Global Intifada

Introduction

As I write this, a battle is unfolding in Pakistan that is similar to battles that are being fought all over the Muslim world. This is a battle for the very soul of the Ummah. It is a battle that is being fought on many fronts. It addresses many questions, the most pertinent of which is the role of Islam in the state and the Muslim world as a whole. Additionally, there is talk of the implementation of the Shari’ah, the revival of Jihad, and restoration of the Caliphate. The revivalist movements that began during the colonial era coincided with the nationalist independent movements that lead to the independence of the present secular nation-state system of states. While today, liberal democratic capitalism has become the established norm, Islamic governance, law, and ethics has been classified as an irrational absurdity that is so dangerous to global stability that it must be intellectually, economically, and militarily subdued. The tension between these two paradigms has never been greater; in fact, a state of war seems to have erupted over whom will rule the Ummah: the revolutionary Islamists or the secular liberal democratic capitalists.

Given that today is Iqbal Day and a series of events is unfolding in Pakistan that has revived this existential conflict within the country, it would be sensible to examine the ideological beliefs of Pakistan’s founders: Allama Muhammad Iqbal, Choudhary Rehmat Ali, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah (all of whom were coincidentally of the legal profession). What was their vision of Islam and how did they incorporate the creation of Pakistan with that vision? Were they proponents of a secular state or an Islamic state? The answer to these questions will determine how contemporary Pakistanis should view the organization of their government and how their state should behave on the global stage, especially in relation to Muslim and non-Muslim polities.

The concept of a separate homeland for Muslims did not originate with Jinnah, who was a late-comer to the scene, but first with Allama Iqbal and later by Choudhary Rehmat Ali who is the one who actually coined the name “Pakistan.” Jinnah himself had been a life long proponent of Indian nationalism and it wasn’t until he was wooed to the cause of Muslim nationalism by Iqbal that his views changed. While it is true that there would not have been a Pakistan without Jinnah, it is equally true that without Iqbal, there would have been no Jinnah. Thus, it is important to focus on the true founder of the philosophy that led to the creation of Pakistan. Any discussion on the purposes of the creation of Pakistan and the mode of governance it should adopt must be done in the light of the thoughts and ideas of Iqbal and Ali first before deferring to Jinnah.

The Philosophy and Political Theory of Iqbal

Like Jinnah, Iqbal was originally an advocate of Indian nationalism. This has become apparent in his earlier work Tarana e Hindi (1904) where he advocates secular Indian nationalism:

mażhab nahīñ sikhātā āpas meñ bair rakhnā
hindī haiñ ham, vat̤an hai hindostāñ hamārā

[“Religion does not teach us to bear ill-will among ourselves
We are of Hind, our homeland is Hindustan”]

Yet, this earlier mode of thinking was thoroughly rejected by Iqbal whose trip to Europe somehow transformed him into a Muslim separatist who opposed both secularism and nationalism. What happened in Europe that generated this tremendous change in his vision of Islam?

At the request of Sir Thomas Arnold, the brilliant Orientalist teacher at Government College in Lahore, Iqbal moved to Europe to continue his studies. It was here that he began a major rethinking of his metaphysical, ethical, and political philosophy. In England, Iqbal was elected to the executive committee of the All-India Muslim League’s British chapter and participated in the drafting of the constitution of the League. In 1907, he moved to Germany to pursue a doctorate at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat and published his thesis “The Development of Metaphysics in Persia.” It is at this point that Iqbal’s intellectual evolution begins to pick up at a dramatic pace. When I read his works from this point onward, I feel that his mind is traversing the path set forth in the Sunnah of the Prophet (sallahu alayhi wa sallam). His works begin with the concept of reforming the individual self, then the process of giving dawah through one’s family (with a special emphasis on motherhood), then the promotion of social justice and lawful transactions, and finally, the formation of an Islamic state that could not be associated with any other system, whether Hindu or European in nature.

