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.
The river is everywhere at the same time . . . everywhere and the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past, nor the shadow of the future.
Beyond myself, somewhere, I wait for my arrival.
I am always interested in that relationship between outer reality and inner desire, and I think it is important to pay attention to the inner voice because it is the only way to discover your mission in life and the only way to develop the strength to break with whatever familial or cultural norms are preventing you from fulfilling your destiny.
People can be slave-ships in shoes.
Radical simply means 'grasping things at the root.'
For if I try to seize this self of which I feel sure, if I try to define and to summarize it, it is nothing but water slipping through my fingers.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.