Messianic Expectation and Iqbal

 

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

الصلاة والسلام عليك يا سيدى يا رسول الله

In the Name of Allah, the Rahman, the Merciful

یٰۤاَیُّہَا الۡمُدَّثِّرُ

O you wrapped up

قُمۡ فَاَنۡذِرۡ

Stand up and warn!

What is the nature of that vision propelling him into wide-eyed certainty? Into purpose and destiny?

Picture horses racing in the night, their hooves charging fiery sparks—flashes of light that blind the onlooker—as they strike the ground twenty times per second. Can you hear the sound of their snorting and neighing? The heavy rumbling of their galloping?

وَالۡعٰدِیٰتِ ضَبۡحًا

فَالۡمُوۡرِیٰتِ قَدۡحًا

By the snorting chargers

Striking sparks!

Deliverance at last. The coming of one that has been awaited...and awaited...and awaited.

Who thirsts to lay eyes upon his countenance but those who remember the glory of their days long past? His heart doesn’t beat who never loved her so never lost her.

Behold, he is coming in the clouds!

But for this one they are clouds of dust. That swirl about from the jetting of his steeds.

فَاَثَرۡنَ بِہٖ نَقۡعًا

Raising clouds of dust thereby!

They call him wild, crazed. A religious fanatic. A terrorist.

But his curved saber straightens the Arab. Rivers of blood flow at his feet. Behind him are ferocious tribes, their faces bright as the moon on the fourteenth night. From the ancient land of Khorasan, whose cool mountain air refreshes the soul. A drink of sherbet on a hellish day scorched by the hellish sun.

Now look at the orcs. A banner emblazoned with the blue hexagon. Murderous scorpions. Their tails feed lead to the angel cradled in her mother’s arms. As they cackle at the sound of sorrowful sobs.

Lord, do you not hear the cry of your people?

He is the answer to our prayer. The one who is coming. He comes today if they would but receive him in their heart.

In his letter to one Chaudhry Muhammad Ahsan, the infamous poet Muhammad Iqbal, usually referred to as “Allama” Iqbal and Poet of the East, said:

آپ کو صرف اپنا عقیدہ بتاسکتا ہوں اور بس۔ میرے نزدیک مہدی، مسیحیّت اور مجدّدیت کے متعلق جو احادیث ہیں وہ ایرانی اور عجمی تخیّلات کا نتیجہ ہیں۔ عربی تخیلات اور قرآن کی صحیح سپرٹ سے ان کو کوئی سروکار نہیں۔

زمانہ حال میں میرے نزدیک اگر کوئی شخص مجدّد کہلانے کا مستحق ہے تو وہ صرف جمال الدین افغانی ہے۔ مصر و ایران و ترک و ہند کے مسلماں کی تاریخ جب کوئی لکھے گا تو اُسے سب سے پہلے عبدالوہاب نجدی اور بعد میں جمال الدّین افغانی کا ذکر کرنا ہوگا۔

I can only tell you my belief and that is all. In my opinion, the Ahadith about the Mahdi, Messianism and Mujaddidiyyat are the result of Iranian and Ajami imaginations. They have nothing to do with Arab imaginations and the true spirit of the Quran.
In my opinion, if anyone deserves to be called a Mujaddid in modern times, it is only Jamaluddin Afghani. When someone writes the history of the Muslims of Egypt, Iran, Turkey and India, he will first have to mention Abdul Wahhab Najdi and then Jamaluddin Afghani (Iqbalnama, part II, p.231)

