to the launching of their claim by the Red Indians over North

America and that of the Hun, Goth and Gaul nations over Britain or of the Aryans ofIndia against Iran and Russia that their homelands be returned to them.

In Iqbals view this is an outrage and a joke on history and is a ridiculous attempt at itswilful distortion. If Jews have to be rewarded with a homeland at all this should be

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conferred upon them in Germany from where they have been really expelled. This newclaim of Jews over Palestine after a lapse of a thousand years of its relinquishment,followed by silence about it is totally baseless and is only the result of prompting by theWest.

If the Jew has the right over the land of PalestineWhy is there no right of Arabs over SpainThe object of British imperialism is something very differentIt is not concerned with orange orchards or the Land of Milk and Honey

Allamah Iqbal is aware of the conceptions and potential of Palestinian Arabs as well aswith their capabilities. Consequently, he wants to stir them up for the developmentofKhudiand excitement to the desire of being counted, and reminds them of theirspiritual elegance from which the world is still benefiting. It is well known that in Iqbalsmessage ofKhudithe feelings of Arabs, their Islamic sentiments, the pleasuresofIman and Belief, spiritual potentials and a stable determination alone are the basiccomponents. Inviting Arabs to the war of independence, after furnishing themselves with

these very arms, Iqbal says beside Faith in God and in Khudiany trust in Europe and

the League of Nations (or the United Nations) is nothing short of vain imagination andself-deception.

I know that your existence still has the fireFrom the warmth of which the world is still benefitingYour cure lies neither in Geneva nor in LondonThe jugular vein of the West is in the clutches of JewsI have heard that freedom of nations from slaveryLies in the development of Khudi and the joy for rising up so as to be counted

DISCUSSION

Some discussion of the Promised Land in the light of Jewish history appearsnecessary here. For a complete understanding of the concept of the Promised Landand the behaviour of Jews regarding it I shall restrict myself only to the Old and NewTestaments of the Holy Bible. The teachings of the Holy Quran on this subject are wellknown to its readers and will not be included in this discussion for brevity. According tothe Holy Bible God promised the Promised Land of Canaan to Abraham and hisprogeny in 1900 B.C. (Genesis 12:1-7). This land roughly corresponds to the presentday Palestine and Jordan. The progeny of Abraham includes Banu Israil (Jews) as wellas Banu Ismail (Arabs). So, both branches of Abrahams progeny have equal rights to

the Promised land. This promise is conditioned with the obligation of piety, as isgeneral with every promise of God. From 1900 B.C. to 1000 B.C. i.e. for a period of 800years this land was ruled by Egypt and Philistines, which gave it the name of Philistine,now anglicised to Palestine. Moses brought Banu Israil to Palestine in about 1100 B.C.after their Exodus from Egypt and wandering about in the Sinai Peninsula for 40 years.In spite of the promise of God, which should have given strength to Banu Israil theyrefused to face the travails of a war with Philistines (Numbers Chapters 13-15). Asummary of the history of Jews follows

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721 B.C. - 715 B.C. - Assyrians, followed by Babylonians conquered Palestine withcomplete destruction of Banu Israil and their cities.

530 B.C. - Return of Banu Israil to Palestine with the help of the Persian king Cyrus II.

332 B.C. - Palestine conquered by Greeks under Alexander.

63 B.C. - Conquest of Palestine by Romans.

135 C.E. - Revolt of Banu Israil and its suppression by Romans with extremely heavylosses to Banu Israil and destruction of the Temple of Solomon.

About 650 C.E. - Muslim conquest and rule arrived, which continued till the end of WorldWar 1. in 1918.

Thus, the promised Land was not given to Banu Israil for a period of 800 years from

1900 B.C. to 1100 B.C. During the Exodus when Moses, on command from God,planned to invade Canaan, Banu Israil flatly refused to go with him. (NumbersChapters 13-15).

The Muslims remained rulers in Palestine for about 1270 years which is four timeslonger than the rule of Banu Israil. The expulsion of Banu Israil from Palestine wascompleted in 715 B.C. after its conquest by Babylonia and continued off and on forabout 1400 years when the Muslims arrived in 650 C.E. The emigration of Banu Israilsince 715 B.C., technically known as Diaspora, was either due to the atrocities of

Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks and Romans or occurred voluntarily in search ofgreener pastures elsewhere. It was not brought about by Muslims (or Arabs). In fact

Banu Israil were rehabilitated in Palestine by the Uthmanian Khalifah in the late15th Century and early 16th Century, when they were expelled by the Christian kings ofSpain during the infamous Inquisition. These disasters were not brought on to BanuIsrail by Muslims but by their own backsliding from the Covenants with God on MountSinai after the Exodus, followed by abandoning the straight path shown to them by theirown prophets and scriptures, which brought the wrath of God over them. There areinnumerable references to this in the scriptures of Banu Israil, Christians and Muslims.The following is a very short list of such references in the Old and New Testaments.References in the Holy Quran are omitted because they are well known.

The Old Testament: Psalms 106: 34-43:

34. They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the LORD commanded them.

35. But were mingled among the heathen and learned their works.

36. And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them.

37. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils.

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38. And shed innocent blood even the blood of their sons and their daughters, whomthey sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan and the land was polluted with blood.

39. Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their owninventions.

40. Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people, in so much that heabhorred his own inheritance.

41. And he gave them into the hands of the heathen, and they that hated them ruledover them.

42. Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection undertheir hand.

43. Many times did he deliver them; but they provoked him with their counsel, and were

brought low for their inequity.

Isaiah 1: 3-5 and 21-24, and 3:16-26;

Chapter 1: 3. The ox knoweth his owner and the ass masters crib: but Israel doth notknow: my people doth not consider.

4. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with inequity, a seed of evil doers, children that arecorrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the holy one of Israel intoanger, they have gone away backward.

5. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more; the whole head issick, and the whole heart faint.

21. How is the faithful city become as harlot! It was full of judgment; righteousnesslodged in it, but now murderers.

22. Thy silver has become dross, thy wine mixed with water.

23. Thy princes are rebellious and companions of thieves: everyone loveth gifts andfolloweth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of thewidow come unto them.

24. Therefore, saith the LORD, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah I willease me of mine adversaries, and avenge of mine enemies.

