EDUCATIONAL IDEAS OF
IQBAL
ABADULLAH FARUQI
It is important to note that
all great educators have been great philosophers. Plato’s scheme of cultural
education depended upon his idealism. Rousseu’s anti-social philosophy gave rise
to his natural education. Pragmatist philosophy has been responsible for the
project method in education. It is true that Iqbal was not an educationist in
the strict sense of the word; but one cannot deny his contribution to our
educational ideology. He did not present any specific educational technique or
methodology; but he directed our attention to those basic and fundamental
principles of education which underlie all the sound educational practices. When
we work out the practical implications of his educational ideas they do throw
lurid light on the modern problems of education and point out to their healthy
solution.
Education
Education, which signifies
the development of personality, is a purposive process; it is a process which is
consciously directed towards some end. Mill defines it as, “culture which each
generation purposely gives to those who are to be successors in order to qualify
them for at least keeping up and if possible for raising the level of
improvement which has been maintained”. Similarly, K. G. Saiyadain remarks that
“Education in its full and correct signification must be visualized as the sum
total of cultural forces which play on the life of individual and community. If
this is clearly understood, it follows that an emergence of an outstanding
creative thinker, who has distinctive message to give or new values to present
before the world, is a phenomenon of the greatest interest for the
educationists, and the more his ideas catch the imagination, the understanding
and enthusiasm of his contemporaries, the greater must be his influence as the
educative force”.
Viewed in his perspective,
one cannot escape the fact that Iqbal comes under the category of the
educationists, though he is not an educationist in the limited sense. Every
educational system is concerned with the critical evaluation and transmission of
the cultural heritage, knowledge and ideas of social groups, to its young
members, and is thus much wider in its outlook than the narrow system of
education that goes on within the precincts of schools and colleges. This
limited process of teaching and learning does not take into account the social
and the personal influences which shape and modify the destiny of the individual
and of the community. Iqbal lays special emphasis on these cultural factors and
his philosophy of life is of infinite value for education. Like other
educationists, he stresses the fundamental point that the educator must
necessarily inquire into the nature and function of the self in relation to the
environment in which it is placed.
Self, according to him, is
not a mere illusion, as some of the pseudo-mystics and pantheists would have us
believe. It has, on the other hand, an abiding significance of its own. The
doctrine of self-negation, according to Iqbal, is positively dangerous in its
socio-political implications.
Thus, Education is concerned
with the problems of individual and society. It is the process of enabling the
individual to take his rightful place in the society. It must, therefore, be
interested in those studies which concern the individual on the one hand and the
society on the other.
Naturalism in Education
The child occupies the
central figure in the educational system of the naturalists. The subject and
method of education must be in consonance with the natural tendencies of child’s
mind, his instincts and emotions. While educating the child the teacher must
take into consideration his dominant psychological trends and the stage of
development of his personality. The psychology of development is of utmost
importance for education. We must study the nature of infants, children and
adolescents and adjust our educational approach accordingly.
Psycho-analysis has given a
great impetus to naturalism in education. It stands for unrestricted expression
of the unconscious impulses of the child. He must be given freedom and
opportunity for natural development so that he may not suffer from mental
depression and conflict. It condemns sexual taboos, authoritarian methods and
corporeal punishment.
Rousseu considered that the
first twelve years of human life are extremely important. During this period the
child must be given full opportunities for the perfection of his instruments of
knowledge, namely, his sense organs. Nothing was to be done during this period
to mould child’s mind. He was not to read and write. His body and his sense
organs were to be exercised and trained. No moral training should be imparted to
him during this period.
Like, Rousseu, Iqbal
emphasises the empirical aspect of know-ledge. He realised the importance of
sense-perception. According to him development of an active personality is
impossible without concrete environment. Self-realization, which according to
Iqbal, is conducive to educational goal cannot be conceived without the material
environment. He further realised the importance of freedom which was
particularly emphasised by the naturalists. According to Iqbal, the latent power
of the individual cannot develop, unless he is placed in an atmosphere of
freedom and is thus able to interact with the environment and thereby get
direct and first hand experience. Yet, he is a rigid disciplinarian and
advocates such strict regulations as prepare the child for straneous obligations
of life. In other words, he does not agree with Rousseu’s “freedom idea” in its
extreme form. Naturalists further stress on adjustment to environment as the
educational aim. Iqbal differs from the naturalists, insofar as he holds that,
not adjustment, but the conquest of the environment is the real aim of
education. Therefore, according to him the child should not yield himself to
environmental forces. Man has always been mastering his material environment and
shaping and re-shaping it according to his own needs and desires. Consequently
against the views held by the naturalists, Iqbal contends that the environment
should be shattered and remoulded if it does not accord with the aspiration of
the individual. He expresses this idea when he pleads that if the world does not
conform to your standards, instead of submitting to it you should destroy and
remold it.
