|
|
| (One intermediate revision by the same user not shown) |
| Line 1: |
Line 1: |
| − | ==Chapter 3==
| |
| | | | |
| − | IQBAL’S VISIT TO ITALY
| |
| − |
| |
| − | The first contact of Muhammad Iqbal, the poet-philosopher and the voice of the Muslims of the Indian sub-continent, with Italy was in 1905 during the crossing of the Mediterranean on his voyage from India to England. Seeing the coasts of Sicily from his ship, he composed one of the most touching poems “Siqilliya”, which was later on included in the Bang-i Dara [The Call of the Caravan Bell] published in 1924.
| |
| − | “Siqilliya” is a mournful recollection of the past glories of the island during the Arab period; it appears to Iqbal as the tomb of the Arab civilization. Once – he says – the men of the desert ploughed the waves of the Mediterranean with their fast ships and the whole island re-echoed with their battle-cry Allah u Akbar. Now everything weeps in the world of Islam: Sa’di, the nightingale of Shiraz, weeps for Baghdad destroyed by Hulagu Khan in 1258; Dagh sheds tears for Delhi conquered by the British; Ibn Badrun laments Granada’s fall into Christian hands; finally he himself does the same as he takes back to India a vision of Islamic decay.
| |
| − | It might seem that Iqbal despised the West: it was not so. When he published his lectures on The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, he cleared his point of view by saying that the world of Islam was moving towards the West and that European culture, on its intellectual side, was a further development of some phases of Islamic culture.
| |
| − | Let us go back to the poem “Siqilliya”; though the vision of the island is a literary recollection, it contains Iqbal’s considerations on the then political situation of Indian Muslims, which was the key subject of Iqbal’s presidential speech in the Lahore session of the All Indian Muslim Conference on 21-22 March 1932. In that speech, famous for the idea of creating two separate areas in India for Hindus and Muslims, there is a significant passage in which Iqbal quoted Mussolini, certainly a linguistic and formal quotation, which however is, not without evidence, of his attraction towards Mussolini, even though on a personal level and not on the level of the ideas:
| |
| − | Concentrate your ego on yourself alone, and ripen your clay into real manhood, if you wish to see your aspirations realized. Mussolini’s maxim was “He who has steel has bread”. I venture to modify it a bit and say: “He who is steel has everything”. Be hard and work hard. This is the whole secret of individual an collective life. Our ideal is well defined. It is to win, in the coming constitution, a position for Islam which may bring her opportunities to fulfil her destiny in this Country.1
| |
| − | In September 1931 Iqbal had been to England as a Member of the Indian Muslim Delegation to the Second Round Table Conference. He was well-known in England where he had spent three years for higher studies from 1905 to 1908 and where some of his books had been printed or translated into English; as a man of politics he was known for his presidential address at the annual session of the All-India Muslim League at Allahabad on 29th December 1930 where he had advocated the creation of Pakistan:
| |
| − | I would like to see the Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sindh and Beluchistan amalgamated into a single State. Self-government within the British Empire or without the British Empire, the formation of a consolidated North-West Indian Muslim State appears to me to be the final destiny of the Muslims, at least of North-West India.
| |
| − | On his way back home Iqbal stopped for a few days in Rome on an official invitation from the “Accademia d’Italia”. Generally all the visits of prominent men from India were officially organized by the “Accademia d’Italia” with the consent of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which did not want to appear in the forefront for political reasons: practically the invitations came from the Government, i. e. from Mussolini himself.
| |
| − | On 27th November, at 15.45, the poet was received by Mussolini at Palazzo Venezia. The news of the visit was announced in many newspapers while the “Giornale d’Italia” published a long and well documented article Sir Mohammed Igbal [sic] il poeta dell’Islam che è stato ricevuto all’Accademia d’Italia [Sir Mohammed Iqbal, the poet of Islam who has been received at the Academy of Italy]:2 it is worthwhile to give here an English translation of it in order to understand the official position of the fascist press towards the instances of Indian Muslims. No need to say that no articles of this kind could be published without the previous approval of the Italian authorities:
| |
| − | The Muslim poet and leader, who has been received at the Royal Academy of Italy today, is one of the most eminent champions of that social, political and intellectual renaissance, which is a characteristic of all the Eastern countries, of India in particular.
