Allamah Iqbal: the Ummah and Prophethood

By: Ayatullah Syed Ali Khamnaee
Iqbal's idea of propagating the message of Islam and breaking all the artificial boundaries drawn to divide nations leads him to expound certain other notions that are predominant in his philosophy of bikhudi (selflessness), that is, the unification of the individual with the society and his absorption therein. According to him nubuwwah (prophethood) is the principal source of the organization of the Ummah. It does not mean that a millah is formed by the merely gathering together of many individuals. A particular mode of thinking and an ideology is essential in order to weave different threads together to form the fabric of a nation. For this purpose the most fundamental and the best of all the ideologies is the one that was propounded through nubuwwah, the prophetic mission, and it was propounded by the messengers of God. This is the best of all the foundation‑stones upon which a nation is built. This mode of thinking imparts reasoning, faith, discipline and perfection to a nation.
Another concept upon which Iqbal's system of thought rests is the negation of servitude‑servitude to the demigods sitting on the throne and standing at the altar.
Man worshipped man in the world.
He lived as a non‑entity, as a non‑being and as a subordinate
Under the heavy yoke of the Khusrows and the Qaysars.
And his neck, his hands and his feet were chained;
The Popes and the priests and the kings and the lords
A hundred hunters after a single prey!
Both the king and the priest levied taxes on his devastated harvest.
Whatever was left after paying taxes to the King's officials was grabbed by the tax‑collectors of the Pope. This had been a customary practice all over the world, as Iqbal says:
Bishop, in the name of alloting apartments in the Paradise,
Set a trap in the church to catch him;
The Brahmin plucked the best roses of his garden;
The Magi's children made up their fire by adding his harvest to it ;
His human qualities were debased by slavery.
At last came the Trustworthy, who restored the lost rights,
And entrusted the throne of the Khaqans to the slaves.
Iqbal's poetry and philosophy‑aimed at humanizing the worldآ­are very rich in the themes of human and social significance, such as the Divine mission of the Prophet (S) of Islam, the equality of man, the Quranic doctrine of judging a person according to his taqwa (piety):
The noblest of you in the sight of Allah is the best in taqwa,
and many other similar issues that are indicative of his concern for higher values and the service of mankind. We cannot propagate these ideas in our country without making popular and public the works of Iqbal. This is a task to be carried out in Iran and Pakistan as well as in the countries where people understand Persian and where people are prepared to learn the language.