We have assembled here to commemorate Dr.A.M.A. Azeez a great Muslim intellectual, educationist, thinker and Administrator who had made immense contribution to the educational progress and social upliftment of the Muslims of Sri Lanka in recent times. Dr. Azeez earned a unique distinction of being the first Muslim civil servant and left his imprint in the administrative service of the country,holding many important positions. But his personality and contributions as an educationist, academic and erudite scholar looms large in his life and his mission.

He functioned as the Principal of Zahira College, Colombo, the premier Muslim Educational Institution in Sri Lanka from 1948 -1961 and brought it to a very high standard both in education and extra-curricular activities. He established the All Ceylon Young Men’s Muslim Association in 1950 inspired by the activities of Jamiyatul Shubban-Ul-Muslimeen during his visit to Egypt. He founded the Muslim Scholarship Fund to facilitate the education of needy Muslim students. Above all true to Islamic vision Dr. Azeez was a great patriot and a national figure who had a broader outlook, which earned him thelove and admiration of his compatriots belonging to different communities. He was held in high esteem by the Tamil community, and University of Jaffna conferred on him a posthumous Doctorate of Letters at their first convocation in 1980. Institute of Objective Studies New Delhi honoured him by including his name in 100 great Muslim leaders of 20thcentury.

Dr. Azeez was a student of history and had a passionate zeal for historical studies which is very much reflected in his writings and speeches. His deep interest in history made him to take a keen interest in the historical and intellectual traditions of Islam and also made him a keen observer of men and events of his time. He was familiar with the thoughts and activities of Jamalud-Din-Al Afghani, Muhammad Abduhu and Rasheed Rida, the forerunners of modern Muslim renaissance. Above all he was a great admirer of Allama Dr. Muhammadh Iqbal, the poet, philosopher of Islam. Dr. Azeez was deeply influenced by the thought and philosophy of Iqbal. He had read widely on Iqbal and his personal library consisted of all the major works of Iqbal available in English. In his speeches and writing, we find copious citations of Iqbal’s works. In this respect, the topic I have chosen today “Relevance of Iqbal’s Philosophy to Contemporary Issues” is pertinent to Dr. Azeez and his thoughts. Dr. Azeez in his book The West Reappraisedmakes the following observations about the contributions made by Allama Iqbal to the awakening of Muslim Ummah in the following words:

“We who have been exposed to the influence of alien cultures were told that Islam was already a spent force and that it has no message to deliver and no contribution to make to the modern world of ours, dazzled and dominated by the West. We were, therefore naturally dispirited and despairing and despondent with gnawing doubts in our hearts about Islam’s validity, its ability to find solutions to the pressing problems of our time and its entire future. Allama Dr. Sir Muhammad Iqbal, the philosopher –poet of Islam came to us at this critical stage with a special message. By his poems and philosophy, by his speeches and writings, by his political activities and personal discourses, he dissipated our doubts and restored our faith, brought us conviction and courage and thus exhorted us and inspired us” (Dr. A.M.A. Azeez,The West Reappraised, Colombo, 2011, Pg. 122)

Dr. Allama Muhammadh Iqbal was a multi-dimensional personality. He was a poet, philosopher, thinker and a visionary. Muslim world has not produced a greater man of vision than him during the last 100 years. He was the most accomplished thinker of the modern East.

Iqbal was born at a time when the entire Muslim world was under the grip of Western political domination and cultural onslaught and Muslims had lost their political power and hope in their future.

Iqbal was born in Sialkot on 22 February 1873. He had his early education in Murray College in Sialkot where he was a student of Shamsul Ulama Mir Hassan, an accomplished Islamic scholar who exposed Iqbal to Islamic thought. In 1895 he migrated to Lahore and joined the Government College, where he had the single fortune of being the student of Sir Thomas Arnold an eminent orientalist and obtained M.A in Philosophy. Thereafter persuaded by Sir Thomas Arnold, Iqbal went to Europe for higher studies. He was admitted as an advanced student of philosophy in Cambridge University and he joined Lincoln’s Inn for the Bar. Thereafter Munich University in Germany conferred on him the Doctorate of Philosophy for his thesis ‘The development of metaphysics in Persia ’in 1907. His three years of stay in the West played an important role in the development of his thoughts and formulation of his vision. During his period he read widely on Western thought and philosophy and had the opportunity of having intellectual discourse with eminent thinkers of the West and gained first-hand experience about Western civilization. After having got his degree from Cambridge and his Doctorate from Munich and having called to the Bar, Iqbal returned home in 1908.