It is disturbing that many Muslims, especially Sunnis, romanticize Iqbal and consider him a great thinker of the Ummah. Here was a modernist and a reformist, totally influenced by the atheist Nietzche, from whom he copied the idea of the Übermensch, renaming it “Khudi”, attempting to sway Muslims away from mysticism and other-worldliness. Such a mindset is obviously allergic to the messianic idea and expectation. He attempted to distance Islam from messianism by arguing that while it is found in the Hadith, it is the product of Iranian thought, and not the pure and original “Arabic” Islam based on the Quran. This is a common polemic of the Hadith-rejecters and other reformists. They argue that since the Hadith were mostly compiled by Persians like Imam Bukhari, Muslim of Nishapur, Abu Daud of Sijistan, Abu Isa Tirmizi, Ahmad Nasai and Ibn Maja Qazvini, they diluted the original Arab understanding and practice of Islam with foreign, non-Islamic culture and ideas. It is no wonder Iqbal was the main influence and inspiration upon one of the more notorious Hadith-rejecting reformists who carried forward his ideas, namely, Ghulam Ahmad Parwez. It is argued that the messianic expectation penetrated Islam (and indeed Judaism and Christianity before it) from the dualist Zoroastrians, who were awaiting a figure known as the Saoshyant—the one who would finally vanquish evil from this world. But then the reformists and Hadith-rejecters who reject messianism as a foreign, Iranian import would have to reject the Holy Quran too, for does it not put forward the supposedly “dualist” narrative of light versus darkness?

اَللّٰہُ وَلِیُّ الَّذِیۡنَ اٰمَنُوۡا ۙ یُخۡرِجُہُمۡ مِّنَ الظُّلُمٰتِ اِلَی النُّوۡرِ ۬ؕ وَالَّذِیۡنَ کَفَرُوۡۤا اَوۡلِیٰٓـُٔہُمُ الطَّاغُوۡتُ ۙ یُخۡرِجُوۡنَہُمۡ مِّنَ النُّوۡرِ اِلَی الظُّلُمٰتِ

Allah is the friend of those who believe. He takes them out of the darkness into the light. And those who disbelieve—their friends are the Taghut who takes them out of the light into the darkness

(Sura 2:257)

This contrast between light and darkness, and the Taghut being the adversaries of Allah who contend with Him could surely be considered the type of dualist phraseology that the modernists and reformists are contemptuous of. The irony is that the modernists and reformists who reject messianism are closer in spirit to the ancient Iranian dualists. They believe the idea of a Messiah and a Mahdi coming to rescue the Believers and vanquish the forces of darkness is fatalistic and results in apathy, whereas the Muslims should forge their own destiny and not sit idly by waiting for a savior. Yet our philosophy has never been to sit back and do nothing. It is actually in a Hadith that the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him, says:

‌إِنْ ‌قَامَتْ ‌عَلَى ‌أَحَدِكُمُ ‌الْقِيَامَةُ وَفِي يَدِهِ فَسِيلَةٌ فَلْيَغْرِسْهَا

Even if the Resurrection were established upon one of you while he has in his hand a sapling, let him plant it (Musnad Ahmad, v.20, p.251)

Nevertheless, the act of waiting patiently for the Sign of God should not be trivialized. It is an act of worship:

فَقُلۡ اِنَّمَا الۡغَیۡبُ لِلّٰہِ فَانۡتَظِرُوۡا ۚ اِنِّیۡ مَعَکُمۡ مِّنَ الۡمُنۡتَظِرِیۡنَ

Say, Verily the unseen is for Allah, so wait! Indeed, I am with you, among those who wait

(Sura 10:20)

It is quite telling that Iqbal praises Jamaluddin Afghani and suggests he is a Mujaddid. Jamaluddin Afghani was a modernist and a Freemason. Along with Sir Syed Ahmad Khan he spread the poison of modernism in the Muslim world. Iqbal likewise praised Ibn Abd ul-Wahhab of Najd—that neo-Kharijite fanatic who is responsible for motivating the expansion of the once insignificant Saudi Emirate into the beastly Kingdom it has morphed into today. The Saudi-Wahhabis spilled a great amount of blood of Sunni Muslims and destroyed much of our sacred heritage. Iqbal apparently promoted such mischief-makers for he too was opposed to taqlid and Tasawwuf. And you will find that virtually all of the modernist reformers have sought to distance the Muslims from two critical matters, taqlid (emulating one of the four established Sunni schools of law) and Sufi mysticism. Wahhabism is at least perceived as a direct challenge to both of those. The modernist reformers call for fresh ijtihad and liberal reform of the Community, attempting to diminish the influence of the traditionalist clergy and the Sufi elders. Iqbal may certainly be placed in this camp.