گفتند جہان ما آیا با توے سازد
گفتم کہ نمی سازد و گفتند کہ برھم زن
Idealism in Education
He agrees with the idealists
that the material and the physical universe, as known to science, is an
incomplete expression of reality. Man has a peculiar power which manifests
itself in the form of intellect,
intuition, culture,
art, morality and religion. These are peculiar to man and are certainly beyond
the range of positive science.
Idealism is bitterly opposed
to naturalism, in so far as it regards that the real aim of education is to
mould the environment according to ideals or the individual values and not to
yield oneself to the physical environment which is an eternal embodiment of
human will and intelligence; much of it is the result of man’s capacity for
inventiveness. Iqbal beautifully gives expression to this idea:
تو
شب آفریدی چراغ آفریدم
سفال
آفریدی ایاغ آفریدم
بیابان و کوھسار و راغ آفریدی
خیابان و گلزار و باغ آفریدم
من
آنم کہ از سنگ آئینہ سازم
من
آنم کہ از زھر نو شینہ سازم
You (God) created the night,
I the lamp;
You created the clay, I the
vase.
You created the jungle,
mountains and deserts
I created gardens, orchards
and flower-plots.
It is I who make glass out
of stone
It is I who extract elixir
out of poison.
So far as the cultural and
the spiritual environment is concerned it is entirely a product of man’s
creative activity. Man sets before himself philosophical and cultural problems
and has been tackling them since long. Hence, he cannot be said to be a slave of
environment in any sense. To set about questions, to inquire into the origin of
things and to strive for something better than the given are distinctive marks
of man alone. The cultural environment consisting of religion, science, art, and
literature is overgrowing. To it many sages in all ages have contributed. It
welds together all mankind. Underlying this cultural environment are three
eternal values which man can apprehend by his spiritual capacity. They are
“Truth, Beauty and Goodness”. To these three eternal values Iqbal adds a fourth,
viz: apprehension of God, having the eternal values as His attributes.
The Muslim philosophers, who
were under Aristotle’s influence, thought that God was in essence ‘Reason’,
another class held that He was the Highest Good, the Sumum Boman; and yet
another group regarded Him, as the one Supreme Beauty. The Neo-Platonic mystics
belonged to the last group, and Iqbal in the early period of his development
seems to be entirely under their influence. Latter on there wasa change in his
position and he came to regard Beauty as one of the ninety-nine Names of God
which denoted the different names of divine
shades.
Thus, following the
Neo-Platonic tradition he regarded Beauty as eternal; but later on he came to
regard it as the product of man’s experimentation and grappling with the stern
realities of life. In other words, the eternal values came to be regarded as the
creation of man in the course of his attempts to meet his own needs and to
overcome the difficulties in his way. His philosophy, thus, becomes humanistic
under the influence of pragmatic philosophy.
As an idealist, he lays
emphasis on the doctrine of self-realisation, which means the realisation of
divine attributes forming the essence of man’s nature and ultimately leading to
progressive socialism. That
is exactly what is meant by the holy Prophet’s tradition
تخلقو با خلاق اللہ;
i.e. create divine
attributes. Thus, the idealist goal of self-realisation is not egoistic. This
goal aims at the realisation of those values and attributes which are
essentially social and altruistic. The purpose of education is to help the
student in his self-realisation. As such, the task of any system of education is
to transmit to the individual the entire cultural heritage and to guide the
student in the continuous growth of his apprehension of the ultimate reality as
well as of the divine-attributes. The knowledge of his cultural heritage
enriches the individual self. The educator by his efforts assists the educant
who is developing his personality in accordance with the laws of his own nature
to attain levels that would otherwise be denied to him.
Thus, self-realisation means
consciousness of divine attributes which constitutes the very essence of man.
Such a self is also in union with the whole world and has realised the ultimate
value of such union, namely goodness, truth, beauty and unity of God (توحید).
