Islam in South Asia
Creative Response to Sir Muhammad Iqbal’s
Complaint and Answer
Let the gardener not be downcast to decry the garden’s plight; Soon the starlight of the blossoms shall the naked boughs adorn, And the choking weeds and brambles will have vanished out of sight, And where martyrs shed their life-blood crimson roses will be born. Look upon the deep vermillion flooding all the eastern sky— It is your horizon, glowing to behold you sun arise. (pg. 62) Iqbal was a prolific writer who addressed a variety of topics and as the times changed, so did his writing in an attempt to reflect his own changing views. Consequently, Iqbal is not easily defined; just as he was continually challenging those who wanted to retain medieval ways of life, he also disagreed with those who wanted to change so fast and so much, that the true essence of an Islamic way of life would be lost. While many different philosophical and political groups have claimed him as their own, the fluidity of his ideas have been easily adapted and used to promote many deferring ideas and movements. But, one theme that has always remained consistent in his writings is that Iqbal believed that complacency was very dangerous to the individual and to the community overall. He believed that complacency might blind people to the necessity of thought and action in such a way as to lead to the possible destruction of the Muslim community. In the context of the Muslim community living in India, such destruction would have meant dropping to the bottom of the social structure. In Sheila McDonough’s article, The Authority Of The Past, she states that Iqbal would use the Qur’anic verse as his source: “Verily, God will not change the condition of men, till they change what is in themselves.” Iqbal believed that “If he (man) does not take the initiative, if he does not evolve the inner richness of his being, if he ceases to feel the inward push of advancing life, then the spirit within him turns into stone and he is reduced to the level of dead matter.” (Pg. 24) To Iqbal, even God’s spiritual enlightenment was only given to the active, “ And the recipient of Divine illumination is not merely a passive recipient” (pg. 25). Iqbal believed that all men had the capacities to overcome fear and passivity, and to transform themselves into strong individuals. To him, the strength man needed to accomplish this change would come from a disciplined submission to God. Iqbal believed the Muslim community could regain power, and that in doing so, they could become role models for other nations. His belief in the Muslim man’s capability to achieve this goal was expressed in his poems, The Complaint And Answer, (Shikwa And Jawab-I-Shikwa) which portrays a Muslim man in the first poem as complaining to God for having been abandoned and later in the second poem God responding to his call. Iqbal wrote these poems because the modern situation that Muslims found themselves in greatly disturbed Iqbal and he felt a need to call this community to action. To him, the Muslims were passive and silenced by the challenges they found themselves forced to endure To Iqbal, the answer to the problem was not in their complaining and waiting for God to take care of them, but rather in their need to return to the actions needed to define themselves as their forefathers had. In The Complaint, an emotionally wrought Muslim man cries out to God in an attempt to express his sense of abandonment and despair. The man reminds God of all the past deeds of the great Muslims who captured great bounties and battled great wars as a way to bring glory to God and to spread his name. The man points out that even the idea of slavery was erased by the Muslims thus saving the whole of the human species. After detailing all that has been done in the name of God, he asks why God shows such mercy and favor to the non-Muslims. Why should these infidels posses castles and great riches in this world while the poor Muslims must live with only the hope of happiness after death? The Answer offers Iqbal the opportunity to respond to the issues presented in the first poem and it opens with a view of the cosmological response to the impertinence of the man’s complaints. The Complaint disturbs the angels and stars as they realize that the voice is coming from a descendant of Adam who was expelled from Paradise. God points out the abasement that has taken place amongst the Muslims who have divided themselves into different tribes, castes and nations. They are divided and have wandered away from the teachings of the Prophet and have reverted to idolatry and the worshiping of tombs. Their way of life has been infected by Western values and Indian customs that have made them lose their true love of their God and their spirit of worship to him. God says that the infidels have wealth because they faithfully work and have belief and honor for their religious traditions, something that the Muslims have lost. Through the answers expressed by God, Iqbal calls the Muslims to not wait for God to take care of them based on some expectation or because of ancestral achievements, but rather to take action. Muslims must reunite as a single people and correct the problems that they themselves have created and which have displeased God. The poem ends with the Muslims being told not to lose heart but to look at these adversities as a challenge and opportunity to prove themselves to God and themselves. God believes that the Muslims should not lose heart because they are capable of the needed change. God gives an example of a garden that has withered leaves and looks dead, but instead it just needs to be worked so it too will bloom and be lush with beauty and reward. It is all hidden, waiting to be reborn. It is this imagery of a dormant garden that I used for my creative response. The water colored painting shows a humble Muslim man asleep as a sign of the inaction that Iqbal spoke of in his poem Answer. But, the garden is not asleep it is only waiting to re-bloom once it has been tended to; just as the Muslim community must awaken and take action to regain their lost place in India. The name of the poem in Urdu can be found within the branches of the trees at the center of the canvas and in the lower left hand side of the painting is the stanza referring to the garden waiting to bloom. 