Realms Of Spiritual Thought: Iqbal’s Concept Of Selfhood ‘Khudi’ Encompassing Youth’s Ideology

Khudi-Iqbal’s concept of selfhood and self-esteem shows great depth of conscience, perspective, and feelin

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Nov, 2023) Khudi-Iqbal’s concept of selfhood and self-esteem shows great depth of conscience, perspective, and feeling.

This word is translated to selfhood - in urdu and Persian is a principle thought outlined in the impressive writings, poems, and philosophic thoughts of Allama Muhammad Iqbal.

Dr Allama Muhammad Iqbal is one of the founders of Pakistan, who submitted the concept of khudi - including self-respect, self-reliance, self-preservation, self-confidence, and even self-assertion -, experts told APP on Thursday, in connection with Iqbal Day.

Mian Iqbal Salahuddin, son-in-Law of Allama Iqbal told APP that Iqbal was an outstanding poet-philosopher, perhaps the most influential Muslim thinker of the twentieth century.

Allama Muhammad Iqbal is rightly considered the poet of the East, he said. He influenced the thought, the history, and the lives of the people of the Sub-continent to a great extent to mature their multi-dimensional thought, Salahuddin said.

With his powerful poetry, written in the classical style for easy and public recitation, Iqbal introduced the concept of Khudi and led Muslims to rethink their standing in the world, he said.

He was deep in the realms of spiritual thought drawing great inspiration from Jalal-ud-Din Rumi, he said.

To a query, Salahuddin said that Iqbal’s philosophy, showed the influence of Muslim thinkers such as al-Ghazali and Rumi as well as Western thinkers such as Nietzsche and Bergson.

Director of the Institute of Urdu Language and Literature, Oriental College, University of the Punjab, Prof. Dr. Muhammad Kamran said that Iqbal read with the sensitivity of a poet and the insight of a mystic.

The great Iqbal’s philosophy is known as the philosophy of Khudi or Selfhood.

To Iqbal, human beings are not mere accidents in the process of evolution, Kamran said, adding, according to Iqbal, the cosmos exists in order to make possible the emergence and perfection of the Self.

The purpose of life is the development of the Self, which occurs as human beings gain greater knowledge of what lies within them as well as of the external world, he added.

Iqbal’s philosophy of Khudi is essentially a philosophy of action, and it is concerned primarily with motivating human beings to purposefully strive to actualize their God-given potential and hidden insight to the fullest degree, Dr Kamran said.

Noted intellectual, critic, and poet Mansoor Afaq said the greatest tribute to his stature among poets is that even to this day, poets, researchers, academicians, and scholars of Urdu, Persian, poetry, and philosophy, the world over, simply can not approach his works except with the deepest of admiration and awe at the depth of his insight and thoughts.