Chapter 3:16-26

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16. Moreover the LORD saith Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walkwith stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, andmaking a tinkling with their feet.

17. Therefore the LORD will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of

Zion; and the LORD will discover their secret parts.

18. 1n that day the LORD will take away the bravery oftheirtinkling ornamentsabout their feetand their cauls, and theirround tires like the moon.

19. The chains and the bracelets and the mufflers.

20. The bonnets and the ornaments of their legs, and the headbands and the tablets,and the earrings.

21. The rings and nose jewels.

22. The changeable suits of apparel and the mantles and the wimples, and the chippingpins

23. The glasses and the fine linen, and the hoods and the Vail.

24. And it shall come to pass thatinstead of sweet smells there shall be stink; andinstead of girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of astomacher a girdling of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty.

25, Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war.

26. And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she beingdesolate shall sit on theground.

Jeremiah, Chapter 3:

6. The LORD also said unto me in the days of Joshua the king. Hast thouseen thatbacksliding Israel hath done? She is gone up upon every high mountain andunder every green tree, and there had played the harlot.

7. And I said after she had done all those things, Turn thou unto me But she returned

not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

8. And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery Ihad put her away and had given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judahfeared not, but went and played the harlot also.

9. And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the landand committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

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St. Mathew, Chapter 23:

35. That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from theblood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zachariah son of Batrachia, whom ye slewbetween the temple and the altar.

36. Verily, I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.

37. 0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that calloused the prophets, and steepest them whichare sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as ahen gathers her chickens under her wings, and ye would not.

38. Behold your house is left unto you desolate.

NOTESAND REFERENCES

[1]This refers to the two letters of Allamah lqbal to Miss Farquharson, dated July 30 andSeptember 30, 1937 respectively, regarding Palestine, which are included in IqbalNamah (Makatib-i-Iqbal) Vol. 1, pp. 446-50. Miss Farquharson was the President of theNationalLeague of England. Perusal of these letters is urged to readers.

[2] Ditto, pp. 451-56 - Statement of Allamah lqbal to the Lahore session of the MuslimConference in 1937 to protest against the Palestine Report. Considering the contextreference to Peter the Hermit in the statement of Allamah lqbal in the reference citedand also appearing in the paper translated appears to be a printing error.. In the NewTestament Peter is not referred to as the Hermit . However, in the Book of RevelationSt. John is referred to as the Divine. Moreover, neither of the two Epistles of St. Peter

deal with the subject of the text. The Book of Revelation does. In this book St. Johndescribes his dream in which he states to have seen the shape of things to come at theend of the world. Chapter 21 describes the ascent of the Jews in which they are shownto be in full possession of Palestine and Jerusalem. Perhaps, this is also listed by Jewsand their supporters as an act of the inevitable Divine Will of making Jews masters ofPalestine.

The authenticity and reliability of whole of the New Testament is held indoubt. Reference is invited to Appendix III of Allamah Abdullah Yusuf Alis Text,Translation and Commentary of the Holy Quran in which he discusses this subject onthe authority of world famous Christian scholars of Christianity. He says that, about the

Gospel of St. John, there is much controversy as to authorship, dates and even as towhether it was all written by one and the same person. The authenticity of the Book ofRevelation by St. John, the Divine is even more seriously disputed than his Gospel.

Allamah Yusuf Ali says, The Apocalypse of St. John, which is the part of the presentcanon in the West, forms no part of the Peshita (Syriac) version of the EasternChristians., which was produced in 411 C.E. , and which was used by NestorianChristians. The text of Revelation is so confusing that it verges on mythology. Perusalof the whole Appendix III is urged for a complete understanding of the subject. The

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readers are also urged to read Tafhim-ul-Quran by Maulana Abul Aala Mawdoodi,the Tafseerof Surah Saff, verse 6. This discussion is also based on world literature onChristianity. The New Lexicon Websters Encyclopaedic Dictionary of the EnglishLanguage describes the Book of Revelationas the 27th. or the last book (late 1st orearly 2nd Century) of the New Testament of uncertain authorship. It contains apocalyptic

visions of the victory of God over Satan and was apparently written, to strengthen thepersecuted Christians (p. 851). This is a fallacious belief from the Islamic point of view.According to Islam, God reigns supreme from eternity to eternity. Satan has been giventhe power of misleading mankind temporarily, primarily to grant his desire of completefreedom to mislead and as a system by which people can be tested for different gradesof their piety or lack of it. This is part of Gods universal plan.

IQBAL AND JINNAH ON PALESTINE

Dr. Ghulam Ali Chaudhry

In 712 A.D. Hajjaj bin Yusuf Saqafi despatched Muhammad bin Qasim at the head

of an expeditionary force to punish Dahir of Sind. That Hindu Raja had shownrecalcitrance and behaved with impunity when warned not to neglect the safe passageof Hajis along the coastal strip of his territories. The young arab general won the firstMuslim foothold on the Subcontinent. But it was a long time before torrent after torrent

of Muslim conquerors from Afghanistan and Central Asia swept down the passes of theNorth-West Frontier. Thus, established Muslim rule in the Subcontinent continued invarying power and glory for about a thousand years. For in 1707 A.D. when Aurangzebdied, almost all India was under Muslim sway.

Early in the seventeenth century the British came to the Subcontinent by sea,appearing as merchants, and, favoured by Mughal generosity, they established tradingposts mostly on and near the western coasts. A century and a half later they were in thethick of the power struggle going on the replace the declining Mughal authority.Through conspiracy, force and fraud, they grabbed, annexed and transacted Muslimprincipalities and Muslim territories wherever they lay, in Bengal in the east, in Oudh inthe north, in Mysore in the sourth and in Sind in the west. The first big blow came 50

years after Aurangzeb, in 1757, when Nawab Sirajuddaulah lost the day against theEnglish at Plassey in Bengal, and the last one 150 years after Aurangzeb, in 1857,when the last Mughal emperor, Sirajuddin Bahadurshah Zafar, lay prostrate at Delhi,watching helplessly the massacre of his children and appearing as a rare-show in thebazaars of his capital before being exiled to Rangoon in Burma where he died and wasburied.

