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allamaiqba
REFLECTIONS OF ALLAMAH DR. MUHAMMAD IQBAL ON PALESTINE Dr. M. A. K. Khalil Introduction Islam and the Muslim world constitute the central theme of all the works of Allamah Dr. Muhammad Iqbal. The defeat and dismemberment of the Khilafat-i-Uthmania hurt Allamah Iqbals heart most severely. The problem of Palestine constitutes the greatest tragedy of this century for the Muslim world. This is a festering wound which has continued in the body politic of the Muslim world till today. It constituted the greatest stress to Allamahs heart and its evidence exists throughout his writings and lectures. As the Palestine problem is one of the most important problems of the present day Muslim world I felt it appropriate to present this topic to Muslim intelligentsia. Recently an article entitled lqbal awr Masaalah-i-Filastin written by Maulvi Shams Tabriz Khan passed my eyes. It has been included in a book entitled, Nuqush-i-Iqbal by Sayyid Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi published by Majlis-e-Nashriyaat-e-Islam, Karachi, Pakistan in 1975. This book is an Urdu translation of an earlier Arabic book entitled, Rawai Iqbal by the same author. Though the book Rawai Iqbal, was written to acquaint the Arab world with the thought of Allamah lqbal it did not have any paper on Palestine. This grave omission was noticed by the translator of the book into Urdu and has been rectified by him which is a very valuable addition. An English translation of this paper is presented below for the benefit of English knowing Muslims. Note. The material within parentheses in what follows has been inserted by me for clarification. Translation Iqbal had a very deep personal interest in the problem and future of Palestine and Arabs. His personal letters, particularly those to Miss Farquharson, show his heart-felt intense dismay concerning the Palestine problem. In a letter to Mr. (Muhammad Ali) Jinnah he writes. The Palestine problem has long kept Muslims in mental distress. The Palestinian Arabs perhaps may attain some benefit through the Muslim League. Personally, I am prepared to go to jail for any issue influencing both India and Islam. The forcible establishment of a Western military cantonment at the gateway to Asia is fraught with dangers both to Islam and India. He writes to Miss Farquharson:[1] The Jews also have no right over Palestine. They had bid farewell to Palestine willingly long before its occupation by Arabs. Zionism also is not a religious movement in addition to the absence of any interest among religious Jews in Zionism. The Palestine Report has brought out this fact to broad daylight.

The advice and sympathies of Iqbal with Palestine were part and parcel of every Palestine conference held in India. The Allamah made a statement against The Palestine Report in the Muslim Conference held at Lahore in which he said: [2] The injustice meted out to Arabs has touched me intensively as it could touch any person who is conversant with the conditions prevailing in the Near East. This problem provides an opportunity to the world Muslims to declare with all the force at their command that the problem, the solution of which is the aim of the British politicians is not only the occupation of Palestine but is a problem which will lead to the creation of intense influence on the whole Islamic world. If the Palestine problem be viewed in its historical background it will be obvious that this is a problem which is purely Islamic. If viewed in the light of the history of Bani Israel, the Jewish problem in Israel had ceased to exist thirteen centuries before the entry of Hazrat Umar in Jerusalem. The forcible expulsion of Jews from Palestine never occurred (through) Muslims but, as is pointed out by Professor Hocking. Jews had spread out of Palestine voluntarily and intentionally and the larger part of their scriptures was written and organized outside Palestine. The Palestine problem was never a Christian problem. The recent historical discoveries have thrown a shroud of doubt over the existence of Peter the Hermit himself. The most tragic result of the First World War was the infliction of severe damage on the Islamic world. On the one hand, the Islamic Khilafah of Turkey was disorganized and on the other, the allies again freely used their old stratagem of injudicious division of the booty. Consequently, the eastern part of Turkey was given over to Russia and the western provinces of Balkan, Hungary and Bulgaria etc. were declared completely independent. Iran and Syria were given over to France and Britain occupied Egypt and Iraq. In this way the Islamic world was dismembered and distributed among imperialist European nations. As the Palestine problem had international dimensions it was placed under the guardianship of Britain to guide it to the path of progress and civilization. Iqbal throws light on this state of affairs and exposes the cunning stratagem of Europe. He shows how Europe first makes the weak countries the target of its tyrannies, then sheds crocodile tears over their misfortunes and shows sympathy, so as to retain its acceptability in the world of Islam in addition to attaining its own ends All applause to your compassionate heart, as for the sake of thawa b You have come to the funeral prayer of the one killed by your amorous glance Europe designates this diplomacy to be a combination of discipline and guardianship but it is nothing short of blood sucking. Iqbal has no doubts in its apparent civility Europe is the guarantor of every oppressed nation However, Syria and Palestine break my heart Prudence fails to uncover this complex enigma After coming out of the influence of the unjust Turks These poor countries are now engulfed in the whirlpool of civilization

Even at that time that the League of Nations (which was the predecessor of the present day United Nations) had perpetrated discriminatory treatment against Arabs and Asians which continues till today. This was due to the overpowering influence of Jews and Western countries over it. For this very reason Iqbal sometimes called the League of Nations Dashta- i- pirak- i- Afrang (a keep of the West) and sometimes presents it with the similitude of shroud thieves who wanted to designate the East as a grave yard whose graves they wanted to distribute among themselves for stealing their shrouds. I do not know more than this that some shroud thieves) Have formed an association for distributing the graves among themselves Iqbal had understood the growing influence of Jews over Western politics. He had considered it inevitable that Europe would some day fall a victim to their snare of fraud. The usurious Jews are waiting since long To whose deceit the prowess of the tiger is no match The West is bound to fall by itself like a ripe fruit Let us see in whose lap the West falls

He expresses the same thought in another poem titled, Europe and Jews This prematurely dying civilization is in The Jews will perhaps be the trustees of the Church the agony of death