In my opinion, it was most likely his stay in Europe that exposed him to thinkers such as Friedrich Nietzche, Henri Bergson, and Goethe and developed a rejection of secularism. In his future poetry, he seems to have adopted Nietzche’s accusation in “Thus Spake Zarathustra” that Christianity lead to nihilism. Brilliantly, Iqbal seems to have merged Nietzche’s concept of Ubermensch with the Sufi concept of spiritual purification as developed by Maulana Rumi. The fusion of these two views on the individual became manifest in his work “Asrar e Khudi” (“Secrets of the Self”) (1915). In this work, Iqbal develops and exposits his concept of “Khudi” or “Self” and how the universe as a whole is subjugated to this concept of the Self (bearing a remarkable resemblance to Nietzsche’s “Will to Power”) whose purpose is to engage in a process of self-realization and self-knowledge until it becomes a vicegerent of Allah (subhana wa ta’ala).

Asrar e Khudi was followed up with its sequel, Rumuz e Bekhudi (“Secrets of Selfishness) (1918). It is here that Iqbal shifts from the focus on the individual to the community. It is here that I feel Maulana Rumi’s Sufi influences become dominant within Iqbal. In this work, Iqbal views the community as being the mirror reflection of the individual, bearing a remarkable resemblance to Ibn Arabi’s “Divine Governance of the Human Kingdom”. Here, Iqbal recognizes that the self-realization that is necessary for the Self to become a vicegerent of Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) must first be nurtured and developed into the community which itself is preserved and developed through a Communal Ego. He goes on to describe the vital role of women in this regards, especially mothers, to nurture this development at an early age.

It is here that Iqbal’s Islamism begins to ferment. In the chapter entitled “That Since the Muhammadan Community is Founded Upon Belief in One God and Apostleship, Therefore It Is Not Bounded By Space”:

Our Essence is not bound to any Place;
The vigour of our wine is not contained
In any bowl, Chinese and Indian
Alike the sherd that constitutes our jar,
Turkish and Syrian alike the clay
Forming our body, neither is our heart
Of India, or Syria, or Rum,
Nor any fatherland do we profess
Except Islam, When pure-descended Kaab⁵

In the next chapter, “That the Country is Not the Foundation of the Community”, he explicitly rejects nationalism:

Now Brotherhood has been so cut to shreds
That in the stead of the community
The Country has been given pride of place
In men’s allegiance and constructive work;
The Country is the darling of their hearts,
And wide humanity is whittled down
Into dismembered tribes.

He goes so far as to blame of human misery upon the secularization that originated with Christianity:

Vanished is humankind, there but abide
The disunited nations. Politics
Dethroned religion, this tree first sruck root
Within a Western garden, and the tale
Of Christianity was all rolled up,

In the next chapter entitled “That the Organization of the Community is Only Possible through Law, and that the Law of the Muhammadan Community is the Koran”, Iqbal recognizes that the foundation of the Ummah is through the Shari’ah, the fullest exposition of the Qur’an. In the next chapter entitled “That in Times of Decadence Strict Conformity is Better than Free Speculation” Iqbal advocates taqleed to the pious predecessors over independent judgment since they were closer to tawheed through their self-purification as opposed to contemporary thinkers who operated on their nafs:

O thou whose ancient concourse is dispersed
Within whose breast the lamp of life is out,
Grave on thy heart the truth of Unity,
And in conformity easy to mend
The ruin of thy fortune. In the time
Of decadence, to seek to exercise
The speculative judgment of the mind
Completes the people’s havoc finally;
Salvation lieth less in following
The blinkered pedant’s dictum, being found
Humble imitation of the past
Saprice corrupted not thy fathers’ brain
He labour of the pious was unsoiled
Interested motive, finer far
E thread of thought their meditation wove,
Closer to the Prophet’s way conformed
Their self-denial.

