by Ali Shariati
Its most important effect was to convert Islam from popular call, from social mobilization, and a revolutionary movement directed towards the materialization of political leadership and the genesis of a social system based on leadership and justice into a kind of advanced philosophical-scientific culture. This is what distinguishes Medinah from Athens, the Muslim mosque from Platonic academies and, finally, in Islam, the Companions of the Porch from the scholars of the academy built in Baghdad (nizamiyah)
It must be pointed out that not all segments which arose against this rational philosophy were progressive. In fact, some reactionary and dogmatic elements were also included like the Asharites. These opponents were prosaic jurisprudents, shallow-minded narrators versed in Islamic traditions without any rational analysis and interpretation whatsoever.
Some of the intellectual positions taken against philosophical deviations were, in a way, a kind of deviation from ascetics who were indirectly influenced by oriental religious or intellectual tendencies, by followers of Plotinus, agnostic Christian monasticism, and pantheism as well as by Hinduism, Buddhism, and Manichaeism.
But there was also an intellectual, progressive, and authentic attitude of thought which was faithful to the original attitude and world view of Islam. While avoiding superficial, prejudicial, factional dogmatism, which lacks intellectual clarity and is only imitative, this school fought against philosophy not because its adherents opposed the tendency to rationalize accepting faith but because of its deep awareness of the disastrous effects the hellenization of Islam would have.
Iqbal’s anti-philosophical position represents such an original and profound attitude which, throughout our history, has characterized intellectual disputes and ideological wars. However, it is not the mere repetition of his predecessor’s work but the evolution of it into an intelligent, vital, and constructive position, based upon what is happening to us in our age that is unique. That is, an authentic plan of resistance against the hellenization of the past in the form of a genuine, Islamic intellectual and cultural resistance in the struggle with westernization with which we are confronted today and which threatens us with obliteration and metamorphosis.
Plato is perplexed in the island
between the hidden and the manifest
The place of the wise is purgatory from the very beginning
Until the Book does not descend
into your conscience Neither will any secret (be revealed) nor
any knot untied by the Master of
Mystical Unveiling
Why? What objection did Iqbal have to rationalist philosophy—Greek or European? In the course of a spiritual journey (in the manner of Dante’s Divine Comedy), Iqbal calls upon Hegel, one of the highest representatives of contemporary Western philosophy/ to confront Rumi, this Eastern hero of mystical poetry. The brazen hero of Western thought obviously falls to the ground, blinded by our hero’s arrow, having been assisted by the mythical bird, Simurgh.
We are now close to understanding the hidden secret of Iqbal’s words. Unlike the Western world view, which consists of rigid, intellectual forms, passive reflections upon the universe as well as abstract and spiritless images of nature, our world view is in direct touch with reality. It is not to discover the law of combustion but amounts to touching the fire itself. It is to mix and mingle with the universe, to unite with the soul of Being. It concerns man’s flowing with the very current of life and movement of nature. Or the flowing of life and nature deep within man’s very being, hence, plunging into a kind of rapture or experiencing a magnetic pull between two beings: one, a small infinity and the other, a great infinity or as Victor Hugo says: Such is prayer.
Our world view is not science, that is, ‘information about external phenomena’ but it is intuition, mystical unveiling, and experiencing wonder vis-a-vis the glory of existence and the beauty of nature. It is restlessness, self-denial, asceticism, annihilation, the flight towards union with the Source of Life, with the very Heart of existence and the Spirit whose image is reflected in this great nature!
Haidar’s strength is sufficient for me
If you have Plato’s cleverness and intelligence
In my view, Haidar’s strength is akin to beauty and
elegance
Because it is in the presence of strength
that The firmament prostrates itself in prayer.
In a philosophical world view—old or new—the universe is an aggregate of: Events, facts, substances, accidents, matter, forms, material, compounds, elements, earthen, celestial, divine, worldly, perceptible, rational, logical, cause, effect, energy, cathode, electron, proton, ether, motion, relations, attraction, repulsion, and so forth. In the face of this aggregate, the human mind acts as a mirror reflecting images which may or may not be true or which may be confused or which may be mixed with rust, contaminants, dust, stains or streaks on the mirror itself. Such is science and the information to which it relates.
The relationship between the human being and the universe is the same as the relationship between mind and substance. What the philosopher considers to be objective realities and scientific facts is nothing other than his mental images. He is not dealing directly with the universe and is not in immediate and close contact with it. He merely plays with his imagination and calls this entertaining and distracting play ‘philosophy’.