| |
| − | Religion and poetry are for him two sides of a same idea, two forms of a same object which is the freedom of man from formalism and from old and dead ideas: - Religion, not in the meaning of church or theology but in the meaning of personal revelation and in opposition to pure reason and purely intellectualistic constructions, that is a living idea which goes into practice and shapes it.
| |
| − | His ideas
| |
| − | When young, he got near to the Vedanta philosophy and to Sufism, but soon he left them. For him there is no universal life: he opposes to the absolute the finite centres of experience. The whole life is individual, God himself is an individual, he is the supreme individual. All the individuals share in the nature of God. Not only does Man absorb the dominant matter, but he absorbs God himself in his ego, thus assimilating the divine attributes.
| |
| − | Immortality itself is to be conquered by man with his actions and granted by the graces of God: there are “egos” which disappear with death and others which win over death. Death is not the word which can be used for the latter ones; only the kind of their sensations and the level of their conscience change. These “egos” do not change world: they remain n this world but on a different level.
| |
| − | The essence of life s love which creates desires and ideals. Desires are good and bad depending on whether they strengthen or weaken the individual ego in this effort towards immortality. In a very beautiful poem in one of his first books he described this becoming man through love:
| |
| − | When the world-illumining un rushed upon night like a brigand,
| |
| − | My weeping bedewed the face of the rose.
| |
| − | My tears washed away sleep from the eye of the narcissus,
| |
| − | My passion wakened the grass and made it grow.
| |
| − | [...]
| |
| − | My being was as an unfinished statue,
| |
| − | Uncomely, worthless, good-for-nothing.
| |
| − | Love chiselled me: I became a man
| |
| − | And gained knowledge of the nature of the universe.
| |
| − | I have seen the movement of the sinews of the sky,
| |
| − | And the blood coursing in the veins of the moon.3
| |
| − | These individualities find their accomplishment only in a society that is the ideal Muslim society, which is the kingdom of God on earth. It is a vision very far from the traditional Caliphate’s and much more spiritual. The eye of the poet is to Hijaz from where he expects the true renaissance:
| |
| − | The Hijaz’ silence has proclaimed to the waiting ear at last
| |
| − | The covenants established with desert’s inhabitants will be re-affirmed.
| |
| − | Which coming out of deserts had overturned the Roman Empire
| |
| − | I have heard from the Qudsis that the same lion will be re-awakened.
| |
| − | [...]
| |
| − | O Western world’s inhabitants, God’s world is not a shop!
| |
| − | What you are considering genuine, will be regarded counterfeit.
| |
| − | Your civilization will commit suicide with its own dagger
| |
| − | The nest built on the frail branch will not be durable.
| |
| − | The caravan of the feeble ants will make fleet of rose petals
| |
| − | However strong the ocean waves’ tumult be it will cross the ocean.
| |
| − | [...]
| |
| − | As I told the turtledove one day the free of here are treading on dust!
| |
| − | The buds started saying that I must be the knower of the garden’s secrets!4
| |
| − | Lecture and poetry
| |
| − | He has explained these concepts in a more ample and clear way three years ago in his lectures collected under the title of “The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam”.
| |
| − | At the bottom of Iqbal’s idea there is a belief that the western civilization is in decadence because of its incapacity of rising from the materialism in which it has fallen.
