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.
What I am against is false optimism: the notion either that things have to go well, or else that they tend to, or else that the default condition of historical trajectories is characteristically beneficial in the long-run.
Religion is like a knife: you can either use it to cut bread, or stick in someone's back.
So long as large sums of money are involved - and they are bound to be if drugs are illegal - it is literally impossible to stop the traffic, or even to make a serious reduction in its scope.
It is true we have won all our wars, but we have paid for them. We don't want victories anymore.
I had the same sensation as when we watch someone sleep. When asleep we all become children again. Perhaps because in the state of slumber we can do no wrong and are unconscious of life, the greatest criminal and most self- absorbed egotist are holy, by a natural magic, as long as they're sleeping. For me there's no discernible difference between killing a child and killing a sleeping man.
I prefer to be accused unjustly, for then I have nothing to reproach myself with, and joyfully offer this to the good Lord. Then I humble myself at the thought that I am indeed capable of doing the thing of which I have been accused.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.