He is an inquisitive, but idle and passive reporter of his own existence as well as that of nature. Philosophical awareness is merely ‘facts’, superficial information about things whereas mystic awareness out-maneuvers the causes and pierces the outer shell. Its gaze delves deep inside things as if it were a lance. It fills the soul of beings. It is a kind of gaze which is not contented with appearance. It does not remain idle with the superficial. It does not get involved in philosophical vanity. Its thirst is not quenched by a mass of ‘acts’.
A mystic is not interested in that but is a lucid and pious person who opens his eyes to the world of light and things head on, only being satisfied when ‘seeing things as they really are’.
In our age it is thought that reason is the light of our way Who knows? Insanity may possess perception as well Reason’s only talent is information gathering The only cure for your pain is in your view..
Iqbal puts the question to Rumi, the leader of the caravan of love, who answers:
Man is how he sees; the rest is shell
and outer covering. How he sees is that which is seen
by the Friend.
One must be familiar with the particular insight, spirit, culture, and vocabulary of this school. The first pre-requisite for this is to wash away and eradicate all mental patterns that have deeply penetrated within along with Western philosophical expressions.
What is this conscious view or outlook in relation to awareness of information? It is clear that this consciousness is presented by one’s view but what is the view of clearsightedness? Iqbal himself answers:
Clear-sightedness is the fountain
from which blood flows
Science of today is a toy
by which faith is made lifeless and weak.
What is science in today’s terms? What story is narrated by this blood stream that flows from the clear-sighted eye? What relationship exists between clear-sightedness and blood in this school of thought? It is here that the question of knowledge and consciousness appears as two distinguishable visages in the philosophical-scientific view and as one in the mystic-religious view.
Philosophical-scientific consciousness stops at the boundary of ‘facts’, which are a kind of mental relationship between the human being and objective reality, or between the world and the known. But in the mystic-religious view, apart from the fact that knowledge is of a different nature— that is, it is not information about a reality nor is it the impression of images of things upon the mind, but it is an encounter with reality, conscientizing the truth, finding it deep within our heart and experiencing it. Finally, just like the moment when
our sun reaches the meridian, shining down at the height of noon to creep like a shadow into the essence of truth, finding the self in negating it, breathing in the spirit of the universe into one’s mortal body, and, breathing in truth, being martyred on the tall cross in the midst of creatures, face to face with the Creator, to cry out, “I am the Truth!” This is the secret of Iqbal’s ‘self. Apart from the fact that Gnostic-religious consciousness differs from philosophical scientific consciousness, it should be said that the former contains three elements: anguish, love, and action.
Hegel’s complicated philosophy and Francis Bacon’s rigid scientific eyes have been deprived of these three elements, thus rendering the powerful civilization of the modern age, dry and spiritless and contemporary man, cold and stony, and, at the same time, weak and vulnerable, the kind of man Paul Simon describes as not waiting for anything but the metro.
Consciousness is the twin of anguish, love, and action. Pain demarcates the line between a man in search of welfare and a man seeking perfection. It also determines two kinds of wisdom, two civilizations, two cultures, two acts, two modes of life and, finally, two contradictory types of knowledge: one type of knowledge in Bacon’s terms was “looking for the truth whereas it is now seeking power,” knowledge which gives a bread coupon. The other gives soul. One produces might and the other produces enjoyment, satisfaction of instincts and the happiness of being human.The other knowledge is that of those who seek the truth, value, freedom, sanctity, contentment, piety, substitution of instincts, evolution and becoming human.
One is the hireling of technology and the product of illicit coition for money, giving birth to the bastard machine. The other is the seeker of truth of an ideology and which, accompanied by love, gives two wings for humanity’s flight to the G od of truth, goodness, and beauty. It is to help man with his elevation, evolution, and salvation in a school where people are nourished on divine-like dispositions and characteristics, adorned by compassion.
According to Iqbal’s version, with an Ibn Sind-like consciousness, the human being is an inquisitive reporter standing over a corpse called nature in a huge cemetery called the world from which he intends to get news and information whereas with an Ali-like consciousness, the human being is thirsty, restless, and an agitated, captive lover, separated from the beloved and his home, wandering around the world, watching and studying the universe, trying to discover the truth, finding the lost one, reaching the Source, and, finally, attaining access to the sacred quarters of the Friend, meeting Him at the appointed time, in the appointed place.
For him, consciousness and knowledge of the signs of nature, time, and place have great significance and meaning. Confronted by nature, he is not merely a reporter but wanderer who has given up his attachments and who is called upon to stay. Now, in this forlorn and frightening desert, he has arrived at a high fortress where he has traced his lost one. Now, with two ever moving eyes from which two bubbling fountains and two blood streams flow, and with a look that sends incessant gleams of lightning—which emanate from inner turmoil—to the towers and walls of the fortress, he stands and watches. This is how he looks at the world. This is Haidar’s powerful view which is mixed with beauty and elegance.
