What is an ideal?

Above: Painting by Shireen Ghiba illustrating some verses of Iqbal (not: hue and coloring has been modified). See also Chapter 7, 'The System of the Universe' in The Republic of Rumi: a Novel of Reality

An ideal is usually defined as “a principle or value that one actively pursues as a goal”. Hence a principle, a value or a goal becomes an ideal when it is actively pursued.

Pursued by whom? Most writers tend to imply that it is the mind that pursues an ideal. Hence, we may pursue it consciously as well as unconsciously. For instance, a person who claims to hold kinship as the highest ideal, but ends up protecting the country at the cost of his or her family, thereby proves that the ideal most cherished by him or her, unconsciously, was patriotism.

How did the ideal of kinship transform into the ideal of patriotism (in the example quoted above)? That is the kind of process which Iqbal would call the “formation” of an ideal by the self; when the ideal becomes discernible through the action of the person, it may be said that the self has “given birth” to it.

Hence, an ideal may not be perceived as a mere proposition of the mind. Ideas formed in the mind can lead to hairsplitting, but ideals formed in the self bring a sense of purpose, and a true realization of them can lead to resolution of contradictions.

For that, an ideal has to pass through a process of maturing within the self, until it reaches the point where it may come out in action and behavior.