| |
| − | Equipped with penetrative thought and fresh experience the world of Islam should courageously proceed to the work of reconstruction before them. This work of reconstruction, however, has a far more serious aspect than mere adjustment o modern conditions of life. The Great European War bringing in its wake the awakening of Turkey, the element of stability in the world of Islam [...] and the new economic experiment tried in the neighbourhood of Muslim Asia, must open our eyes to the inner meaning and destiny of Islam. Humanity needs three things today – a spiritual interpretation of the universe, spiritual emancipation of the individual, and basic principles of a universal import directing the evolution of human society on a spiritual basis. Modern Europe has, no doubt, built idealistic systems on these lines, but experience shows that truth revealed through pure reason is incapable of bringing that fire of living conviction which personal revelation alone can bring. This is the reason why pure thought has so little influenced men, while religion has always elevated individuals, and transformed whole societies. The idealism of Europe never became a living factor in her life, and the result is a perverted ego seeking itself through mutually intolerant democracies whose sole function is to exploit the poor in the interest of the rich.5
| |
| − | The supreme principles
| |
| − | [For the Muslim] the spiritual basis of life is a matter of conviction for which even the least enlightened man among us can easily lay down his life, and in view of the basic idea of Islam that there can be no further revelation binding on man, we ought to be spiritually one of the most emancipated peoples on earth. Early Muslims emerging out of the spiritual slavery of pre-Islamic Asia were not in a position to realize the true significance of this basic idea. Let the Muslim of today appreciate his position, reconstruct his social life in the light of ultimate principles, and evolve, out of the hitherto partially revealed purpose of Islam, that spiritual democracy which is the ultimate aim of Islam.6
| |
| − | But this work of reconstruction is not to be expected from the masses but from individual men. The dialectic of history is based on the efforts of individual men.
| |
| − | [...] the ultimate fate of a people dos not depend so much on organization as on the worth and power of individual men. [...] Thus a false reverence for past history and its artificial resurrection constitute no remedy for a people’s decay. ‘The verdict of history’ – as a modern writer has happily put it, ‘is that worn-out ideas have never risen to power among a people who have worn them out’. The only effective power, therefore, that counteracts the forces of decay in a people is the rearing of self-concentrated individuals. Such individuals alone reveal the depth of life. They disclose new standards in the light of which we begin to see that our environment is not wholly inviolable and requires revision.7
| |
| − | The greatness of fascism
| |
| − | These words explain the sympathetic interest of Iqbal in the fascism and the Duce whom he considers he has done, from the Islamic point of view, a work greater than Mustafa Kamal’s, and from whose geniality he expects effects of large international importance in the future.
| |
| − | These words demonstrate he is far from the Russian Bolshevism of which he appreciates the spirit of revolt, rejecting however the materialism of its ideology:
| |
| − | the Russian Bolshevism is like one of those instruments or those reactions produced by organisms and nature to get rid of the wastes of institutions and dead idea which are oppressive. Therefore, until now its value has been only negative.
| |
| − | Twenty-five years ago, when he came to Europe and his ship passed near Sicily, he wrote a poem very significant for us Italians. In the poet’s soul there cried the memories and the glories of that island linked to the greatest period of the Arab civilization:
| |
| − | Weep to thy heart’s content, O blood-weeping eye!
| |
| − | Yonder is visible the tomb of the Muslim culture,
| |
| − | Once this place was alive with those dwellers of the desert,
| |
| − | For whose ships the ocean was a playground;
| |
| − | Who raised earthquakes in the palaces of the kings of kings,
| |
| − | In whose swords were the nests of many lightning,
| |
| − | Whose birth was death for the old world,
| |
| − | Whose fear caused the palaces of error to tremble;
| |
| − | Whose cry of arise gave life to a lifeless world
| |
| − | And freedom to men from the chains of superstition.
| |
| − | [...]
| |
| − | Oh Sicily! The sea is honoured by you,
| |
| − | You are a guide in the desert of these waters.
| |
| − | May the cheek of the ocean remain adorned by your beauty spot;
| |
| − | May the lamps comfort those who measure the seas;
| |
| − | May your view be ever light on the eyes of the traveller,
| |
| − | May waves ever dance on your rocks!8
| |
| − | The Poet closes by asking the island to tell the story of that dead-for-ever past.