The British rise to power in the Subcontinent was marked by two perennial factors:first, their inveterate hostility to Islam and the Muslim which they shared with the other

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Christian countries of Europe since their defeat at the hands of Sultan Salahuddin in1187 A.D. and, secondly, the ready and steady cooperation which the Hindu, havingbeen ruled by the Muslim for a thousand years, extended to the British. Thus while theBritish built up and boosted the Hindu in every field and by every means, they put downand ruined the Muslim everywhere and in alt possible ways; and the Hindu, paying off

old scores, has often on the side of the British and pitted against the Muslim. The mostheinous outrage that this British-Hindu combine perpetrated was the sale-deed ofKashmir. In 1946 the British struck a deal with Gulab Singh, a Dogra Hindu of Jammu,to give him possession of that beautiful land, with its 80% Muslim population (nowabout 6,500,000) and its area well over 180,000 sq. km., for a cash payment of15,000,000 rupees. A people and their homeland transacted as a common piece oflanded property. It was an enormity, a most monstrous crime against humanity; AllamaMuhammad Iqbal, himself of Kashmiri stock, cried out some eighty years [1]

Wood and stream and field and ploughman, And a nation into the bargain,Without oer a scruple or shudder,

All they sold for filthy lucre,

Against this double-barrelled British-Hindu gun aimed at them, Muslims in theSubcontinent took two lines of action. The more desperate among them set up a campof resistance in the hills of the North-West Frontier after the earlier pattern of struggle ofSyed Ahmad Shaheed and Shah Ismail Shaheed against the Sikh tyrants of thePunjab; and the more foresighted, led by Syed Ahmad Khan, advised their communityto accept the fact of British supremacy with patience and fortitude, warned them of thecoming Hindu domination and prescribed self-assertion through co-operation. Nowonder the Muslims fell foul of the British-founded, Hindu-ridden Indian NationalCongress so early in the day and met at Dacca in Bengal in 1906 to organize their ownseparate political party, The All-India Muslim League. Among those who guided thesedeliberations were Nawab Viqarul Mulk, Nawab Mohsinul Mulk and Nawab Salim Ullah.

The mujahid camp in the North-West was eventually liquidated by the British, but thepolicies of Syed Ahmad Khan and his circle paid immediate dividends. As the Britishgradually began to introduce reform for representative institutions through elections, theMuslims 25% of the total population of the Subcontinent, clearly saw the threat to theirexistence as a community: 25 Muslim votes against 75 Hindu votes, or 1 against 3, atall levels, district, provincial and centare! They demanded and won the separateelectorates-- the principle that Muslims were to elect their representatives and Hindustheir own, Muslims representing Muslims and Hindus representing Hindus.

It is interesting that this constitutional provision for a separate electoral register forthe Muslim minority in a predominantly Hindu India had a very pertinent precedent. TheTurkish minority in a predominantly Greek Cyprus had long before secured for Turksthe right to represent, and vote for, Turks alone!

This assertion of their separate political identity sprang from the Muslims abidingfaith in Islam as their sheet-anchor. Their one-thousand year rule in the Subcontinentas believers in Allah and the Prophet of Allah (peace be upon him) had shaped theirattitudes in two definitive ways:

1) At home they never would accept the idolatrous Hindus as their political masters,and (2) Abroad they would always work for the solidarity of the Muslim world. TheirMuslim consciousness never flagged, not even in their darkest hour. Whatever their

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own trials and tribulations, they never lost sight of their ideal of a universal Muslimbrotherhood. Imagine their lot as British subjects during and at the end of World War Iwhen the whole Muslim Ummah lay rent up and bleeding at the mercy of thetreacherous and unscrupulous Allies! Hundreds of thousands of them through thelength and breadth of the country stood up, agitating against their British rulers who

shot them, rode their horses over them, threw them into jails, exiled them, burnt downtheir habitations and confiscated their properties. All this they suffered not for weeks ormonths but for years in the cause of Khilafh which in the end proved to be a hopelessstruggle. And when the movement died out following certain unexpected developmentsin Turkey, hundreds remained sullen and unreconciled, and left their homes andhearths, performing hijra from India (which was Darul harb) to Afghanistan (which wasDarul Islam).

Even a casusl glance over the relevant historical documents of the period shouldreveal how sorrow seethed in the minds and hearts of Muslim India at the predicamentof the Muslim world. For instance, one can turn page after page of the annals of the All-India Muslim League and find the assembled delegates voicing their protests against

the happenings in the Balkans. Algiers, Morocco, Iran, Turkey, Tunis, Tripoli, Egypt andJaziratul Arab which was believed to include Syria, Iraq and Palestine besides Arabiaproper. Reception speeches, presidential addresses and resolutions poured out theirresentment and grief over the inhuman and unjust treatment meted out to their Muslimbrethren in these lands. And the castigation came from some of the best minds ofMuslim India, such as Hakim Muhammad Ajmal Khan, Maulana Muhammad Ali JouharQuaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Allama Muhammad Iqbal, Maulana HasratMauhani and Maulana Zafar Ali Khan.

As the separatist Muslim struggle for freedom advanced and expanded under theMuslim League, this note of solidarity with the entire world of Islam range loud andclear. It is not my purpose here to capture this fraternal sentiment in its full volume but

to record it only in the utterances and activities of Muhammad Iqbal and Muhammad AliJinnah. I will try to show how these two founding fathers of Pakistan remained overwatchful of Muslim Arab interests on Palestine even during their grim battle against theBritish-Hindu axis.

Ever since November 1917 when the British Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, inwicked league with that arch-Zionist Lord Rothschild, and with the prior endorsement ofPresident Woodrow Wilson of America, declared British support for the establishment inPalestine of a national home for the Jewish people, the Muslims of the Subcontinenthad been most unreservedly condemning this plan of international gangsterism. Theirsense of shock was further aggravated when, in July 1922, the League of Nations gaveits official blessings to the mandate forged clandestinely be the Allies and WorldZionism. Through meetings, processions, speeches, resolutions and deputations, theytried to impress upon their British rulers the extreme heinousness of their policies inPalestine and the simple justness of the cause of the Arabs.

