*
Stray thoughts Reflections
&
SELF-CONTROL
Self-control in individuals builds families; in communities, it builds empires.
IDOLATRY
Both Islam and Christianity had to deal with the same adversary, i.e. idolatry. The difference, however, is this – that Christianity made a compromise with her adversary; Islam destroyed it altogether.
THE WONDERFUL HISTORY OF THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY
The more you reflect on the history of the Muslim community, the more wonderful does it appear. From the day of its foundation up to the beginning of the sixteenth century – about a thousand years – this energetic race (I say race since Islam has functioned as a race-making force) was continually busy in the all-absorbing occupation of political expansion. Yet in this storm of continuous activity this wonderful people found sufficient time to unearth and preserve the treasures of ancient sciences, to make material additions to them, to build a literature of a unique character, and above all to develop a complete system of law – the most valuable legacy that Muslim lawyers have left us.
TO RECONSTRUCT THIS WORLD
Given character and healthy imagination, it is possible to reconstruct this world of sin and misery into a veritable paradise.
SUFFERING
Suffering is a gift from the Gods in order to make men see the whole of life.
INFINITY
A mathematician cannot but a poet can enclose infinity in a line.
THE POET AND THE WORLD-SPIRIT
The world-spirit conceals the various phases of her inner life in symbols. The universe is nothing but a great symbol. But she never takes the trouble to interpret these symbols for us. It is the duty of the poet to interpret them and to reveal their meaning to humanity. It would, therefore, appear that the poet and the world-spirit are opposed to each other; since the former reveals what the latter conceals.
THE VAGUE AND THE OBSCURE
Matthew Arnold is a very precise poet. I like, however, an element of obscurity and vagueness in poetry; since the vague and the obscure appear profound to the emotions.
THE GRAMOPHONE OF HISTORY
History is a sort of huge gramophone in which the voices of nations are preserved.
SIN AND PIETY
At least in one respect sin is better than piety. There is an imaginative element in the former which is lacking in the latter.
VIRTUOUS PEOPLE
Sin has an educative value of its own. Virtuous people are very often stupid.
CONTEMPLATION WITHOUT ACTION
Life, like the arts of poetry and painting, is wholly expression. Contemplation without action is death.
SUCCESS IN LIFE
It is determination, not brains, that succeeds in life.
TO BECOME A PUBLIC LEADER
If you wish to become a public leader you ought to know how to flirt with the Dame Public. Entertain her with platitudes and, if necessary, with lies.
A SUCCESSFUL MAN
Recognise your limitations, estimate your capacities, and your success in life is assured.
THE LAZY MIND
There is something of the plant in the lazy mind; it cannot dance.
THE MORAL VALUE OF SUFFERING
No religious system can ignore the moral value of suffering. The error of the builders of Christianity was that they based their religion on the fact of suffering alone, and ignored the moral value of other factors. Yet such a religious system was a necessity to the European mind in order to supplement the beautiful but one-sided Hellenic ideal. The Greek dream of life was certainly the best, as Goethe says; but it was wanting in the colour-element of suffering which was supplied by Christianity.
THE BIG LIBRARY
If you have got a big library and know all the books therein, it only shows that you are a rich man, not necessarily that you are a thinker. Your big library only means that your purse is heavy enough to hire many people to think for you.
MIRACLES
The question is not whether miracles did or did not happen. This is only a question of evidence which may be interpreted in various ways. The real question is whether belief in miracles is useful to a community. I say it is; since such a belief intensifies the sense of the supernatural which holds together primitive societies as well as those societies (e.g. Islam) whose nationality is ideal and not territorial. Looked at from the standpoint of social evolution, then, belief in miracles appears to be almost a necessity.
DEMOCRACY
Democracy has a tendency to foster the spirit of legality. This is not in itself bad; but unfortunately it tends to displace the purely moral standpoint, and to make the illegal and the wrong identical in meaning.
DEMOCRACY AND IMPERIALISM
The imperial ambition of the various nations of Europe indicate that the westerners are tired of democracy. The reaction against democracy in England and France is a very significant phenomenon. But in order to grasp the meaning of this phenomenon the student of political science should not content himself merely with the investigation and discovery of the purely historical causes which have brought it about; he must go deeper and search psychological causes of this reaction.
MORAL READERS
The ancients produced personalities; we produce moral readers.
THE YOUNG PROPHETS AND MUSALMAN WOMAN
Our young prophets of social reform think that a few doses of education on western lines will revitalise the dead Musalman woman, and make her tear her ancient shrouds. This is perhaps true. But I fear, finding herself naked, she will have once more to hide her body from the eyes of these young prophets.
POETS AND POLITICIANS
Nations are born in the hearts of poets; they prosper and die in the hands of politicians.
A PROPHET
A prophet is only a practical poet.
PHILOSOPHY AND POETRY
Philosophy is a set of abstractions shivering in the cold night of human reason. The poet comes and warms them up into objectivity.
PLATO AND GOETHE
Nature was not quite decided what to make of Plato – poet or philosopher. The same indecision she appears to have felt in the case of Goethe.
THE MOST CHARMING THING ON EARTH
A woman of superb beauty with a complete absence of self-consciousness is to me the most charming thing on God’s earth.
CONFORMITY WITHOUT DOGMA
The attitude of toleration and even conformity – without belief in dogma – is probably the most incomprehensible thing to the vulgar mind. If such is your attitude, keep quiet and never try to defend your position.
SUNSET ON THE BANKS OF THE RAVI
All the wonderful book-lore in your library is not worth one glorious sunset on the banks of the Ravi.
&
Islamica Republică 