Thus, education must be religious, moral, intellectual and aesthetic. In order
to produce a balanced and harmonious personality none of these aspects may be
neglected. Hence a man, who is perfect according to the idealist standpoint, is
identical with the self of the whole society.
Iqbal, thus, combines the
best of materialism and of spiritualism in his philosophy, and exhorts the
Individual to make full use of the physical aspect of education, which should
aim at physical fitness of the body and acquisition of necessary bodily skill.
According to him physical and spiritual are not sharply opposed to each other;
they
have a certain amount of
common ground. Iqbal, also considers mind and body as a single inseparable
reality and emphasises the need of intellectual, aesthetic and social values,
which must be pursued for the development of self.
Pragmatist Theory of
Education & Its Influence on Iqbal’s Thought Unlike the idealists pragmatists do
not believe in the existence of eternal values like “Beauty”, “Truth” and
“Goodness”. According to them these values have no prior existence; rather they
are created by man in the course of his attempts to overcome the difficulties in
his way. Pragmatism is essentially humanistic as it stresses the fact that there
are human purposes to be fulfilled and that philosophy is only a weapon which
helps in pursuing such aims. Since man is the measure of all things, pragmatism
stresses individual needs and their satisfaction for them. Again, since all
values arise in the course of man’s activity and since they are pursued only to
satisfy human needs and wants, pragmatism is essentially enterprising and
experimental in nature. The pragmatists deprecate any attempt on the part of the
educator to prescribe any specific goal for the education of the child. Life is
itself experimental. Therefore, there is no definite goal to which the child
must advance. Like naturalists they start with the child as it is. For them the
child, his physical and social environment and interaction between them are of
fundamental importance. However, they are more deliberate in their method than
the Naturalists. It is child’s nature to experiment with life. He should be
encouraged to do so because when he is face to face with new situations, he
develops new responses and attitudes. The pragmatists are not in favour of
giving the child a set course of study. They hold that true knowledge does not
consist in acquiring of a dead culture, particularly from books; rather, it
consists in developing skill that is useful to deal effectively with the
situations of real life. In other words, education consists in encouraging the
child to learn for himself through experimental creative activity. “Learning by
Doing” sums up the educational method of pragmatism. Human activities are more
important than school subjects. Instead of working at separate subjects, the
pupil is encouraged to draw freely upon all knowledge that is relevant to the
activity to which he happens to be engaged. Any study they undertake is
motivated by their desire to solve their own problems; it is viewed and valued
from the standpoint of its utility in dealing with such problems. Such a method
of education is the characteristic contribution of pragmatism and is called the
project method. The essence of this method is this: “the problem comes first and
learning is acquired in the course of its successful solution”.
Iqbal, while agreeing with
Dewy’s pragmatism and also with certain aspects of humanism does not confine the
utility of education to the material end; but rather comprehends the need of
spiritual aspect as well. While, Dewey tests everything including any idea,
hypothesis, faith or religion by the way it works, by the consequences; Iqbal,
on the other hand, tested the ideas by their conformity to the principles of the
development of self, often accepted on the authority of religion. Subsequently,
however, being influenced by the pragmatist philosophy, he brought
experimentalism to some extent in the realm of education and philosophy. He
believes in the equality of opportunity among mankind for full development of
every individual. Dewey is against idealism, which believes in universal and
unchanging values. He is opposed to Plato who believed in the world of ideas. In
his opinion the imaginary world tends to become the property of the leisured
classes who leave the phenomenal world or the actual world to the craftsman and
artisan and the slaves. Dewey’s published views are contained in his book namely
“Democracy and Education”, and “Reconstruction in Philosophy”. His influence
beginning with the modern educational field of Columbia University New York has
gradually extended to the Far East and Russia.
Iqbal shows indebtedness to
pragmatist philosophy. While under the influence of Neo-platonism (i.e. before
1908), he believed in the eternal values (Beauty, Truth and Goodness) and
despised the phenomenal world. Under his emancipated position, however, he
identified God with “Supreme ego” or “the eternal will”. Further, Beauty,
instead of being an eternal value came to be regarded as “only a quality of the
ego—in action; of the ‘will to power’, when it climbs to its heights. Ugliness
appears when ‘will to power’, the fountain of all life and all growth, runs
dry”.