Jewish immigrant hordes were pouring into Palestine and the Arab land was beingseized and auctioned under the aegis of the mandatory Britain and in the name ofagriculture and colonization. Except for 88 years, from - 1099 A.D., when the Fatimidslost to the Crusaders, to 1187 A.D., when Sultan Salahuddin wiped out the LatinKingdom of Jerusalem, the Arab community under Islam had dominated Jerusalem and

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the Holy Land politically, socially and culturally from 638 A.D. to 1917 A.D., and it wasnow being disinherited and supplanted by the Jewish community scattered all over theworld whose Iron Age ancestors and their descendants had ruled in Palestine from 12thcentury B.C. to 721 B.C. when Israel became politically extinct! Only the British, whohad sold the land and people of Kashmir. en masse, could sell the land and people of

Palestine piecemeal. Muhammad Iqbal asked them a question, through the answer to ithe well knew:If the Jew had a right to the soil of Palestine, Why cant the Arab lay claim to Spain?

No, British Imperialism has other aims. Its no tale of citron, honey or dates.In poem after poem, Iqbal attacked the two Mandatories, Britain and France, for

their ghastly deeds in Palestine and Syria.In the 1930s the situation in Palestine became increasingly alarming. The British

adopted ruthlessly repressive measures to quell Arab opposition, and the result was ageneral revolt. When in July 1937 the Royal Commission under Lord Peelrecommended partition and further Jewish immigration, the whole world of Islam wasleft aghast.

Miss Farquharson of the National League of England requested Muhammad Iqbalto express his views on these shocking recommendations. Writing to her on 20 July1937, he said:

We must not forget that Palestine does not belong to England. She is holding itunder a mandate from the League of Nations, which Muslim Asia is now learning toregard as an Anglo-French institution invented for the purpose of dividing the territoriesof weaker Muslim peoples. Nor does Palestine belong to the Jews who abandoned it oftheir own free will long before its possession by the Arabs. Nor is Zionism a religiousmovement.... Indeed the impression given to the unprejudiced reader is that Zionism asa movement was deliberately created, not for the purpose of giving a National Home tothe Jews but for the purpose of giving a home to British Imperialism on the

Mediterranean littoral.The Report amounts, on the whole, to a sale under duress to the British of the HolyPlaces in the shape of the permanent mandate which the Commission has invented inorder to cover their imperialist designs. The price of this sale is an amount of money tothe Arabs plus an appeal to their generosity and a piece of land to the Jews. I do hopethat British statesmen will abandon this policy of actual hostility to the Arabs and restoretheir country to them.[2]

In a statement issued on 27 July 1937 to the press, Muhammad Iqbal said:I assure the people that I feel the injustice done to the Arabs as keenly as anybody

else who understands the situation in the Near EastThe problem, studied in its historical perspective, is purely a Muslim problem. In

the light of the history of Isreal, Palestine ceased to be a Jewish problem long beforethe entry of Caliph Umar into Jerusalem more than 1300 years ago. Their dispersion,as Professor Hockings has pointed out, was perfectly voluntary and their scriptureswere for the most part written outside Palestine. Nor was it ever a Christian problem.Modern historical research has doubted even the existence of Peter, the Hermit. Even ifwe assume that the Crusades were an attempt to make Palestine a Christian problem,the attempt was defeated by the victories of Salah-ud-Din. I, therefore, regard Palestineas a purely Muslim problem.

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Never were the motives of British imperialism as regards the Muslim people of theNear East so completely unmasked as in the Report of the Royal Commission. Theidea of a national home for the Jews in Palestine was only a device. In fact, Britishimperialism sought a home for itself in the form of a permanent mandate in the religioushome of the Muslims. This is indeed a dangerous experiment The sale of the Holy

Land, including the mosque of Umar, inflicted on the Arbas with the threat of martial lawand softened by an appeal to their generosity, reveals bankruptcy of statesmanshiprather than its achievement. The offer of a piece of rich land to the Jews and the rockydesert plus cash to the Arbas is no political wisdom. It is a low transaction.

It is impossible for me to discuss the details of the Palestine Report in this shortstatement. There are, however, in recent history, important lessons which Muslims of

Asia ought to take to heart. Experience has made it abundantly clear that the politicalintegrity of the peoples of the Near East lies in the immediate reunion of the Turks andthe Arabs. The policy of isolating the Turks from the rest of Muslim world is still inaction. We hear now and then that Turks are repudiating Islam. A greater lie was nevertold. Only those who have no idea of the history of the concepts of Islamic

jurisprudence fall an easy pray to this sort of mischievous propaganda.Warning The Muslim statesmen of the free non-Arab Muslim countries of Asia thatthe present moment was also a moment of trial for them, Iqbal concluded:

Since the abolition of the Caliphat this is the first serious international problem ofboth a religious and political nature which historical forces are compelling them to face.The possibilities of the Palestine problem may eventually compel them seriously toconsider their position as members of that Anglo French institution miscalled theLeague of Nations and to explore practical means for the formation of an EasternLeague of Nations.[3]

Muhammad Iqbal wrote to Miss Farquharson again on 6 th September 1937:I have been more or less in touch with Egypt, Syria and Iraq. I also received letters

from Najaf. You must have read that the Shias of Kerbala and Najaf have made astrong protest against the partition of Palestine. The Persian Prime Minister and thePresident of the Turkish Republic have also spoken and protested.

