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THE Asrar-i Khudi was first published at Lahore in 1915. I read it
soon afterwards and thought so highly of it that I wrote to Iqbal,
whom I had the pleasure of meeting at Cambridge some fifteen years
ago, asking leave to prepare an English translation. My proposal
was cordially accepted, but in the meantime I found other work to
do, which caused the translation to be laid aside until last year.
Before submitting it to the reader, a few remarks are necessary
concerning the poem and its author. Iqbal is an Indian Moslem.
During his stay in the West he studied modern philosophy, in which
subject he holds degrees from the Universities of Cambridge and
Munich. His dissertation on the development of metaphysics in
Persia-an illuminating sketch-appeared as a book in 1908. Since
then he has developed a philosophy of his own, on which I am able
to give some extremely interesting notes communicated by himself.
Of this, however, the Asrar-i Khudi gives no systematic account,
though it puts his ideas in a popular and attractive form. While
the Hindu philosophers, in explaining the doctrine of the unity of
being, addressed themselves to the head, Iqbal, like the Persian
poets who teach the same doctrine, takes a more dangerous course
and aims at the heart. He is no mean poet, and his verse can rouse
or persuade even if his logic fail to convince. His message is not
for the Mohammedans of India alone, but for Moslems everywhere:
accordingly he writes in Persian instead of Hindustani-a happy
choice, for amongst educated Moslems there are many familiar with
Persian literature, while the Persian language is singularly well
adapted to express philosophical ideas in a style at once elevated
and charming.
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