Dante and
Iqbal (JR123)
Introduction
Iqbal’s Javidnama is widely considered his
most important poetic work. There is also a perception that the work is
inspired by Dante’s epic poetry, Divine Comedy. This perception is not without
foundation. This is however, not all that there is to this perception, as there
are similarities between the two works but there are much more differences
between the two works, the differences are
of an nature that suggest that these two works be considered separately
on their merits . That Dante was deeply engrossed in Muslim thought and
believes and Iqbal was also deeply impressed by Western philosophy, poetry and
thought do complicate the joint analysis of these two works. Iqbal’s work
differs both in the intent of the journey described and also the journey itself
is not at all akin to each other
Background
The
idea of tackling such a work had occurred to him in his early student days,
when he somewhat ambitiously stated that he would like to write a book in the
style of Milton’s Paradise
Lost. This initial project was, perhaps fortunately, abandoned, and
eventually it was Jalāl-al-Din Rumi who became one of his most profound
influences. He was also greatly impressed by his reading of Dante. Much later,
when writing to a friend about future possibilities, he remarked that he
intended to produce “a kind of Divine Comedy in the style of Rumi’s Maṯnawi (Maktūbāt-i
Iqbāl, ed. Sayyid Nazir Niazi, Karachi, 1956, p. 300), and this is
exactly what the Jāvid-nāma
turned out to be. In its form, at least, the lengthy maṯnawi, which contains almost 4,000
verses, owes much to these two medieval poets, by whose works Iqbal was greatly
inspired
Iqbal
in all probability utilized the form and format of the Divine Comedy .there are
similarities between The Javidnama and The Divine Comedy It may also be inferred that the idea of compiling such a book may
have struck Iqbal, after studying the
memorable book of Miguel Asin on the subject, the first English Edition of
which had already appeared in 1926, and become very popular among the Muslim
intellectuals of the time. However, we know on the authority of the late
Chaudari Muhammad Husain, a disciple and trusted associate of Allama Iqbal—(who
wrote an article on JavidNama soon after it was published) that the Allama had
always in his mind a book on the mysteries of the Miraj of the Holy Prophet,
till in 1929 he decided to compile the present work JawidNama (see
Nairang-i-Khayal, Annual Number 1942, pp. 108). In any case, Dante's work may
have been taken as model by Iqbal.
Similarities
The
basic scheme of the work is the same and the general outline is the same, e.g.:
(1) the starting point (an incident in the D.C. (Divine Comedy), missed track
in a Jungle), (2) sudden appearance of a guide (Rumi in the case of the Jawid
Nama., and Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro dates October 15, 70 BC – September 21, 19
BC usually called Virgil or Vergil in English, was an ancient Roman
poet of the Augustan period.
He wrote three of the most famous poems in Latin literature:
the Eclogues
(or Bucolics), the Georgics,
and the epic Aeneid.
A number of minor poems, collected in the Appendix
Vergiliana, are sometimes attributed to him) in the case of the
D. C., (3) Ascension of both poets stage by stage, according to the
Astronomical (or theological) arrangement, (4) Interviews with several men or
personalities in Hell and Heaven, (5) Various kinds of torments and tortures
and rewards to the sinners and the righteous men respectively, (6) description
of several places providing an atmosphere to each situation (rivers of gold and
silver, mountains covered with snow, landscape, characters and mythological
figures and several other things.
Differences
The intent of Iqbal’s journey could be
described as the rage of a man conscious of his limitations when placed in
front of the infinite; of impotent man who will not be satisfied with anything
less than the omnipotence of man shut in by high walls who aspires above All. Iqbal
asks Rumi ( the great mystic Persian poet of the thirteenth century , who is
numbered as the greatest mystics of all times ) as to how to get to the
presence of God. This is a journey of a man of faith who now seeks the
knowledge of the ultimate reality, he seeks help form the greatest Islamic sufi
thinkers of all times and wishes to find the alternate route to seek the truth
of the ultimate reality, this journey is not to reaffirm his faith, he already
has that but wishes to go to a level here just faith cannot carry him. The
purpose of Dante’s journey is quite different; he wishes to purify himself so
as to be able to arrive at a contemplation of God. This is quest to attain
perfect faith, in a sense Iqbal’s journey starts form where Dante’s ends.