In India too the feeling is rapidly growing more and more intense. The other day50,000 Muslims met at Delhi and protested against the Palestine Commission

I have every reason to believe that the National League will save England from agrave political blunder and in so doing it will serve both England and the Muslimworld[4]

And on 7 October 1937, Iqbal wrote to Muhammad All Jinnah, President of the All-India Muslim League:

The Palestine question is very much agitating the minds of the Muslims I haveno doubt that the League will pass a strong resolution on this question and also byholding a private conference of the leaders decide on some sort of a positive action inwhich the masses may share in large numbers. This will at once popularise the Leagueand may help the Palestine Arabs. Personally I would not mind going to jail on an issuewhich affects Islam and India. The formation of a Western base on the very gates of theEast is a menace to both.[5]

Only a week later, on 15 October 1937, in the course of his presidential address tothe All-India Muslim League Session at Lucknow, Muhammad Ali Jinnah said:

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May I now turn and refer to the question of Palestine? It has moved theMussalmans all over India most deeply. The whole policy of the British Government hasbeen a betrayal of the Arabs, from its very inception. Fullest advantage has been takenof their trusting nature. Great Britain has dishonoured her proclamation to the Arabs,which had guaran-teed them complete independence for the Arab homelands and the

formation of an Arab Confederation under the stress of the Great War. After havingutilized them, by giving them false promises, they installed themselves as theMandatory Power with that infamous Balfour Declaration, which was obviouslyirreconcilable and incapable of simultaneous execution. Then, having pursued thepolicy to find a national home for the Jews, Great Britain now proposes to partitionPalestine, and the Royal Commissions recommendation completes the tragedy. Ifgiven effect to, it must necessarily lead to the complete ruination and destruction ofevery legitimate aspiration of the Arabs in their homeland -- and now we are asked to-look at the realities! But who created this situation? It has been the handiwork of andbrought about sedulously by the British statesmen ... I am sure I am speaking not onlyof the Mussalmans of India but of the world; and all sections of thinking and fair-minded

people will agree, when I say that Great Britain will be digging its grave if she fails tohonour her original proclamation, promises and intentions -- pre war and even post-war-- which were so unequivocally expressed to the Arabs and the world at large. I find thata very tense feeling of excitement has been created and the British Government, out ofsheer desperation, are resorting to repressive measures, and ruthlessly dealing with thepublic opinion of the Arabs in Palestine. The Muslims of India will stand solid and willhelp the Arabs in every way they can in the brave and just struggle that they arecarrying on against all odds.[6]

At the same session at Lucknow, under the presidentship of Jinnah, the All-IndiaMuslim League passed the following resolution on Palestine:

The All-India Muslim League declares, in the name of the Mussalmans of India,

that the recommendations of the Royal Palestine Commission and the subsequentstatement of policy presented to Parliament conflict with their religious sentimentsand in the interests of world peace demands its rescission without further delay.

The All-India Muslim League appeals to the rulers of Muslim countries to continueto use their powerful influence and best endeavours to save the holy places in Palestinefrom the sacrilege of non-Muslim domination and the Arabs of the Holy Land from theenslavement of British Imperialism backed by Jewish finance.

The All-India Muslim League places on record its complete confidence in theSupreme Muslim Council and the Arab Higher Committee under the leadership of HisEminence the Grand Mufti, and warns the local administration in Palestine not toaggravate the resentment already created in the Muslim world by a policy ofrepression obstensibly to uphold law and order, but in reality calculated to further theinterest of aliens through the scheme of partition.

This Session of the All-India Muslim League warns the British Government that if itfails to alter its present pro-Jewish policy in Palestine, the Mussalmans of India, inconsonance with the rest of the Islamic world, will look upon British as the enemy ofIslam and shall be forced to adopt all necessary measures according to the dictates oftheir faith.

During the years that followed the Royal Commission Report, the Arab rebellion,

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led by the Grand Mufti Al-Haj Amin al-Hussaini and the Arab Higher Committee, rose toan unprecedented fury. The number of Jewish colonies, which had risen from 22 in1900 to 47 in 1917, was now 200. case for partition had thus been treacherouslyforged, and the Jewish national home was now to become the State of Israel. [7]

Allama Muhammad Iqbal passed away on 21 April 1938 but his call rang on in the

Muslim soul. On 26 December 1938, in his presidential address to the All-India MuslimLeague at Patna, Muhammad Ali Jinnah declared:I know how deeply Muslim feelings have been stirred over the issue of Palestine. I

know Muslims will not shirk from any sacrifice if required to help the Arabs who areengaged in the fight for their national freedom. You know the Arabs have been treatedshamelessly -- men who fighting for the freedom of their country, have been describedas gangsters, and subjected to all forms of repression. For defending their homelands,they are being put down at the point of the bayonet, and with the help of martial laws.But no nation, no people who are worth living as a nation, can achieve anything greatwithout making great sacrifices, such as the Arabs of Palestine are making. All oursympathies are with those valiant martyrs who are fighting the battle of freedom against

usurpers. They are being subjected to monstrous injustices which are being propped upby British Imperialism with the ulterior motire of placating the international Jewry whichcommands the money-bags[8]

At the same session at Patna, under the presidentship of Jinnah, the All-IndiaMuslim League adopted the following resolution:

It is the considered opinion of the All-India Muslim League that the unjust BalfourDeclaration and the subsequent policy of repression adopted by the British Governmentin Palestine aim at making their sympathy for the Jews a pretext for incorporating thatcountry into the British Empire with a view to strengthening British Imperialism, and tofrustrating the idea of a federation of Arab States and its possible union with otherMuslim States. They also want to use sacred places in Palestine as aerial and naval

bases for their future military activities. The atrocities that have been perpetrated on theArabs for the attainment of this object have no parallel in history.This Muslim League Session regards those Arabs who are being subjected to all

kinds of persecutions and repressions, and who are making all sacrifices for preservingtheir sacred land, protecting their national rights and emancipating their motherland, asheroes and martyrs, and congratulates them on their bravery and sacrifice, and warnsthe British Government that if it does not forthwith stop the influx on Jews into Palestineand does not include in the proposed conference the Grand Mufti, the genuine leadersof the Arabs, as well as the representatives of the India Mussalmans, the conferencewill be nothing but a farce.