Iqbal goes on to talk about how the self-realization of the individual and the community can only be done through the strict adherence to the inward and outward Sunnah of the Prophet (sallahu alayhi wa sallam).

Iqbal’s identification with the Muslim Ummah coincided with the Khilafat movement in India (1919-1924). The movement was launched by Muslims in order to coerce the British Empire into protecting the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire, which was largely dismembered following World War I. The movement peaked in the 1920s when over 18,000 Muslims performed Hegira to Afghanistan because they viewed India to be Dar ul Harb. The movement demised after Kemal Attaturk abolished the Caliphate in 1924 and transformed Turkey into a secular nation-state.

The Khilafat movement predated, and in some ways, lead to the rise of the Pakistan movement. While Jinnah dismissed the movement as a “religious frenzy”, Iqbal supported the movement and its leaders, Maulana Mohammad Ali, Maulana Shaukat Ali, and Maulana Abul’ Kalam Azad.

In Payam e Mashriq (“Message from the East”) (1923), Iqbal hints at his anti-Western tendencies, now in full swing. Undoubtedly influenced by World War I, Iqbal writes in the reflection “The Wisdom of the West” that the Angel of Death should take lessons on death from the West:

“Your angel of Death is
Supposed to be a specialist,
And yet he has no expertise,
No knowledge of the new skills that exist
In the fine art of killing. He
Kills, but does it so clumsily.
The world is going rapidly ahead,
But his growth has stopped dead.
The west develops wonderful new skills
In this as in so many other fields.
Fine are the ways it kills,
And great are its skill’s yields.
It has encompassed even thought with death.
Death is all its philosophies’ life-breath
It is what all its sciences devise.
Its submarines are crocodiles,
With all theie predatory wiles.
Its bombers rain destruction from the skies.
Its gases so obscure the sky
They blind the sun’s world-seeing eye.
Its guns deal death so fast
The Angel of Death stands aghast,
Quite out of breath
In coping with this rate of death.
Despatch this old fool to the West
To learn the art of killing fast – and best.”

The next pertinent reflection from Payam e Mashriq is entitled “God’s Country”, which elaborates on Iqbal’s anti-nationalism:

When Tariq²¹ burned his boats on Andalusia’s coast,
His men observed, “It was an unwise thing to do.
We are so far from home; how shall we now return ?
Foregoing means is wrong in the Divine Law’s view.”
He laughed and, putting his hand on his sword, declared:
“All lands are God’s and they are all our homeland too.”

However, the most clear evidence of Iqbal’s fully developed anti-Western views comes in the reflection entitled “A Message to the West” where he lambastes the West for engaging in philosophy which is has erroneously obfuscated with wisdom.

In Bang I Dara (“Call of the Marching Bell”) (1924), Iqbal refines his ideas more and more, taking on a more political tone. His interaction with the Khilafat movement becomes apparent when he criticizes Muslims from asking non-Muslims to preserve the Caliphate:

If the territory is being lost let it be lost
You should not be disloyal to God’s commands

Do you not have knowledge of history?
You have started begging for the Khil«fah!

If we do not purchase with our own blood
Such sovereignty is a disgrace to the Muslim!

“I do not feel as much ashamed of being broken down

As in asking others for màmiy«’â for my treatment”

The collection also contains a variety of smaller poems and songs that, for the first time, express Iqbal’s disgust with Capitalism, such as: “Capital and labor are in confrontation with each other”, “One day a dispute arose between the farmer and the owner”, “The owner of the factory is a useless man.”

In “Jawab e Shikwa” (“Response to the Complaint”) (1924), Iqbal condemns the call for ending the Shari’ah and imitating the West.

Who is the renouncer of the laws of the Holy Prophet?

The criterion for whose actions is expediency of time ?

Who is enamored with the customs of the enemies

Whose thinking is disgusted with ancestors’ ways?