Iqbal was a poetic genius. His poetic talent found expression during his early days in Lahore before his departure to Europe. In this period, Iqbal’s poetry was noted for his patriotic fervour. During this period he championed the course of Indian nationalism, and it was during this period he wrote popular lyric ‘Tarane –I –Hind’ and also wrote poems on nature, modelled on the romantic poetry of ‘Coleridge’ and ‘Wordsworth’.

But after his return from Europe, with the publication of“AsrareKhudi” –the Secret of the Self-in 1915, he emerged as a philosopher poet and a poet with a message. His poetic work ‘Asrare’ was followed by another collection of poetry known as “Rumuze bi –Khudi’. Asrare emphasised the need for individuals todevelop their innate potentialities and selfhood, which he described as ‘Khudi’. In ‘Rumuze bi –Khudi’, he speaks about need of the individual to integrate with the society. These two poetic works were followed by many other compilations such as ‘PayamMashriq’, “ZarbeKaleem’, ‘BangeDara’ ‘Bale Jibreel’ and ‘ArmughaneHijaz’. These poetical works unfolded his message and philosophy.

Iqbal was not a romantic poet nor was he a national poet. His poetic genius was not limited by frontiers of race, ethnicity or geographical boundaries. He was a poet of humanity inspired by the universal message of Islam. He was a beautiful and harmonious blend of the East and the West, the Orient and the Occident. He was very deeply acquainted with the Islamic thought, Quranic Wisdom and the intellectual traditions of Islam and he had also gained a very deep insight into Western thought and philosophy and had personally witnessed and experienced the positive and the negative aspects of Western civilization during his stay in Europe. His poetry and writings were inspired by the message of the Quran and the works of great muslim thinkers like Imam al

Ghazali, IbnRushd, Jalaludin Rumi, IbnMiskawai, Ibn-Khaldun and Shah Waliullah. His writings also reflect a deep and wider knowledge of Western thought and philosophy as expounded by the prominent philosophers and thinkers like Emmanuel Kant, Hegel, Bergson, Rene Descartes and William James. Thus the intellectual vision of Iqbal was shaped by the Islamic and Western traditions. The Eastand the West, Orient and Occident met in the confluence of his thought and philosophy and created in him a universal vision embracing the entire humanity. In one of his poems Iqbal gives expression to his universal humanistic vision as follows.

“This God intoxicated Faqeer is,

Neither of the East or West,

He belongs neither to Delhi nor to,

Isfahan nor to Samarkand”

I speak out what I consider to be the truth,

I am the neither fooled by the priest,

Nor by the glitter of modern civilisation”

Let us reflect on the essential message of Iqbal, the poet of humanity and what relevance it has for our contemporary times. We are living at a time in which mankind has made vast strides in all fields of knowledge. The progress and advancement in science and technology at an accelerated phase had unleashed new knowledge and new information to the extent that our age is known as ‘an age of explosion of knowledge’ and the Information Technology had broken down the barriers between the nations and countries of the world andhad made it a global village.

But with all these advancement in knowledge, science and technology and the information revolution, it is a tragedy to see that this is also the age of crisis, wars and bloodshed, armed aggression, social and economic injustice, human rights violation, alcoholism and drug addiction, sexual crimes and psychological disorders, increasing suicides and the disintegration of the family. All these are symptoms of a sick and decadent society, which is drifting aimlessly like a ship in an uncharted ocean. Modern man has alienated from himself and had lost the meaning and purpose of life. Really speaking, the political problems, the conflict between nations, violence and crime, environmental crisis are external manifestations of the inner crisis of the contemporary society. It is in this context the message of Iqbal becomes relevant to contemporary issues. Dr. Azeez, the devoted student of Iqbal’s thought and philosophy in his book ‘The West Reappraised’ summarises in the following words the essential elements of Iqbal’s thoughts:

“Iqbal emphasised that the power without vision, science without religion, politics without morality would lead humanity to sure perdition both in the here and the hereafter’. (Dr. A.M.A. Azeez, TheWest Re-Apprised, P. 56.)

Iqbal strongly felt that the crisis of the contemporary world was caused by the dominant ideology of the modern Western materialistic civilisation. According to him Secularism, Materialism and Godless humanism are the root causes of the crisis faced by the human society. Iqbal in his book ‘The Reconstruction of Religious Thoughts in Islam’ observes that unless intellect has a religious base, it cannot truly enlighten and uplift humanity.