Iqbal's work is almost
original in approach as also in the architecture of his story. . Dante
takes deeper interest in the spiritual conversion of the individual on theological
basis of the Catholicism, in vogue in the 14th Century, A. D., Iqbal is more
concerned with the metaphysical questions of his own age, and political
questions of the Muslim world during the twentieth century.
The
age of Dante was that of scholastic rationalism as expounded by St. Thomas
Aquinas but Iqbal belonged to the age of Science, Mathematics and
Space—Physics. While Dante insists on the identity of Religion and Reason,
Iqbal emphasizes the unity of spirit and Matter, hence of Religion and Science.
So, the interpretation of Reality is different in both cases.
In
a sense, we come across two different voices while going through the texts of
these two poets. In Dante, we have a Christian voice while in Iqbal, we find a
Muslim voice expressing ideas, characteristically Muslim.
For
Iqbal Ascension to the Divine Sphere (معراج) is not an
unfamiliar phenomenon because every Muslim believes in Miraj (ascension) and! sea
(nocturnal journey) of the Holy Prophet. Iqbal refers to the idea of of the
Mi'raj in the first section of the book. He thereby suggests that ascension of
man to the Divine Sphere was not impossibility. No doubt, Iqbal's view of Miraj
apparently does not strictly conform to the traditional belief, and he
interprets Miraj as a change or revolution in consciousness but this is his
interpretation. The case of the Holy Prophet is quite different and specific as
we shall see later.
Here
we have two different tempers. Generally speaking Dante is always seen
frightened, depressed, terrified, confused and panic-stricken throughout his
heavenly journey, while Iqbal even in a very grave situation looks calm and
composed, although enthusiastic and eager to know more. Again, Dante is too
much submissive, even timid. When he accompanies his guide he puts very few
questions, and when he has ever the courage of asking about anything, he is
snubbed and is satisfied with one or two casual remarks of his guide. As
against this, Iqbal is very inquisitive, goes deep into delicate questions,
and, in most cases argues with `heavenly personalities', nay even with his
Guide.
Nama begins with Muaajat (prayer in Quietude or whispering with the Lord, in
which the poet expresses his craving for a vision of Reality. Here Iqbal's
approach is positive. His passion for Higher Knowledge is intense. In such a
state of Mind, he prays that he may be granted light, yet more light.
Dante's
attitude throughout his journey smacks of his conviction in the Christian idea
of the `original sin', whereas Iqbal's idea of human dignity and glorious
destiny is based on God's declaration on the eve of Adam's mission to earth
that Man is going to be the Deputy of God on earth and has a great future.
There is no guilt complex, no indication of inferiority, no wavering, and no
defeatism. In a section of the Jawid Name, there is an assurance from the
Angels about the superiority of Man (of Naghma-i-Mala'ik—the Song of the
Angels), after which the great Rumi appears on the scene with a surer and more
confident voice. Those interested may examine the Canto in the D. C. regarding
the emergence of Virgil who exhorts the Poet (Dante) to proceed under the lure
of Poet's beloved Beatrice idealized by him (Dante).
Here
we find the two poets on two different planes. While Ideal Love is the chief
motive with Dante, with Iqbal it is love for the knowledge of Reality which is
the main motivating force. Another great difference between the two poets lies
in their treatment of the super-natural element as a means of the development
of the story, In Dante, this element is very strong He creates an atmosphere
completely flouting the law of probability. He wishes his reader to believe
what is not believable. He carries his reader through his undoubtedly superior
power of description and delineation which captures the imagination not
allowing him to ponder rationally. However, Iqbal does not lose his rational
sense under any situation. In most difficult situations necessitating the
intervention of the super-natural element, his regard for the law of causality
and probability never fails him. For instance, if we compare the episode of the
Heavens, appearance of the suburbs of the inferno in the D. C. and of reaching
the lower limits of the sphere of the Moon in the JN., we will at once find
that while Iqbal's approach is gradual and almost natural and therefore
intelligible, Dante's approach is sudden like a jerk. Iqbal passes through the
various stages methodically : for instance, after the first prayer there is (1)
Tamhid-i-Asmani, (2) the Song of the Angels, (3) Tanshid-i-Zamini, (4) Rumi's
Appearnce and sudden emergence of Zarwan—(the Higher spirit controlling time
and space—and then enterance of the two poets) (the Guide and the Disciple)
into the Afiak-i- Falak-i-Qamar, Falak-i-Utarad, Falak-i-Zuhra and so on : All
this process is gradual and therefore credible.