Iqbal gives expressions to
these ideas in his following beautiful lines:
نمود
جسکی فراز خودی سے ھے، وہ جمیل
جو
ھو نشیب میں پیدا، قبیح و نا محبوب
مری
نظر میں یہی ھے جمال و زیبائی
کہ
سر بسجدہ ھوں قوت کے سامنے افلاک
“Glorious is he, who reveals
his identity through the attainment of self While, ugly and repugnant is he who
takes its birth in the lowest strata of being, Nothing but submission of heavens
to the dynamic power of self Constitutes elegance or beauty in my eyes”.
Thus, the essence of reality
as held by Iqbal is the will of the ego. His theory, therefore, ceases to be
idealistic. It, on the other hand, becomes atavistic. For, life according to
him, is essentially volitional and is definitely directed towards some end, the
end being spiritual rather than material.
Briefly, according to Iqbal,
the highest aim of education is to strengthen the individuality of all persons
so that they may develop their potentialities. Naturalists, on the contrary,
stress on adjustment to environment as the educational aim. Idealists emphasise
the development of personality and attainment of universal values. The
pragmatists hold progress and creation of human values as the goal of education.
Knowledge is the essence of education and is an indispensable means for it.
Obviously, adjustment to environment cannot be achieved without the knowledge of
the environment; nor appreciation of eternal values without the knowledge of
spiritual and cultural universe. Likewise, progress and creation of values are
empty cries without full knowledge of man and the world around him. Iqbal
contends that the essence of self is revealed only through intuition. Psychology
which regards self to be a mere flux of sensation and feelings and thoughts
fails to grasp an inner unity of self behind all the multiple experiences. In
order to apprehend the unity of self which is the pivot of all experiences,
Iqbal turns to the inner depths of our consciousness and has recourse to
intuition. He further holds that it is definitely not the aim of education to
yield one self to environmental forces; rather the real aim of education
according to him is to subjugate the material force. As he himself remarks that
if the time does not move in harmony with you, change the times:
زمانہ تو نسادزد تو با زمانہ ستیز
Thus, according to K. G.
Syedain:-
“No one can develop any
intelligent theory of education without consciously postulating some conception
of the nature of the individual to be educated, his relationship to the
community and, what may be called, his ultimate destiny. For, the essence of the
educative process, reduced to its most elementary terms, lies in the fact of a
living human organism being in constant interaction and contact with a vast and
complex environment, which keeps on changing and growing as a result of the
continuous, mutual intercourse. Like the philosopher the educator must
necessarily inquire into the nature of these two terms of his activity—the
individual and the Environment—which ultimately determine the solution of all
his problems”.
The naturalists stress, like
Iqbal, the development of human personality, but they seem to have no idea of
any goal for the education of the child. They only aim to give the child every
facility for growing in-to free, active, happy and well-adjusted human being.
They believe that when every one in the society has such a normal and free
growth of his personality, the society as a whole will progress,—thus individual
aim becomes identical with social aim.
Pragmatists, on the other
hand, do not look at the curriculum from the narrow view of utility. Their aim
is human progress and they look at education as the chief means of achieving it.
They stress the need of systematic experiments in school which should be based
on the present activities and interests of the child. The child’s experience
must be enriched so that he may be prepared for adult life. Thus Dewey’s
curriculum is based on child’s nature and life; and its material is selected
from different activities of real social life. In this way a child’s personality
is so enriched and so socialized that he not only develops a well-adjusted
dynamic personality but he also becomes an effective social unit contributing to
the democratization of the society.
Idealism approaches the
problem in an entirely different way. It concentrates not on the present
experiences of the child but on the experiences of the human race as a whole. In
the word of Ross, “It stands on the position that the purpose of the child is to
reflect civilization itself; the main purpose, therefore, of the course of
studies is to epitomise and organize, in representative fashion at least, the
capitalized experiences of race of which the child is a member”.
School studies must,
therefore, represent (a) what man does and strives to do. It ought to improve
the major crafts of mankind especially those which provide the fundamental needs
of food, clothing and shelter. This would involve the use of tools and learning
of the fine arts. The curriculum should also include (b) what man knows. This
must include literature, science, mathematics, history and geography. Finally,
the school must provide (c) man’s mode of feelings and their expressions in art,
poetry and music.