| |
| − | The last paragraph “The Greatness of Fascism” was inserted in order to show Iqbal’s consent to the regime, by adjusting the relevant quotations from the poet’s work to fit them in the context of the fascist propaganda.
| |
| − | The purpose of the visit to Mussolini is unknown; probably it was a courtesy call, but with a double interest: a personal admiration for the man by Iqbal, a political interest by Mussolini, who, as we know from other sources, was trying to develop his own personal policy towards India.
| |
| − | Iqbal was certainly impressed by the personality of Mussolini, without of course subscribing to the cult of Fascism: Italy made no secret of her anglophobia. Back to Lahore Iqbal wrote, some time after, two poems on Mussolini, which were published in 1935-1936.
| |
| − | The first poem appeared in the Bal-i Jibril [Gabriel’s Wings] in January 1935: it was written before the Abyssinian war. It is favourable to Mussolini whom Iqbal saw a new force, able to re-awaken “the splendour of life in the eyes of the old and the burning desire in the hearts of the young”; he closed the poem by saying that “the guitar was just waiting for the artists’ touch”.
| |
| − | The second poem was written in the Shish Mahal of Bhopal on 22nd August 1935: it appeared in the Zarb-i Kalim [The Rod of Moses] in July 1936. Was there a change in Iqbal’s mind between the writing of the poem and the time of its publication after the Abyssinian campaign and the proclamation of the empire on 9th May 1936? Apparently, there was. The sub-title Apne mashriqi aur maghribi harifun se [to his rivals east and west] announces Mussolini’s self-defence against the British who had not accepted the Ethiopian campaign. In the poem Mussolini lists all the crimes and outrages of the British which had been justified under the veil of civilization and gives a justification of his crimes:
| |
| − | Under the pretext of civilization pillage and murder yesterday you did, today I do”. These verses might appear as a defence of Mussolini by Iqbal, actually it is a criticism and a denouncement of the colonial and imperialistic policy disguised under the cloak of civilization in a cunning Machiavellian way. Four days before this poem Iqbal had written a poem on Abyssinia, the first two lines of which are very significant: “The vultures of Europe do not realize how poisonous is the carcass of Abyssinia.9
| |
| − | We do not know anything on the meeting between Mussolini and Iqbal; as a matter of fact we were not even sure that a meeting had taken place. There were only a statement by the Italian diplomat Pietro Quaroni who had met Iqbal in Lahore in 1936 and the recollections of Iqbal’s son, Javed. Now we know from an official source that Iqbal was received by Mussolini.10
| |
| − | In what language was their conversation? Mussolini was not able to follow a conversation in English; Iqbal did not know Italian. However, we do not think that the conversation was a long one as it was scheduled for a span of only ten minutes.
| |
| − | According to a recent book11 which, unfortunately, does not provide sufficient sources, there are two versions of Iqbal’s visit:
| |
| − | One statement is attributed to Mehr,12 who was with Iqbal in Rome, but did not accompany Iqbal to the meeting. Instead of Mehr, it was Dr. Sakarpa [a misprint for Scarpa], Italy’s Consul General in Bombay, who sat in the meeting as an interpreter. Iqbal was received cordially, but the meeting was rather brief. They talked about Iqbal’s works, and then in the course of discussion on political issues Mussolini suggested to Iqbal to visit Libya at his expense, and examine whatever was being accomplished for the welfare of the Libyan people. Mussolini wanted from Iqbal a memorandum of his observations, as well as his recommendations for the future development of Libya. Iqbal, however, expressed his inability to undertake this assignment since he was exceptionally busy back home. According to Mehr: that was all that was to it.