But
in Dante, in the 3rd canto (of the Inferno), Caronte refuses to
take poets further, a severe whirlwind takes over, an earthquake sets in along
with lightening and lashing winds. Here Dante falls down unconscious. But after
a thunder, when he regains his consciousness, he finds that someone has carried
him across the chasm which was hitherto impassible. Now this is sheer
'phantasy' overloaded with fiction of the most violent type. Usually we find
Dante crossing one stage after the other in a state of unconsciousness.
As
observed before, the differences of the two are those of the age—and also those
of the religoos tradition. Iqbal follows the Holy Quran which maintains that
nobody from the Earth could penetrate into the Heavens, except with the
essential (spiritual or divine) powers (Quranic words: الابسطان).
This means that the Heavens could through Sultan be pierced through by human
being—and the Holy Prophet set an example of that.
The
recent Space Conquest has further strengthened the view, but Iqbal's reference
may be read in a wider context. Dante could not conceive that Heavens could be
pierced through. Therefore he proceeded fictionally. Yet another sphere of
distinction between Dante and Iqbal is found in the handling of the
mythological materials. Dante has utilized Greek mythology to the fullest
extent,—three-headed demons, some creatures, half human and half animal and so
many other things. But in Iqbal use of mythology is rare. It exists only in the
episode dealing with the Hindu saint Jahandost (Vishwa Mitr) and the Hindu poet
Bhartari Hari.
Dante
is allegorical throughout while Iqbal's statements are factual, logical, with
allegorical significance only rarely. However, inspire of all this, Dante excels
in his superb characterization, excellent artistry and marvelous power of
description, as also in his great dramatic skill, and this justifies T. S.
Eliot's remarks that "Shakespeare gives the greatest width of human
passion:
The
system of the Universe which Dante employed was Ptolemaic and not the familiar
Copernican—, the macrocosmic system as one would say. But Iqbal is not very
strict about the system: he simply follows the usual familiar astronomical
system in vogue among the Muslims.
Anyhow,
in the words of Robert H. Lynn, (Notes on the Divine Comedy, vol. 1 p. 9)
"the Commedia is a cathedral in language and is unique in several
ways" and so is Jawid Noma unique in certain other ways.
Miguel
Asin , has taken great pains to prove that Dante based his book on the Muslim
legends of the Isra and the Miraj. Isra mean's undertaking of journey at night
as the Holy Prophet did, from the Holy mosque of Makkah to the Holy mosque of
Aqsa (Jerusalem), followed by accession to the Heavens. Quite a large mass of Muslim
literature exists on these topics, and M. Asin has examined it' to arrive
finally at the conclusion that Dante with all his fame as a great poet, which
praise he deserves, has substantially borrowed from the above-mentioned Muslim
sources.
Iqbal
did not follow the pattern of the Isra and the Miraj out of respect for the
Holy Prophet whose special privilege it was to have ascended the Heavens with
prophteic dignity and sublimity. No other human being according to Muslims can
have that honour.
This
also accounts for Iqbal's interpretation of the ascension that it could only be a higher state of
Ordinary human consciousness (and not specific), without involving any physical
implication. This refers to men other than the Holy Prophet. Others can attain
to some sort of super consciousness but the Ascension of the Holy Prophet's is
a unique experience and without parallel.
It
is quite certain that Ibn-i-Arabi's Fatuhat and his other work on Isra could
not be the models of Iqbal for his David Nama because details differ widely and
basically. Similarly al-Ma'arri's Risalatul-Ghufran could not catch the
imagination of Iqbal because its contents contain heretical materials. There
are certain other works of importance such as the Miraj Nama of Ibn-i-Sina (in
Persian), and certain poems on Miraj in the Mathnawiyat of great Persian poets
such as Nizami Ganjawi, Amir Khusru, Jami and others. These also could not
serve as models because most of these contain vague rhetorical statements
lacking in accuracy and precision.
