Iqbal and Goethe

Faust By Goethe

The playwright comes to a compromise with the stage director for presenting something entertaining as well as thoughtful: Faust, a tragedy in two parts.

The play opens in Heaven where the Devil, as Mephistopheles, lays wager with God that the pious Doctor Faust shall end up in hell. On earth, Faust agrees to give his soul to Mephistopheles in exchange for a moment so fair that Faust should wish it to last.

This is difficult because Faust is insatiable. He ends up seducing his beloved Margaret a.k.a. Gretchen and ruining her life (although her soul is still saved by Divine Grace). He summons the spirit of Helen of Troy, provides advice to monarchs and goes on to launch voyages of discovery which unfortunately turn into colonialism – "then commerce, war and piracy are three in one and cannot be parted."

Undeterred, Faust makes plans for reconstructing the world as a veritable paradise free of violence. Mephistopheles gets his chance of claiming the soul of Faust when Faust declares that such shall be the moment to which he might say, "Abide, you are so fair" However, Mephistopheles loses the wager because Faust only declared his intention of wanting a moment to last but such a moment did not actually arrive.

 The Conquest of Nature
(تسخیر فطرت )  By Allama Iqbal

To Read or understand  تسخیر فطرت  please click the link below

http://www.marghdeen.blogspot.com/2011/06/21-birth-of-adam.html

 

Comparision and Contrasts

 

The conquest of Nature and Faust are basically identical due to following reasons

This information about creation of Adam and how it took place in heaven is something that is stored in the subconscious of every human mind. Human is always curious to know about how he came into existence and takes aid by either personal subconscious memory or Devine books. Therfore many wrtiters including Iqbal and Goethe tried to express it in words in their own style.

Similarities

•Human wins Satan looses
•Satan tempts human slips
•Human works hard to attain peace. Satan works on the contrary.
•Both confirm thirst of knowledge in human being
•Both confirm love of God in human being

Contrasts.

The conquest of nature

•Characters are well known (Adam and satan) To Religious and general public.

•Temptation was not lust or greed but Eternity, longing and passion

•Personification of characteristics love, nature, beauty , desire etc

•Inspired from Quran except ending.

Faust

•Characters are confined just to DR. Faust, Mephistopheles, Margaret and Helen of Tory known to people only who studied European literature or ancient Greek mythology

•Temptation was lust and greed

•Personification of characteristics love, nature, beauty , desire etc .This kind of personification is absent here(as per my knowledge)

•Inspired from Bible to some extent

In short what I feel is Iqbal’s vision is more pure and divine than that of Goethe.