From the above it is evident
and abundantly clear that the idealists stress on such a school curriculum which
insures that the child would become a member of the human race in the real sense
of the word, possessing all that is valuable, imbued with the social and
spiritual traditions of the society and doing his best to carry humanity ahead
to the goal of realization of fundamental social values. Iqbal agrees partially
with the naturalism of Rousseu, with pragmatism of Dewey and with certain
aspects of humanism. He has reconstructed religious thought in Islam by
combining religion and science on the one hand and has bridged the gulf between
science and philosophy on the other. He has revolted against the old system of
Muslim education which he thinks has outlived its utility. He condemns
speculative attitude of philosopher and goes to the extent of subjecting Greek
thought to a scathing criticism and points out that the spirit of Greek
philosophy is opposed to Islam. Mere speculation, he maintains, can neither
afford to grasp the material world nor can it give us any definite knowledge of
the ultimate reality. Plato denied the reality of the phenomenal world, which
Iqbal affirms in his philosophical and educational thought. Almost all the
idealists are unanimous on the point that all cognition through the senses and
experience is illusory, and that only the ideas of pure reason constitute
reality. Iqbal positively holds that speculation without experience leads us
nowhere. For him no knowledge is possible without experience. In his own effort
at the reconstruction of religious thought in Islam he avails from modern
philosophy which is essentially empirical since Kant. The spirit of Islam, too,
is essentially empirical and lays special emphasis on the reality of the
phenomenal world. Consequently, according to Iqbal, experience is a necessary
source of knowledge and beyond the world of senses there is also a new horizon
of transcendent reality which the scientists have failed to comprehend. Iqbal
affirms the existence of God, the reality of the self, its freedom and
immortality and instead of confining knowledge to the empirical reality alone he
goes further and believes also in the intuitive reality. He vigorously holds
that empiricism and rationalism both have failed to reveal the true nature of
the finite or infinite self. This knowledge of self, according to Iqbal, is
therefore possible only through intuition. Thus, the intuition of the self then
gives us a point of departure from the rationalistic and empirical method of
enquiry and makes possible the divine knowledge of the supreme’s ego. This opens
a new avenue of knowledge for the affirmation of self and the existence of God.
Thus, it is rightly held by
Iqbal:
خودی ھو علم سے محکم تو غیرت جبرئیل
اگر ھم عشق سے محکم تو صور اسرافیل
He combines reason and
Intuition to attain a true vision and knowledge of self and, therefore, condemns
that knowledge which is not so characterized.
وہ
علم کم بصری جس میں ھمکنار نہیں
تجلیات کلیم و مشاھدات حکیم
God, according to Iqbal, is
a Supreme Ego and is characterised by eternal will. The finite ego can come in
personal communion with Him, without obliterating their own selves. He, thus,
starts with self-consciousness and passing through the consciousness of the
objective phenomenal world arrives at the infinite.
In view of his philosophical
concept it becomes abundantly clear that he is neither a humanist nor an
idealist nor a pragmatist in the strict sense of the term; he has rather his own
ideas on education based en his own concept of ideal life. The aim of education,
according to him, is to develop personality by activity, creativity and
originality, with a view to preparing man for the conquest of the material
forces of the universe and further the achievement of spiritual heights of man.
His conception of ‘individuality’ is, therefore, unique and is altogether
different from the conception held by the traditionists. “The individual” of his
conception is thoroughly “community minded man” who according to him will be the
voice of the society. Iqbal also stresses the need of a balanced development of
body and spirit and considers them indissolubly connected with each other. This
constitutes the crux of his philosophy. Dr. S. M. Abdullah, in his article on
Iqbal’s philosophy of education, maintains that the fundamental subject of study
according to Iqbal is “Din”, which includes science. Science should not be
considered merely “Knowledge gained by observation and experiment”, but it
should embody all “Knowledge based on truth”. Thus, Iqbal’s conception of
science is characteristically his own. Science, according to him comprises the
knowledge of Anfus (Lein) and Afaq (cyi91 ) i.e. the realm of the self and the
cosmos. Iqbal has also emphasised the study of history and is also an admirer of
“vital” literature and arts including architecture. He has, however, opposed
drama and theatre keeping in time with the general Muslim temper.