Since the Arab-Israeli war of June 5, 1967 opinion has been expressed by Jews and their supporters that because Arabs had expelled Jews from their homeland Jews are not to blame if they have wrested their homeland again and that this land is the Promised Land where their return is inevitable, as the Zionists say. Iqbal had responded to this to the effect that Jews had emigrated from Palestine voluntarily and that this Diaspora had occurred even before the Arab conquest of Palestine. Accepting this claim of Jews, Iqbal raised a pertinent but unwelcome question. This was that if Jews had their rights over Palestine why could not Arabs have their rights over Spain, Sicily and other European lands previously owned by them? This claim of Jews is equivalent to the launching of their claim by the Red Indians over North America and that of the Hun, Goth and Gaul nations over Britain or of the Aryans of India against Iran and Russia that their homelands be returned to them. In Iqbals view this is an outrage and a joke on history and is a ridiculous attempt at its wilful distortion. If Jews have to be rewarded with a homeland at all this should be

conferred upon them in Germany from where they have been really expelled. This new claim of Jews over Palestine after a lapse of a thousand years of its relinquishment, followed by silence about it is totally baseless and is only the result of prompting by the West. If the Jew has the right over the land of Palestine Why is there no right of Arabs over Spain The object of British imperialism is something very different It is not concerned with orange orchards or the Land of Milk and Honey Allamah Iqbal is aware of the conceptions and potential of Palestinian Arabs as well as with their capabilities. Consequently, he wants to stir them up for the development ofKhudi and excitement to the desire of being counted, and reminds them of their spiritual elegance from which the world is still benefiting. It is well known that in Iqbals message of Khudi the feelings of Arabs, their Islamic sentiments, the pleasures of Iman and Belief, spiritual potentials and a stable determination alone are the basic components. Inviting Arabs to the war of independence, after furnishing themselves with these very arms, Iqbal says beside Faith in God and in Khudi any trust in Europe and the League of Nations (or the United Nations) is nothing short of vain imagination and self-deception. I know that your existence still has the fire From the warmth of which the world is still benefiting Your cure lies neither in Geneva nor in London The jugular vein of the West is in the clutches of Jews I have heard that freedom of nations from slavery Lies in the development of Khudi and the joy for rising up so as to be counted DISCUSSION Some discussion of the Promised Land in the light of Jewish history appears necessary here. For a complete understanding of the concept of the Promised Land and the behaviour of Jews regarding it I shall restrict myself only to the Old and New Testaments of the Holy Bible. The teachings of the Holy Quran on this subject are well known to its readers and will not be included in this discussion for brevity. According to the Holy Bible God promised the Promised Land of Canaa n to Abraham and his progeny in 1900 B.C. (Genesis 12:1-7). This land roughly corresponds to the present day Palestine and Jordan. The progeny of Abraham includes Banu Israil (Jews) as well as Banu Ismail (Arabs). So, both branches of Abrahams progeny have equal rights to the Promised land. This promise is conditioned with the obligation of piety, as is general with every promise of God. From 1900 B.C. to 1000 B.C. i.e. for a period of 800 years this land was ruled by Egypt and Philistines, which gave it the name of Philistine, now anglicised to Palestine. Moses brought Banu Israil to Palestine in about 1100 B.C. after their Exodus from Egypt and wandering about in the Sinai Peninsula for 40 years. In spite of the promise of God, which should have given strength to Banu Israil they refused to face the travails of a war with Philistines (Numbers Chapters 13-15). A summary of the history of Jews follows

721 B.C. - 715 B.C. - Assyrians, followed by Babylonians conquered Palestine with complete destruction of Banu Israil and their cities. 530 B.C. - Return of Banu Israil to Palestine with the help of the Persian king Cyrus II. 332 B.C. - Palestine conquered by Greeks under Alexander. 63 B.C. - Conquest of Palestine by Romans. 135 C.E. - Revolt of Banu Israil and its suppression by Romans with extremely heavy losses to Banu Israil and destruction of the Temple of Solomon. About 650 C.E. - Muslim conquest and rule arrived, which continued till the end of World War 1. in 1918. Thus, the promised Land was not given to Banu Israil for a period of 800 years from 1900 B.C. to 1100 B.C. During the Exodus when Moses, on command from God, planned to invade Canaan, Banu Israil flatly refused to go with him. (Numbers Chapters 13-15). The Muslims remained rulers in Palestine for about 1270 years which is four times longer than the rule of Banu Israil. The expulsion of Banu Israil from Palestine was completed in 715 B.C. after its conquest by Babylonia and continued off and on for about 1400 years when the Muslims arrived in 650 C.E. The emigration of Banu Israil since 715 B.C., technically known as Diaspora, was either due to the atrocities of Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks and Romans or occurred voluntarily in search of greener pastures elsewhere. It was not brought about by Muslims (or Arabs). In fact Banu Israil were rehabilitated in Palestine by the Uthmanian Khalifah in the late 15th Century and early 16th Century, when they were expelled by the Christian kings of Spain during the infamous Inquisition. These disasters were not brought on to Banu Israil by Muslims but by their own backsliding from the Covenants with God on Mount Sinai after the Exodus, followed by abandoning the straight path shown to them by their own prophets and scriptures, which brought the wrath of God over them. There are innumerable references to this in the scriptures of Banu Israil, Christians and Muslims. The following is a very short list of such references in the Old and New Testaments. References in the Holy Quran are omitted because they are well known. The Old Testament: Psalms 106: 34-43: 34. They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the LORD commanded them. 35. But were mingled among the heathen and learned their works. 36. And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them. 37. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils.

38. And shed innocent blood even the blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan and the land was polluted with blood. 39. Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions. 40. Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people, in so much that he abhorred his own inheritance. 41. And he gave them into the hands of the heathen, and they that hated them ruled over them. 42. Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their hand. 43. Many times did he deliver them; but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their inequity. Isaiah 1: 3-5 and 21-24, and 3:16-26; Chapter 1: 3. The ox knoweth his owner and the ass masters crib: but Israel doth not know: my people doth not consider. 4. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with inequity, a seed of evil doers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the holy one of Israel into anger, they have gone away backward. 5. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more; the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 21. How is the faithful city become as harlot! It was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers. 22. Thy silver has become dross, thy wine mixed with water. 23. Thy princes are rebellious and companions of thieves: everyone loveth gifts and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them. 24. Therefore, saith the LORD, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge of mine enemies. Chapter 3:16-26

16. Moreover the LORD saith Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet. 17. Therefore the LORD will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion; and the LORD will discover their secret parts. 18. 1n that day the LORD will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon. 19. The chains and the bracelets and the mufflers. 20. The bonnets and the ornaments of their legs, and the headbands and the tablets, and the earrings. 21. The rings and nose jewels. 22. The changeable suits of apparel and the mantles and the wimples, and the chipping pins 23. The glasses and the fine linen, and the hoods and the Vail. 24. And it shall come to pass that instead of sweet smells there shall be stink; and instead of girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girdling of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty. 25, Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. 26. And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit on the ground. Jeremiah, Chapter 3: 6. The LORD also said unto me in the days of Joshua the king. Hast thou seen that backsliding Israel hath done? She is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there had played the harlot. 7. And I said after she had done all those things, Turn thou unto me But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8. And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away and had given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. 9. And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

St. Mathew, Chapter 23: 35. That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zachariah son of Batrachia, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. 36. Verily, I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. 37. 0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that calloused the prophets, and steepest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. 38. Behold your house is left unto you desolate. NOTES AND REFERENCES
[1]

