It
is important to underline that Iqbal places his reflections about
Sufism inside a wider speculation endowed with an eminent
philosophical character. For example, while discussing the mystic
experience of Abd al-Mu’min, Iqbal is actually speaking about the
language of psychology and the inability of this science to penetrate
and explain the deep meaning of religious and mystic experiences.
“This is the reason why I say that
modern psychology has not been yet touched even the outer fringe of
the subject. Personally, I do not at all feel hopeful of the present
state of things in either biology or psychology. Mere analytical
criticism with some understanding of the organic conditions of the
imagery in with religious life has sometimes manifested itself is not
likely to carry us to the living roots of human personality”, “
these ways of looking at the matter cannot, in the least, affect the
ultimate aim of religious life, that is to say, the reconstruction of
the finite ego by bringing him into contact with an eternal
life-process, and thus giving him a metaphysical status
of which we can have only a partial understanding in the half-choking
atmosphere of our present environment”.
Iqbal’s
references to Nietzsche seem to prove the presence of this kind of
prospective. According to Iqbal the weakest part of Nietzsche
philosophy can be found in the doctrine of eternal recurrence, which
only leads human being to metaphysic desperation denying the value of
the becoming, which instead Iqbal reads as a distinctive mark of
being. Nietzsche was unable to justify from a metaphysical point of
view the value of temporality because, according to Iqbal, he didn’t
understand that the being and the becoming are involved in a deep
relation. The process of becoming across temporality, interpreted as
an open possibility, allows the being to find fulfilment in the
possibilities of his essence.
The
experience of the relation between the finite ego and the Infinite
Ego is based on several levels, not only the mystic and the spiritual
one. This is the reason why the nature of mystic states and the
spiritual trainings of the classic schools of Sufism need to be
analysed and interpreted inside the general discourse about the
metaphysic nature of the human being, which shapes at the end also
the nature of the possible relation between creator and creation.
Even
when the direct reference are only few, sufism has a deep and
important role in the Reconstruction of
religious thought in Islam, where Iqbal
tries to establish the premises for a renaissance of Islamic thought.
In Iqbal the notion and the role of Sufism seems to be quite
problematic as the role and the heredity of Islamic philosophy. This
is due to the fact that Iqbal in his metaphysics thought is actually
trying to inaugurate a new phase of Islamic thought, literally
straining continuously to overcome the limits of language of
classical metaphysic, which prevent Islamic philosophers to
understand the deep meaning of the quranic message, which is
eminently anti-classical.
The
deep relation between metaphysical speculation, religious
anthropology, sufi spirituality and reflection on Ijtihad
is according to Iqbal the key to open a new era of Islamic history
from different points of views. This is the reason why Sufism needs
to be interpreted inside the dimension of the true Islamic tradition
which involves also a new philosophical approach aiming to a
reconstruction of a truly Islamic philosophical discourse. The early
tight relation between Greek philosophy and Islamic thought
prevented muslim thinkers from understanding the true spirit of
quranic revelation and also from a philosophical thought rooted in
Islamic message. Most probably, even when Iqbal is not completely
clear about this point, in classical Sufism can be found elements
which cannot be taken back to Islam and for this reason also Sufism,
exactly like philosophy, needs a new approach more suitable not only
for the modern mentality but also for a renewed Islamic cultural and
philosophical approach.
The
reflections about the universe, his character and general structure,
the role of human beings and the kind of conduct that befits the
place occupied, are all connected because the role of human being is
related to the nature of universe existing a deep connection between
his essence and that of the cosmos where he lives. This justifies
ultimately the necessity of interpreting Islamic thought and
spirituality in the light of a truly quranic approach.
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