A comprehensive view of
Iqbal’s ideas about education would reveal that he has tried to reconnect the
broken links of the educational tradition of Islam. His emphasis on “anfus” and
“afaq” is, in a way, a restatement of the doctrines propounded, on one hand, by
Rumi, and, on the other, by Ibn Khaldun and later on by Shah Wall Ullah of
Delhi. His chief contribution to the educational ideology is the emphasis on
“din”, as the main subject of study.
Briefly, education,
according to Iqbal, is a means to an end and not an end itself. The end of
education being Islamic Ideology and Culture. It is through education that a
culture perpetuates itself. Since every system of education basically consists
of social ideals, norms, and values and is based on its specific culture, Iqbal
exhorts us not to imitate other nations. For this tendency of aping, according
to him, is suicidal. He therefore says,
اٹھا
نہ شیشہ گران فرنگ کے احساں
سفال
ھند سے مینا و جام پیدا کر
“Seek not the bounty of the
glass-blowers of the West Make your own cups and goblet from the clay of India”
تا کجا در تہ بال دگراں می باشی
در ھوائے چمن آرا در پریدن آسوز
“How long will thou abide
under the wings of others? Learn to wing thy flight freely in the garden of
breeze”.
In the following lines, he
criticizes those, who, having neglected their own system of education, have
adopted alien system of education.
علم
غیر آموختی اندوختی
روئے
خویش از غازہ اش افروختی
ارجمندی از شعارش می برید
من
ندانم تو توئی یا دیگری
عقل
تو زنجیری افکار غیر
در
گلوئے تو نفس از تار غیر
بر
زبانت گفتگو ھا مستعار
در
دل تو آرزو ھا مستعار
قمریانت را نواھا خواستہ
سروھا بت را قباھا خواستہ
باد
مے گیری بجام از دیگراں
جام
ھم مے گیری بدام از دیگراں
آفتاب ھستی یکے در خود نگر
از
نجوم دیگراں تا بے خبر
تا
کجا طوف چراغ محفلے
ز
آتش خود سوز اگر داری دلے
“You have learnt and amassed
knowledge of others and brightened your face with rouge borrowed from others.
You seek honour by aping the
manners of others.
I know not, whether you are
yourself or just ‘another self’
Your intellect is chained in
the thought of others;
The very breath in your
throat comes from the strings of others.
Borrowed speeches are on
your tongues;
Borrowed desires in your
heart.
Your canaries sing borrowed
songs;
Your Cypresses are clad in
borrowed mantles.
The wine in your cup—you get
from others;
The cup, too, you borrow
from others.
You are sun; look for once
into your own self.
Seek not your light from the
stars of others.
How long will you dance
around the candles of the Assembly?
Lit up your own light, if
you have a heart.”
Iqbal further makes a
fervent appeal for the adoption of ideological system of education, which is
purely Islamic. According to him culture and ideals of society should be the
guiding factors of our education. He therefore very aptly remarks
زندہ
فرد از ارتباط جان و تن
زندہ
قوم از حفظ ناموس کہن
مرگ
فرد از خشکی رود حیات
مرگ
قوم از ترک مقصود حیات
“Life of the Individual
depends on the relationship of the body
and soul.
Life of the nation depends
on the preservation of its tradition and
culture.
Individual dies if the
life-flow ceases.
Nation dies if the ideal of
life is spurned”.
Further, according to Iqbal,
the Islamic ideology which is the end of our education is the only means to
establish a balance between- in-dividualism and collectivism. He regards the
development of Individuality as the fundamental value, but does not ignore, at
the same time, the growth of social sense and collective responsibilities.
While, he holds that man must not loose his individuality in the social
collective, he also enjoins the Individual to subscribe to the social good.
There-fore an ideal system of education will always aim at the establishment of
balance between the development of Individuality and social consciousness of the
individual.
فرد
قائم ربط ملت سے ھے تنہا کچھ نہیں
موج
ھے دریا میں اور بیرون دریا کچھ نہیں
Individual exists by virtue
of his social contacts. He is nonentity without that association.
“He is like a wave in the
river and has no existence outside it. Again he says
فرد میگرد ز ملت احترام
ملت از افراد مے یابد نظام
“The Individual derives
dignity from his nation.
A “millat” is constituted
when the Individuals group together.
Iqbal, in his Letter to K.
G. Saiyidain explains his ideological conception of education:
“By ‘Ilm’ I mean that
knowledge which is based on senses. Usually I have used the word in this very
sense. This knowledge yields physical powers which should be subservient to
“Din” (i.e. the religion of Islam). If it is not subservient to Din then it is
demonic, pure and simple-It is incumbent on Muslims to Islamize knowledge.