| |
| − | The second version of this visit is given by Sir Malcom Darling, who had a meeting with Iqbal in Lahore in 1934. According to Darling, Iqbal talked about his meeting with Mussolini and said: “The meeting took place in a very large hall, which was his office [Palazzo Venezia]. At the one end of the hall on a raised platform was a large desk, and behind was an ornate extensive chair, which Mussolini occupied. Naturally Iqbal had to walk a considerable distance to get close to Mussolini’s desk. While Iqbal was walking he paid no attention to Iqbal with his gaze fixed upon his papers. When Iqbal came close to his desk, Mussolini stood up and cordially shook him by the hand. The meeting lasted for about forty minutes.
| |
| − | Mussolini was curious to know Iqbal’s impressions of the Italian people Iqbal was reluctant to offer any comments, but then said: “Italians are very much like the Iranians. They are attractive, good looking, lovers of art and very sensitive and intelligent. The magnificent part of their civilization and culture includes many centuries, but they lack blood”. Mussolini was surprised to hear the last assessment, and asked Iqbal to explain further. Iqbal said: “Iranians have one advantage, which is not available to the Italians. Surrounded by healthy and strong nations like Turks, Afghans and the Kurdis Iranian blood is constantly replenished; but Italians have no such possibility”.
| |
| − | Mussolini asked: “What should Italians do?” Iqbal said: “Turn away from Europe; and look toward the East. European culture is declining, while the air of the East s fresh, in which you should learn to breathe”. Subsequently, Mussolini wrote a letter to Iqbal and asked him what could he do to win over the good will of the Muslim population, which was settled in Italy. Iqbal replied: “A mosque should be built in Rome, and arrange a conference of the ulama in Salerno, because Muslims view Salerno as an ancient Muslim city”.
| |
| − | After this appointment Iqbal was surrounded by the media representatives. One of them asked Iqbal: “What do you think of Il Duce?” Iqbal stated: “I am reluctant to express my views because they may not be liked by the Pope”. But the journalists persisted in this question. Finally Iqbal gave in and said; “Your Il Duce is another Luther, but is without a Bible”.
| |
| − | The third version of Iqbal’s visit to Mussolini is stated by Faqir Sayyid Wahid-ud-din: “Iqbal met Mussolini, and I have heard the story of what transpired straight from Iqbal’s mouth. Iqbal did not express any desire to visit Mussolini. When Iqbal was staying in Rome Mussolini sent an aide to Iqbal to convey his invitation to Iqbal. Dr. Sahib accepted the invitation, and went to meet him in his office. Sitting behind a desk in a large hall of an office, he stood up to receive Dr. Iqbal. He was not a man of tall stature, but was barrel-chested and his arms were thick and heavy. Like the eyes of an eagle his eyes radiated a sparkle”.
| |
| − | After the exchange of preliminary courtesies, he asked Iqbal: “What do you think of our Fascist Movement?” Iqbal said: “You have adopted for the national life a dimension of discipline, which is very essential in the Islamic perspective. If you were to adopt all of Islam you would be able to subue all of Europe”. Iqbal also advised Mussolini to divert his attention from Europe, implying that you should avoid the cultural values of Europe.