The countenance of nature is found in this great house or in a closed Kabah where God lives. He is unable to maintain his tranquility behind this door. He is not satisfied with information. He cannot stand, cannot sit, cannot sleep, and cannot occupy his mind with whatever he finds close to him. He is not satisfied with knowledge nor is he encouraged by happiness, pleasure, welfare, or with being or staying. While his entire body is responding to the Friend’s call, while he is frightened to death about being left out, in need of gaining access, in agony of not seeking, desiring union, opening the door, he puts the force of his whole being behind the door knocker and knocks in quick succession so that the door may be opened and he may be admitted inside. Such is knowledge, anguish, love, action, and, finally, nature in this school. Such are human bending forward and prostration in prayer. The Holy Prophet said: Bending forward and prostration are like door knockers by which one knocks at God’s door.
Now we can come to know another kind of understanding which is deeply rooted in our Eastern culture and which is akin to the original essence of religion. It is to speak about the ‘red intellect/ as Suhrawardi put it, as opposed to a cold, barren, passive, philosophical intellect. It is a fiery, productive, active, religious intellect that penetrates deep inside the universe and mingles with the spirit of the world. It is restlessly and dynamically thirsty for truth. It creates an internal revolution and brings about the most profound transformation in the natural, social, class, and historic characteristics of the human being and substitutes value, exaltation, freedom in being and in living for blind attractions of instincts, profit, animal satisfaction, and, in short, turns apelike man into a divine-like man.
But this divine-like human being was destined to be an earthly creature. Islam emphasizes that the human being has been created from clay and mud, molded into shape, so the human being is the housemate of the monkey and is of the same race as other animals. But he carries God’s spirit, hold’s God’s special deposit in trust, and has concluded an agreement, a covenant with God.
It is seen that the human being suffers from contradiction in existence and, the more conscious he becomes of ‘self, the less his inclinations for welfare, pleasure, and his desire for satisfaction and fullness become. He becomes like a reed flute, lamenting on the lips of life, being aware of its hollow existence, groaning, and crying for being here and longing to tread along the way that leads to his own reed-bed.
In its most advanced stage, philosophy ends in loneliness as is also argued in existentialism but gnostic consciousness of self speaks about separation. Loneliness means not having anyone to speak to or lean upon. Separation means not being with the Friend. Naturally, in the one case, the human being experiences despair and, in the other, sees love. Now we understand what Iqbal means when he speaks of the ‘burning sigh heaved towards heaven’.
Here knowledge and love are presented as two world views and essentially as two contradictory relationships between the human being and the universe. Each of these two has its own peculiarities, easily distinguished from those of others.
Excitement in the universe
is due to love Knowledge is concerned with
attributes whereas love observes the substance.
Or,
Royalty, poverty, and religion
are all miraculous works of love
Love changes a humble servant into a king
with crown and throne.
Or,
Along the way of love,
it is forbidden to have happy resting places
The roar of the storm is permissible,
but the pleasure of the shore is forbidden.
The point has so far been made clear that the mental patterns and philosophical expressions prevalent in Western schools of thought like realism, idealism, materialism, objectivism, subjectivism, existentialism, humanism, theism, atheism, naturalism, and so forth, cannot have a place in this world view and do not explain anything. If, as Western culture usually dictates, we wish to place this world view within the narrow and rigid framework of these mental patterns, then it would amount to a betrayal of truth. To do so, we would have to amputate it.
The most salient feature of this world view is that it does not fit into any mold which is also the outstanding feature of the human being and of the universe. Hence, this is an intimation of the truth of this world view.
But, apart from pain and love, the third principle element of this world view is action. It is natural that anguish and love cannot co-exist with tranquility and harmony. It is natural that action or deeds in this view have a richer, more profound and more exalted significance than in their narrow, humble, rigid and poor Western version.
In Western culture, action implies a mechanical and conventional arrangement bre
d by clever, crafty tricks directed at utilization and gain. That is, whatever can be useful in the reinforcement of material civilization and the development of instincts but which is useless for human pain and plays no role in exalted transformation.
Now let us see how Iqbal defines action:
If you are involved in selfishness
that would be the end of your ‘presence’
This means being at a distance from
philosophy and life
The thoughts of a voiceless melody are like
death to the desire for action
Religion is the secret of Muhammad and Abraham
Religion is the calendar of the path of life.
Attach yourself to Muhammad’s words:
Oh, son of Ali, why do you speak
so much about Bu Ali?
