Iqbal, Man of the East and West

Many of us grew up with slogan: "East is East and West is West and never the twin shall meet." Modern travel, media and education increasingly belie this proposition. There is a meeting of place and meeting that place is in the hearts and minds of sensitive men and women of diserve political, social, and religious persuasions. it includes the philosophers, Theologians, Scientists, Psychoterapists, educators and student who champion a view of the world in which men of good will in all cultures and nations increasingly seek a common denominator of understanding and cooperation in the interest of higher human consciousness.
A man of the East, Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938), Shaped by classic Islamic literature (Qur'an and sunnah),and his chosen mentor Jalal-ud-din Rumi and other Eastern thinkers, we have also greatly influenced by western thinkers : Bergson, Nietzsche, Kanth, Goethe, and Dante, among others. Ancient in subtance of idea, he was very modern in the spirit of ideas. With Ghazali and Rumi , he seems quite in tune with many western authors writing today in the fields of psychology, psychotherapy, and existentialsm. he has the Distinction of bridging time and space in some very unique ways, and out of the ideologies of the east and the west sythesizing a great innovative movement in islamic thought. Iqbal anticipated and predicted many of the developments in the humanstic field which came decades later and these are seen in the way one can relate him to western culture.
He saw Human life at its best as desire, worth, dignity, excitement, purpose, goal-setting, beauty, joy, living, and action.
One can relate him to to paul tillich in one of great themes that is, finding courage. He espoused the theory of progressive evolution, fro chaos to cosmos, and finding freedom from bondage in growth. Here one can relate him to Bergeson and St. Paul the apostle. He championed the concept of man being able to realize full selfhood, individuation, self-actuaization and self raelization. Also one can relate him to curl jung, Abraham maslow, Carl Rogers, Karen Horney, Rollo may, Eric fromm, And alan watts.
He visualized a movement that would lead the world into peace, Justice, love, truth, and Brotherhood. Here one can relate him to Nietzche and Goethe in their accents on anti nationalism and anti-imperalism. He said ,"that which portifies personality is good in that which weakens personality is bad." here one can relate him value theory in the human sciences.
It is said that history makes man and then man makes history. No doubt, the particular historical events into iqbal came in his time in history and the role that he played accounts in part for the prominent place he now occupies in the history of islam and in the minds appreciative, sensitive men and women who know him arround the world. Europe has for centuries been unfair to islam in the sense that the positive achievements of islamic civilization, i.e., its solid and fundamental contribution in advacements in mathematics, medicine, science, art literature, law, philosophy and politics have been overlooked and unackwonledged.
The vitality of islamic civilization had waned considerably from the time of its greatness in the 7th to the 9th century and in more recent times had fallen into disgrace because of inertia and lack of faith in itself. Iqbal protested againts these tendencies toward negation of self and community , saying, "Woe to the people who resign, saying to die is the secret of life." Only by self-affirmation, self expression and self development can a people become a strong and free people, insisted Iqbal.
Here, then, is an inspired leader addressing himself to complex issues that had political, social, and religious meaning. The more immediate effect is seen in the founding of the modern-day state of Pakistan in 1947. The ideological long-term importance for a trranscultural state is seen only as in a seed. The fruit is still maturing.
Implicit in his writings, which were many, nad which in part are remeniscent of the poetic style of shelley, Iqbal anticipated a humanistic philosophypointing in the direction of the transcultural state which many of us hope to see come into fuller fruition as an answer to the conflict among men and nations in the world today. it is in this sense that one may speak of iqbal's humanism.Humanism, from this perspective, view humanity as an aggregate of many races, ethnic groups, and nations is the great family of man.

Human in the Universe of Love, Arthur Holst Ph.D.Student, U.S.International University.