Friday, September 21, 2012
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Surah Fatiha , Gayatri mantra and Aftaab
SURAH FATIHA (Quran)
Praise be to Allah
Lord of the Worlds, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
Master of the Day of Judgement!
You alone we worship,
and to You alone we look for help.
Guide us to the straight path,
The Path of those upon whom You bestowed favours,
not those who have invited Your wrath, nor those who have gone astray.
GAYATRI MANTRA (Vedas)
We meditate on the glory of the Creator;
Who has created the Universe;
Who is worthy of Worship;
Who is the embodiment of Knowledge and Light;
Who is the remover of all Sin and Ignorance;
May He enlighten our Intellect.
A sufi exposition of the Gayatri Mantra is here.
آفتاب
(ترجمہ گايتري )
اے آفتاب! روح و روان جہاں ہے تو
شيرازہ بند دفتر کون و مکاں ہے تو
باعث ہے تو وجود و عدم کي نمود کا
ہے سبز تيرے دم سے چمن ہست و بود کا
قائم يہ عنصروں کا تماشا تجھي سے ہے
ہر شے ميں زندگي کا تقاضا تجھي سے ہے
ہرشے کو تيري جلوہ گري سے ثبات ہے
تيرا يہ سوز و ساز سراپا حيات ہے
وہ آفتاب جس سے زمانے ميں نور ہے
دل ہے ، خرد ہے ، روح رواں ہے ، شعور ہے
اے آفتاب ، ہم کو ضيائے شعور دے
چشم خرد کو اپني تجلي سے نور دے
ہے محفل وجود کا ساماں طراز تو
يزدان ساکنان نشيب و فراز تو
تيرا کمال ہستي ہر جاندار ميں
تيري نمود سلسلہ کوہسار ميں
ہر چيز کي حيات کا پروردگار تو
زائيدگان نور کا ہے تاجدار تو
نے ابتدا کوئي نہ کوئي انتہا تري
آزاد قيد اول و آخر ضيا تري
Translation
O Sun! The world's essence and motivator you are
The organizer of the book of the world you are
The splendor of existence has been created by you
The verdure of the garden of existence depends on you
The spectacle of elements is maintained by you
The exigency of life in all is maintained by you
Your appearance confers stability on everything
Your illumination and concord is completion of life
You are the sun which establishes light in the world
Which establishes heart, intellect, essence and wisdom
O Sun! Bestow on us the light of wisdom
Bestow your luster's light on the intellect's eye
You are the decorator of necessaries of existence' assemblage
You are the Yazdan of the denizens of the high and the low
Your excellence is reflected from every living thing
The mountain range also shows your elegance
You are the sustainer of the life of all
You are the king of the light's children
There is no beginning and no end of yours
Free of limits of time is the light of yours
یہ نظم اگست 1902کے "مخزن" میں شائع ہوئ اور خود اقبال نے اس پر ایک طویل تمہید نثر میں لکھی تھی جس کا خلاصہ یہ ہے۔
یہ رگ وید کی ایک نہایت قدیم اور مشہور دعا کا ترجمہ ہے ۔۔۔
یہ دعا چاروں ویدوں میں مشترک ہے
یہ بتا دینا ضروری ہے کہ اصل سنسکرت میں لفظ "سوتر" استعمال ہوا ہے۔ جس کے ليے اردو لفظ نہ ملنے کے باعث میں نے لفظ "آفتاب" رکھا۔ اس سے مراد وہ آفتاب ہے جو فوق المحسوسات ہے اور جس سے یہ مادی آفتاب کسب ضیا کرتا ہے۔۔
ترجمے کی مشکلات سے ہر شخص واقف ہے لیکن اس خاص صورت میں یہ دقّـت اور بھی بڑھ گئ ہے – گایتری کے مصنف نے ٹینی سن کی طرح اپنے اشعار میں ایسے الفاظ استعمال کۓ ہیں ، جن میں حروف علّت اور حروف صحیح کی قدرتی ترتیب سے ایک لطیف موسیقی پیدا ہو جاتی ہے، اسے غیر زبان میں منتقل کرنا ممکن نہیں – اس مجبوری کی وجہ سے میں نے اپنے ترجمے کی بنیاد اس سوکت (گفتار زیبا) پر رکھی ہے جسے
سری نرائن
اپنشد میں گاتیری مزکور کی شرح کے طور پر لکھا ہے
مطالب اقبال ترجمہ و شرح مولانہ غلام رسول مہر
Friday, June 8, 2012
Psalms and Persian Pslams
Psalms Chapter 17 תְּהִלִּים
Friday, May 4, 2012
Seven Stages of Self Development
A Prayer and Two Preludes (Javed Nama)
In a flashback, we see the beginning of the world. The sky taunts the earth for being lightless, and the earth complains to God. A voice from across the skies answers it that from its clay would be created the human being whose light would outshine the stars of heaven. Angels sing a song about the impending glory of the human being.