This Session declares that the problem of Palestine is the problem of Muslims ofthe whole world; and if the British Government fails to do justice to the Arabs and tofulfil the demands of the Muslims of the world, the Indian Muslims will adopt anyprogramme and will be prepared to make any sacrifice that may be decided upon by aMuslim International Conference, at which the Muslims of India are duly represented inorder to save the Arabs from British exploitation and Jewish usurpation .... [9]

World War II broke out in 1939. On the one hand, the British Government in Indiasought Muslim co-operation with the war effort, and on the other, they conspired withthe Zionists to open the doors wide for Jewish immigrants entering Palestine as war

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refugees. On 21st March 1940, in his presidential address to the All-India MuslimLeague Session at Lahore -- at which the historic Pakistan resolution was passed --Muhammad Ali Jinnah reported on his negotiations with the British Government, saying:

We are told that endeavors, earnest endeavors, are being made to meet thereasonable, national demands of the Arabs. Well, we cannot be satisfied by earnest

endeavours, sincere endeavours, best endeavours. We want that the BritishGovernment should in fact and actually meet the demands of the Arabs in Palestine. [10]

At the same session at Lahore, under the presidentship of Jinnah, the All-IndiaMuslim League passed the following resolution, moved by Abdur Rahman Siddiqui whohad attended the Palestine Conference in Cairo the preceding year:

The All-India Muslim League views with grave concern the inordinate delay on thepart of the British Government in coming to a settlement with the Arabs in Palestine,and places on record its considered opinion, in clear and unequivocal language, that noarrangements of a piecemeal character will be made in Palestine which are contrary inspirit and opposed to the pledges given to the Muslim world, and particularly to theMuslims in India, to secure their active assistance in the War of 1914-18. Further, the

League warns the British Government against the danger of taking advantage of thepresence of a large British force in the Holy Land to overawe the Arabs and force theminto submission.[11]

At the All-India Muslim League Session held at Delhi in April 1943, under thepresidentship of Jinnah, the following resolution from the chair was adopted:

This Session of the All-India Muslim League views with great concern and alarmthe new Zionist propaganda and move in the U.S.A., which is putting pressure on theU.S. Government, firstly to remove all present restrictions on Jewish immigration inPalestine, and secondly to adopt the policy of converting Palestine into a Jewish State.

In the opinion of this Session the aim of this new Zionist move is to make Jewishmajority in Palestine a fait accompli by opening her doors to the Jewish war refugees,

on the ground of the war emergency and the persecution of Jews in Europe.This Session condemns this new move as a deliberate attempt to perpetrate awrong on the Arab and Islamic world at a time when the Arab National HigherCommittee of Palestine stands disbanded and the Arab Nationalists are, at present,almost defence-less against organized Jewry and High Finance in the world.

This Session, reiterating its demands for the fulfilment of Arab national demandsfor Arab independence in Palestine and Syria, solemnly warns the British Governmentagainst any step or move which may prove detrimental to Arab national interests, anddeclares that such a policy will be bitterly resented by the whole Arab Islamic world asan outrage on democracy and justice and inalienable Arab rights to their homeland. [12]

Again, the the All-India Muslim League Session held at Karachi in December 1943under the presidentship of Jinnah, the following resolution was passed:

This Session of the All-India Muslim League urges, with all the emphasis at itscommand, upon His Majestys Government in particular and other Allied Powers, thatthe territories recently released from the control of Italy, viz., Ceranaica, be not handedback to the Italian Government, but be constituted independent sovereign States.

This Session is further of opinion that the vicious system of mandates should beabolished once for all, and the countries of which the mandates were held by GreatBritain and France, viz., Palestine, Syria and the Lebanon, should be restored to the

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people of the countries to set up their own sovereign Governments in their territories.Having regard to the oft-repeated declarations by the United Nations that they

seek to liberate subject nationalists, this Session demands that the United Powersshould urge France to liberate Morocco. Algeria and Tunis.[13]

The War ended in 1945. During the two years that followed the Muslims of the

Subcontinent were locked in a life-and-death struggle against the British Governmentand the Hindu Congress. They were made to wade through blood and fire, but, Allah bepraised, they emerged triumphant, and on 14th August 1947 there appeared on the mapof the world the sovereign and independent State of Pakistan.

While, in the Subcontinent, the British enacted another piece of treachery againstthe Muslim people of Kashmir by clamping on them the Hindu Raj of New Delhi, in theMiddle East, the Allies and the Zionists were now finally preparing to perpetrate aJewish state on Palestine, the Arab world and Islam, and this they did on 14 July 1948.

And the Pakistanis and the Arabs have fought three wars each against India and Israeland the Big Powers behind them.

Palestine or Kashmir --- the Big Power technique is the same. They choose a

Muslim land or a Muslim people for their target, Take up conditions of hysteria aroundit, and the hit it with brute force, Crusades-style, exactly as the Church Militant would,which these powers really are; and then, to get legal cover for their fait accompli, theyapproach the League of Nations or the United Nations which is truly the ChurchLitigant. So the stricken Muslim land or people lies torn up between the two arms of theChurch --the Church Militant and the Church Litigant.

Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah died with a thorn in his heart. For barely twoweeks before he passed away on 11 September 1948, he said in his Eid-ul-Fitrmessage on 28th August 1948:

My Eid message to our brother Muslim States is one of friendship and goodwill.We are all passing through perilous times. The drama of power politics that is being

staged in Palestine ... and Kashmir should serve as an eye opener to us. It is only byputting up a united front that we can make our voice felt in the counsels of the world. [14]

Allama Muhammad Iqbal had insistently struck in his work this same note ofmistrust of the presiding powers of the present-day world and prescribed this sameremedy of self-reliance for the Muslim individual and the Muslim community. He hadntlived to see his dream of Pakistan come true or to watch the enemies of Islamproducing the last bloody act of the tragedy in Kashmir and Palestine. But he hadoffered a word of advice, perhaps as farewell:

To the Palestinian ArabThe flame that may enkindle a world conflagration, is yet alive in your soul.I knowSeek not redress from London or Geneva.The jugular veins of the Frank are in the grip of the Jew I hear A peoples chains

snap when itsEgo grows and exults in proper self-expression.In fact the call of these two great servants of Islam to the entire world of Islam

derives directly from the Quran:And he who reject the Taghut and believed in Allah,hath grasped a firm handhold which will never break.

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Only if we Muslims could learn to reject Taghut and hold fast to our faith in Allah,we would be on firm and safe ground.

Shall we then understand?

NOTES[1]

Syed Sharifuddin, Pirzada, ed., Foundations of Pakistan (Karachi, 1969), Vol. I pp.242, 431.

[2] Speeches, Writings and Statements of Iqbal, ed. Latif Ahmed Sherwani, (Lahore,1977), pp. 244-245.

[3] Ibid., pp. 245-247.[4] Ibid., p. 248.[5] G. Allana, ed., Pakistan Movement: Historic Documents (Karachi, 1968) pp. 146-147.[6] Syed Sharifuddin, Pirzada, ed., Foundations of Pakistan (Karachi 1970) Vol. II. p.

