Existentialism began in the 19th century and became prevalent in Continental philosophy, so a few dominant themes and modes of thought, particularly around the question of embodiment and Selfhood, which pervade these existential philosophies must be seen in juxtaposition with the profound insights of Allama Iqbal.
First, the rejection of the Cartesian duality of mind and body is present not only in Iqbal’s thought but is shared by both atheistic existentialists like Merleau-Ponty and Sartre and ethico-religious existentialists like Kierkegaard and Marcel. Existentialists regard the human individual as both mind and body. They do not, however, view him as the Cartesian res cogitans– a body plus mind- but rather, as a dynamic unity. To exist is to be embodied and human existence is none other than this relation between embodied consciousness and the world.
In the Gulshan-i-Raz-i-Jadid (New Garden of Mysteries), Iqbal writes,
Tan-o Jan Ra Do Ta Guftan Kalamast
Tan-o Jan Ra Do Ta Deedan Haramast
To talk of body and soul as two separate entities is hardly true,
To see them as two things is a sin.
Existentialists generally dismiss as unintelligible any ontological notion of a consciousness apart from the body or which takes the body as its object. Marcel cautions that any reference to our bodies ought not to be construed as a relation of possession. For my body is not an object; it is not something which is other than myself in the way that the external world is.
The body is in fact the frame of reference around which the world is organized and which allows consciousness to pursue its concrete possibilities with respect to its projects and movements. The body is lived and experienced as the context and medium for all human strivings. Echoing this sentiment, Iqbal believes that the mind or nafs is the pure act while the body is only the act become visible. He quotes the following from Rumi:
Bade az ma mast shod, na ma azu
Qaleb az ma hast shod, na ma azu
It is not we that get intoxicated through wine; rather the wine which gets intoxicated through us.
It is not we that live through body; the body receives life through us.
For humanist existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre, the body is experienced as a mode of becoming. In Being and Nothingness he contemplates whether consciousness has any discrete ontological status apart from the body. He concludes that the body is co-extensive with personal identity (it is a “perspective” that one lives). Expressing a view not dissimilar from Iqbal’s, Sartre declares that consciousness “exists” its body.
Furthermore, for Iqbal, the Self is not a concept or a thing, but rather a dynamic process through which the soul becomes embodied. In the Javed Namah he points out that the dualistic picture of soul and body is only an illusion created by language:
You say that body is the receptacle of soul.
Don’t be foolish; consider the soul’s secret; tangle not with the body.
It is not a receptacle; it is a state of the soul
To call it its vehicle is a confusion of terms.
Thus the body, for Iqbal, is a mode of Reality and as such is necessary. Matter is in truth spirit, only in space-time reference. He writes in the Reconstruction that “The unity called man is body when you look at it as acting in regard to what we call the external world; it is mind or soul when you look at it as acting in regard to the ultimate aim and ideal of such acting.” And from Zabur-i-Ajam we see Iqbal point out:
Be jan pushide ramz-e qa’inat ast
Badan hale z ehval-e hayat ast
The secret of the universe is concealed in the soul,
The body is merely one of its modes of expression.
To Kierkegaard “spiritlessness is the misfortune of man.” This stagnation of spirit is the real cause of hopelessness, and what he refers to as “the sickness unto death”. Similarly, Iqbal too believed that “in the life of the spirit there is no standing still”
The project of existentialism is to reach an authentic existence, to recognize forms of “bad faith” and foster personal authenticity. Religious existentialism assumes it is a true relationship with God which makes the individual an existent being, since reality itself is spiritual and Life and Self cannot be split along the Cartesian plane. Kierkegaard, for instance, defines the self as a synthesis of the temporal and eternal; we are not only finite psychical beings but also spiritual beings who become most fully ourselves in relating to the God who created us. Melancholy, despair, anguish and boredom are all manifestations alienation from God. In all forms of despair the individual is alienated from his real self and that Self can be attained only when it relates itself to its creator. In Armaghan-e-Hijaz (Gift of the Hejaz), Iqbal writes:
To ham misl-e man az khud dar hijabi
Khank roze ke khud ra baz yabi
You too like me are concealed from yourself. Lucky will be the day when you discover yourself.
For existentialists, self-estrangement ultimately results from a loss of will and vitality and its result is inaction. To Iqbal, however, the main purpose of the Quran is “to awaken in man the higher consciousness of his manifold relations with God and the universe.” Therefore it is essential man regain his true spiritual self and thus his freedom and creativity.
In one major respect, however, atheistic existentialism differs from Iqbal’s thought, on the question of the origin of the Self. For Sartre, “man finds himself thrown into existence” while human life itself is absurd. And how could it be otherwise, without belief in God? Life and freedom are equally purposeless and both the world and our existence are without justification.That absence of meaning why, to Sartre, the human condition is sunken in anguish. But Iqbal draws his inspiration from the Qur’an, which asserts,
“We have not created the heavens and the earth and whatever is between in sport: We have not created them but for a serious end: but the greater part of them understands it not.” (44:38)
To Kierkegaard boredom and melancholy are universal conditions of existence and in fact spiritual ailments. Ultimately there is no escape except through faith. Iqbal believes that life is purposive and has specific ends to fulfill. He elaborates in the Reconstruction that “To live is to shape and change ends and purposes and to be governed by them. Mental life is teleological in the sense that, while there is no far-off distant goal towards which we are moving, there is a progressive formation of fresh ends, purposes, and ideal scales of value as the process of life grows and expands.”
Similarly Kierkegaard stressed constant striving. He claims that the dynamic character of existence is manifested in the unique individual who strives to exist as an authentic person. Existence, therefore, truly belongs to one who strives for it. To Kierkegaard “spiritlessness is the misfortune of man.” This stagnation of spirit is the real cause of hopelessness, and what he refers to as “the sickness unto death”. Similarly, Iqbal too believed that “in the life of the spirit there is no standing still”.. In Payam-e-Mashriq (Message of the East) he proclaims,
Zindagi-e rahravaan dar tag o taz ast o bas
Qafela-e moj ra jade o manzel koja ast?
Life is constantly on the move, struggling and marching on its way, and that is all.
Can you imagine any destination or goal for the caravan of waves of the ocean?
And again in Bal-e-Jibreel he affirms:
Har ek muqam se aage muqam hai tera
Hiyat zauq-e safar ke siva kuch aur nahin
Your destination is beyond any destination;
Life is nothing but a desire for an unending journey.
To Kierkegaard, to be lost in spiritlessness is “the most terrible thing of all”. Iqbal cautions against this state of “conscious inertia” and ghaflat. Ultimately, to Iqbal, spiritlessness is equivalent to non-existence- an existential condition he greatly bemoaned, as we conclude with these verses:
Tan-e Bey Rooh Say Bezar Hai Haq
Khuda-e Zinda Zidoon Ka Khuda Hai.
God is fed up with spiritless Body
He is the living God and is God of the living.
