This article is also available in:
Italiano
One of the most incredible books I have ever read; “The heavenly poem” by Muhammad Iqbal will take us beyond Good and Evil, in that legendary “field” mentioned by Rumi who, not surprisingly, will be his companion on this journey
“Javid Nama” by Muhammad Iqbal
Rumi: “Love means assault on the Without Place, it means fleeing the world without having seen the grave! The power of Love does not draw on wind, earth or water, its robustness does not come from the hardness of the nerves. Love conquered Khaibar with a barley bread, Love produced a crack in the body of the moon!
He broke Nimrod’s skull without a blow, defeated Pharaoh’s army without war. Love is in the soul like sight in the eye: it knows how to see both inside and outside. Love is both ash and spark, it works beyond religion and science. Love is sovereign and Evident Evidence, both worlds are under its royal orders.
It is beyond Time, and yesterday and tomorrow derive from it; it is without place, and the high and the low come from it. When he asks God for the strength of the Self, the whole world becomes a steed that he rides. It is he who best manifests the importance of the heart, it is he who renders the attraction of this old falling palace in the world vain.
“”Javid Nama” by Muhammad Iqbal
Muhammad Iqbal
From the back of the book: “Muhammad Iqbal, considered by Pakistanis the antithesis and announcer of the state of his own state, born as a solution to the secular confessional problems that troubled India. But Iqbal is also one of the most remarkable poets of the modern subcontinent Indo-Pakistani; and besides being a philosopher, he was perhaps the only one among the modern Muslim philosophers reforming vitalistic and irrationalistic tendencies, tendencies that he had absorbed through a rethinking of his traditional Indo-Muslim culture and a profound knowledge of European contemporary philosophy .
Graduating at the beginning of the century in Cambridge and Munich, he knew western thought as few of his co-religionists. Admirer of Dante, Milton and above all Goethe, he imitated their ultramundane journey in the Celestial Poem in new forms. The importance of Iqbal, who in moments of grace, when the new content manages to shape itself together with the delicate traditional form, knows how to be a very high poet, is above all in this “duplicity”: a good Muslim and at the same time interpreter of Islam in revolutionary forms and modern, traditional poet and at the same time a singer of the infinite Ulysses possibilities of man, revolutionary in content, but conservative in form. All this makes it one of the most original personalities not only of India and Pakistan, but of all modern Islam. ”
“Beyond Good and Evil there is a field, I will wait for you there”
AMAZING. In this case it really touches to use this adjective for what, most probably, is the most beautiful work I read this year and one of the most beautiful ever. Muhammad Iqbal continually manages to merge elements belonging to completely different areas and places with astounding skill, showing how much their beauty grows in union, managing only then to become perfection. The text is inspired by Miraj, literally transforming itself into the “field” to which Rumi alluded in his legendary verse.
It is no coincidence that the Sufi mystic himself will accompany the poet on this celestial journey, in which he will literally go beyond Good and Evil, meeting some of the most incredible figures in the Islamic and non-Islamic world (among the great honored there is even Nietzsche). With this text Muhammad Iqbal draws the reader on very deep journeys within himself and faith, bringing reflections worthy of his companion. A book to have absolutely and, if not found, it deserves a thorough research for its immeasurable intellectual value; Bausani’s translation is certainly one of the keys to enjoying this work to the fullest. In the coming days we will deepen some of its contents in detail, do not miss it.
Follow us on our facebook page, Spotify, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram, or on our Telegram channel. Ogni like, condivisione o supporto è ben accetto e ci aiuta a dedicarci sempre di più alla nostra passione: raccontare il Medio Oriente.