No warmth is in the heart, no feeling is in the soul

There is no respect for the message of Muéammad in you!

If some array themselves in mosques, it is the poor

If some endure the discomfort of fasting it is the poor

If some are reverent to Us it is the poor

If some hide your faults it is the poor

The rich in their arrogance of wealth are negligent of Us

The Millat-i-Baiî« is alive on the strength of the poor

That mature thinking of the nation’s preacher is gone

That natural lightning is gone, fiery speeches are gone

The ritual of adh«n has persisted, the spirit of Bil«l13 is gone

Philosophy has persisted, the teaching of Ghaz«lâ14 is gone

Mosques are lamenting that the reciters of prayers are gone

That is those with attributes of £ij«z’ people are gone

Clamor is that Muslims have disappeared from the world

We ask whether the Muslims were present anywhere?

In fashion you are Christians, in culture you are Hindus

Are these Muslims ! Who put the Jews to embarrassment!

It is here that Iqbal’s writing begins to explicitly incorporate political concepts. In “The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam” (1930), he argues in favor of the creation of Islamic republics whose legislatures would fulfill the obligation of the Caliphate. In the chapter entitled “The Principle of Movement in the Structure of Islam”, Iqbal argues that while the separation of Church and state is a possible interpretation of Islamic law, the stronger and more persuasive interpretation is that the Church and state are a single reality within Islam:

“An act is temporal or profane if it is done in a spirit of detachment from the infinite complexity of life behind it; it is spiritual if it is inspired by that complexity. In Islam it is the same reality which appears as Church looked at from one point of view and State from another. It is not true to say that Church and State are two sides or facets of the same thing. Islam is a single unanalysable reality which is one or the other as your point of view varies. The point is extremely far-reaching and a full elucidation of it will involve us in a highly philosophical discussion. Suffice it to say that this ancient mistake arose out of the bifurcation of the unity of man into two distinct and separate realities which somehow have a point of contact, but which are in essence opposed to each other.”

He blames the collapse of the Caliphate upon the influence of secularism that arose from Christianity. Later on in the chapter, Iqbal specifically states his views on the Caliphate and, more importantly, the method by which it can be re-established:

“In order to create a really effective political unity of Islam, all Muslim countries must first become independent: and then in their totality they should range themselves under one Caliph. Is such a thing possible at the present moment? If not today, one must wait. In the meantime the Caliph must reduce his own house to order and lay the foundations of a workable modern State.”

It is here that Iqbal’s philosophy has become fully shifted from talks of self-reformation and the revival of Muslim societies into actual political independence from Western powers towards the unification of all Muslim states through a decentralized state. He argues that Muslim nations should temporarily accept their state and engage in a spiritual revival. When all Muslim nations are spiritually and politically strong, it is then they should attempt to come back together through a sort of Muslim “League of Nations.”

“These lines clearly indicate the trend of modern Islam. For the present every Muslim nation must sink into her own deeper self, temporarily focus her vision on herself alone, until all are strong and powerful to form a living family of republics. A true and living unity, according to the nationalist thinkers, is not so easy as to be achieved by a merely symbolical overlordship. It is truly manifested in a multiplicity of free independent units whose racial rivalries are adjusted and harmonized by the unifying bond of a common spiritual aspiration. It seems to me that God is slowly bringing home to us the truth that Islam is neither Nationalism nor Imperialism but a League of Nations which recognizes artificial boundaries and racial distinctions for facility of reference only,²⁶ and not for restricting the social horizon of its members.”

Iqbal proceeds to praise the independence of the Turks as the first step towards this goal. He also speaks highly of liberalism, but warns Muslims not to go to extremes in embracing it, especially with regards to overly emphasizing racial differences that would lead to a state of war similar to what Europe experienced in World War I. He also discusses his views on ijtehad and how to revive the interpretation of the Shari’ah into a modern context.