Today there is widespread social and economic injustice and the violation of human rights, denial and deprivation of the fundamental freedom of man, social disparity and inequality are causing social tensions and conflicts in human society all over the globe.

It is in this context, that Iqbal’s concept of dignity of man and the sanctity of human personality and freedom assumes significance.

Iqbal lays much emphasis on man’s individuality. The concept of ‘Khudi’ or the development of selfhood of man is the focal point of his philosophy and is central to his message.

Iqbal gives an exposition of his philosophy of the self in his poetical work AsrareKhudi-Secret of the self. The term ‘Khudi’implies the inner potentialities and innate possibilities for growth and development embodied in human personality. These potentialities and positive attributes must be actualised for the development of ‘Khudi’.

‘A hundred of worlds are hidden in its essence,

Self-affirmation brings to light.’

In his ‘Asrar’ he describes what he means by ‘Khudi’ as follows

‘A point of pure light which is called ‘Khudi’,

Is a spark of life under a covering of our clay.

Iqbal invites man to preserve this spark of life, develop and fortify it. ‘

Tighten the knot of thy ego and,

Hold fast to thy tiny frame and,Build up a new being,

Such beingis the real being,

Or else thy ego is mere ring of smoke’.

The way to strength once selfhood is to bring out the hidden inner potentialities in such a manner that they are actualised, and developed his personality, and without the development of this potentiality, life becomes inert and barren. In his poem Bale –JibrelIqbal elaborates his concept of development of man’s self hood further.

‘Everything is looking for self –expression,

Every atom is dying for greatness,

Without self –expression,

this life is no life,

By the force of individuality,

the mustard seed,

Is turn into mountain,

When weaken it reduces the mountain to,mustard seed’To develop his self hood one must have noble ideals, supreme objectives. He should make a strenuous effort and engage in unceasing struggle to attain these ideals. It is struggle, action, movement, mobility and dynamism that help man to realize his ideals. Iqbal says :

‘We live by forming ideals, we glow,

With the fire of desires,

Purpose preserves life,

The caravan is activated by the thought of the destination,

Life consists in seeking,

It’s essence lies in desires,

Keep thy desire alive in your heart,

Lest thy handful of dust becomes a tomb’.

Iqbal very firmly believed that freedom is essential for the attainment of human dignity and for the free flowering of human personality. He considers that social injustice, oppression, denial of human rights and deprivation of freedom act as a deterrent for the development of human personality.

Iqbal sang about freedom at a time in which the World of Islam had to contend with the English, French, the German and the Russian colonialism.

A moment of free man’s life,

Is far better than years of slavery,

Every instance of freedom leads to eternity,

And that of slavery to instant death,

The free man’s veins are firm as veins of granite,

The slave weak as tendrils,

And his heart too despairing,

The free heart has life’s tingling breath to fan it.

 

Let us view this call of Iqbal of freedom and liberty against the background of the violation of human rights, denial of basic freedom, acts of oppression, the imprisonment of the innocent that are taking place on a mass scale today. Thousands of innocent souls are languishing in the jails and children are brutally tortured and murdered by the Zionist oppressive regime of Israel every day, the same tragic situation prevails in Afghanistan and under the despotic regime of Assad in Syria.

It is pertinent here to reflect on Iqbal’s attitude towards the materialistic civilization of the West especially in today’s context when insidious attempts are being made in the garb of globalization to impose the Western culture on the third world particularly in Muslim countries. Today the West is engaged in the task of culture building in the Muslim world. It utilises the powerful tools of information technology aiming at remolding, reshaping and transmuting the spiritual and moral values of Muslim Ummah according to the World view of the West creating a universal culture based on materialistic secular philosophy.

Iqbal was a serious student of western thought and philosophy. He lived in the west and gained first-hand knowledge and experience about the Western society. Iqbal may be considered among the foremost intellectual critics of the West. He had adiscerning eye and critical mind to distinguish between the positive and negative aspects of the Western civilization.

He compared his staying in Europe and his ability to escape from its adverse impact with Prophet Ibrahim’s encounter with Namrood. When he was thrown into a fire by Namrood, he emerged unharmed.

I shattered the spell of contemporary learning. I picked up the grain broke the threats of net. God knows that I sat in fire of Western learning yet emerge untouched by its evil impact like Ibrahim emerged from fire.