In his own time, Iqbal is yearning for immortality. The spirit of Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi appears before him and says, “You should seek three witnesses on your existence. The first witness is you, yourself. The second is the consciousness of the other – to behold oneself through the other. The third witness is the light of God. If you can sustain yourself in the presence of God, then you can count yourself amongst the immortals.”
Zurvan, the angel of Time and Space, appears to reveal the mysteries of Miraj (the ascension of the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him). The world of Iqbal dies for him and he opens his eyes in a new world, where the stars are singing a song to welcome him above.
you can read chapters from the abridged edition
at the Republic of Rumi Website:(a) Prayer; (b) Prologue
SELF-DEVELOPMENT THROUGH IQBAL
First step in self-development would be to Start making efforts to develop your SELF at a very early age.
Second Step is to never rely on what you learn only from “what belongs to the old school, and try to discover a world as yet unknown.”
Third step = think of yourself as SOMEONE “whose light would outshine the stars of heaven. And Angels would sing a song about the impending glory of you.” Take aide from Characters like Khalid Bin Walid (R.A)
Fourth step could be to try to live an “immortal” life .i.e to live a life that is worth appreciation for Centuries. Like Allama Iqbal and many others.
Fifth step. Yes now you need a witness. “You should seek three witnesses on your existence. The first witness is you, yourself.(stay firm). The second is the consciousness of the other – to behold oneself through the other(win hearts). The third witness is the light of God (win HIM). If you can sustain yourself in the presence of God, then you can count yourself amongst the immortals.”
Sixth step. It is difficult !!! but it is possible . TO BREAK THE CHAINS OF TIME AND SPACE …..
Now how to do that. How to break This qayd e zamaan o makaan ?
Learn from Prophet (S.A.W)
Learn to pray five times a day properly. Namaz is the real tool which can teach us how to break this qaid e zamaan o makaan. NO Wonder that Prophet Muhammad (SAAW) was gifted with Namaz on completion of his ascension till ALMIGHTY.
We do not value this tool but nothing else is more beneficial than praying five times a day for real self-development. And this is only possible with the help of ZEAL OF LOVE FOR AL MIGHTY. When one cuts off him self form this world and stand right in front of God to have a word with him.
When people cannot disturb!
satan cannot corrupt!
and even angles cannot interrupt!
یا اللہ ہماری نماز کو ہمارا تصوّف ، ہمارا مراقبہ، ہماری معراج بنا دے ۔ آمین
!
شوق ترا اگر نہ ہو ميري نماز کا امام
ميرا قيام بھي حجاب ، ميرا سجود بھي حجاب
Seventh step is none other than selfdiscovery, that further leads to selflessness.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Khudi
کرن چاند ميں ہے ، شرر سنگ ميں
يہ بے رنگ ہے ڈوب کر رنگ ميں
these lines explain khudi very well
1. Kiran is the khudi of Chand / Moon
How much importance will anyone give to this dark blackheavenly materialistic body (MOON) if it was not illuminated by an immaterial factor? (Kiran)
KUdhi is exactly the same immaterial factor in human beings.With out khudi Human being are of no importance. Khudi is the light of imaan in insaan
2. Sharer (spark) is the khudi of sung (stone)
Again .. a stone would be of comparatively very less value , if it did not possess the power of igniting fire. Again this power is some immaterial factor in a materialistic stone.
