Muhammad Iqbal's political philosophy
[3] This can be attributed to the political environment of British India in the late nineteenth and in the first half of the twentieth century; any intellectual of that period, whether Hindu or Muslim, could not help but join the struggle for freedom in their respective capacities.
[7] About the ijtihad and parliament Iqbal writes in his book The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, that the growth of republican spirit and the gradual formation of legislative assemblies in Muslim lands constitute a great step forward.
[7] The transfer of power of ijtihad from individual representatives of schools to a Muslim legislative assembly, which in view of the growth of opposition sects, is the only form ijma can take in modern times, will secure contributions to legal discussions from laymen who happen to possess a keen insight into affairs.
After elaborating the basic postulates of Islamic ideology and its relevance to individual, society, and mankind, turned his attention to the Indian Muslims who were simultaneously menaced by British Imperialism and danger of permanent Hindu domination.
[9] Therefore, rather than to criticize Iqbal's imperfect perception of clarity as a shortcoming, it ought to be considered as Ulama's and politicians insufficiencies, who in their impulsive anxiousness believed that they are following him, but this was not the case in reality.
[11] Thus, when Iqbal supported a cooperative mutually beneficial connection between religion and politics, he actually contemplated legitimatizing the appreciated principles of human unity, egalitarianism and liberty.
To have clothed his insights in poetic form and thus to have fired the hearts and minds of millions to pursue and implement these ideals is an extraordinary achievement, one which more than justifies the great esteem that Muhammad Iqbal had enjoyed.
Since, Iqbal was renowned as one of the main personage in modern Islam, and was not considered as a dogmatic nationalist or religious fundamentalist, he presented an exceedingly sound criticism of Western democracy.
[15] Iqbal respected the concept of classless and divine democracy that is a method which recognized the dormant capability of individuals, where men of working-class benefit from political attribute, and where the country does not owe a favor only to the affluent and influentially advantaged elite.
"[16] His hatred for democracy is due to the particular form which it has taken in the West and which, in Iqbal's eyes, is nothing less than the rule of a certain privileged class which knows no law except of its own making, intended to usurp power for the exploitation of the weaker members of society.
[17] And again in Persian Psalms we read: "Of the hireling‘s blood outpoured, Lustrous rubies makes the Lord, Tyrant squire to swell his wealth, Desolates the peasant‘s tilth."
[18] Such a ‘League‘ with Islamic traditions with their general principles of equality, fraternity, and solidarity and their communal law, the shariah,[18] to end the drawbacks of nationalism and its propensity to fragment society into adversary ethnic groups.
[19] Besides, he also considered that for the present time, each Muslim nation should focus on itself until all became sufficiently powerful to establish a living family of republics by reconciling their reciprocal enmities, through integrating the affiliation of Islam.
He tried to revise primary values and propagated through his poetry that could possibly stir his fellow Muslims to the instinct which could have triggered their intellects with a craving to discover means of understanding such principles.
During his stay in Europe, He had come into closer contact with the German vitalist philosophy, and there is no doubt that this Weltanschauung appealed very much to him, and helped him to discover a new approach to his own religion and culture, in rediscovering the original dynamism of Islam.
He wrote some very forceful, verses castigating Madanis contentions and pointed out that to say that nationalism is not contrary to Islam is highly sacrilegious, and the gravity of this in increases manifold when it is committed from the pulpit of a mosque.
To the point that I can comprehend its laws, it[Islam] can live collectively with non-Muslims in one country; it can be peaceful with them; it can make agreement with them, and in business-related dealings, alliance, occupancy, the exchange of gifts, loans, trusts, etc.
He further proposed that other varied measures might be taken on to defend Muslim's Political rights, and they could remain liberated to create interactions with other sections of the Islamic world, be it Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Central Asia, Africa, Europe or America.
Furthermore, the hatred of Muslims which, in the nineteen-forties was already being generated by the demand for partition, together with the stirring up of feelings of contempt and fear towards Hindus, would render the peaceful spread of Islam by the Ulama impossible.
Perhaps in the higher interests of mutual co-operation we cannot afford to part with the monopolies which circumstances have placed in our hands and conceal our egoism under the cloak of nationalism, outwardly as narrow minded as a caste or a tribe.
For example, in existing times, the emphasis rests on assurance of freedom of thought and protections from religious persecution, which together with contemporary measures of communication, have exposed the latest possibilities for the propagation of Islam.
[28] In a world that is indebted to freedom of faith and expression, the concept of departing from the planned course of blind following has been constantly objectionable to the Ulama, since this carries the potent thought that it could be legitimate to analytically study the intellectual works of their forebears.
“We undoubtedly find, says the same learned scholar elsewhere, ―that Islam gained its greatest and most lasting missionary triumphs in times and places in which its political power has been weakest, as in South India and Eastern Bengal.
[31] At its Bombay Session in 1936, the All-India Muslim League authorized Jinnah to organize a Central Parliamentary Board to work for the forthcoming elections under the Government of India Act 1935.
[31] Magnanimity, prudence, piety, courage to fight for righteous cause, forgiveness in a moment of triumph, fear of God and love of people are some of the characteristics which form the most suitable equipment for a Muslim leader.
While the Congress and the Muslim League were wrangling about the Nehru Report, the British Government sent the Simon Commission to make an on-the-spot enquiry about the future constitutional advancement of the country.
The Muslim League Jinnah wing which had decided to co-operate with the Congress and accepted the Nehru Report was thoroughly disappointed when, at the final meeting of the All-Parties Conference, its three minor amendments were rejected.
Not only did Iqbal provide the keystone on which the ideological arch of Pakistan hinges, the one side of which consists of ulemas and the other of completely westernized people with a secular outlook, but he was also in favor of a new culture.
In the Committee-meetings, he explained to Gandhi all the possible implications of the minority question and worked tirelessly to evolve some kind of compromise with the majority community but all efforts ended in failure.
He wanted an honorable solution of the problem, which could assure the Muslims a respectable status in the political and constitutional system of the subcontinent, wherein they could live in the light of their religious and cultural requirements.