This refers to the two letters of Allamah lqbal to Miss Farquharson, dated July 30 and September 30, 1937 respectively, regarding Palestine, which are included in Iqbal Namah (Makatib-i-Iqbal) Vol. 1, pp. 446-50. Miss Farquharson was the President of the National League of England. Perusal of these letters is urged to readers.
[2]

Ditto, pp. 451-56 - Statement of Allamah lqbal to the Lahore session of the Muslim Conference in 1937 to protest against the Palestine Report. Considering the context reference to Peter the Hermit in the statement of Allamah lqbal in the reference cited and also appearing in the paper translated appears to be a printing error.. In the New Testament Peter is not referred to as the Hermit . However, in the Book of Revelation St. John is referred to as the Divine. Moreover, neither of the two Epistles of St. Peter deal with the subject of the text. The Book of Revelation does. In this book St. John describes his dream in which he states to have seen the shape of things to come at the end of the world. Chapter 21 describes the ascent of the Jews in which they are shown to be in full possession of Palestine and Jerusalem. Perhaps, this is also listed by Jews and their supporters as an act of the inevitable Divine Will of making Jews masters of Palestine. The authenticity and reliability of whole of the New Testament is held in doubt. Reference is invited to Appendix III of Allamah Abdullah Yusuf Alis Text, Translation and Commentary of the Holy Quran in which he discusses this subject on the authority of world famous Christian scholars of Christianity. He says that, about the Gospel of St. John, there is much controversy as to authorship, dates and even as to whether it was all written by one and the same person. The authenticity of the Book of Revelation by St. John, the Divine is even more seriously disputed than his Gospel. Allamah Yusuf Ali says, The Apocalypse of St. John, which is the part of the present canon in the West, forms no part of the Peshita (Syriac) version of the Eastern Christians., which was produced in 411 C.E. , and which was used by Nestorian Christians. The text of Revelation is so confusing that it verges on mythology. Perusal of the whole Appendix III is urged for a complete understanding of the subject. The

readers are also urged to read Tafhim- ul- Quran by Maulana Abul Aala Mawdoodi, the Tafseer of Surah Saff, verse 6. This discussion is also based on world literature on Christianity. The New Lexicon Websters Encyclopaedic Dictionary of the English Language describes the Book of Revelation as the 27th. or the last book (late 1 st or early 2nd Century) of the New Testament of uncertain authorship. It contains apocalyptic visions of the victory of God over Satan and was apparently written, to strengthen the persecuted Christians (p. 851). This is a fallacious belief from the Islamic point of view. According to Islam, God reigns supreme from eternity to eternity. Satan has been given the power of misleading mankind temporarily, primarily to grant his desire of complete freedom to mislead and as a system by which people can be tested for different grades of their piety or lack of it. This is part of Gods universal plan.

IQBAL AND JINNAH ON PALESTINE Dr. Ghulam Ali Chaudhry In 712 A.D. Hajjaj bin Yusuf Saqafi despatched Muhammad bin Qasim at the head of an expeditionary force to punish Dahir of Sind. That Hindu Raja had shown recalcitrance and behaved with impunity when warned not to neglect the safe passage of Hajis along the coastal strip of his territories. The young arab general won the first Muslim foothold on the Subcontinent. But it was a long time before torrent after torrent of Muslim conquerors from Afghanistan and Central Asia swept down the passes of the North-West Frontier. Thus, established Muslim rule in the Subcontinent continued in varying power and glory for about a thousand years. For in 1707 A.D. when Aurangzeb died, almost all India was under Muslim sway. Early in the seventeenth century the British came to the Subcontinent by sea, appearing as merchants, and, favoured by Mughal generosity, they established trading posts mostly on and near the western coasts. A century and a half later they were in the thick of the power struggle going on the replace the declining Mughal authority. Through conspiracy, force and fraud, they grabbed, annexed and transacted Muslim principalities and Muslim territories wherever they lay, in Bengal in the east, in Oudh in the north, in Mysore in the sourth and in Sind in the west. The first big blow came 50 years after Aurangzeb, in 1757, when Nawab Sirajuddaulah lost the day against the English at Plassey in Bengal, and the last one 150 years after Aurangzeb, in 1857, when the last Mughal emperor, Sirajuddin Bahadurshah Zafar, lay prostrate at Delhi, watching helplessly the massacre of his children and appearing as a rare-show in the bazaars of his capital before being exiled to Rangoon in Burma where he died and was buried. The British rise to power in the Subcontinent was marked by two perennial factors: first, their inveterate hostility to Islam and the Muslim which they shared with the other

Christian countries of Europe since their defeat at the hands of Sultan Salahuddin in 1187 A.D. and, secondly, the ready and steady cooperation which the Hindu, having been ruled by the Muslim for a thousand years, extended to the British. Thus while the British built up and boosted the Hindu in every field and by every means, they put down and ruined the Muslim everywhere and in alt possible ways; and the Hindu, paying off old scores, has often on the side of the British and pitted against the Muslim. The most heinous outrage that this British-Hindu combine perpetrated was the sale-deed of Kashmir. In 1946 the British struck a deal with Gulab Singh, a Dogra Hindu of Jammu, to give him possession of that beautiful land, with its 80% Muslim population (now about 6,500,000) and its area well over 180,000 sq. km., for a cash payment of 15,000,000 rupees. A people and their homeland transacted as a common piece of landed property. It was an enormity, a most monstrous crime against humanity; Allama Muhammad Iqbal, himself of Kashmiri stock, cried out some eighty years [1] Wood and stream and field and ploughman, And a nation into the bargain, Without oer a scruple or shudder, All they sold for filthy lucre, Against this double-barrelled British-Hindu gun aimed at them, Muslims in the Subcontinent took two lines of action. The more desperate among them set up a camp of resistance in the hills of the North-West Frontier after the earlier pattern of struggle of Syed Ahmad Shaheed and Shah Ismail Shaheed against the Sikh tyrants of the Punjab; and the more foresighted, led by Syed Ahmad Khan, advised their community to accept the fact of British supremacy with patience and fortitude, warned them of the coming Hindu domination and prescribed self-assertion through co-operation. No wonder the Muslims fell foul of the British-founded, Hindu-ridden Indian National Congress so early in the day and met at Dacca in Bengal in 1906 to organize their own separate political party, The All-India Muslim League. Among those who guided these deliberations were Nawab Viqarul Mulk, Nawab Mohsinul Mulk and Nawab Salim Ullah. The mujahid camp in the North-West was eventually liquidated by the British, but the policies of Syed Ahmad Khan and his circle paid immediate dividends. As the British gradually began to introduce reform for representative institutions through elections, the Muslims 25% of the total population of the Subcontinent, clearly saw the threat to their existence as a community: 25 Muslim votes against 75 Hindu votes, or 1 against 3, at all levels, district, provincial and centare! They demanded and won the separate electorates-- the principle that Muslims were to elect their representatives and Hindus their own, Muslims representing Muslims and Hindus representing Hindus. It is interesting that this constitutional provision for a separate electoral register for the Muslim minority in a predominantly Hindu India had a very pertinent precedent. The Turkish minority in a predominantly Greek Cyprus had long before secured for Turks the right to represent, and vote for, Turks alone! This assertion of their separate political identity sprang from the Muslims abiding faith in Islam as their sheet-anchor. Their one-thousand year rule in the Subcontinent as believers in Allah and the Prophet of Allah (peace be upon him) had shaped their attitudes in two definitive ways: 1) At home they never would accept the idolatrous Hindus as their political masters, and (2) Abroad they would always work for the solidarity of the Muslim world. Their Muslim consciousness never flagged, not even in their darkest hour. Whatever their