Dr.Iqbal spoke about the over powering materialistic inclination of Western people and their persistent disregard for transcendental truth. He says in Zabur-E-Ajamas follows:

‘Civilization of the West is perversion of heart and mind, Since,

its soul could not remain unpolluted,When the soul loses its purity everything goes,

Cleanliness of conscience, loftiness of mind, refrainment of taste’

The civilization of the West, confessed Iqbal, was not without lustre of knowledge. It was endowed with abounded vitality which is manifested in industry, science and technology, but it is one sided, insensitive to moral and ethical values, it had made man one dimensional material being totally ignoring the spiritual dimension of his personality.Iqbal describes in Payam Mashriq -the Message of the East that how the heart of the West is dark although its face is bright.

‘Though Europe is radiant with the light of knowledge,

The ocean of darkness is barren of the fountain of life’.

And he continues:

‘In splendour, in seductive and in grace,

The building of Banks outsoar than houses of God,

In appearance it is trade, in reality it is gambling,

The gain of one is sudden death to million,

Science, philosophy, college, constitution,

Preach, man’s equality, and suck man’s blood,

Want an unemployment, lewdness and intoxication,

Who say the gifts of the occident are few?,

’In Zarb-E-KaleemIqbal’s indictment of western materialistic civilization could be seen in following lines:

Annihilation of man isthe business of modern civilization,

And cloak it uses is trade,

Thanks to these banks,

The product of Jewish ingenuity,

The light of truth from man has departed ,

Till this system from the world is uprooted,

Religion, wisdom and culture must remain a dream,

Iqbal’s description that how the buildings of the banks had overshadowed the house of God is very meaningful and had very deep implications. In the most beautiful and convincing manner, he conveys the message how capitalism based on materialism and interest-based economy had sapped the moral and ethical vitality of the society. Had he knew today, I am sure Iqbal would have been very pleased to see and welcome whole heartedly the emergence of the science of Islamic economics and interest-free banking which is growing at an accelerating pace not only in Islamic countries but also in the West.

Education is a field in which Dr. Iqbal was seriously interested. Let us reflect on his views on education at a time in which issues related to education are assuming importance and are widely debated in today’s knowledge based society. Education, in wider sense, is not merely transmitting of information; it is a process through which a nation develops its self-consciousness. Education is an integral part of the culture of a people and is the instrument through which a culture perpetuates itself. Every system of education consists of a set of certain social ideals, norms and values and is based on certain specific world view.

Iqbal wrote extensively on education. He was totally opposed to the adoption of an educational system which is alien to the religious and cultural tradition of a people. Iqbal is very clear on this point when he says:

‘Look into thy clay for the fire that is wanted,

The light of another is not worth striving for,

Seek not the bounty of the glass –blowers of the West,

Make your own world from the clay of India.

’The American educationist Dr. J.B. Conant endorses this idea of Iqbal in his book Education and Libertyhe says:I do not believe thateducational practices are an exportable commodity. At times in our history attempts to import a British or European concept have done more harm than good.’ (Conant, Dr. J.B, Education and Liberty, Harward University Press)

Today the educational curriculum planned by the World bank and IMF are being adopted without any sense of critical analysis in the third world countries and it is in this sense phrases like ‘marketable courses, job market’ are being used.

Iqbal criticises the generation which has been brought up under the influence of an alien system of education which was opposed to our culture, distasteful to our civilization, affronting to our traditions. He says :

‘You have learnt and amassed knowledge from others,

You seek honour by aping the manner of others,

The very breath in you through comes from the string of others.’

On another instance, Iqbal says as follows:

‘Youth in the college very much alive,

But he is indeed dead in sprit ,

He lives only by breathing,

But he borrows his death from the West,

’Iqbal never called the Muslims to totally repudiate the West but he who was steeped in the western and eastern thought and intellectual legacy wanted the Muslims to adopt a critical attitude and understand the basis of its strength. Because Iqbal knew that the scientific development of Europe was made possible by the impact of the Islamic scientific tradition that was transmitted to Europe through Muslim Spain. It was the impact and the influence of the scientific tradition built by the Muslims that laid the foundation for the Renaissance of Europe. Hence, Muslims have every right to inherit the scientific traditions of Europe, which was bequeathed to Europe by their forefathers. But they have to be caution about being influenced by the materialistic anti-religious secular ideals of Europe, which was a later historical development.

