My ancestors were Brahmins. They spent their lives in search of god. I am spending my life in search of man.
Interpretation
Iqbal emphasizes the importance of understanding humanity over merely seeking divine meaning.
In this quote, Muhammad Iqbal reflects on the shift from spiritual pursuit to a focus on human connections and societal understanding. While his ancestors dedicated their lives to the search for understanding of God, Iqbal posits that true enlightenment comes from searching for and understanding humanity, highlighting the relevance of human relationships and societal issues in one's spiritual journey.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of human connections in spiritual journeys.
The revealed and mystic literature of mankind bears ample testimony to the fact that religious experience has been too enduring and dominant in the history of mankind to be rejected as mere illusion. There seems to be no reason, then, to accept the normal level of human experience as fact and reject its other levels as mystical and emotional.
I have seen the movement of the sinews of the sky, And the blood coursing in the veins of the moon.
let this be our beautiful departure from stagnation; let our minds come alive; enter another dimension; go beyond the stars eagerly struggling to find that... which our naked eyes did not know existed; rise like a falcon born to soar and not be alone but be present amongst others.
The soul is neither inside nor outside the body; neither proximate to nor separate from it.
The wing of the Falcon brings to the king, the wing if the crow brings him to the cemetery.
The truth is that the religious and the scientific processes, though involving different methods, are identical in their final aim. Both aim at reaching the most real.
I had to nurture those doubts as if they were tiny, sickly kittens, until eventually they became sturdy, healthy grievances, with their own cat doors, which allowed them to wander in and out of our conversation at will.
Terror is only justice: prompt, severe and inflexible; it is then an emanation of virtue; it is less a distinct principle than a natural consequence of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing wants of the country.
The militia is a voluntary force not associated or under the control of the States except when called out; [ when called into actual service] a permanent or long standing force would be entirely different in make-up and call.
I'm of the glamorous ladies At whose beckoning history shook. But you are a man, and see only my pan, So I stay at home with a book.
The perfect man uses his mind as a mirror. It grasps nothing. It regrets nothing. It receives but does not keep.
For my part I cannot believe in a God who is angry with me because I do not believe in him. I cannot believe in a God who is less tolerant than I. I cannot believe in a God who has neither humour nor common sense.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.