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own trials and tribulations, they never lost sight of their ideal of a universal Muslim brotherhood. Imagine their lot as British subjects during and at the end of World War I when the whole Muslim Ummah lay rent up and bleeding at the mercy of the treacherous and unscrupulous Allies! Hundreds of thousands of them through the length and breadth of the country stood up, agitating against their British rulers who shot them, rode their horses over them, threw them into jails, exiled them, burnt down their habitations and confiscated their properties. All this they suffered not for weeks or months but for years in the cause of Khilafh which in the end proved to be a hopeless struggle. And when the movement died out following certain unexpected developments in Turkey, hundreds remained sullen and unreconciled, and left their homes and hearths, performing hijra from India (which was Darul harb) to Afghanistan (which was Darul Islam). Even a casusl glance over the relevant historical documents of the period should reveal how sorrow seethed in the minds and hearts of Muslim India at the predicament of the Muslim world. For instance, one can turn page after page of the annals of the AllIndia Muslim League and find the assembled delegates voicing their protests against the happenings in the Balkans. Algiers, Morocco, Iran, Turkey, Tunis, Tripoli, Egypt and Jaziratul Arab which was believed to include Syria, Iraq and Palestine besides Arabia proper. Reception speeches, presidential addresses and resolutions poured out their resentment and grief over the inhuman and unjust treatment meted out to their Muslim brethren in these lands. And the castigation came from some of the best minds of Muslim India, such as Hakim Muhammad Ajmal Khan, Maulana Muhammad Ali Jouhar Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Allama Muhammad Iqbal, Maulana Hasrat Mauhani and Maulana Zafar Ali Khan. As the separatist Muslim struggle for freedom advanced and expanded under the Muslim League, this note of solidarity with the entire world of Islam range loud and clear. It is not my purpose here to capture this fraternal sentiment in its full volume but to record it only in the utterances and activities of Muhammad Iqbal and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. I will try to show how these two founding fathers of Pakistan remained over watchful of Muslim Arab interests on Palestine even during their grim battle against the British-Hindu axis. Ever since November 1917 when the British Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, in wicked league with that arch-Zionist Lord Rothschild, and with the prior endorsement of President Woodrow Wilson of America, declared British support for the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, the Muslims of the Subcontinent had been most unreservedly condemning this plan of international gangsterism. Their sense of shock was further aggravated when, in July 1922, the League of Nations gave its official blessings to the mandate forged clandestinely be the Allies and World Zionism. Through meetings, processions, speeches, resolutions and deputations, they tried to impress upon their British rulers the extreme heinousness of their policies in Palestine and the simple justness of the cause of the Arabs. Jewish immigrant hordes were pouring into Palestine and the Arab land was being seized and auctioned under the aegis of the mandatory Britain and in the name of agriculture and colonization. Except for 88 years, from - 1099 A.D., when the Fatimids lost to the Crusaders, to 1187 A.D., when Sultan Salahuddin wiped out the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Arab community under Islam had dominated Jerusalem and

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the Holy Land politically, socially and culturally from 638 A.D. to 1917 A.D., and it was now being disinherited and supplanted by the Jewish community scattered all over the world whose Iron Age ancestors and their descendants had ruled in Palestine from 12th century B.C. to 721 B.C. when Israel became politically extinct! Only the British, who had sold the land and people of Kashmir. en masse, could sell the land and people of Palestine piecemeal. Muhammad Iqbal asked them a question, through the answer to it he well knew: If the Jew had a right to the soil of Palestine, Why cant the Arab lay claim to Spain? No, British Imperialism has other aims. Its no tale of citron, honey or dates. In poem after poem, Iqbal attacked the two Mandatories, Britain and France, for their ghastly deeds in Palestine and Syria. In the 1930s the situation in Palestine became increasingly alarming. The British adopted ruthlessly repressive measures to quell Arab opposition, and the result was a general revolt. When in July 1937 the Royal Commission under Lord Peel recommended partition and further Jewish immigration, the whole world of Islam was left aghast. Miss Farquharson of the National League of England requested Muhammad Iqbal to express his views on these shocking recommendations. Writing to her on 20 July 1937, he said: We must not forget that Palestine does not belong to England. She is holding it under a mandate from the League of Nations, which Muslim Asia is now learning to regard as an Anglo-French institution invented for the purpose of dividing the territories of weaker Muslim peoples. Nor does Palestine belong to the Jews who abandoned it of their own free will long before its possession by the Arabs. Nor is Zionism a religious movement.... Indeed the impression given to the unprejudiced reader is that Zionism as a movement was deliberately created, not for the purpose of giving a National Home to the Jews but for the purpose of giving a home to British Imperialism on the Mediterranean littoral. The Report amounts, on the whole, to a sale under duress to the British of the Holy Places in the shape of the permanent mandate which the Commission has invented in order to cover their imperialist designs. The price of this sale is an amount of money to the Arabs plus an appeal to their generosity and a piece of land to the Jews. I do hope that British statesmen will abandon this policy of actual hostility to the Arabs and restore their country to them.[2] In a statement issued on 27 July 1937 to the press, Muhammad Iqbal said: I assure the people that I feel the injustice done to the Arabs as keenly as anybody else who understands the situation in the Near East The problem, studied in its historical perspective, is purely a Muslim problem. In the light of the history of Isreal, Palestine ceased to be a Jewish problem long before the entry of Caliph Umar into Jerusalem more than 1300 years ago. Their dispersion, as Professor Hockings has pointed out, was perfectly voluntary and their scriptures were for the most part written outside Palestine. Nor was it ever a Christian problem. Modern historical research has doubted even the existence of Peter, the Hermit. Even if we assume that the Crusades were an attempt to make Palestine a Christian problem, the attempt was defeated by the victories of Salah-ud-Din. I, therefore, regard Palestine as a purely Muslim problem.

