Iqbal’s concept of Ego
Allama Iqbal was the greatest philosopher poet of the modern era. In
his famous poetic work Asrar-e-Khudi, Iqbal gave his concept of Self and Ego.
According to Iqbal, the whole universe obeys the will of the “Self”. He condemns
self-destruction. For him, the aim of life is self-realizing and self-knowledge. The
significance of the Self in an individual is that it is the source through which one
can bring oneself closest to the Ultimate Self. Iqbal calls Ego (Khudi) the highest
form of the self in which the individual becomes a self-contained exclusive centre.
Physically as well as spiritually, man is a self-contained centre, but he is not yet a
complete individual. According to Iqbal,
“The greater his distance from God, the less his individuality. He who comes
nearest to God is the completest person”.
According to Iqbal man is the care-taker of all possibilities of life; (in a
verse he says: ‘Tiree fitrat ameen hai mumkinat-i zindgani Ki,’
(Your nature is care-taker of the possibilities of life).
In fact the human being is the master of both the seen and the unseen as well as
capable of exploring what is still not known to the temporal eye. It is one’s self
which is capable of seeing and doing what apparently looks a miracle. The self in
an individual is speculative and also possesses a sharp insight that sees the
whole. It sees not merely the observable part of an object but the whole of it.
There are signs of God’s existence everywhere in the universe even in man
himself. God says to us:
“ON EARTH AND IN YOURSELVES, THERE ARE SIGNS FOR FIRM BELIEVERS. CAN
YOU NOT SEE?”
Therefore man has to understand himself first in order to have an understanding
of the ultimate self i.e. God.
According to Iqbal,
“The Ego is fortified by love (Ishq)”.
Iqbal has used this word in the sense of the desire to assimilate, to absorb. Its
highest form is the creation of values and ideals and the endeavor to realize
them. Love individualizes the lover as well as the beloved. This means that love is
the foundation material of every thing including self-knowledge. Iqbal says in
Asrar-e-Khudi:
“Love is the foundation of life, Love is the flashing sword of death.
The hardest rocks are shivered by love’s glance.”
According to Iqbal, the Ego has to pass through three stages to attain uniqueness:
1 – Obedience to the law
2 - Self control which is the highest form of self-consciousness and Ego-hood.
3- Divine vicegerency
This divine vicegerency (niyabat-e-ilahi) is the third and last stage of human
development on earth. The na’ib is the vicegerent of God on earth. He is the
completest Ego, the goal of humanity, the acume of life both in mind and body; in
him the discord of our mental life becomes a harmony. And this highest power is
united in him with the highest knowledge