272.[7] Ibid. pp. 277-278.[8] Ibid. p. 307.[9]

Ibid. pp. 315-316.[10] Ibid. p. 334.[11] Ibid. p. 346.[12] Ibid. pp. 439-440.[13] Ibid. pp. 479-480.[14] Speeches: Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah as G.G. of Pakistan, 1947-48

(Pakistan Publications, Karachi).

IQBALS VISION OF A COMPOSITE MUSLIM-CHRISTIAN-JEWISH NATIONALISM

Prof. Fateh Muhammad Malik

Iqbals concept of Muslim nationalism is neither local, nor parochial; it is universal in itsessence. Iqbal regards his concept of Muslim nationalism as a stepping stone towardsthe final integration of humanity. It is a pity that Iqbals concept of Muslim nationalismhas only been partially realized so far, and its universal dimension is only an unnoticedand unrealized ideal as yet.

Iqbals famous Ilahabad address of 1930 is well-known for enshrining the vision ofseparate Muslim homelands in South Asia on the basis of his concept of a separateMuslim nationalism in India. But it is still unknown that Iqbal had espoused another

vision of a composite Muslim-Christian-Jewish nationalism in the very same Ilahabadaddress. While rejecting the concept of a composite Indian nationalism, Iqbal cherishedthe view of a composite Muslim nationalism in the heartlands of Islam, highlighting theworld-view shared by the People of the Book i.e. Muslims, Christians and Jews.

This simultaneous rejection of composite nationalism in India and affirmation of thecomposite Muslim nationalism in Muslim majority countries seems paradoxical. But adeeper study of Iqbals philosophical arguments against the concept of a composite

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Indian nationalism is bound to clear the ambiguity. The Muslims of India cannot acceptthe territorial concept of a composite Indian nationalism because they are differentlysituated. They are in a minority. The majority in India believes in the concept of adivinely created caste system. This exploitative system has divided even the Hinducommunity itself into high, low and untouchable classes. The existence of various social

barriers means that mankind is divided into touchable and untouchable, pure andimpure races.

According to Iqbal Islam does not recognize caste or race or colour. [1] His conceptof a separate Muslim nationhood in India is based on spiritual homogeneity and not onterritorial affinity or racial solidarity. Elaborating upon the fundamental concepts ofIslamic culture, he has pointed out that as an emotional system of unification Islamrecognizes the worth of the individual as such, and rejects blood-relationship as a basisof human unity, he asserted that Islam has laid the basis of a new human culture byrejecting the old culture of throne, and the systems of unification which were based onblood-relationshipThe new culture finds the foundation of world-unity in the principle

ofTawhidi. e. belief in one God. Islam, as a polity is only a practical means of makingthis principle a living factor in the intellectual and emotional life of mankind. It demandsloyalty to God, not to thrones. And since God is the ultimate spiritual basis of all life,loyalty to God virtually amounts to mans loyalty to his own ideal nature. [2] Hence, histotal rejection of the concept of a composite Indian nationalism based on the modernWestern concept of territorial nationalism. Since, the construction of a polity on Indiannationalist lines is in conflict with the Islamic principle of solidarity and is contrary to thespirit and ideals of Islam, Muslim India is bound to reject it. The idea of a compositeIndian nationalism is inspired by the great Hindu writers, the central themes of whosewriting is the veneration forBharat-Mata (Mother India), which isArya-Verta (Aryanhomeland). Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto has aptly observed that the kind of consciousness of

past greatness, regenerated by Indian writes to inspire Hindu cultural and politicalrevival, has been the main spring of twentieth-century Indian nationalism.Nehrus Discovery of India shows how the most westernized of Hindu minds fell captiveto this spell of the essential Hindu-ness of India. [3] The famous Hindu writer, Nirad C.Chaudary has discussed in detail the nature and extent of the conflict between theHindu society and Muslim society in India in his book The Continent of Circe.Elaborating upon the cultural significance of the advent of Islam in India, he has statedthat unlike all previous conquests:

the Muslim conquest of India could not be made innocuous for the Hindus throughthe caste system. The conquest was an extension into a new country of a well-established and mature society, with a fully developed way of life and a livingculture. What was even more important was the fact the Muslims were notbarbarians at a low level of culture who would consider admission to the Hindu foldas a promotion. On the contrary, not only were they themselves the creators anddefenders of a new and aggressive culture. They were the first people in history toput forward the idea of an irreconcilable conflict between a particular way of lifeand all others, and to formulate a theory of permanent revolution.[4]

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In order to avoid this irreconcilable conflict and to avoid the perpetual civil war goingon between the two communities, Iqbal formulated the theory of a separate Muslimnationalism and demanded separate and sovereign Muslim homelands in the Indiansub-continent. This concept of separate Muslim nationalism in India is organicallyrelated to the concept of composite Muslim nationalism in Middle East.

Iqbal is of the view that in the countries where Muslims are in majority and theminorities there, are monotheists sharing the same world-view with the Muslim majority,there is no conflict between Islam and nationalism. He advised the Muslim leadersand politicians not to be carried away by the subtle but placid arguments that Turkeyand Iran and other Muslim countries are progressing on national, i. e. territorial lines.Muslim India cannot follow the ideals of territorial nationalism because:

The Muslims of India are differently situated. The countries of Islam outside Indiaare practically wholly Muslim in population. The minorities there belong, in thelanguage of the Quran, to the people o f the Book. There are no social barriers

between Muslims and the people of the Book. A Jew or a Christian or aZoroastrian does not pollute the food of a Muslim by touching it, and the law ofIslam allows inter-marriage with the people of the Book. Indeed the first practicalstep that Islam took towards the realization of a final combination of humanity wasto call upon peoples possessing practically the same ethical ideal to come forwardand combine. The Quran declares: O people of the Book! Come, let us jointogether on the word (Unity of God), that is common to us all. [5]

The basis of Iqbals concept of nationalism is derived from the Quran. The unifyingprinciple is the common word (Tawhid: belief in one God). The Quran urges upon,again and again, the spiritual harmony of the people of the book. I am tempted here to

the Quran:

1. Say [to the Jews and Christians], we [Muslims] believe in that which wasrevealed to us as well as that which was revealed to you. Our God and yourGod is one and the same. We all submit to Him (Quran 29:46).