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Never were the motives of British imperialism as regards the Muslim people of the Near East so completely unmasked as in the Report of the Royal Commission. The idea of a national home for the Jews in Palestine was only a device. In fact, British imperialism sought a home for itself in the form of a permanent mandate in the religious home of the Muslims. This is indeed a dangerous experiment The sale of the Holy Land, including the mosque of Umar, inflicted on the Arbas with the threat of martial law and softened by an appeal to their generosity, reveals bankruptcy of statesmanship rather than its achievement. The offer of a piece of rich land to the Jews and the rocky desert plus cash to the Arbas is no political wisdom. It is a low transaction. It is impossible for me to discuss the details of the Palestine Report in this short statement. There are, however, in recent history, important lessons which Muslims of Asia ought to take to heart. Experience has made it abundantly clear that the political integrity of the peoples of the Near East lies in the immediate reunion of the Turks and the Arabs. The policy of isolating the Turks from the rest of Muslim world is still in action. We hear now and then that Turks are repudiating Islam. A greater lie was never told. Only those who have no idea of the history of the concepts of Islamic jurisprudence fall an easy pray to this sort of mischievous propaganda. Warning The Muslim statesmen of the free non-Arab Muslim countries of Asia that the present moment was also a moment of trial for them, Iqbal concluded: Since the abolition of the Caliphat this is the first serious international problem of both a religious and political nature which historical forces are compelling them to face. The possibilities of the Palestine problem may eventually compel them seriously to consider their position as members of that Anglo French institution miscalled the League of Nations and to explore practical means for the formation of an Eastern League of Nations.[3] Muhammad Iqbal wrote to Miss Farquharson again on 6 th September 1937: I have been more or less in touch with Egypt, Syria and Iraq. I also received letters from Najaf. You must have read that the Shias of Kerbala and Najaf have made a strong protest against the partition of Palestine. The Persian Prime Minister and the President of the Turkish Republic have also spoken and protested. In India too the feeling is rapidly growing more and more intense. The other day 50,000 Muslims met at Delhi and protested against the Palestine Commission I have every reason to believe that the National League will save England from a grave political blunder and in so doing it will serve both England and the Muslim world[4] And on 7 October 1937, Iqbal wrote to Muhammad All Jinnah, President of the AllIndia Muslim League: The Palestine question is very much agitating the minds of the Muslims I have no doubt that the League will pass a strong resolution on this question and also by holding a private conference of the leaders decide on some sort of a positive action in which the masses may share in large numbers. This will at once popularise the League and may help the Palestine Arabs. Personally I would not mind going to jail on an issue which affects Islam and India. The formation of a Western base on the very gates of the East is a menace to both.[5] Only a week later, on 15 October 1937, in the course of his presidential address to the All-India Muslim League Session at Lucknow, Muhammad Ali Jinnah said:

13

May I now turn and refer to the question of Palestine? It has moved the Mussalmans all over India most deeply. The whole policy of the British Government has been a betrayal of the Arabs, from its very inception. Fullest advantage has been taken of their trusting nature. Great Britain has dishonoured her proclamation to the Arabs, which had guaran-teed them complete independence for the Arab homelands and the formation of an Arab Confederation under the stress of the Great War. After having utilized them, by giving them false promises, they installed themselves as the Mandatory Power with that infamous Balfour Declaration, which was obviously irreconcilable and incapable of simultaneous execution. Then, having pursued the policy to find a national home for the Jews, Great Britain now proposes to partition Palestine, and the Royal Commissions recommendation completes the tragedy. If given effect to, it must necessarily lead to the complete ruination and destruction of every legitimate aspiration of the Arabs in their homeland -- and now we are asked tolook at the realities! But who created this situation? It has been the handiwork of and brought about sedulously by the British statesmen ... I am sure I am speaking not only of the Mussalmans of India but of the world; and all sections of thinking and fair-minded people will agree, when I say that Great Britain will be digging its grave if she fails to honour her original proclamation, promises and intentions -- pre war and even post-war -- which were so unequivocally expressed to the Arabs and the world at large. I find that a very tense feeling of excitement has been created and the British Government, out of sheer desperation, are resorting to repressive measures, and ruthlessly dealing with the public opinion of the Arabs in Palestine. The Muslims of India will stand solid and will help the Arabs in every way they can in the brave and just struggle that they are carrying on against all odds.[6] At the same session at Lucknow, under the presidentship of Jinnah, the All-India Muslim League passed the following resolution on Palestine: The All-India Muslim League declares, in the name of the Mussalmans of India, that the recommendations of the Royal Palestine Commission and the subsequent statement of policy presented to Parliament conflict with their religious sentiments and in the interests of world peace demands its rescission without further delay. The All-India Muslim League appeals to the rulers of Muslim countries to continue to use their powerful influence and best endeavours to save the holy places in Palestine from the sacrilege of non-Muslim domination and the Arabs of the Holy Land from the enslavement of British Imperialism backed by Jewish finance. The All-India Muslim League places on record its complete confidence in the Supreme Muslim Council and the Arab Higher Committee under the leadership of His Eminence the Grand Mufti, and warns the local administration in Palestine not to aggravate the resentment already created in the Muslim world by a policy of repression obstensibly to uphold law and order, but in reality calculated to further the interest of aliens through the scheme of partition. This Session of the All-India Muslim League warns the British Government that if it fails to alter its present pro-Jewish policy in Palestine, the Mussalmans of India, in consonance with the rest of the Islamic world, will look upon British as the enemy of Islam and shall be forced to adopt all necessary measures according to the dictates of their faith. During the years that followed the Royal Commission Report, the Arab rebellion,

