When Asrar-e Khudi was first published in 1915, the immediate reception among Indian Muslims was lukewarm, with some strongly negative reactions coming from the established circles of religious authority. Overall, the message of this poem was seen either as too difficult or as deeply offensive; Asrar-e Khudi was either not understood at all, or it was…
This short poem by Muhammad Iqbal is included in his second collection of Urdu verse, Bal-i Jibril (Gabriel’s Wing), published in 1935. It is titled “To the Psychologist.” Go beyond the world of thought, if you dare There are still unexplored islands in the ocean of the self; This silent sea will keep all its mysteries hidden from you Until you strike…
In a previous post (“Excuse me, are you Homo duplex?”) I made an attempt to understand what Iqbal means when he distinguishes between the “appreciative self” and the “efficient self.” I am now going to make a second attempt at clarifying those concepts. The context of Iqbal’s discussion is the nature of time and the associated…