After Iqbal began toying with political ideas in his philosophy, thereafter he began to incorporate political activism in his life as well. In 1927 he was elected to the Punjab Legislative Assembly. In 1930, he was elected as President of the Muslim League. It was here that Iqbal began wholeheartedly advocating the notion that Muslims within India were too distinct to be accommodated within the normal secular democratic federation. He expanded the concept of the Two Nation Theory developed by Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan into a full fledged philosophy. Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan argued that Muslims and Hindus in India were not a single nation with the same language, history, ethical system, or political philosophy, but two distinct nations. In his presidential address at the Muslim League session on December 29, 1930, Iqbal specifically stated his vision for the future of Muslims to be an independent state in northwestern India within a larger Indian federation:

“I would like to see the Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan amalgamated into a single state. Self-government within the British Empire, or without the British Empire, the formation of a consolidated Northwest Indian Muslim state appears to me to be the final destiny of the Muslims, at least of Northwest India.”

The Coining of the Term Pakistan by Choudhary Rehmat Ali

 

Around the same time that Iqbal was beginning to advocate consolidated federation for Muslims, a similar conclusion was being reached by an undergraduate student at the University of Cambridge, Choudhary Rahmat Ali. Reminiscent of Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense”, Ali’s pamphlet “Now or Never, Are we to live or perish forever” fully expounded why working within an Indian federation was impossible and became the first thinker to call for complete independence for the Muslims in India. It was published on January 28, 2933 and advocated the formation of a separate Muslim homeland comprised of three states (Pakistan in Northern India, Bang e Islam, and Usmanistan for Hyderabad) that formed a confederation.

“In the five Northern Provinces of India, out of a total population of about forty millions, we, the Muslims, contribute about 30 millions. Our religion, culture, history, tradition, economic system, laws of inheritance, succession and marriage are basically and fundamentally different from those of the people living in the rest of India. The ideals which move our thirty million brethren-in-faith living in these provinces to make the highest sacrifices are fundamentally different from those which inspire the Hindus. These differences are not confined to the broad basic principles – far from it. They extend to the minutest details of our lives. We do not inter-dine; we do not inter-marry. Our national customs, calendars, even our diet and dress are different.

It is preposterous to compare, as some superficial observers do, the differences between Muslims and Hindus with those between Roman Catholics and Protestants. Both the Catholics and Protestants are part and parcel of one religious system – Christianity; while the Hindus and Muslims are the followers of two essentially and fundamentally different religious systems. Religion in the case of Muslims and Hindus is not a matter of private opinion as it is in the case of Christians; but on the other hand constitutes a Civic Church which lays down a code of conduct to be observed by their adherents from birth to death.

If we, the Muslims of Pakstan, with our distinct marks of nationality, are deluded into the proposed Indian Federation by friends or foes, we are reduced to a minority of one to four. It is this which sounds the death-knell of the Muslim nation in India for ever. To ealize the full magnitude of this impending catastrophe, let us remind you that we thirty millions constitute about one-tenth of whole Muslim world. The total area of the five units comprising PAKSTAN, which are our homelands, is four times that of Italy, three times that of Germany and twice that of France; and our population seven times that of the Commonwealth of Australia, four times that of the Dominion of Canada, twice that of Spain, and equal to France and Italy considered individually.”

Ali distinguished his vision of a Muslim state from that of Allama Iqbal’s:

“This demand is basically different from the suggestion put forward by Doctor Mohammed Iqbal in his Presidential address to the All-India Muslim League in 1930. While he proposed the amalgamation of the provinces into a single state forming a unit of the All-India Federation, we propose that these Provinces should have a separate Federation of their own. There can be no peace and tranquility in the land if we, the Muslims, are duped into a Hindu-dominated Federation where we cannot be the masters of our own destiny and captains of our own souls.”

It was here that the concept of Pakistan was born and it was here that the independence movement began to crystallize. Iqbal joined the movement immediately and began to persuade others to do so as well. It was here that he began to focus particularly on Jinnah.