14

led by the Grand Mufti Al-Haj Amin al-Hussaini and the Arab Higher Committee, rose to an unprecedented fury. The number of Jewish colonies, which had risen from 22 in 1900 to 47 in 1917, was now 200. case for partition had thus been treacherously forged, and the Jewish national home was now to become the State of Israel. [7] Allama Muhammad Iqbal passed away on 21 April 1938 but his call rang on in the Muslim soul. On 26 December 1938, in his presidential address to the All-India Muslim League at Patna, Muhammad Ali Jinnah declared: I know how deeply Muslim feelings have been stirred over the issue of Palestine. I know Muslims will not shirk from any sacrifice if required to help the Arabs who are engaged in the fight for their national freedom. You know the Arabs have been treated shamelessly -- men who fighting for the freedom of their country, have been described as gangsters, and subjected to all forms of repression. For defending their homelands, they are being put down at the point of the bayonet, and with the help of martial laws. But no nation, no people who are worth living as a nation, can achieve anything great without making great sacrifices, such as the Arabs of Palestine are making. All our sympathies are with those valiant martyrs who are fighting the battle of freedom against usurpers. They are being subjected to monstrous injustices which are being propped up by British Imperialism with the ulterior motire of placating the international Jewry which commands the money-bags[8] At the same session at Patna, under the presidentship of Jinnah, the All-India Muslim League adopted the following resolution: It is the considered opinion of the All-India Muslim League that the unjust Balfour Declaration and the subsequent policy of repression adopted by the British Government in Palestine aim at making their sympathy for the Jews a pretext for incorporating that country into the British Empire with a view to strengthening British Imperialism, and to frustrating the idea of a federation of Arab States and its possible union with other Muslim States. They also want to use sacred places in Palestine as aerial and naval bases for their future military activities. The atrocities that have been perpetrated on the Arabs for the attainment of this object have no parallel in history. This Muslim League Session regards those Arabs who are being subjected to all kinds of persecutions and repressions, and who are making all sacrifices for preserving their sacred land, protecting their national rights and emancipating their motherland, as heroes and martyrs, and congratulates them on their bravery and sacrifice, and warns the British Government that if it does not forthwith stop the influx on Jews into Palestine and does not include in the proposed conference the Grand Mufti, the genuine leaders of the Arabs, as well as the representatives of the India Mussalmans, the conference will be nothing but a farce. This Session declares that the problem of Palestine is the problem of Muslims of the whole world; and if the British Government fails to do justice to the Arabs and to fulfil the demands of the Muslims of the world, the Indian Muslims will adopt any programme and will be prepared to make any sacrifice that may be decided upon by a Muslim International Conference, at which the Muslims of India are duly represented in order to save the Arabs from British exploitation and Jewish usurpation .... [9] World War II broke out in 1939. On the one hand, the British Government in India sought Muslim co-operation with the war effort, and on the other, they conspired with the Zionists to open the doors wide for Jewish immigrants entering Palestine as war

15

refugees. On 21st March 1940, in his presidential address to the All-India Muslim League Session at Lahore -- at which the historic Pakistan resolution was passed -Muhammad Ali Jinnah reported on his negotiations with the British Government, saying: We are told that endeavors, earnest endeavors, are being made to meet the reasonable, national demands of the Arabs. Well, we cannot be satisfied by earnest endeavours, sincere endeavours, best endeavours. We want that the British Government should in fact and actually meet the demands of the Arabs in Palestine. [10] At the same session at Lahore, under the presidentship of Jinnah, the All-India Muslim League passed the following resolution, moved by Abdur Rahman Siddiqui who had attended the Palestine Conference in Cairo the preceding year: The All-India Muslim League views with grave concern the inordinate delay on the part of the British Government in coming to a settlement with the Arabs in Palestine, and places on record its considered opinion, in clear and unequivocal language, that no arrangements of a piecemeal character will be made in Palestine which are contrary in spirit and opposed to the pledges given to the Muslim world, and particularly to the Muslims in India, to secure their active assistance in the War of 1914-18. Further, the League warns the British Government against the danger of taking advantage of the presence of a large British force in the Holy Land to overawe the Arabs and force them into submission.[11] At the All-India Muslim League Session held at Delhi in April 1943, under the presidentship of Jinnah, the following resolution from the chair was adopted: This Session of the All-India Muslim League views with great concern and alarm the new Zionist propaganda and move in the U.S.A., which is putting pressure on the U.S. Government, firstly to remove all present restrictions on Jewish immigration in Palestine, and secondly to adopt the policy of converting Palestine into a Jewish State. In the opinion of this Session the aim of this new Zionist move is to make Jewish majority in Palestine a fait accompli by opening her doors to the Jewish war refugees, on the ground of the war emergency and the persecution of Jews in Europe. This Session condemns this new move as a deliberate attempt to perpetrate a wrong on the Arab and Islamic world at a time when the Arab National Higher Committee of Palestine stands disbanded and the Arab Nationalists are, at present, almost defence-less against organized Jewry and High Finance in the world. This Session, reiterating its demands for the fulfilment of Arab national demands for Arab independence in Palestine and Syria, solemnly warns the British Government against any step or move which may prove detrimental to Arab national interests, and declares that such a policy will be bitterly resented by the whole Arab Islamic world as an outrage on democracy and justice and inalienable Arab rights to their homeland. [12] Again, the the All-India Muslim League Session held at Karachi in December 1943 under the presidentship of Jinnah, the following resolution was passed: This Session of the All-India Muslim League urges, with all the emphasis at its command, upon His Majestys Government in particular and other Allied Powers, that the territories recently released from the control of Italy, viz., Ceranaica, be not handed back to the Italian Government, but be constituted independent sovereign States. This Session is further of opinion that the vicious system of mandates should be abolished once for all, and the countries of which the mandates were held by Great Britain and France, viz., Palestine, Syria and the Lebanon, should be restored to the

16

people of the countries to set up their own sovereign Governments in their territories. Having regard to the oft-repeated declarations by the United Nations that they seek to liberate subject nationalists, this Session demands that the United Powers should urge France to liberate Morocco. Algeria and Tunis. [13] The War ended in 1945. During the two years that followed the Muslims of the Subcontinent were locked in a life-and-death struggle against the British Government and the Hindu Congress. They were made to wade through blood and fire, but, Allah be praised, they emerged triumphant, and on 14 th August 1947 there appeared on the map of the world the sovereign and independent State of Pakistan. While, in the Subcontinent, the British enacted another piece of treachery against the Muslim people of Kashmir by clamping on them the Hindu Raj of New Delhi, in the Middle East, the Allies and the Zionists were now finally preparing to perpetrate a Jewish state on Palestine, the Arab world and Islam, and this they did on 14 July 1948. And the Pakistanis and the Arabs have fought three wars each against India and Israel and the Big Powers behind them. Palestine or Kashmir --- the Big Power technique is the same. They choose a Muslim land or a Muslim people for their target, Take up conditions of hysteria around it, and the hit it with brute force, Crusades-style, exactly as the Church Militant would, which these powers really are; and then, to get legal cover for their fait accompli, they approach the League of Nations or the United Nations which is truly the Church Litigant. So the stricken Muslim land or people lies torn up between the two arms of the Church --the Church Militant and the Church Litigant. Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah died with a thorn in his heart. For barely two weeks before he passed away on 11 September 1948, he said in his Eid-ul-Fitr message on 28th August 1948: My Eid message to our brother Muslim States is one of friendship and goodwill. We are all passing through perilous times. The drama of power politics that is being staged in Palestine ... and Kashmir should serve as an eye opener to us. It is only by putting up a united front that we can make our voice felt in the counsels of the world. [14] Allama Muhammad Iqbal had insistently struck in his work this same note of mistrust of the presiding powers of the present-day world and prescribed this same remedy of self-reliance for the Muslim individual and the Muslim community. He hadnt lived to see his dream of Pakistan come true or to watch the enemies of Islam producing the last bloody act of the tragedy in Kashmir and Palestine. But he had offered a word of advice, perhaps as farewell: To the Palestinian Arab The flame that may enkindle a world conflagration, is yet alive in your soul. I know Seek not redress from London or Geneva. The jugular veins of the Frank are in the grip of the Jew I hear A peoples chains snap when its Ego grows and exults in proper self-expression. In fact the call of these two great servants of Islam to the entire world of Islam derives directly from the Quran: And he who reject the Taghut and believed in Allah, hath grasped a firm handhold which will never break.

