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Chapter 12
The Divine Vicegerency
“Education of the self has three phases,” says Iqbal. “They are (a) obedience; (b) self-control; and (c) Divine Vicegerency.”
Phase I: Obedience
The camel goes in the desert without food and water, looking happier than its rider. One shouldn’t disobey rules if one wishes to overcome obstacles.
Phase II: Self-Control
A rider requires some art in order to tame the camel, or else the beast would prefer going its own way.
Proclamation of faith, prayer, fasting, pilgrimage and almsgiving are the five “pillars” of Islam that are meant to help the believers tame the beast in them so that they may have an easy ride.
Phase III: Divine Vicegerency
The Divine Vicegerent is adept with mysteries of parts and the whole.
“A hundred worlds like this world of parts and wholes spring up like roses from the seed of this person’s imagination,” says Iqbal. “When that bold cavalier seizes the reins, the steed of Time gallops faster. The whole world is atoned and saved by the grandeur of such a person, receiving a new explanation of Life and a new interpretation of this dream.”
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The basic tenets of Islam are interpreted here from the perspective of three stages in the training of the self.
