The Black Rainbow

by Hussain Zaidi

  The Black Rainbow

  By Hussain Haider Zaidi

  Copyright 2016 Hussain Zaidi

  Smashwords Edition

  Book 1

  Chapter 1

  “Why do you want to study philosophy?”

  The question seemed to have hung over the table between two persons. It stood as a buffer between two men who looked different in every way. The questioner, a grey-haired, grim-faced, and focused man, was Professor Najeeb. The man on the receiving end, youthful, lanky, and confident, but a little lost in some inner abstract monologue, was Ali Naqvi.

  “Well,” Ali tried to focus on Professor’s face, “philosophy has the widest possible panorama. It deals with the whole of human experience, the life itself, and it’s a privilege to embark on such a study.”

  Professor Najeeb tilted his head to his left as if ducking Ali’s answer. Once secure, he said softly: “But a philosopher must live before he can philosophize and as things stand at present, philosophy graduates have but slim chances of getting a decent job.”

  Ali’s torso slightly moved forward. The tip of his right shoulder gave a slight upward start: “Yes sir you’re right. But at present I’m not much concerned with finding a job but with exploring the mysteries of life and solving the riddles of existence”.

  “Very well if you say so”, said the Professor bending backwards as if trying to assess how much his chair could stretch: “But how do you know life is a riddle and that philosophy can solve it?”

  “Sir, life is a riddle because from the beginning to the end it’s shrouded in uncertainties. These uncertainties arise from lack of knowledge. Philosophy can help reduce uncertainties of life by giving us increased knowledge of both ourselves and the world around us.”

  Professor Najeeb tugged at his earlobe. He took his tongue out for a second as if trying to find out the taste of something he had inadvertently put into his mouth. A voice came out of the depths of his stomach: “Has any philosopher solved the riddle of life?”

  This was Ali’s opportunity. He reclined against the back of the chair and gently answered: “Philosophers from Thales to Sartre have claimed to have accomplished the feat in their own way. But as the journey of life continues, so do its mysteries and therefore old solutions become inadequate necessitating a fresh application of the philosophical tools of analysis and synthesis to the problems of life. For instance, today we are facing the problem of terrorism in a way and on a scale which our predecessors never did. We need a new philosophy to grapple with this problem.”

  Professor Najeeb did not wholly agree with Ali’s replies but he appreciated the restrained spirit and confidence in which he was answering.

  “Have you any question to ask?” he said to a colleague of him, who seemed more optimistic about life.

  “Previously you studied English literature and history. How does philosophy relate to these disciplines?” asked Professor Ghani.

  Ali, who had prepared hard for the interview, had anticipated this question.

  “Literature like philosophy,” he began, “is a study of life and a great work of literature, like Goethe’s Faust, Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Shakespeare’s Hamlet, introduces to us a philosophy of life and maybe to more than one philosophy. Men of literature have been influenced by philosophy of their time. For instance, the whole English Romantic Movement was influenced by the philosophy of David Hume, particularly his view that reason is and must be a slave to passions. Didactic poetry in particular is written under the influence of some moral philosophy. As for history, if it is to be more than a mere narration of isolated incidents, must be woven around some philosophy. The study of the past is important only if it contributes to understanding the present and predicting the future. And this is possible only if the underlying uniformity behind events apparently isolated in time and space is brought forth. In other words, philosophy of history is what really matters as opposed to mere history.”

  Prof Ghani put couple of other questions to Ali after which they told him that his interview was over.

  That was how Ali’s interview for admission to the philosophy dept of the prestigious Government College went. A few months back he had graduated from the same college with History and English literature as his major subjects. Study of these two subjects brought him to the study of philosophy and in a short time, he developed a passion for that. Now that he was aspiring to do masters, he chose philosophy.

  “How was your interview?” Ali’s father Hassan Naqvi, a journalist by profession commonly called by his friends Mr Naqvi, asked as they assembled for the dinner.

  “Well it was ok,” replied Ali nonchalantly. “They asked routine questions, such as why I wanted to study philosophy and who was my favorite philosopher, which I answered satisfactorily I suppose. There are ten seats and only fifteen applicants and I trust I’ll be selected.”

  “Well, best of luck,” Mr Naqvi remarked as he left the table.

  For next few days, Ali did nothing but wait for the result. On the fifth day, he went to the college and saw his name on the list of the selected candidates posted outside the philosophy dept. In a week time, he deposited the fee and completed other admission requirements.