Ibn-i-Sina's
work is more or less an interpretation of the facts of Miraj in philosophical
terms, and in Amir Khusru's Matla`-ul-Anwar, the only resemblance with Jawid
Nama is that Khusrau also describes the various stages of the heavenly journey
but that is only casual.There are certain chapters in the Ma'arijun-Nubuwah
also which could benefit Iqbal but their subject matter is different and more
theological.
Javidnama(JN)
“Javed Nama” (1932) or “Book of Eternity” a
small masterpiece of Iqbalian thought rendered in a highly engaging format that
provides some of the most interesting insights into his soul. Annemarie
translated this work into German under the title: Dschavidnma: Das Buch
der Ewigkeit and also into Turkish under the title: Cevidname. The
English translation has been taken care of by A. J. Arberry. In the Javad Nama
we find a most entertaining book of poems inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy –
only here Dante’s guide Virgil is replaced by Maulana Rumi – and Dante is
replaced by Iqbal (who goes by the pseudonym ‘Zinda Rud’ or ‘Stream full of
Life’). In the Javed Nama, both he and Rumi move in and out of different
heavenly spheres coming across people and themes he wants us to encounter…in
the process revealing something new about himself. The role of Mir Jafer from
Bengal and Mir Sadiq from the Deccan and their role in the British occupying
India is very cleverly played out here… and it is clear that theses two men are
traitors to their own people, forcing them into perpetual slavery. But other
characters emerge as well, as Iqbal weaves both East and West together into
what is a brilliant tapestry of characters, with problems posited and clever
solutions offered. Under the heading “Beyond the Spheres” we have for instance,
the appearance of Nietzsche, the departure for the Garden of Paradise, the
Palace of Sharaf al-Nisa and a Visitation to his Highness, “Sayyid Ali Hamadani
and Mulla Tahir Ghani of Kashmir”. While “The Sphere of Venus” holds “The
Assembly of the gods of the ancient peoples, “the Song of Baal,” a plunge into
“the Sea of Venus “ in order to “behold the spirits of Pharaoh and Kitchener”
and then “The Sudanese Dervish appear…”
JĀVID-NĀMA ) title of a Persian maṯnawi by Muhammad
Iqbal is often rendered into English as
“The Song of Eternity.” The work was first published in 1932, only six years
before Iqbal’s death. Being the longest and most carefully planned of all his
poems, it is usually considered to be his greatest work. Early reviewers
greeted it with a host of superlatives, proclaiming that it would rank with
Rumi’s Maṯnawi
or even the Divān
of Hafez Iqbal himself was confident of its future
success and went so far as to predict that its translator would gain fame in
Europe. Such eulogies, of course, contain a high degree of exaggeration, but it
is fair to say that even with the declining popularity of Persian in the
Subcontinent, the poem has stood the test of time, and no study of Iqbal would
be possible without reference to its remarkable style and content. Iqbal dedicated
the work to his young son, Javed, but the title surely implies that the poet
had no doubts about its everlasting worth and importance. When Iqbal began to
compose the Jāvid-nāma,
he had already formulated the philosophy and doctrines that are commonly
associated with him. The wide canvas he chose for this work gave him, as it
were, a final opportunity to repeat and reinforce the ideas that were first put
forward in his early Persian maṯnawis, such as Asrār-e
ḵodi The Secrets of the
Self” (1915), and Romuz-e
biḵodi “The Mysteries of
selflessness” (1918).