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Only if we Muslims could learn to reject Taghut and hold fast to our faith in Allah, we would be on firm and safe ground. Shall we then understand? NOTES Syed Sharifuddin, Pirzada, ed., Foundations of Pakistan (Karachi, 1969), Vol. I pp. 242, 431. [2] Speeches, Writings and Statements of Iqbal, ed. Latif Ahmed Sherwani, (Lahore, 1977), pp. 244-245. [3] Ibid., pp. 245-247. [4] Ibid., p. 248. [5] G. Allana, ed., Pakistan Movement: Historic Documents (Karachi, 1968) pp. 146-147. [6] Syed Sharifuddin, Pirzada, ed., Foundations of Pakistan (Karachi 1970) Vol. II. p. 272. [7] Ibid. pp. 277-278. [8] Ibid. p. 307. [9] Ibid. pp. 315-316. [10] Ibid. p. 334. [11] Ibid. p. 346. [12] Ibid. pp. 439-440. [13] Ibid. pp. 479-480. [14] Speeches: Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah as G.G. of Pakistan, 1947-48 (Pakistan Publications, Karachi).
[1]

IQBALS VISION OF A COMPOSITE MUSLIM-CHRISTIAN-JEWISH NATIONALISM Prof. Fateh Muhammad Malik Iqbals concept of Muslim nationalism is neither local, nor parochial; it is universal in its essence. Iqbal regards his concept of Muslim nationalism as a stepping stone towards the final integration of humanity. It is a pity that Iqbals concept of Muslim nationalism has only been partially realized so far, and its universal dimension is only an unnoticed and unrealized ideal as yet. Iqbals famous Ilahabad address of 1930 is well-known for enshrining the vision of separate Muslim homelands in South Asia on the basis of his concept of a separate Muslim nationalism in India. But it is still unknown that Iqbal had espoused another vision of a composite Muslim-Christian-Jewish nationalism in the very same Ilahabad address. While rejecting the concept of a composite Indian nationalism, Iqbal cherished the view of a composite Muslim nationalism in the heartlands of Islam, highlighting the world-view shared by the People of the Book i.e. Muslims, Christians and Jews. This simultaneous rejection of composite nationalism in India and affirmation of the composite Muslim nationalism in Muslim majority countries seems paradoxical. But a deeper study of Iqbals philosophical arguments against the concept of a composite

18

Indian nationalism is bound to clear the ambiguity. The Muslims of India cannot accept the territorial concept of a composite Indian nationalism because they are differently situated. They are in a minority. The majority in India believes in the concept of a divinely created caste system. This exploitative system has divided even the Hindu community itself into high, low and untouchable classes. The existence of various social barriers means that mankind is divided into touchable and untouchable, pure and impure races. According to Iqbal Islam does not recognize caste or race or colour. [1] His concept of a separate Muslim nationhood in India is based on spiritual homogeneity and not on territorial affinity or racial solidarity. Elaborating upon the fundamental concepts of Islamic culture, he has pointed out that as an emotional system of unification Islam recognizes the worth of the individual as such, and rejects blood-relationship as a basis of human unity, he asserted that Islam has laid the basis of a new human culture by rejecting the old culture of throne, and the systems of unification which were based on blood-relationshipThe new culture finds the foundation of world-unity in the principle of Tawhid i. e. belief in one God. Islam, as a polity is only a practical means of making this principle a living factor in the intellectual and emotional life of mankind. It demands loyalty to God, not to thrones. And since God is the ultimate spiritual basis of all life, loyalty to God virtually amounts to mans loyalty to his own ideal nature. [2] Hence, his total rejection of the concept of a composite Indian nationalism based on the modern Western concept of territorial nationalism. Since, the construction of a polity on Indian nationalist lines is in conflict with the Islamic principle of solidarity and is contrary to the spirit and ideals of Islam, Muslim India is bound to reject it. The idea of a composite Indian nationalism is inspired by the great Hindu writers, the central themes of whose writing is the veneration for Bharat-Mata (Mother India), which is Arya-Verta (Aryan homeland). Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto has aptly observed that the kind of consciousness of past greatness, regenerated by Indian writes to inspire Hindu cultural and political revival, has been the main spring of twentieth-century Indian nationalism. Nehrus Discovery of India shows how the most westernized of Hindu minds fell captive to this spell of the essential Hindu-ness of India. [3] The famous Hindu writer, Nirad C. Chaudary has discussed in detail the nature and extent of the conflict between the Hindu society and Muslim society in India in his book The Continent of Circe. Elaborating upon the cultural significance of the advent of Islam in India, he has stated that unlike all previous conquests: the Muslim conquest of India could not be made innocuous for the Hindus through the caste system. The conquest was an extension into a new country of a wellestablished and mature society, with a fully developed way of life and a living culture. What was even more important was the fact the Muslims were not barbarians at a low level of culture who would consider admission to the Hindu fold as a promotion. On the contrary, not only were they themselves the creators and defenders of a new and aggressive culture. They were the first people in history to put forward the idea of an irreconcilable conflict between a particular way of life and all others, and to formulate a theory of permanent revolution. [4]

