Political Thought of Iqbal (an Exploration)

The Origin of Human Being

According to Islam human being is a masterpiece among all other creation. Its origin is divine and its basis is spiritual. This is the basic point of Iqbal‟s philosophy. For him God is an absolute spirit. God is the origin of everything. He has the absolute creator. So, everything is spiritual by its very nature. Now the question arises, what will be the basis of the development of this being? All ancient Greek, modern West and socialist and communist societies made a lot of efforts for the development and grooming of an individual. But all have considered human being only a material object and a social animal. Materiality provokes to selfishness while spirituality nourishes to sacrifice. So for Iqbal for the development of a beneficial individual and for the building of an everlasting welfare society we should consider human being a spiritual object. Spirit has no color, no boundary and no limit. So spiritually developed being would be beneficial for whole humanity without any discrimination. Consequently a society built by spiritually developed beings would be advantageous to fulfill the will of God in this universe. The West and Separation between Church and State As we discussed in previously to some extent in medieval ages in all personal and social dimensions the approach of Christianity was monastic. All authority was for priests and authenticity was for religious institutions. All institutions were bound to follow priests‟ and church. All rational and scientific activities were prohibited by religious authorities. Society became stagnant. The movements of renaissance and reformation broken away respectively from stagnant religious atmosphere of the medieval ages and changed the intellectual and religious scenario of the West. Iqbal pointed out to this phenomenon as, “Primitive Christianity was founded, not as a political or civil unit, but as a monastic order in a profane world, having nothing to do with civil affairs, and obeying the Roman authority practically in all matters. The result of this was that when the state became Christian, state and Church confronted each other as distinct powers with interminable boundary disputes between them”. (Iqbal A. M., 1989: 123)