Khudi is the spark of ishq ki agg in human heart.
بجھي عشق کي آگ ، اندھير ہے
مسلماں نہيں ، راکھ کا ڈھير ہے
3. يہ بے رنگ ہے ڈوب کر رنگ ميں
What is bay rang? its light . As we know this invisible light around us is made up of seven different colors knows as spectrum
Remember we studied in our school “ a ray of light can be seperated by using a prisim” Actual ray of light ceases to be original light after being separated. it can be called red light green light or yellow light but not the original light.
(view images)
Similarly if our khudi is bay rang it is the original light that is the united power of all colors. In other words, Khudi of a human ceases to be Khudi ,if it is divided on the basis of cast, color, status, sects, nationality or language.
More over,
I also remember playing with magnifying glasses to burn tree leaves. This happens because the convex lense of the magnifying glass unites all rays of light passing through it on one focal point. Focusing the suns rays on one focal point intensifies the heat energy in these rays that burns the leaf
If we succeed in uniting atleast only few people who bear Khudi in their wojood this will intensify their efforts and burn the enemy.
That’s why our enemies don’t want such bearers of khudi to be united , they use the ‘prisim of media’ to dissolve the original light of Khudi and project its different shades in order to cease its existence.
This is their plan but what about us .. have we sorted out what can we use as a 'magfnifying glass' that could unite a few hamil e khudi together on one focal point to burn our enemies like hell?
Our Prophet Muhammed (Sall Allah o Aleih e wa aalihe wasahbehi wa sallam) has set an example for us. let’s research how he succeeded in bringing 313 Such khudi bearers on one focal point and defeated the enemies.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Marghdeen " The world of Quran "
The Sphere of Mercury
Their second stop is the planet Mercury. Here they find the nineteenth century thinker Jamaluddin Afghani leading prayers to his disciple, Said Haleem Pasha. Afghani’s recital of Surah Najam opens the heart of Iqbal to universal archetypes.
They discuss religion and politics after the prayer. Afghani explains that the Quran contains many worlds as yet unborn. One of them would be sufficient for the modern age. This unborn world of the Quran is to be found in the hearts of the believers. Its four fundamentals are:
a. that the human being is God’s vicegerent on Earth;
b. that the only government worth obeying is the government of God, and not terrestrial tyrannies;
c. that all and belongs to God, and the wealthy are nothing but trustees of God who are obliged to use it for the welfare of the others;
d. and, knowledge is a virtue.
Optional: you can read chapter in the abridged edition
or follow links to original Persian text and translation
from the Republic of Rumi Website
Marghdeen
1
Mars is the fourth stop in the journey. The spirit of Rumi explains to Iqbal that the planet is the abode of a special breed which lives soulfully: while our hearts are contained in our bodies, the bodies of the Martians are contained in their hearts. Due to this, the Martians have attained a unity of thought. When the time comes for a Martian to die, he or she announces it happily a couple of days ahead.
The Martians are advanced in science as well as spirituality. An astronomer comes out of an excellent observatory and speaks with Rumi and Iqbal in Persian. He mentions a Martian who chanced to visit the earth in the days of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him). The he tells them that this alternate world came into being when their ancestor Barkhia refused Farzmurz (a Devilish figure unexplained in the story), who tried to tempt him with the promise of “a world about which God does not know and which is free from any restrictions of the religious law.” Since Barkhia resisted the temptation, God rewarded his descendants with Marghdeen, the model city which is now in front of Rumi and Iqbal.
