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CONCEPT OF MUSLIM CULTURE

IN
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IQ,BAL

.1

MAZHERUDDIN SIDDIQI,
Rlader, TsltJmk Restan" butihd,.

.'
\8,
~

ISLAMIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE


ISLAMABAD - PAKISTAN
1970 A.D
08 C01\CEI'T OF ~!USLIM CULTURE IN IQBAL

the assumption that every human being is a centre of


latent power the possibilities of which can be developed
by cultivating a certain type of character. Out of the
plebian material, Islam has formed men of the noblest
type of life and power. Is not, then, the Democracy
of ~rly Islam an experimental refutation of the ideas of
Nietzsche"? '

This passage makes it clear that Iqbal does not


despise the common man and that his concept of the
Mard-e-Momin or Mard-e-Qalandar has nothing to do
with Nietzsche's idea of the Superman. What he wants
is that the Community should be able to benefit by the
guidance of great men who are also good men in the
Islamic sense of the word. In other words, he would
like to have effective leadership, a leadership that can
serve as a model to the mass of people, that" can inspire
them to heroic action. There is nothing incompatible
with democracy in the idea of such leadershi1J. The
fact that Iqbal does not want a superman who can over.
shadow everyone else and by whose side all others will
look' like pygmies is amply borne out by his remark:
JL.j ;..T ...,-:J <.S.lr- U'J )1>-,",' L!r, <.S>J;' S..r.- Jy,
"He is t~e real Mehdi and he is thc person who belongs
to the Last Days, whose 'khudi' (self) comes out first".
This mtans that there can be many 1iehdis or super.
men in a community, for it is possible that a number of
persons may discover their 'self' or 'soul' at aJmost the
same time. Therefore, Iqbal's idea of the Great Man,
the Mard-e-~(omin or Mard-e-Qalandar is not the
undemocratic idea of a single superman who sums up all
possible greatness in himself and leads the community
unopposed, almost in the manner of a dictator. In fact
it is quite within the bounds of possibility that the com.
munity maybe led by a number of supermen working
in cooperation with one another and resolving their
IQBAL ON ISLAMIC DEMOCRACY 81

mutual differences by means of froe d,iscussion. In a.


democratic system of life and govenuncnt, new supermen
may come up and replace those who have outlived their
utility or become outmoded, for life requires perpetual
renewal and abhors stagnation. Any system of life or
govcmrnent which prevents this renewal of life by itself
will soon find itself undermined and wrecked by the
laws which govern human society.

Iqbal OD Early IsIaDlie Caliphate

In an essay entitled "KhilMat-e-lslamiya"," Iqbal


deals at length with the mode of election that pr",'ailed
amoug the pre-Islamic Arabs aud says that this pre-
Islamic custom of election became a fixed principle in
the early Islamic polity knO\\1l as the Khiliifut-e-Rashida.
In this connection !qbalquotes a I:Iadim which says that
an old man named TufaH b. 'Amir camc to the Prophet of
Islam am! asked him whether the Prophet at his death
would entrust to him the reins of the government, if he
,
decided to accept Islam. The Prophet replied that
whc:1 he did not have the reins of government in his 0 71
hands, how could he entrust it to any other person?
IqbiH then quotes the address delivered by Abu Bakr
soon after his election as the Caliph in which Abu Bakr is
reported to have said tllat the people should obey him so
long only as he obeyed God and His Prophet and that
they should try to reform him if they felt that he was
acting in disr.,gard of the laws promulgated in the
Qur'an. .
All these facts show, Iqbal goeS. on to remark, that
Islam had from the }very outsct rcccfgnisecl the principle
that the community is the real repository of political
power. The electors only choose a reliable person
whom they co~sider fit for the exercise of political power
and entrust him with the reins of government. But the

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