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In order to avoid this irreconcilable conflict and to avoid the perpetual civil war going on between the two communities, Iqbal formulated the theory of a separate Muslim nationalism and demanded separate and sovereign Muslim homelands in the Indian sub-continent. This concept of separate Muslim nationalism in India is organically related to the concept of composite Muslim nationalism in Middle East. Iqbal is of the view that in the countries where Muslims are in majority and the minorities there, are monotheists sharing the same world-view with the Muslim majority, there is no conflict between Islam and nationalism. He advised the Muslim leaders and politicians not to be carried away by the subtle but placid arguments that Turkey and Iran and other Muslim countries are progressing on national, i. e. territorial lines. Muslim India cannot follow the ideals of territorial nationalism because: The Muslims of India are differently situated. The countries of Islam outside India are practically wholly Muslim in population. The minorities there belong, in the language of the Quran, to the people o f the Book. There are no social barriers between Muslims and the people of the Book. A Jew or a Christian or a Zoroastrian does not pollute the food of a Muslim by touching it, and the law of Islam allows inter-marriage with the people of the Book. Indeed the first practical step that Islam took towards the realization of a final combination of humanity was to call upon peoples possessing practically the same ethical ideal to come forward and combine. The Quran declares: O people of the Book! Come, let us join together on the word (Unity of God), that is common to us all. [5] The basis of Iqbals concept of nationalism is derived from the Quran. The unifying principle is the common word ( Tawhid: belief in one God). The Quran urges upon, again and again, the spiritual harmony of the people of the book. I am tempted here to the Quran: 1. Say [to the Jews and Christians], we [Muslims] believe in that which was revealed to us as well as that which was revealed to you. Our God and your God is one and the same. We all submit to Him (Quran 29:46). 2. Say, we [Muslims] believe in God, in what He revealed to us, to Ibrahim, Ismail, Ishaq,Yaqub and the tribes, to Moses, Jesus and all the revelations of the Prophets-without discriminating between them. To God we submit (Quran 2:136). Iqbals rationale is rooted in Muslim history, as well. History bears witness to the phenomenon that during the hay day of Muslim civilization, spiritual was the order of the day. Tracing the origins of the academic discipline of comparative religion ( Ilm al Milal wal Nihal), Ismail R. al Faruqi states that: In the early Middle Ages, the caliphal courts of Damascus, Baghdad and Cordova witnessed countless meetings of Jews, Christians and Muslims in which the learned adherents debated the three faiths. The reigning culture gave such honour

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to the three religions, such respect to their principles and institutions, that interreligious debate was the subject of salon conversation, a public pastime. [6] The most recent testimony to this fact comes from Karen Armstrong. While delivering the first Fazlur Rahman Memorial Lecture in Oxford, she has correctly observed that in the Islamic empire, Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians enjoyed religious freedom. This reflected the teaching of the Koran, which is a pluralistic scripture, affirmative of other traditions. Muslims are commanded by God to respect the People of the Book, and reminded that they share the same beliefs and the same God. Constantly the Koran explains that Mohammad has not come to cancel out the revelations brought by Adam, Abraham, Moses or Jesus.[7] In the light of the foregoing, Iqbals concept of Muslim nationhood is aimed at the final unity of mankind. Reconstructing Muslim political theory in the context of modern nationalist ideals, Iqbal formulates a new theory of composite nationalism of the followers of Abrahamic Faiths (Millat-i-Ibrahimi). He even widens the scope of his theory to include it its fold Zoroastrians and others possessing the same word-view. In reply to the questions raised by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, in his three articles published in the Modern Review (Calcutta), Iqbal stated categorically that:Nationalism in the sense of love of ones country and even readiness to die for its honour is a part of the Muslims faith: it comes into conflict with Islam only when it begins to play the role of a political concept and claims to be a principle of human solidarity, demanding that Islam should recede to the background of a mere private opinion and cease to be a living factor in the national life. In Turkey, Iran, Egypt and other Muslim countries it will never become a problem. In these countries Muslims constitute an overwhelming majority and their minorities, i. e., Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians, according to the law of Islam, are either People of the Book or like the People of the Book with whom the law of Islam allows free social relations including matrimonial alliances. It becomes a problem for Muslims only in countries where they happen to be in a minority, and nationalism demands their complete self-effacement. In majority countries Islam accommodates nationalism; for there, Islam and nationalism are practically identical; in minority countries it is justified in seeking self-determination as a cultural unit. In either case, it is thoroughly consistent with itself. [8] This Quranic ideal of the final unity of humanity could not be realized so far, because of the wars of Islam and Christianity. And later, European aggression in its various forms, could not allow the infinite meaning of the Quranic verses, quoted above, to the countries of Islam in the shape of what is called Muslim Nationalism. [9] Iqbal has finally an irrevocably rejected hereditary kingship as well as theocracy as contrary to the original spirit of Islam. He regards spiritual democracy as the ultimate aim of Islam.[10] In his Ilahabad address he has stated categorically that in the separate Muslim homelands of his dream spiritual pluralism is going to be the order of the day:

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Nor should the Hindus fear that the creation of autonomous Muslim States will means the introduction of a kind of religious rule in such States. The truth is that Islam is not a church. It is a State conceived as a contractual organism long before Rousseau ever thought of such a thing and animated by an ethical ideal which regards man not as an earth-rooted creature, defined by this or that portion of the earth, but as spiritual being understood in terms of a social mechanism and possessing rights duties as a living in that mechanism. (p. 172) [11] Muslim nationalism is a tolerant, liberal and humanistic political and social creed. Referring to the teachings of the Quran, Iqbal declared that a community which is inspired by feelings of ill-will towards other communities is low and ignoble. I entertain the highest respect for the customs, laws, religious and social institutions of other communities. Nay, it is my duty according to the teaching of the Quran, even to defend their places of worship, if need be. Yet I love the communal group which is the source of my life and behaviour and which has formed me what I am by giving me its religion, its literature, its thought, its culture and thereby recreating its whole past as a living operative factor in my present consciousness. [12] The concept of Muslim nationhood is thus inspired by the profound love with ones own community i. e. the Muslim community, and immense respect for all other communities. This divinely inspired ideology of the essential unity of humanity could not be translated into actuality, yesterday, because of the crusades and later on, by the European imperialist encroachment, in its various forms, on Muslim soil. It remains an unrealized ideal even today as a result of a fresh onslaught of the western hegemony. NOTES AND REFERENCES
[1]

. Iqbals Interview to The Bombay Chronicle, September-December 1931, included in Dar, B. A. Dar, (Editor), Letters and Writings of Iqbal, Lahore, 1981, pp. 55.
[2]

. The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam , Lahore 1996, edition, pp. 116117.
[3]

. The Myth of Independence, Lahore Edition, pp.166-167. . London, 1965 p.63. . Syed Abdul Vahid (Editor), Thoughts and Reflections of Iqbal, Lahore, 1973. . Ibid. p. 190. . Thoughts and Reflections of Iqbal, op. cit, p. 188. . Trialogue of the Abrahamic Faiths, Virginia, 1986, Foreword.

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

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[9]

. The Guardian, London, Thursday, June 20, 2002. Karen Armstrong is the author of Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet (Weidenfeld); The Battle of God; Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam (Harper Collins), and Islam: A Sort History (Weidenfeld).
[10]

. The Reconstruction, op. cit, P. 142 . Thoughts and Reflections, op. cit. p. 172. . Ibid, p. 169.

[11]

[12]

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