Marghdeen is a magnificent city with tall buildings. Its people are beautiful, selfless and simple; they speak a language that sounds melodious to the ears. They are not after material goods; rather they are the guardians of knowledge and derive wealth from their sound judgment. The sole purpose of knowledge and skill in that world is to help improve the life. Currency is unknown, and temperaments are not to be governed by machines that blacken the sky with their smoke. The farmers are hardworking and contented – there are no landlords to plunder their harvest, and the tillers of the land enjoy the entire fruit of their labor. Learning and wisdom don’t flourish on deceit and hence there is neither army, nor law keepers are needed, because there is no crime in Marghdeen. The marketplace is free from the noisy shouts and heartrending cries of the beggars.
2
“In this world there is no beggar,” says the Martian astronomer, “Nor anyone is poor; no slave, no master – no ruler and thus none dominated.” When Iqbal asks him whether this is not a revolt against Destiny, the Martian replies:
“If you are suffering at the hands of destiny, it is not unfair to ask God for a new one. He has no shortage of destinies for you. Failure to understand the mystical significance of destiny has led the inhabitants of the Earth to lose their identities. Here is a hint to the secret of destiny: change yourself and your destiny will change with you. If you are dust, you shall be scattered by the wind. But if you become solid as a rock, you can break the glass. If you are dewdrop, then you are destined to fall but if you are an ocean, then you will remain. To you, faith means conformity to others while your imagination remains confined because you do not conform to yourself. Shame on the faith that serves like an addiction to opium! A gem is a gem as long as you think it is valuable, otherwise it is just a stone. The world will shape itself according to your perception of it. The heavens and the earth too will adjust.”
3
Perfect as it may seem, this world is still vulnerable to corruption. Farzmurz abducted a damsel from Europe, tutored her in his own ways and has now introduced her to the Martians. She teaches the mysteries of body and admonishes love. Rumi’s comment about her is: “See the outcome of a profane civilization. Love is the only divine code of life. Religion is the basis of civilization, and love, the foundation of religion. Love, apparently is heart burning and resembles fire but essentially it contains the light of God. The inherent energy of love and its zeal helps prosper art and literature. Religion is incomplete without the etiquettes of love. So discover religion in the company of the masters of love.”
I am comparing what I like about Marghdeen to the four fandamentals of Quran mentioned in the Sphere of Mercury or The world of Quran , By Jamal uddin Afghani.
·a ) that the human being is God’s vicegerent on Earth; (selfdiscovery sphere of moon )
Result = Marghdeen is an abode of a special breed which lives soulfully: while our hearts are contained in our bodies, the bodies of the Martians are contained in their hearts. (Sphere of mars)
·b ) that the only government worth obeying is the government of God, and not terrestrial tyrannies; ( Concensus; sphere of moon)
Result = Due to this, the Martians have attained a unity of thought. (Sphere of mars)
· d ) and, knowledge is a virtue. ( long term thinking; sphere of mercury)
Result = The Martians are advanced in science as well as spirituality. Its people are beautiful, selfless and simple; they speak a language that sounds melodious to the ears. They are not after material goods; rather they are the guardians of knowledge and derive wealth from their sound judgment. The sole purpose of knowledge and skill in that world is to help improve the life. Sphere of mars
·c ) that all belongs to God, and the wealthy are nothing but trustees of God who are obliged to use it for the welfare of the others; (Rise above yourself; sphere of venus)
Result = The marketplace is free from the noisy shouts and heartrending cries of the beggars. Currency is unknown, and temperaments are not to be governed by machines that blacken the sky with their smoke. “In this world there is no beggar,” says the Martian astronomer, “Nor anyone is poor; no slave, no master – no ruler and thus none dominated.” (sphere of mars)
This proves that World of Quran = Marghdeen
Perfect as it may seem, this world is still vulnerable to corruption ! (sphere of mars)
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Iqbal and Hawking
Hawking’s Concept of Time:
Hawking has striven to unite the philosophical and scientific concepts of time in his work. It is in this spirit that he has not restricted his study of time to its physical aspect only; he has also investigated the psychological aspect of time which in fact is the core of the reality of time. He theorizes that, “There are at least three different arrows of time”, namely,
Ø Psychological arrow of time “is the direction in which we feel time passes, the direction in which we remember the past but not the future”
Ø Cosmological arrow of time. , “the direction of time in which the universe is expanding rather than contracting”
Ø Thermodynamic arrow of time, “the direction of time in which disorder or entropy increases”,
The thermodynamic and cosmological arrows of time are essentially aspects of physical time, whereas the psychological arrow of time is rooted in human consciousness
Iqbal asserts that physical time (or clock time) is unreal time. He holds the opinion that psychological time is real time. For Iqbal, the secret of time does not lie in stars, moons, and galaxies; it lies within human consciousness. He does not reject the usefulness of serial time as he says, “a purely objective point of view is …. partially helpful in our understanding of the nature of time” (III. 76). But, to unravel the mystery of time we have to explore the inner recesses and various stages of our consciousness. He maintains, “The right course is a careful psychological analysis of our conscious experience which alone reveals the true nature of time” (III. 76). He very eloquently declares in Secrets of the Self:
Our Time which has neither beginning nor end,
Blossoms from the flower-bed of our mind.