“Abu Lahab should be
metamorphosed into Haiyder”. If this Abu Lahab becomes Haider-e-Karrar, or in
other words, if it i.e. (knowledge and power it wields) becomes subservient to
Din, then it would be an unmixed blessings into Mankind”.
Iqbal’s Educational
Philosophy P. 99 by K. G. Saiyidain.
This conception of education
is further elucidated by the author of Principles of Islamic Education in the
following lines:
“Thus the primary purpose of
education should be to imbue the students with their religion and ideology. They
should be taught the meaning and purpose of life, Man’s position in this world,
the doctrine of Tauheed (Unity of God), Risalah (Prophethood), Akhira (Life
here-after) and their bearing upon Individual and social life, the Islamic
values of morality, the nature and content of Islamic culture, and the
obligations and the mission of a Muslim. Education should produce men with
deep-held conviction about Islamic ideals of Individual and collective life”.
Islam, again, is positively
opposed to idealism and abstract thinking and so is Iqbal. Following this scheme
of education, he lays special emphasis on life-affirmation and the conquest of
the world. Education, according to him, should always aim at the development of
balance of the Individuality and the social consciousness of Individual.
Dr. Rafi-ud-Din,[*]
while accepting the view that Education is a process of Natural Growth, held
that man has a natural urge for this growth. This urge takes the form of love of
an ideal of the highest Beauty and perfection. He therefore very aptly remarks
that “love of the ideal is an independent urge of human nature which is neither
a product nor a servant of the animal instinct or the basic economic need of
man, but which on the other hand rules and controls his animal instincts and
basic economic needs for its own expression and satisfaction”.
He, further, subscribes to
the view that human nature is the only dependable guide to knowledge. For,
according to him, the end of education is determined by human nature or by the
natural qualities of human consciousness. These natural qualities of human
consciousness are identified by him with man’s urge to love an ideal of the
highest Beauty and perfection. He very aptly says that if a person’s ideal is
not perfectly good, beautiful and true, he is obliged to judge many actions
which are really right as wrong and many actions which are really wrong as
right. It is on account of his love with imperfect ideals that he makes
different judgments about what is just, virtuous, moral, good or true. Thus “the
justice, truth, morality, virtue, honesty, fraternity, equality or a liberty of
a man who believes in a wrong or imperfect ideal is very much different from and
very much inferior to the justice, truth, morality, virtue, honesty, fraternity,
equality or a liberty of a man who believes in a perfect ideals. The former is
forced by his love, unconsciously to interpret these terms narrowly and wrongly
and hence immorally and wickedly”.
He further maintains that
“the ideal being the generator of the deed and the creator of its value, the
deed is good or bad according as the ideal from which it results is good or bad.
Hence the character of a man who loves a wrong ideal is never really noble or
lofty. He thinks that no truth, no justice, no equality, no liberty and no
virtue is good enough which conflicts with the interests of his ideal. The
result is that he cannot express and satisfy completely his moral urge and
cannot grow educationally to the fullest extent. If, on the other hand, a
person’s ideal is perfectly good, beautiful and true, his moral action is of the
highest ethical standard. The reason is that, in such a case, his desire for an
ideal does not interfere with his desire for moral action for its own sake. Both
of these desires seek expression and satisfaction in the same direction. The
love of the ideal reinforces the desire for moral action and the desire for
moral action for its own . sake reinforces and strengthens the love of the
ideal, while both of them are seeking expression in the right direction. Each
helps the other to achieve its full expression and satisfaction”. (First
Principles of Education by Muhammad Rafiuddin P. 292-93).
To conclude, Love of God,
His qualities of perfection and Beauty is the innate urge of the child. The
educator must see to it that the innate urge of love is not diverted into the
channel of any other ideal and that his love for God actually determines his
action.
“Action is the test of love.
A person loves an ideal only to the extent to which he is able to act according
to its moral demand and no more. Only those moral judgments and moral actions
can be really moral and conducive to the perfect educational growth of an
individual which result from a sincere, unmixed and whole-hearted love of God”.
NOTES
[*]
See Dr. M. Rafiuddin, First Principle of Education, Iqbal Academy,
Karachi.