  “On behalf of the faculty, I welcome you to the philosophy dept,” remarked a tall and stout Dr Junaid glancing at half a score boys and girls enrolled in the Masters of Philosophy. “You have chosen a most intriguing and exciting subject. My first and last advice to you is to nourish the habit of unceasing questioning and skepticism. Take nothing for granted except that you exist, and that too as a practical imperative. What English poet Matthew Arnold said of poetry is also true of philosophy—it is a criticism of life. And life includes everything from morality to law, the individual mind to the cultural psyche, mythology to science, fiction to fact, economic issues to metaphysical problems, historiography to contemporary affairs. And remember never consider any solution to be final. Regard every conclusion as at best tentative. In philosophy, there are no axioms, no final answers. Everything is in flux. Therefore, here our first and foremost attempt will be to inculcate and foster such a spirit in you. Any question?”

  There was silence and then a tender hand surfaced.

  “Yes, and please introduce yourself,” said Dr Junaid.

  “Sir my name is Sara Aqeel and I want to ask whether it’s possible to live in perpetual skepticism?”

  Dr Junaid pondered for a while and then replied: “No it’s neither possible nor necessary. What’s necessary as well as possible is the willingness to review our assumptions in the light of fresh evidence and new facts.”

  “But sir the way we interpret facts and evidence is itself based on some assumptions—some habit, so to speak, acquired in childhood.”

  Dr Junaid looking at his new student rather disapprovingly replied: “All I can say for the moment is that as students of philosophy, we must be willing to revise our assumptions any time. Any other question?”

  Ali came out of the college on tenterhooks. Sara had asked the question, which was also on his mind. He thought that intellectually it might be interesting to look at everything with the eye of a skeptic but was it really possible? “Can we not hold anything with strength of conviction? In a world where everything is in a state of flux, is it possible to have objective and abiding values? Probably I’ll be able to find answer to these questions in the months to come,” he thought.

  When he returned home, Ali saw his mother Fatima talking to his distant cousin Farzana, who was just about his age.

  “Hello Ali,” Farzana said, how was your first day?”

  “Well it was just an introductory day. Regular classes will start tomorrow,” he told her.”

  “So now you have become a philosopher”.<
br />
  “I’m only a student of philosophy”, Ali said modestly. “But what are you doing here?”

  “I came here to meet Auntie Fatima. But if you don’t like me here I had better leave,” replied Farzana.

  “No please I didn’t mean it. Just talk to the mother,” Ali said and went to his room.”

  When Ali came out, Farzana, who lived in a neighboring apartment, had gone.

  “Ali you are always blunt to her,” Mrs Naqvi complained to him.” But despite this she does not mind coming here.”

  “I don’t mean it and you know it,” Ali replied.

  That night Ali dreamed himself to be in the woods, where a lion was about to eat him. Suddenly, the lion transformed into a familiar face—that was of his father. The next moment he saw his father carry him on his wings and Ali found himself in the Philosophy Dept, where Dr Junaid was about to reveal the final truth to a bunch of animals. At that very moment, Ali felt strong pressure in his bowls. He woke up and went to the washroom. While urinating, he thought what stuff the dreams were made of.

  “Is the world of dreams real in its own right or one which is reconstructed by our desires and fears? Or the illogical world of dream where all is possible and nothing is certain is itself an objectification of our desire to break the shackles of time, space, causation and other categories of thought?” he wondered.

  “Fair is foul and foul is fair”, says William Shakespeare in Macbeth, and this to me should be the starting point for the study of ethics”, observed Prof Najeeb as he began his lecture.

  “Are moral values objective or merely relative? Do good and evil exist in their own right? Alternatively, are they merely a shadow of each other? However, the fundamental question in ethics is about good? What is good? Can it be defined at all? Before we start discussing major ethical theories from Socrates to Spinoza and Protagoras to Dewy, I want to hear your views. Who will speak first?”

  “I think good is what’s good for humanity at large,” Naila taking the lead said.

  “Ok,” replied Prof Najeeb, “but your definition is a tautology. You need to define good but not in a circular way.”

  “Sir, I think good is happiness,” said Javed. The happier the number of people, the more virtuous is the action.”

  “Good is a matter of personal interest,” spoke Sara. “What serves my interest is good. What hinders my interest is evil. The same can be applied to a group, society, nation or country. For a people, the greatest good is to seek national aggrandizement even if that means annihilating another.”

  “In my view,” opined Riaz, “Good is what is ordained by God; evil is what is forbidden by God. Things are not good or bad in themselves; rather their moral characteristic follows from the will of God. It’s not that God wants us to do good and avoid evil but whatever God ordains is good and whatever He forbids is evil.”