The Jāvid-nāma
is the story of the poet’s journey through the spheres and the far reaches of
the heavens in his unending quest to discover the very secrets of life and
salvation. In the Prologue (pp. 601-16), which bears some resemblance to that
of Goethe’s Faust,
he describes how Zarvān, the old Iranian god of Time and Space, exhorts him to
rid himself of earthly limitations. Only then will he be able to embark upon
his celestial journey and hear the song of the stars. This leads him to the
place where he meets his mentor, Rumi, who agrees to act as his guide, in the
same way that Virgil had accepted Dante’s request to lead him through Hell and
Purgatory to the confines of Heaven. He is now given the name Zenda Rud “Living
Stream.” In this name Iqbal chose for himself there is perhaps another
reminiscence of Goethe. The German poet, in “Mahomets Gesang” (which,
incidentally, Iqbal freely translated into Persian in Payām-e mašreq; q.v.
at iranica.com),
likens the message of the Prophet to a river. Here one is also reminded of the
first stanza of Iqbal’s Urdu Sāqi-nāma,
one of his most popular and most optimistic poems, published in the Urdu
collection Bāl-e Jibrīl
and written about the same time as the Jāvid-nāma.
In this, a small stream, starting its descent from the summit of a mountain
breaks through every rock and barrier in the way of its progress and finally
emerges as a gushing torrent.
The first stop is the Moon (pp. 619-44), where Zenda Rud and Rumi
discourse with the Hindu sage, Jahān-Dust “Friend of the World” on the
respective merits of Western and Eastern culture. In answer to Rumi’s comment
that the only hope of salvation lies in a synthesis of the two, the ascetic
proclaims that for all its shortcomings the East will soon overtake the
materialistic West. This optimistic message, which runs through much of Iqbal’s
later verse, is repeated by the angel Saruš, whose song is one of the most
lyrical and enchanting parts of the work. In a valley with the strange name of
Yarḡmid, the poet finds the tablets of Buddha, Zoroaster,
Christ, and Moḥammad, and this gives Iqbal the
opportunity to discuss and comment upon their respective teachings.
On Mercury (pp. 647-71), conversations with Jamāl-al-Din Afḡāni (q.v.) and Saʿd-al-Din Pāšā cover a wide range of
near-contemporary political topics from the downfall of the Turks to the merits
and deficiencies of Bolshevism. Much of the blame for the ills that beset the
present-day Islamic world are, in a manner typical of Iqbal, ascribed to the
ravings of the fanatical mullah—din-e
mollā fi sabil Allāh fasād! On Venus (pp. 675-86), the two
companions encounter, among many others, the arrogant Lord Kitchener, whose
clipped Persian well portrays the character of the archetypal British
imperialist. On Mars (pp. 689-700), where the inhabitants have completely
forsaken materialism, and are thus in every way superior to the inhabitants of
the “West,” Zenda Rud is confronted by a sorceress, who had been brought there
from Earth by Farz Marz, the Martian equivalent of Satan. She shrieks out her
doctrine of what in modern terms would be described as “women’s liberation,”
predicting a time when women will be able to conceive by a method of artificial
insemination. Naturally, Rumi and Zenda Rud thoroughly disapprove of these
modern notions, which were being mooted at the time.
Perhaps one of the most moving episodes of the poems takes place
on Saturn (pp. 729-35), where India, portrayed as a beautiful houri, “her eyes
intoxicated with divine love,” appears before the travelers in the chains of
slavery. She is followed by two abject traitors from Mysore and Bengal. Even
Hell had rejected them. Having traversed the outer regions of the heavens, the
poet at last hears the Divine Voice, which discloses the secrets he desired to
know. These are revealed in a final poem (pp. 787-96) written for his son,
Javed, to whom the Life’s
only purpose is to soar and fly.
Although it might be argued that the ideas expressed in Jāvid-nāma had all been
set out in Iqbal’s earlier Urdu and Persian works, from which most of them were
merely repeated, the sheer scale of the poem and the originality of the work’s
conception make it one of his best and most enduring whole work is dedicated:
"In this seven-colored world,
where is companion for the Soul?", Iqbal asks.
As he prays, he begins reciting
Rumi's Persian verses in which Rumi is pleading his Shaykh to reveals a true
Human Being to him. As Iqbal finishes these verses, Rumi appears to him. Iqbal
now depicts himself as Zinda Rud (a stream, full of life) guided by Rumi the master,
through various heavens and spheres and has the honour of approaching Divinity
and coming in contact with divine illuminations and historical figures
including Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī, Said Halim Pasha, Mansur al-Hallaj, Mirza Ghalib and Nietzsche.
