Ijtehad (Religious Renaissance): Ghazal by Dr Sir Muhammad Iqbal
Translation by Dr Basheer Ahmed Khan
Garden Grove, CA
At a time when religious fanaticism and irresponsible liberalism are dominating the world and destroying every society and every civilization, it is essential for us to rethink about both our religious and liberal values to save the world from the curse of both.
Allama Iqbal is a renowned poet. In his ghazal “Ijtehad” he has pointed to some reasons why this rethinking has become difficult and impossible.
As it is difficult to translate the meaning packed in one line of the Urdu couplet of a ghazal into another line in any language I have freelanced the meaning and the spirit of this ghazal into a poem. This ghazal is in the collection of Allama Iqbal’s poetry “Zarb e Kaleem” which he wrote in the last part of his life when he was the guest of Nawab of Bhopal. Zarb E Kaleem means the power of the word.
To those who feel that I am not able to give them the originality and power packed in his original ghazal I admit my failure. I am not Iqbal and the language of translation is English and both have their limitations.
Even our times are not the same and to transcend this lapse of time and carry forward the consciousness of yesteryear into modern time is impossible and even unnecessary.
Ijtehad is a religious equivalent of the secular term Renaissance. Therefore, I have translated it as Religious Renaissance in the title.
Religious Renaissance
Without the joy of good deeds
And perception of sound thoughts
In a world of dreams and desires
Where it is difficult to bear a loss
Where servitude and conformity
Moves us like a flock
Where we lack courage to face reality
and twist it by our interpretations
To hide our incapacity
How can we achieve true Liberty?
When we bask in the comfort of conformity
To us every thought, every book is deficient
That does not give to slavery its commitment.
When prejudices are so strong
It is difficult to think beyond
And easy to continue on track
Which has proven to be wrong
Like the modern scholars of Rumi, I have taken some liberties with the old idioms and symbols in Iqbal’s poem. I had to do it not with the intention of distorting the letter and spirit of Iqbals’ poem, but to make his message relevant and understandable in modern times.
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