THE SECRETS OF THE SELF
(ASRÁR-I KHUDÍ)
A PHILOSOPHICAL POEM
BY
SHEIKH MUHAMMAD IQBAL
OF LAHORE
TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL PERSIAN
WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY
REYNOLD A. NICHOLSON, Litt.D., LL.D.
LECTURER ON PERSIAN IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
[1920]
Scanned, proofed and formatted at sacred-texts.com, January 2008, by John Bruno Hare. This text is in the public domain in the United States because it was published prior to 1923.
Muhammad Iqbal (b. Nov. 9, 1877, d. Apr. 21, 1938) was a prominent Islamic writer and politician. Born in the Raj, Cambridge educated, Iqbal is both the the intellectual founder of Pakistan, and its national poet. This poem was composed in Persian, using traditional Persian styles and tropes, and published in Lahore in 1915. The translator was the English orientalist Reynold A. Nicholson. Nicholson later went on to produce the first full critical translation of Rumi’s Masnavi into English.
¶ Index
- Introduction
- Prologue
- I. The System of the Universe Originates in the Self
- II. The Life of the Self Comes From Forming Desires
- III. The Self is Strengthened by Love
- IV. The Self is Weakened by Asking
- V. Strengthened by Love it Gains Dominion Over the Forces of the Universe
- VI. Negation of the Self
- VII. We Must be on Guard Against Platonism
- VIII. The True Nature of Poetry and the Reform of Islamic Literature
- IX. The Three States in the Education of the Self
- X. Inner Meanings of the Names of Ali
- XI. The Young Man of Merv and Saint Ali Hujwírí
- XII. The Bird that was Faint with Thirst
- XIII. Story of the Diamond and the Coal
- XIV. The Sheikh and the Brahmin, and the Ganges and the Himalaya
- XV. On Jihad
- XVI. Precepts of Bábá Sahrá’í
- XVII. Time is a Sword
- XVIII. An Invocation