|
Man God Relationship
in the philosophical system of Iqbal
Dr. Shagufta Bukhari*
What is the general
structure of this universe in which we are living? Is this a
ready made universe? Is there any element which is of
permanent nature? Who is the creator of this universe? What
is the nature of man and what is the relationship of man and
God? These questions are common to philosophy, religion and
science and they have explored these issues from their own
view points. The concepts of man and God are so interwoven
that we cannot study them separately.
From the time man
has began to think about universe, he has an intuitive
feeling that there is multiplicity in the universe and
beyond this multiplicity there must be one reality, of which
this phenomenal world is an exposition. Then question arises
what is this one reality? Ancient Greek philosophers for the
first time thought over this question. According to Thales,
Anaximenes, Anaximandar and Democritus the reality was
material in nature. According to Plato the ideas or Forms
are real and this phenomenal world is merely shadows or
reflection of the same. These Forms and Ideas reside in a
world of ideas. All cognition through senses and experience
is illusion, this world is merely a shadow and ultimately
going to be disappearing and absorb into that absolute Idea,
from which it was firstly emanated. Plato was unable to
explain motion of things in the world. Ideas in his thought
are motionless, thus the universe would be motionless too
and the universe would be an absolutely static universe. On
the other hand this is a world of change and motion; Plato
did not explain the unceasing becoming of things.
According to Iqbal
Greek philosophy has been a great cultural force in the
history of Islam, but it took two hundred years to perceive
that the spirit of the Quran was anti classical. Aristotle’s
concept of a static universe; his categories of thought and
his logic played an important role in shaping the
philosophical development of both east and west. In East
Buddah’s doctrine of “Nirvan” was essentially identical with
the idealism of Plato. Islamic world within three centuries,
after the death of Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) suffered the
vortex of pantheism and the new creed of Sufism was
developed. It was nothing but idealistic pantheism as it
believed that God is immanent and man will ultimately
absorbed to God. The unreality of this world was very much
emphasized. Muhyddin Ibn Arabi, in Muslim mystics is a
typical representative of this school of thought.
Iqbal
the profoundest thinker of the Muslims takes the problem of
man, God and universe relation ship and elaborates his views
in a very impressive way by saying:-
“The
main purpose of the Quran is to make in
man
the higher consciousness of his manifold relations with God
and the universe.”1
To explain the man
and its relationship with God has always been the object of
man’s searching and satisfaction-seeking mind. This is man’s
intuitive desire that seeks and finds satisfaction in
postulating a super human or supernatural agency or agencies
as the cause or causes of the inexplicable events or
phenomenon in the world. The advocates of the theory of
mechanical evolution held that everything of this world
evolved from the primordial elements matter, motion and
force. Life and mind are merely expressions of it. But human
life is not determined only by mechanistic principles.
“Human
being interested in realization of higher end, that they
looked before and after, pine for what is not, are facts at
which the scientific mind looks askance, though the subject
matter of the aesthetic, moral and religious aspirations
does not come within the purview of science”2
Science refused to
admit the existence of God as the sole creator of the
universe, on the plea that it is not capable to understand
the problem of creation out of nothing. On the other hand
belief in the existence of such Devine personality forms the
corner-stone of true religion.
Descartes was the
first thinker who made a serious and systematic effort to
reach the Ultimate Reality. He said “I think I am”. This is
true reality which cannot be denied. A firm belief on one’s
existence is a thing which is free from any kind of doubt
and vagueness. Descartes has made this certitude the basis
of his philosophy. He deduces the external world, God and
ethical laws from it. Afterwards Leibniz and Bergson also
made the conscious experience, the basis of their
investigation. Iqbal also belongs to this tradition.
According to him conscious experience is an authentic source
to reach the Ultimate Reality.
According to Iqbal there are three levels of experience.
They are the level of matter, the level of life and the
level of mind. These are the subject-matter of Physics,
Biology and Psychology respectively.
Matter
according to Iqbal is a structure of events. Life and
consciousness are purely spiritual in nature. He rejects the
ancient concept of matter and declares ‘life’ as a spiritual
principle. Charles Darwin had explained life and
consciousness in a mechanical way, but Iqbal says life is
superior to matter. Matter and life are not two different
things. Reality is one but science does not give any
systematic and overall view of reality. Iqbal says:-
“It is
a mass of sectional views of Reality. Fragments of a total
experience which do not seem to fit together.”3
Natural science is not able to answer the question of mutual
relationship of matter, life and mind. Iqbal criticizes the
natural sciences which are unable to answer these questions.
“….
The various natural sciences are like so many vultures
falling on the dead body of Nature, and each running away
with a piece of flesh.”4
It
doesn’t show Iqbal’s hatred for natural science but a keen
desire to know the reality as a whole. At another place he
admires natural sciences in this way:-
“There
is no doubt that the theories of science constitute
trustworthy knowledge, because they are verifiable and
enable us to predict and control the events of nature”5.
The
right way to know the true nature of reality is a careful
analysis of conscious experience. Our perception of the
things that confront us is superficial and external but the
perception of our own self is internal, intimate and
profound. When we fix our gaze on our own conscious
experience what we find? Bergson answers:-
“I
pass from state to state. I am warm or cold. I am merry or
sad, I work or I do nothing, I look at what is around me or
I think of something else. Sensations, feelings, volitions,
ideas- such are the changes into which my existence is
divided and which color it in turns. I change then, without
ceasing.”6
Back to Table of Contents |
Back to Top
| Next Page >> |