The Conversion of Jinnah to the Cause of Pakistan

Unlike Iqbal and Ali who never dabbled extensively with Indian nationalism, Jinnah began his political career as an Indian nationalist. In 1896, he joined the Indian Nationalist Congress with somewhat conservative beliefs. He did not advocate independence and somewhat supported the British presence with having certain positive aspects and went so far as to support the British in World War I. For the next few decades, he attempted to bridge the gap between Hindus and Muslims in India. In 1916, while the president of the Muslim League session, he wrote the Lucknow Pact which pledged unity between the Congress and the Muslim League. Jinnah began agitating for home-rule for all Indians, but advocated using existing legal procedures to do so. He was turned off by Gandhi’s populist civil disobedience actions which led him to quit the Congress in 1920. Frustrated with both the Muslim League and the Congress, he quit politics and moved to England to practice law. Once the Pakistan movement was conceived, its leaders immediately began trying to convince Jinnah to return to India. Both Ali and Iqbal began writing to Jinnah.

During the remainder of his life, Iqbal wrote a series of correspondence to Jinnah, many of which tried to convince Jinnah to realize the futility of Muslim adherence to Indian nationalism. In a letter dated June 21, 1937, Iqbal wrote to Jinnah:

“A separate federation of Muslim Provinces, reformed on the lines I have suggested above, is the only course by which we can secure a peaceful India and save Muslims from the domination of Non-Muslims. Why should not the Muslims of North-West India and Bengal be considered as nations entitled to self-determination just as other nations in India and outside India are?”

In 1939, heeding the calls of Iqbal and others and exasperated with his interactions with the Congress, dominated by Hindus, Jinnah called a general session of the All India Muslim League in Lahore. It is at this point that Jinnah metamorphosed from a proponent of Indian nationalism into a Muslim separatist. At his Presidential Address delivered at Lahore on march 22, 1940, Jinnah formally embraced the Two-Nation Theory:

 

“It is extremely difficult to appreciate why our Hindu friends fail to understand the real nature of Islam and Hinduism. They are not religious in the strict sense of the word, but are, in fact, different and distinct social orders, and it is a dream that the Hindus and Muslims can ever evolve a common nationality, and this misconception of one Indian nation has troubles and will lead India to destruction if we fail to revise our notions in time. The Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs, literatures. They neither intermarry nor interdine together and, indeed, they belong to two different civilizations which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions. Their aspect on life and of life are different. It is quite clear that Hindus and Mussalmans derive their inspiration from different sources of history. They have different epics, different heroes, and different episodes. Very often the hero of one is a foe of the other and, likewise, their victories and defeats overlap. To yoke together two such nations under a single state, one as a numerical minority and the other as a majority, must lead to growing discontent and final destruction of any fabric that may be so built for the government of such a state.”

Thereafter, the history of Pakistan is too well known to delve into for this essay.

 

A Comparative Analysis of the Founding Fathers

 

It is important to realize the vision that Pakistan’s founding fathers had of their country. Before Ali wrote his pamphlet, Iqbal was the first true advocate of a separate Muslim homeland. His vision of Islam is markedly anti-capitalist, anti-nationalist, and anti-secularist. However, Iqbal’s understanding is far more nuanced than Islamists such as Maulana Maududi who viewed the state as a method to implement Islam. For Iqbal, while religion and state could not be separated, he did not advocate a top-down implementation of Islam nor the imposition of classical interpretations of Islam which he viewed to be decadent. For Iqbal, the Shari’ah was a form of existence that spawned from the moment of creation. It was to be intricately involved in the formation of the Self, families, and communities before taking any role in politics. The obsessive focus on the state by Islamists would end up bastardizing the beauty of Islam. For Iqbal, the community and the state was merely a reflection of individuals. Individual self-purification is the primary focus in an independent Muslim state for Iqbal. Moreover, it is clear that Iqbal’s understanding of the Shari’ah was not synonymous with the classical tradition. He advocated ijtehad and praised Shaykh ul Islam Ibn Taymiyyah for engaging in it. He spoke fondly of Shaykh Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab and deplored snycretic Sufism, going so far as to accusing some Muslims of engaging in idol-worship at graves. With these caveats aside, however, it is clear that Iqbal was simply not a proponent of secular liberal democratic capitalism and was the supporter of decentralized Muslim polity comprised of federal states.