  “All right,” said Prof Najeeb. “A common element in all your definitions is the assumption that good can be defined. How many of you doubt that good can be defined?”

  There was complete silence. Then spoke Ali: “Sir, if good cannot be defined, then what’s the possibility of ethics or moral philosophy?

  “I’m not stating that good can’t be defined. I’m only hinting at this possibility,” Prof Najeeb clarified. “It may be the case or may not be. And this we have to find out. Moreover, the argument that good must have a definition because it’s necessary to make the science of ethics possible is to me not a valid one.”

  “If we doubt that good can be defined, we can never be certain whether good exists or not. So we have to start with the assumption that good can be defined,” Sara opined.

  This prompted Prof Najeeb to say, “I shall not dispute your proposition but I would say that if good can’t be defined it doesn’t mean that it does not exist. Just as definition of a concept does not necessarily mean that something corresponding to it exists.”

  Of all philosophical problems, two fascinated Ali the most: one was of free will vs. determinism, while the other was of good and virtue. He often pondered over those problems: “Am I the author of actions that I perform? Am I free to choose the ends that I seek? Is my freedom merely an illusion and everything is pre-determined? Does determinism have a purpose or is it purposeless? Is there a cosmic mind that has planned everything and all events are merely unfolding of the great divine drama, whose script has eternally been written? Or is determinism merely mechanistic with no plan and no purpose, no rhyme and no reason, no meaning and no method?”

  To Ali, the answer to all philosophical, political and economic problems depended on how one answered those questions. If freedom was simply an illusion, how could a man be held responsible for his actions? The same applied to societies and nations. For if freedom was an illusion and everything was preordained or determined, nations and societies were as helpless in shaping their future as individuals were. Rise and fall, victory and defeat, progress and regression, development and decadence, glory and humiliation, all were part of an eternally written script. The tyrant was as helpless as the oppressed, the master as helpless as the slave. So why to glorify one and condemn the other, extol the one and denounce the other? Was there a divine plan governing the fate of the nations and individuals? Were some of them chosen to spearhead the implementation of that plan? And what was that divine plan? Divine comedy? Victory of good over evil? Unfolding of the divine will beyond any ethical considerations?

  In such a plan, how and where did human aspirations fit in? Were prayers and petitions, wishes and supplications, a futile exercise? Closely connected with that was the question of good and evil. Was good merely a realization of our desires and evil their non-fulfillment? Did good and evil exist in an objective sense or did they owe themselves to the subjective impressions of the individual? What was the relationship between virtue and knowledge? Could good be identified with rational, intelligent action? Or was reason and intelligence a mere slave of passions, which made the individual pursue his own interest only independent of its consequences for others?

  In the Philosophy Department, there was a lot of discussion on those issues and everyone answered them in their own way. But Ali was unable to make up his mind and his thought oscillated between varying views. One thing Ali did not know that the answer to those questions was not merely an academic exercise but would also bear upon his life.

  The intellectual uncertainty was matched by emotional indecisiveness. Ali was unable to define his relationship with Farzana. He knew he felt an irresistible attraction towards her despite his efforts to be indifferent to her overtures. But whether that attraction verged on love or was merely an animal drive, he didn’t know.

  He even did not know whether he would be able to transcend his skepticism and establish serious emotional relationship with any woman. Indeed he considered wife and children a costly distraction. Bacon’s remark that one who married and had wife and children had given himself hostage to fortune often echoed in him. “Is marriage a necessity or a luxury? Is marriage merely a means of sexual gratification or a means to permanent companionship?”

  Ali often tried to suppress his sexual impulse but in vain. It often happened that while reading a book, Farzana’s face would appear on the page and wouldn’t disappear despite best of his efforts. Then he would go into a fantasy having her in his arms. He would feel a strong desire to have her before him and make love to her. Very often Farzana would actually appear at that moment and Ali was at a loss what to do.

  “Good morning,” said Mrs Naqvi, as she put the cup of tea on the side table.

  “Good morning”, replied Ali. “Where’s father?”

  “He’s taking shower,” she replied.

  “Isn’t it his weekly off today?” Ali asked.

  “Not today, I’m afraid. The prime minister is speaking to the press and your father has to cover the event.”

  “Ok I’m coming in five minutes,” said Ali as he finished his tea.

  “Good morning father. Mother
told me you are to cover a VVIP event.”

  “Yes, the PM will announce the government’s policy on terrorism today,” replied Mr Naqvi.