He says in Gabriel’s Wing:
Our days are illusion, our nights are a dream;
A current of time in which there is neither day nor night.
In the almanac of love, besides the time that passes,
Are myriad other ages, untold and unnamed.
Two Points of Agreement between Iqbal and Hawking:
We can discover at least two main agreements between the approaches of Iqbal and Hawking. Both Iqbal and Hawking are found to have unanimity on the significance of holistic interpretation of reality.
Similarities
· We see a major agreement in Iqbal and Hawking; Iqbal wants “a single systematic view of reality” and Hawking admires those philosophers who explore “the whole of human knowledge.” In harmony with the above-mentioned statement, Hawking says, “If everything in the universe depends on everything else in a fundamental way, it might be impossible to get close to a full solution by investigating parts of the problem in isolation” (p. 12). In formulating his concept of time, Hawking himself has tried to consider the whole of human knowledge. In his, A Brief History of Time, he considers, for example, Kant and Augustine’s approaches to the problem of time. One can notice the impact of Zeno’s paradox of motion in Hawking’s analogy of arrow for the forward and backward movement of time. Thus we see that, he has not restricted his exploration of time to cosmological and thermodynamic arrows of time; he has also studied psychological arrow of time.· The second agreement between Iqbal and Hawking is that they both believe that psychological time is the time which is related to feeling. Pure time or real time, according to Iqbal is, “time as felt and not as thought and calculated” (II. 49). The psychological arrow of time, according to Hawking is, “the direction in which we feel time passes…….” (IX. 153).
Sectional Character of Hawking’s Approach:
Hawking hugely appreciates those who, in search of reality, considered the whole of human knowledge but he himself does not seem to be very successful to study Reality as one organic whole. Since Newton, scientists have created a gulf between mind and matter by the sectional study of nature. Hawking seems to have keenly noticed this bifurcation of mind and matter and has striven to bridge this gulf;
but in spite of his efforts to study Reality as one organic whole, the sectional character of his approach starts emerging.
We shall see that Hawking’s psychological arrow of time does not exist independently but is basically an effect of thermodynamic arrow of time. He does want the unity of mind and matter but he sees, so to speak, the shades of matter in mind also. In order to comprehend psychological arrow of time, he does not delve into the psychological states of human mind; instead, he says,
“I shall therefore discuss the psychological arrow of time for computers. I think it reasonable to assume that the arrow for computers is the same as that for humans” (IX. 155). It appears that by likening the psychological arrow of time for humans with the psychological arrow of time for computers he, in fact, reduces the real psychological arrow to mechanical arrow of time. On the one hand, Hawking says that the psychological arrow of time, “is the direction in which we feel time passes……….” while on the other hand, he equates the psychological arrow of time for human with the psychological arrow of time for computers. If psychological arrow of time, as Hawking says, “is the direction in which we feel time passes………..”, then computers should also be able to feel time passes or otherwise, I think, one cannot reasonably say, “I think it reasonable to assume that the arrow for computers is the same as that for humans.” Hawking’s time in fact is not time as psychologically and intuitively felt but rather time as mechanically and electronically remembered; this time can be remembered even by inanimate objects like computers and digital clocks that are totally devoid of consciousness. But the felt time which is the real time is organically united with consciousness and cannot be felt by computers or clocks.The sectional character of Hawking’s approach is revealed more when we investigate what he basically means by the arrow of time. He says, “an arrow of time, something that distinguishes the past from the future, giving a direction to time” (IX. 153). It means that Hawking implies that both physical time and psychological time are divisible in past, present and future, or at least in past and future, while in real time (that is psychological time) past is not distinguished from future; they are both organically and inextricably interpenetrated.