The creation of a separate Muslim state was the inevitable conclusion that Iqbal’s intellectual evolution produced. Unlike Jinnah who was an advocate of secularism, Iqbal castigated secularism as being the source of the decline of human civilization. He viewed Islam as the source of all human organization, whether of the individual, the community, the law, the state, or even the international order. Unlike Jinnah who opposed the Khilafat movement, Iqbal supported it both through correspondence with the leaders of the movement as well as in his poetry. Unlike Jinnah who opposed an independent Muslim state for most of his life, Iqbal spent most of his adulthood as a firm opponent of Indian nationalism. With all these differences, why then, did Iqbal seek an alliance with Jinnah?

Iqbal realized his own limitations and the limitations of the Muslim community. The arguments he expounded in “On the Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam”, which followed the collapse of the Khilafat movement, that military confrontation with the West was simply not feasible. He advocated working within the system to achieve independence. Given the sectarian and communal nature of Muslim politicians at the time, Iqbal realized that independence was not possible without the community being united. He felt that the only person at the time who could unite the community and achieve independence was Mohammad Ali Jinnah. While Iqbal’s ideology did not perfectly correspond with Jinnah’s, Iqbal simply had no choice. If the Muslims of India did not unite, they would not get independence and if they did not get independence, not only were the Muslims of India doomed, but all Asia, and in a larger sense, humanity itself. Only Islam could save human civilization from the self-destructive course that Western civilization had seemed to have embarked upon. In order to effectuate the revival of humanity, it was absolutely necessary for the return of an Islamic polity which could only be achieved through independent republics. As such, Iqbal began proselytizing Jinnah to come around and join the cause.

The conflict unfolding in Pakistan is an unresolved intellectual tension between its founding fathers. While the ideas of Jinnah have dominated the creation of Pakistan, historically speaking, it is the ideas of Iqbal and Ali that are more relevant and more developed. In attempting to steer the course of Pakistan, it is prudent, then, to take their vision of Islam and Pakistan and give them a higher priority. Islamization of Pakistani society and the state is irresistible. It is nigh time for Pakistanis to embrace the path of Islamization and abandon secular liberal democratic capitalism. This is not what Iqbal and Ali envisioned for the state anymore than Jinnah envisioned military dictators to engage in coups every few years.

 

I close with a Tarana e Milli (“Anthem of the Community”) by Iqbal:

China and Arabia is ours, India is ours

We are Muslims and the whole world is our homeland

The treasure of tawhid is in our hearts,

It is not easy to wipe out our name and mark.

The first house we have liberated from idols is the Ka’abah;

We are its custodians, and she is our protector

We have grown up in the shadows of swords,

Our mascot is the crescent shaped dagger

Our prayer calls have reverberated in the valleys of the west,

The force of our flow could not be stopped by anyone

O the skies! we will not be subdued by falsehood,

You have tried (our steadfasteness) a hundred times!

O, the garden of Andalusia! do you remember those days -

When our abode was the nest on your branches?

O, the waves of Tigris! surely, you recognize us -

Your river tells our tales even to this day

O, the pure land! we have bled and died for your honor,

Our blood flows in your veins until now

The leader of our caravan, is the Prince of Hijaz (Muhammad)

It is his name that keeps our heart in comfort and peace.

Iqbal’s song is a clarion call

For the caravan to rise and continue the journey once more

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