2. Say, we [Muslims] believe in God, in what He revealed to us, to Ibrahim,Ismail, Ishaq,Yaqub and the tribes, to Moses, Jesus and all the revelations ofthe Prophets-without discriminating between them. To God we submit (Quran2:136).

Iqbals rationale is rooted in Muslim history, as well. History bears witness to the

phenomenon that during the hay day of Muslim civilization, spiritual was the order of theday. Tracing the origins of the academic discipline of comparative religion ( Ilm al Milalwal Nihal), Ismail R. al Faruqi states that:

In the early Middle Ages, the caliphal courts of Damascus, Baghdad and Cordovawitnessed countless meetings of Jews, Christians and Muslims in which thelearned adherents debated the three faiths. The reigning culture gave such honour

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to the three religions, such respect to their principles and institutions, that inter-religious debate was the subject of salon conversation, a public pastime. [6]

The most recent testimony to this fact comes from Karen Armstrong. While deliveringthe first Fazlur Rahman Memorial Lecture in Oxford, she has correctly observed that in

the Islamic empire, Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians enjoyed religious freedom. Thisreflected the teaching of the Koran, which is a pluralistic scripture, affirmative of othertraditions. Muslims are commanded by God to respect the People of the Book, andreminded that they share the same beliefs and the same God. Constantly the Koranexplains that Mohammad has not come to cancel out the revelations brought by Adam,

Abraham, Moses or Jesus.[7]

In the light of the foregoing, Iqbals concept of Muslim nationhood is aimed at the finalunity of mankind. Reconstructing Muslim political theory in the context of modernnationalist ideals, Iqbal formulates a new theory of composite nationalism of thefollowers of Abrahamic Faiths (Millat-i-Ibrahimi). He even widens the scope of his theory

to include it its fold Zoroastrians and others possessing the same word-view. In reply tothe questions raised by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, in his three articles published inthe Modern Review(Calcutta), Iqbal stated categorically that:-

Nationalism in the sense of love of ones country and even readiness to die forits honour is a part of the Muslims faith: it comes into conflict with Islam only whenit begins to play the role of a political concept and claims to be a principle ofhuman solidarity, demanding that Islam should recede to the background of amere private opinion and cease to be a living factor in the national life. In Turkey,Iran, Egypt and other Muslim countries it will never become a problem. In thesecountries Muslims constitute an overwhelming majority and their minorities, i. e.,

Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians, according to the law of Islam, are eitherPeople of the Book or like the People of the Book with whom the law of Islamallows free social relations including matrimonial alliances. It becomes a problemfor Muslims only in countries where they happen to be in a minority, andnationalism demands their complete self-effacement. In majority countries Islamaccommodates nationalism; for there, Islam and nationalism are practicallyidentical; in minority countries it is justified in seeking self-determination as acultural unit. In either case, it is thoroughly consistent with itself. [8]

This Quranic ideal of the final unity of humanity could not be realized so far,because of the wars of Islam and Christianity. And later, European aggression in itsvarious forms, could not allow the infinite meaning of the Quranic verses, quotedabove, to the countries of Islam in the shape of what is called Muslim Nationalism. [9]

Iqbal has finally an irrevocably rejected hereditary kingship as well as theocracy ascontrary to the original spirit of Islam. He regards spiritual democracy as the ultimateaim of Islam.[10] In his Ilahabad address he has stated categorically that in the separateMuslim homelands of his dream spiritual pluralism is going to be the order of the day:

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Nor should the Hindus fear that the creation of autonomous Muslim States willmeans the introduction of a kind of religious rule in such States. The truth is thatIslam is not a church. It is a State conceived as a contractual organism long beforeRousseau ever thought of such a thing and animated by an ethical ideal whichregards man not as an earth-rooted creature, defined by this or that portion of the

earth, but as spiritual being understood in terms of a social mechanism andpossessing rights duties as a living in that mechanism. (p. 172)[11]

Muslim nationalism is a tolerant, liberal and humanistic political and social creed.Referring to the teachings of the Quran, Iqbal declared that a community which isinspired by feelings of ill-will towards other communities is low and ignoble. I entertainthe highest respect for the customs, laws, religious and social institutions of othercommunities. Nay, it is my duty according to the teaching of the Quran, even to defendtheir places of worship, if need be. Yet I love the communal group which is the source ofmy life and behaviour and which has formed me what I am by giving me its religion, itsliterature, its thought, its culture and thereby recreating its whole past as a living

operative factor in my present consciousness.

[12]

The concept of Muslim nationhood isthus inspired by the profound love with ones own community i. e. the Muslimcommunity, and immense respect for all other communities.

This divinely inspired ideology of the essential unity of humanity could not betranslated into actuality, yesterday, because of the crusades and later on, by theEuropean imperialist encroachment, in its various forms, on Muslim soil. It remains anunrealized ideal even today as a result of a fresh onslaught of the western hegemony.

NOTESAND REFERENCES

[1]. Iqbals Interview to The Bombay Chronicle, September-December 1931, included inDar, B. A. Dar, (Editor), Letters and Writings of Iqbal, Lahore, 1981, pp. 55.

[2]. The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, Lahore 1996, edition, pp. 116-117.

[3]. The Myth of Independence, Lahore Edition, pp.166-167.

[4]. London, 1965 p.63.

[5]

. Syed Abdul Vahid (Editor), Thoughts and Reflections of Iqbal, Lahore, 1973.[6]. Ibid. p. 190.

[7]. Thoughts and Reflections of Iqbal, op. cit, p. 188.

[8]. Trialogue of the Abrahamic Faiths, Virginia, 1986, Foreword.

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[9]. The Guardian, London, Thursday, June 20, 2002. Karen Armstrong is the authorofMuhammad: A Biography of the Prophet(Weidenfeld); The Battle of God;Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam (Harper Collins), and Islam: A SortHistory(Weidenfeld).

[10]

. The Reconstruction, op. cit, P. 142[11]. Thoughts and Reflections, op. cit. p. 172.

[12]. Ibid, p. 169.
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