Several problems of life are
discussed and philosophical answers are provided to them. It is an exceedingly
enlivening study. His hand falls heavily on the traitors to their nation like
Mir Jafar from Bengal and Mir Sadiq from the Deccan, who were instrumental in the defeat and death of Nawab Siraj-Ud-Daulah of Bengal and Tipu Sultan of Mysore respectively by betraying them for the benefit of the British.
Thus, they delivered their country to the shackles of slavery. At the end, by
addressing his son Javid, he speaks to the young people at
large and provides guidance to the "new generation."
Divine
Comedy
In the 1920s, Spanish historian Miguel Asín
Palacios raised an animated diatribe in the European cultural and academic
milieu with the publication of the book “Islamic Eschatology in the Divine
Comedy”, an attempt to read “The Divine Comedy” noncanonically while
underlining its Islamic sources and Dante’s attraction to Arab culture.
Comparing Dante’s poem to Arab manuscripts narrating the Night Journey, known
as Isra and Miraj, Palacios noticed relevant similarities at a symbolic and
formal level.“The Divine Comedy” describes Dante's journey in the realms of the
afterlife and represents allegorically the soul's journey toward God
The Divine Comedy describes
Dante's journey through Hell (Inferno),
Purgatory (Purgatorio),
and Paradise (Paradiso);
he is first guided by the Roman poet Virgil and
then by Beatrice,
the subject of his love (and of another of his works, La Vita Nuova).
While the vision of Hell, the Inferno, is vivid for most modern readers,
the theological niceties presented in the other books require a certain amount
of patience and knowledge to appreciate. Purgatorio is arguably the most
lyrical of the three, referencing more contemporary poets and artists than Inferno;
Paradiso is the most heavily theological, and the one in which, many
scholars have argued, the Divine Comedy's most beautiful and mystic
passages appear (e.g., when Dante looks into the face of God: "all'alta
fantasia qui mancò possa"—"at this high moment, ability failed my
capacity to describe," Paradiso, XXXIII, 142).
With its seriousness of purpose, its literary
stature and the range—both stylistic and thematic—of its content, the Comedy
soon became a cornerstone in the evolution of Italian as an established
literary language. Dante was more aware than most early Italian writers of the
variety of Italian dialects and of the need to create a literature and a
unified literary language beyond the limits of Latin writing at the time; in
that sense, he is a forerunner of the Renaissance, with its effort to create
vernacular literature in competition with earlier classical writers. Dante's
in-depth knowledge (within the limits of his time) of Roman antiquity, and his
evident admiration for some aspects of pagan Rome, also point forward to the
15th century. Ironically, while he was widely honored in the centuries after
his death, the Comedy slipped out of fashion among men of
letters: too medieval, too rough and tragic, and not stylistically refined in
the respects that the high and late Renaissance came to demand of literature.
He wrote the Comedy in a language he called
"Italian", in some sense an amalgamated literary language mostly
based on the regional dialect of Tuscany, but with some elements of Latin and
other regional dialects. He deliberately aimed to
reach a readership throughout Italy including laymen, clergymen and other
poets. By creating a poem of epic structure and philosophic purpose, he
established that the Italian language was
suitable for the highest sort of expression. In French, Italian is sometimes
nicknamed la langue de Dante. Publishing in the vernacular language
marked Dante as one of the first in Roman Catholic Western
Europe (among others such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio) to break free from standards of publishing in
only Latin (the language of liturgy, history
and scholarship in general, but often also of lyric poetry). This break set a
precedent and allowed more literature to be published for a wider audience,
setting the stage for greater levels of literacy in the future. However, unlike
Boccaccio, Milton or Ariosto, Dante
did not really become an author read all over Europe until the Romantic era. To
the Romantics, Dante, like Homer and Shakespeare, was a prime example of the "original
genius" who sets his own rules, creates persons of overpowering stature
and depth, and goes far beyond any imitation of the patterns of earlier
masters; and who, in turn, cannot truly be imitated. Throughout the 19th
century, Dante's reputation grew and solidified; and by 1865, the 600th
anniversary of his birth, he had become established as one of the greatest
literary icons of the Western world
New readers often wonder
how such a serious work may be called a "comedy". In the classical
sense the word comedy refers to works which reflect belief
in an ordered universe, in which events tend toward not only a happy or amusing
ending but one influenced by a Providential will that orders all things to an
ultimate good. By this meaning of the word, as Dante himself wrote in a letter
to Cangrande
I della Scala, the progression of the pilgrimage from Hell to Paradise is
the paradigmatic expression of comedy, since the work begins with the pilgrim's
moral confusion and ends with the vision of God.