| |
| − | Mussolini asked Iqbal: “How could I win the moral support of the Muslim world?” Iqbal replied: “Invite young Muslim students in large number to study in Italy, and give them free education with free room and board”. Mussolini then asked for a wise council. Iqbal stated: “Do not let your cities’ population exceed the specified limit”. Perplexed by this comment, Mussolini called for an explanation. Iqbal added: “As the city population increases, its cultural and economic vitality declines, and then the cultural vitality is replaced by evil of all kinds”. Iqbal paused for a moment, and then added: “This is not my personal view. Thirteen hundred of years ago our Prophet had given this wise council about the city of Medina that when its population exceeded a certain limit the excessive population should be settled in a new city”. The moment Mussolini heard the Prophet Muhammad’s policy statement, he jumped to his feet, stood erect and thumped the desk with his two hands, and exclaimed: “This is indeed an extraordinary thought.”13
| |
| − | It is exceptionally difficult to determine which version is accurate. However, it cannot be denied that Iqbal was impressed with Mussolini’s personality. In a letter of March 12, 1937 Iqbal described his impressions of Mussolini: “Whatever I have written about Mussolini, in your assessment it is filled with contradictions. You are right in your judgment. If this God’s creature contains the qualities of a saint and a devil, then how can I deal with it? If you were ever to meet Mussolini you would corroborate my statement that his eyes are so bright that they are beyond description. You cam compare their sparkle only with the rays of the sun. At least that is how I felt about them”.14
| |
| − | The final of this intriguing story took place in 1936. Iqbal accepted to receive the Italian diplomat Pietro Quaroni, who had stopped in Lahore on his way to Kabul where he had been posted as Minister Plenipotentiary at the head of the Italian Legation. Quaroni related his conversation with the poet-philosopher in the most widely-circulated Italian newspaper “Corriere della Sera” twenty years later.15 Here are the relevant parts:
| |
| − | We spoke of the position of Italy with regard to Islam. It was the time of the first theories about the sword of Islam and the defender of Islam. It was not easy to explain our ideas which were too vague. Besides it was not easy to speak to speak to Muhammad Iqbal: he did no say a single word. He looked at me through his half-closed eyelids, he bent towards me as if to listen to me in a better way, but I perceived his refusal. I was trying to guess his hardness, if there was any.
| |
| − | Suddenly he asked me: “When are you going to build a mosque in Rome?”
| |
| − | I tried to explain, but it was even less easy than before.
| |
| − | Well, why do you send your missionaries to our country? Why do you compel us to accept your churches? You all are catholic, you think that you religion is the only true one, you try to convert us. It is your right. I too am convinced that my religion is the only true and try to convert those who do not believe in it. But if you want to be friends or protectors of Islam, if you want us to trust in you, then you must begin by respecting us, and by demonstrating that you think our religion is as good as yours. And then, logically, you should stop sending your missionaries, and there are no reasons why a beautiful mosque should not be built in Rome, precisely in Rome. We too know and appreciate logic, the same logic of yours, the Aristotelian logic, do not forget it.
| |
| − | It was impossible to say that he was wrong. I tried to change the subject unsuccessfully, the conversation was always political.
| |
| − | It was 1936 and the proclamation of the Italian empire was a recent event. It was not easy to defend our campaign in the eyes of people who were struggling to get free of a foreign domination. It is strange how many subjects look excellent when one thinks of them at a table and sound useless when one is in front of human beings.
| |
| − | “Do you understand what I say when I speak of Rum?” –asked me.
| |
| − | “Well, can you explain to me why Italy wants to become Rum again? If Italy is Italy, though a catholic country, there are no reasons not to get on well. But if Italy wants to become Rum again, then it is better not to cherish false hopes: the whole world of Islam will be against her, just at the time of the old Rum”.
| |
| − | Was it a warning, a threat? I do not know. His tone was very kind, his voice calm and peaceful: a kind light was in the deep of his eyes, but there was in the tone of his voice something hard, almost unmerciful.
| |
| − | “We want to get rid of the British” – went on Iqbal, as if following his thoughts – “but not to put someone else in their place. As a matter of fact, to tell the truth, we prefer to get our freedom by ourselves”.
| |
| − | Let us concentrate now with Iqbal’s speech at the “Accademia d’Italia”. The brief notice in the press said only that the poet had spoken on “an ethical and religious subject”. Most probably Iqbal did not write any paper, of which there is no evidence, but spoke according to the following notes prepared in advance:
| |
| − | A – The most remarkable event of Modern History: movement of Islam towards the West and movement of Russia towards the East. On a proper understanding of these movements depends our understanding of: (i) the likely fate of modern civilization; (ii) the relation of England with the world of Islam on its moral and political and economic aspect.
| |
| − | B – Let us try to understand them. There are three forces that are shaping the world of today:
| |
| − | (1) Western civilization. Its formation: (a) Scientific method and mastery over nature – Islam and Scientific mehod (Briffault); (b) Separation of Church and State; development of the Ethical tone of Western civilization and development of territorial nationalism ending in 1914.
