The Doctrine of Khudi in Iqbāls Philosophical Thought Ehsan Ghodratollahi

Muhammad Iqbāl of Lahore(۱۸۷۷-۱۹۳۸) is undoubtedly the greatest Muslim poet-thinker of the twentieth century. Iqbāls philosophical writings and poetical works had a noteable impression on the religio-cultural and social revival of the East particularly subcontinent Muslim. The central theme of Iqbāls philosophical thought throughout his works, prose and poetry, especially in Asrar-i-Khudi and Rumuz-i-Bekhudi is 'The Doctrine of Khudi'. In his opinion the undeveloped condition and the miserable plight of the Muslim nations were due to lost real identity of Khudi and to keep distance from the true spirit of Islam. Iqbāl's ideal for individual as well as social life is Self-affirmation not Self-negation which was the common teaching of Hindu intellectualism and Sufi pantheism. Hence Iqbāl tried to establish a firm theoretical foundation for his viewpoints, and to discover a proper philosophical terminology for conveying his message to all the humanity. On one hand, the inherent genius ,the religious , mystical attitude, deep familiarity with Islamic culture and science which were his family heritage , and his wide-ranging studies in Eastern and Western philosophy on the other helped him to achieve the goal. To Iqbāl Khudi is a universal and comprehensive reality with different degress in experession, which moves towards perfection.Various factors and principles-which are mostly the same positive and negative religio-moral qualities can strengthen or weaken Khudi in human beings till it reaches the highest stage of perfection,that is, Vicegerency of God on earth.