God has treasuries beneath the Throne,

The keys to which are the tongues of poets.

(Hadith of Prophet Muhammad)

IQBAL’S PHILOSOPHY OF CREATIVE EVOLUTION

During the twentieth century, a famous poet-philosopher of east, Dr. Muhammad Iqbal (1873-1938) in his epic Payam-i- Mashriq delineated human being’s quest to understand the universe from the heavens to the core of human heart. Iqbal a national poet of Pakistan—following his mentor Jalaluddin Rumi and inspired by the Hadith of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) that God has treasuries beneath the Throne, the keys to which are the tongues of poets triggered by the flight of his thought, reached there and probed using the key to his poesy-tongue what is hidden far beyond the power of crazy Ishq. As his imagination reached there whatever Iqbal envisioned, he expressed in his Farsi (Persian) tongue:

نعرہ زد عشق کہ خونی جگرے پیدا شد

Love exclaimed that one with a bruised heart has appeared!

حسن لرزید کہ صاحب نظرے پیدا شد

Beauty shockingly trembled that one with vision has born.

فطرت آشفت کہ از خاک جہان مجبور

Nature perturbed as from the dust of predetermined world

خودگرے خود شکنے خود نگرے پیدا شد

A self-preserver, a self-breaker, and a self-observer has marked his existence

(Payam-e-Mashriq—Message of the East)

But in response to the poet of Paradise Lost, John Milton’s notion of “reason has equaled, force has made Supreme,” Iqbal set his view of human power in the “wedding of love and intellect.” Iqbal in his epic Payam-i- Mashriq (Message of the East) exhorts: “Man born of passive clay but a center of creative and dynamic energy, gifted with the powers of love, action, and intelligence, and stirs the void of Universe to reconstruct it nearer to his heart’s desire.” Understanding the vastness of the terrestrial realm and man’s greatness Iqbal expresses:

ز انجم تا بہ انجم صد جہاں بود

خرد  ہر جا  کہ پرزد  آسماں بود     

و لیکن چوں بخود   نگریستم  من

  کران ِ بیکراں در من نہاں بود 

There were hundreds of universes from star to star

Wherever the intellect flies, it would find new universes!

But as I looked deep down into my own self

A boundless ocean of creativity was hidden within me.

Iqbal further arguing about naturally embedded power of creativity in man, depicting in Payam-i- Mashriq proclaims; “Words spread all around from heavens to the realm of Eternity warning “Beware, O’ veiled elements, the tearer of veils is born!” According to Iqbal due to the power of creativity man has been able to transcend his limitation, to conquer the space and time, just as his favorite teacher philosopher Bergson has pointed out, “man has developed motor mechanism, perfected marvelous instrument of language and evolved a rich social life which has enormously increased his powers of activity” which Iqbal present symbolically as:

سوۓ آسماں رہگذر ساختیم          ز طیارہ ما بال و پر ساختیم       

With the aero plane we made our wings

We wedded our way to the skies.

Thus, according to Iqbal in man’s process of active reconstruction, he has become a co-worker with Divinity, justifying the proclamation of God that He has created man in His own image. Iqbal believes man has taken the initiative of consciously bringing about far-reaching changes in the natural as well as the social and moral world around him. He presents man equipped with the power of creativity, has not only evolved his own being, but also has brought about a new order, a new beauty of life, and has made improvement wherever he found a missing point or a gap in God’s created world, even in the sphere of man’s own life.

تو شب آفریدی چراغ آفریدم        سفال آفریدی ایاغ آفریدم

بیابان وکہسار و راغ آفریدی       خیابان و گلزار و باغ آفریدم

من آنم کہ از سنگ آئینہ سازم       من آنم کہ از زہر نوشینہ سازم

You created the night, I created the lamp

You created the clay; I created the vase!

You created the forest, mountains and deserts.

I created flower beds, orchards and gardens!

I am the one who made mirror out of stone,

I am the one who extracted elixir out of poison.

Iqbal has all the time remained dissatisfied with the imperfect world he found around him. However, realizing that the imperfection and incomplete things in this world are challenges left by God for man to make best use of his latent creativity. But Iqbal at the same time feels irritated and complains to his Creator:

صد جہاں می روید از کشت ِ خیال ِ ما چو گل          یک جہاں و آں ہم از خون ِ تمنا ساختی

طرح ِ نو  افگن کہ ما جدت پسند افتادہ   ایم           ایں چہ حیرت خانۂ امروز و فردا ساختی

Hundreds of worlds spring out of the field of my imagination like flowers,

You created but one world and that also steeped in the blood of desire!

Bring new patterns into being for we by our nature crave for novelty!

What is this labyrinth of today and tomorrow that you have created?

With all this philosophy of creative evolution, Iqbal projects his vision of man’s restless and inquisitive nature who is engrossed in ceaseless quest after fresh scopes for self-expression. For Iqbal, man as a possessor of a free personality is superior to all other created beings capable of shaping his own destiny and that of the Universe around him—sometime adjusting himself to it, sometime by pressing its forces into the service of his increasing needs or desires.

MIRZA IQBAL ASHRAF

April 21, 2024.