| |
| − | (2) Communism. Karl Marx and Hegel; Negation of Church: Ascendancy of materialism as Philosophy of life.
| |
| − | (3) Islam [There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His messenger, in Arabic]. Its present decay and various views; germs of greatness. Its method of personal illumination on the one hand and social experiment on the other hand. As a method of personal illumination: revolves round the ego. Mysticism. Not proximity but Power: [Truly he succeeds that purifies it (soul); and he falls that corrupts it, in Arabic]. As a social experiment. Last Sermon. Idea of humanity: (i) the abolition of blood relationship as a principle of social solidarity; man not earth-rooted; the movement of prophets; (ii) congregational prayer and institutions; (iii) socialism.
| |
| − | C – But there can be no denying that Islam has lost its hold on matter. It is moving towards the West. It is no decay but reawakening; it is search for power. The first realization of it came in 1799. Tippu and Navarino [Iqbal erred about the date; the battle of Navarino between Turks and Europeans took place in 1827]. Since then various movements appeared: Wahabism, Babism, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. The movement of Islam towards the West means regaining of that hold. England and Islam. Atheistic Materialism and Islam.
| |
| − | D – England and Islam. Political and economic aspect. Islam suspicious; letter from Morocco. In order to win Islam she must be trusted.
| |
| − | 1. India, N. W. India; the organization of Islam.
| |
| − | 2. Palestine, Arabia, etc. The Arab world. Kashmir.
| |
| − | 3. The friendship of Islam worth having.16
| |
| − | The very first note (A) is a clear proof of Allama Iqbal’s wish to have a dialogue with Europe: it is based on what he had written in his first lecture dealing with “Knowledge and Religious Experience”:
| |
| − | During the last five hundred years religious thought in Islam has been practically stationary. There was a time when European thought received inspiration from the world of Islam. The most remarkable phenomenon of Modern history, however, is the enormous rapidity with which the world of Islam is spiritually moving towards the West. There is nothing wrong in this movement, for European culture, on its intellectual side, is only a further development of some of the most important phases of the culture of Islam. Our only fear is that the dazzling exterior of European culture may arrest our movement and we may fail to reach the true inwardness of that culture.17
| |
| − | The last note (E), that is “The friendship of Islam worth having”, dealt with a problem in which other “isms”, such as Fascism, Nazism, Francoism, in Italy, Germany and Spain respectively, were in favour of Islam but only because of their own political interests. Iqbal’s sympathetic interest for Fascism and Mussolini was considered in those years as a support of these regimes; on the contrary Iqbal, who had accepted to meet Mussolini and to speak in Rome in the highest place of the Italian intelligentsia, the “Accademia d’Italia”, wanted to understand the role played by Italy in Europe.
| |
| − | A demonstration of Iqbal’s interest is a reply-letter to a query from Reyaz al-Hasan,18 then a student of post-graduate classes in Economics in the Allahabad University. Presumably in May 1933, Reyaz al-Hasan who had taken up the study of Economic Theory of Islam had asked the poet for help. Here is his reply from Lahore on 29th May 1933:
| |
| − | I am extremely sorry I have no time to read your essay. But I would suggest that you should make a careful study of the ideas of Mussolini. The essence of Islamic Economics is to render the growth of large capitals impossible. Mussolini and Hitler think in the same way. Bolshevism has one to the extreme of abolishing capitalism altogether. In all aspects of life Islam always takes the middle course. Says the Quran (II, 143): “And thus We have made you an exalted nation that you may be the bearer of witness to the people and [that] the Messenger may be a bearer of witness to you”.
| |
| − | The subject of the shari’ah of Islam is only a recent discovery in Europe. Its importance is likely to attract the attention of European scholars. Indeed some German scholars have already begun to work at it. You may also read with advantage a book called the Sociology of Islam. I forget the name of the author [Reuben Levy of University of London].19
| |
| − | NOTES AND REFERENCES
| |