Hawking’s very concept of arrow of time as something that distinguishes the past from future is objectionable.
In fact, no time can legitimately be called psychological time if it is based on the division of present, past and future in three different times.
To explain this point I am referring only to Ouspensky, Augustine and Iqbal.
Ouspensky declares,
“The past and the future cannot not exist, because if they do not exist then neither does the present exist. Unquestionably they existsomewhere together, but we do not see them” (IV. 42). He adds, “The past and the future are equally undetermined, equally exist in all their possibilities, and equally exist simultaneously with the present” (IV. 45).
St. Augustine,
According to St. Augustine, the conception of past and present is not possible unless they are conceived in present. He identifies past with memory and future with expectation; memory and expectation are both present facts, so the past can not be distinguished from future. Augustine conceives, as Bertrand Russell has mentioned, three times, but they are essentially one: “a present of things past, a present of things present and a present of things future” (p. 352). They are one in present.
Iqbal
And let us now refer to Iqbal. Iqbal holds the opinion that, “Pure time, then, as revealed by a deeper analysis of our conscious experience, is not a string of separate, reversible instants; it is an organic whole in which the past is not left behind, but is moving along with, and operating in, the present. And the future is given to it not as lying before, yet to be traversed; it is given only in the sense that it is present in its nature as an open possibility” (II. 49). And the force that unites future with present and past is purpose. Iqbal gives a very cogent description of the role of purposes in the organic interpenetration of past, present and future. He says, “Purposes colour not only our present states of consciousness, but also reveal its future direction. In fact, they constitute the forward push of our life, and thus in a way anticipate and influence the states that are yet to be. To be determined by an end is to be determined by what ought to be. Thus past and future both operate in the present state of consciousness and the future is not wholly undetermined……” (II. 53).
To Iqbal, pure time, which belongs to a higher state of consciousness, is non-successional change, while physical time is, “a measure of non-successional change” (III. 77).
In the light of what we have discussed it appears that Hawking’s time is not psychological time; it appears that he has presented physicalim in the guise of psychological arrow. Thus, Hawking’s approach does not appear to be holistic. It is essentially scientific and sectional that presents psychological time as mechanical time.
Inadequacy of Hawking’s Essentially Scientific Approach:
Hawking’s mechanical psychology cannot be the equivalent of the free creative consciousness that human beings possess. Hawking says,
Ø “the psychological arrow is determined by the thermodynamic arrow” (IX. 153). This presentation of independent creative mind in the form of dependent mechanical matter seems to be the continuation of Newtonian bifurcation of mind and matter.
Hawking’s approach at the core, is in line with that of Newton’s and Darwin’s, in interpreting matter and mind in the mechanical terms and therefore does not fulfill the conditions of holism.
Iqbal
Let us see how Iqbal sees this approach; he says,
“The discoveries of Newton in the sphere of matter and those of Darwin in the sphere of Natural History reveal a mechanism. All problems, it was believed, were really the problems of physics. Energy and atoms, with the properties self-existing in them, could explain everything including life, thought, will, and feeling. The concept of mechanism – a purely physical concept– claimed to be the all-embracing explanation of Nature” (II. 41).
