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Originally Posted by aabeg100
Thanks Tom for going through the book and commenting on it. The reason I put this book up was to see what others thought about Dr. Iqbal's ideas. I was really impressed by them but then I am biased because he is our national poet  .
I would just like to comment on the statement you pointed out regarding "Jihad". This is one statement that has been taken out of context more times than anything else in his book. In Islamic philosophy jihad not only means fighting against non-believers it also means fighting against ones own desires. For example, controlling ones anger is considered Jihad in Islamic philosophy and since the book is about the secrets of self here what he means is that you should control your desires as instructed by GOD and not follow others. The reason he says this is because at that time a lot of Islamic scholars were making religion difficult by placing undue rules and restrictions etc.
Anyways, I don't want to babble on. To answer the question about which book to read, the best book to start off with is this one Asrar-i-Khudi (the secret of self) and then he has a set of lectures published by oxford publication called "Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam". In these lectures he evaluates Islam in light of philosophy and discussed how religious thought should evolve. The lectures focus on Islam as it was his area of expertise but the ideas can be applied to any religion in general.
I will try to upload a copy of these lectures on Feedbooks soon but you can search them on google.
Most of the rest of his work is still either in URDU or PERSIAN. Which is a shame as he is quite an interesting writer to read. For Example, his next book after Asrar-i-Khudi was called Ramooz-i-Bakhudi (The secrets of Selflessness) in this book he comments how one can make the nation great by being selfless. Together, in these two books he explains how a person should behave as an individual and as a nation. |
Thanks for responding, and for posting the link to the book. Yes, I am aware of the dual meaning of the word jihad; it's just that the way the translator presented it in my opinion seemed to be speaking of something other than that personal struggle against one's own desires that is incumbent upon all Muslims. In all fairness, the phrase did not come from a direct quotation by Sir Iqbal, but was contained in a brief footnote by the translator, and may well have reflected the bias of the translator. Sir Muhammad Iqbal is a remarkable poet whose ideas are obviously well-grounded in philosophy and the book, although mainly directed toward adherents of Islam, contains much material that is cosmopolitan in scope and of use to all who seek to live a morally worthy life. The book was very enjoyable, and is a great addition to the ethical library. I can only imagine it is even more remarkable in the original language.
The other surprise in the book was the author's obvious antagonism toward the Sufi movement. Would you care to elaborate on this?