Iqbal addresses the Muslim youth who are deluded by the magical charm of the material progress as follows:

The secret of the west’s strength is not in the lute and guitar

Nor in the promiscuous dancing of her daughters

Nor in the charms of her bright –faced beauty

Nor in bare shines nor in bobbed her

Her strength is not from irreligiousness

Nor her rise due to Latin characters

The strength of the West is due to knowledge and science

Her lamp is alight from this fire only,

Knowledge does not depend on the style of your garment

And a turban is no obstacle to the acquisition of knowledge.

Arts and Sciences O Lively and eager youth

Require a keen intellect not Western cloth,

What is needed in the quest is Vision’

Iqbal held the view that Islam should be the purpose of our life and education. He writes in a letter to K. G Saiyidain as follows:

By Ilm I mean the knowledge which is based on senses. This knowledge yields physical powers which should be subservient to Deen –the religion of Islam’. If it is not subservient to Deen then it is demonic power. It is incumbent upon Muslims to Islamise knowledge.

In this letter Iqbal brings out an important point when he speaks about Islamisation of knowledge. Truly speaking what is implied today by the word knowledge and education is that based on Western concept and Western world view which is purely secular oriented.

Iqbal’s call for Islamisation of knowledge based onIslamic values and world view did not go unanswered. True to Dr. Iqbal’s expectation a programme for the Islamisation of knowledge was initiated by scholars like late Prof. Ismail Farooqi and Seyyed Naqeeb Al Attas and others gained momentum over the years had yielded fruitful results. Many serious works on the Islamisation of social sciences and humanities and Islamic worldview of physical sciences have been published. Muslim academics and the ‘Institute of Islamic Thought’ is seriously engaged in the process of Islamisation of knowledge. It is not an exaggeration to say the International Islamic universities in Islamabad and Malaysia are the outcome of the process of Islamisation of knowledge.

Iqbal lived at a time in which the Muslim world was in a state of disarray and the Muslim Ummah, politically weakened and intellectually stagnant was on the verge of losing hope in their future. It was at this decisive moment, Iqbal gave his revolutionary message of ‘Khudi’ and infused Muslim Ummah with new life andvigour and created a sense of hope and optimism in their future.

Iqbal was not disheartened or despondent;

he was not only a poet and philosopher but also seer who had a strong futuristic vision, he was positive that political shocks and ordeal that theywere undergoing will rouse the Muslims from deep slumber and awake their dormant spirit to spur into action. He saw the signs of Islamic resurgence in near future and today the moment has come.

In his poem Tulu-I-Islam(Dawn of Islam)

The faint light of stars tells the day break is near The sun has risen,

gone the period of heavy slumber, In the East’s chill veins life blood flows again,

The tempest of West has made the Muslim a true Muslim,

In the tumult of sea pearl’s fulfilment lies,

To Momin, again from the Almighty is going to be granted

The dignity of Turk, the intellect of Indian, the eloquence of Arab.

He had absolute trust in the youth of Islam and prayed to Allah to pass his love and vision to these young falcons of Muslim Ummah to build their nests upon mountain rock. Iqbal says:

Grant the youth my morning wail

To the eaglets give again feather and wings O’ Lord,

I have but one wish Give to all and sundry the gift of my far sight

Iqbal’s plea and prayers did not go unanswered.

Today in the Muslim world a new generation of youth inspired by the message of Islam, natured by strong faith in Allah and endowed with Islamic vision are regrouping themselves again to take up their place in the march of history. They are rising against despotism, neo-colonialism, social and economic injustice asserting their Islamic identity and vision, which is reflected in the Arab spring.

I wish to conclude my presentation with the quotation of Dr. A.M.A. Azeez on Iqbal in his book The West Reappraised:

‘Iqbal thus belongs to our century; he has a special message for our time and a solution for the cultural conflicts of our period. He asks us to achieve a synthesis of the cultures of the East and the West, gaining a new vitality from the healthy sources of our past culture.

Iqbal thus becomes our modern guide of Islam, who has shown us the old path, having himself cleared it of the dead leaves and fallen trees that were impending the progress of the travellers. And to Humanity in general Iqbal has given a dynamic message of a life of striving and courage motivated by the fear of God with dread of Nought’. (Azeez, Dr. A.M.A, The West Reappraised, P. 132)

THIRTY NINTH MARHOOM DR. A.M.A. AZEEZ MEMORIAL ORATION – 2012

http://www.azeezfoundation.com