The
Isra and Miraj describes the Night Journey from Makkah to Jerusalem and the
Ascension to Heaven that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) took, both
physically and spiritually, during a single night around the year 621.
Mentioned in the Qur’an, the Isra and Miraj became a source of inspiration for
several Muslim authors who gave their own interpretations of the argument in
their literary works. The controversy regarding the Islamic sources of the most
cherished Christian poem lessened when experts found out that in the second
half of the 13th century a manuscript narrating the Ascension to Heaven had
been translated into Latin, as “Liber Schalae Machometi”, and also into Spanish
and old French, making almost certain Dante’s knowledge about the manuscript.
Besides, Arabic culture was well known and widespread in Tuscany in the 14th
century, and Brunetto Latini, the Florentine ambassador to Toledo in 1260, can
be theoretically considered the intermediary between Dante and “Liber Schalae
Machometi”.In “Liber Schalae Machometi”, the most similar manuscript to “The
Divine Comedy” carefully studied by Maria Corti, The Prophet (pbuh) performs
his journey under the guidance of Archangel Gabriel, following an itinerary
from the eight circles of Paradise to the seven earths of Hell where he
receives the mandate to tell people what he has seen in order to save them from
eternal damnation. The same mandate is given to Dante in “The Divine Comedy”
where, just like in the Muslim Hell, the damned souls are ordered in different
circles and inflicted with abominable pains according to the law of
retaliation. Both stories are narrated in the first person and provide detailed
descriptions of the lower world characterized by seas, liquids, pools, smells,
flames, ice and animals. Even the element of light, essential in Dante’s
“Paradise”, evokes the studies on the metaphysics of light performed by Arab
thinkers.In his literary works Dante quotes many names related to the Muslim
world, such as Saladin, Avicenna, Averroe’, Brunetto Latini and Pietro Ispano,
and reveals a deep knowledge of the works belonging to Muslim scientists and
philosophers. Several scholars also underline the assonances between Dante’s
style, known as “dolce stil novo”, and the figure of the angelic woman and the
conceptions of love expressed by Muslim poets narrating mystical experiences
and soul journeys in the afterlife. During the dark centuries of the European
Middle Ages, Islamic civilization represented the heart of science, philosophy,
art and technology, acquiring moreover the merit of having preserved the
knowledge of the Classical Era. The Islamic world encompassed a huge empire –
from the Caucasus to North Africa and Spain – thus representing the only
civilization that simultaneously bordered Western Europe, Byzantium, China and
India, reinvigorating and binding together separate traditions. The main
bridges of transmission of Islamic knowledge to Europe were Spain and Sicily
where an intense Arab culture developed. The human symbols of this cultural
assimilation were Frederick II of Sicily, with his amazing Arab-style court,
and Alfonso X of Castile, who encouraged the translation and adaptation of
Moorish philosophy and science.As Dante’s case illustrates, Islamic culture has
been an essential element of confrontation and an inspiring source for Western
society whose contribution has been underestimated in comparison to the
contributions of the Greek and Roman traditions.
Conclusions
Iqbal
owes a bit to Dante but only to the extent indicated in this article. But with
all his indebtedness to Dante he has his one scheme and his own ideals. Iqbal’s
journey and his dialogues with Rumi and others, provide answers which unlike a
mystic Iqbal returns to provide these answers o his fellow men. The result of this
odyssey was the compilation of “The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in
Islam”, his blue print for action for revival and ascendency. Not frenetic,
senseless action but action related to achievement of the goals set by the
Koran and in fulfillment of the indicated evolution of man towards a higher
existence, of universalism and of unity of all humanity.
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