By declaring that psychological arrow is determined by the thermodynamic arrow, Hawking reduces the free creative consciousness to mechanical and artificial consciousness which is entirely dependant on the increasing or decreasing entropy of the universe. Hawking’s approach implies that human beings are no more than a very sophisticated form of automata; this approach does not offer deep insight into the reality of psychological time. To him, the consciousness can only accidentally grasp the reality of the physical world while the physical world determines the shape of the consciousness. Our point here is that mind (psychological arrow) is not determined by matter (thermodynamic arrow).
Iqbal pointed out, “To describe it (consciousness) as an epiphenomenon of the processes of matter is to deny it as an independent activity, and to deny it as an independent activity is to deny the validity of all knowledge which is only a systematized expression of consciousness” (II. 40-41).
All the investigations and conclusions of Hawking himself are the outcome of his creative consciousness. If he believes that the working of his consciousness is dependant on the operation of expanding or contracting external world on his mind then what is the foundation of the validity of his conclusions? In Hawking’s psychological arrow of time, man is ‘bound by the fetters of time’; in this concept of time every psychological activity becomes mechanical activity.
To exist in Iqbal’s real time is totally different; as he says, “To exist in real time is not to be bound by the fetters of serial time, but to create it from moment to moment and to be absolutely free and original in creation.
In fact all free activity is creative activity” (II. 50). Hawking’s essentially mechanistic approach denies the spontaneity of life. Iqbal’s objection to Hawking’s essentially scientific approach is more lucidly expressed in the following words:
Creation is opposed to repetition which is a characteristic of mechanical action. That is why it is impossible to explain the creative activity of life in terms of mechanism. Science seeks to establish uniformities of experience, i.e., the laws of mechanical repetition. Life with its intense feeling of spontaneity constitutes a centre of indetermination, and thus falls outside the domain of necessity. Hence science cannot comprehend life (III. 50)
Thus, Hawking’s concept of time is sectional and mechanical, which, contrary to true psychological interpretation, almost entirely avoids the subjectivity and heterogeneity of psychological time. In Hawking’s approach, time becomes a function of the space, whereas Iqbal thinks that time is like a boundless ocean in which the space is no more than a fish; and it is the human consciousness that is “spacious” enough to contain the sea of time. Iqbal declares in his verse:
This world of ours, stretched out infinitely,
Is drowned like a fish in the sea of Time.
But look into your mind, and you will see
The sea of Time contained in a small cup.
(Message from the East)
Conclusion:
In Hawking’s concept of time we find a comprehensive effort to formulate a holistic theory of time, but we discover that the spirit of his theory of time is scientific and sectional. His equation of the psychological arrow of time for humans to that for computers and then his hypothesis that psychological arrow is determined by thermodynamic arrow show the neglect of psychological analysis which is necessary to comprehend the reality of psychological time. In contrast to the time presented by the philosophers of time who have studied the psychological aspect of time, Hawking’s psychological time is embedded in matter. Iqbal’s concept of time reveals the sectional character of Hawking’s approach that, in fact, is based on physicalism that presents the creative psychological arrow as mechanical arrow of time. To grasp the reality of psychological time what is needed is the analysis of dynamics of mind and not the subtle transformation of mind into matter.
Allama Iqbal states
“ we must not forget that what is called science is not a single systematic view of Reality. It is a mass of sectional views of Reality ___ fragments of a total experience which do not seem to fit together. Natural Science deals with matter, with life and with mind; but the moment you ask the question how matter, life and mind are mutually related, you begin to see the sectional character of the various sciences that deal with them and the inability of these sciences, taken singly, to furnish a complete answer to your question. In fact the various natural sciences are like so many vultures falling on the dead body of Nature, and each running away with a piece of its flesh” (II. 41-42)
excerpts from
Iqbal’s Idealist Critique Of Hawking’s Materialist Concept of Time
By Asad ShahzadIQBAL REVIEW
April 2008– Volume: 49– Number: 2
Journal of the Iqbal Academy Pakistan
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