When we study the psychological aspect of Allama Iqbal’s life

When we study the psychological aspect of Iqbal’s life,


(Translation of “Allama Iqbal-Ek Mehbooba, teen beewiaN, chaar shadiaN” by Dr. Khalid Sohail)





we find out that despite having a sensitive heart and a brilliant mind, he had to struggle against many romantic contradictions through out his life. These contradictions appeared for the first time when Iqbal went to Europe in the pursuit of higher education. Upon reaching Europe, he discovered that his personality possessed certain charm that the opposite sex found irresistible. He could not have come to this realization in the traditional and suppressed romantic climate of his homeland where women were conditioned not to act upon such attractions. Iqbal, soon, had a coterie of female friends including women from the West as well as the East and among the latter was Atiya Faizi.



The relationship between Iqbal and Faizi developed quite rapidly and soon they were dining together quite frequently. These dinners were followed by long walks during which the two talked about many mysteries of life. Iqbal, besides being smitten by Atiya’s beauty, was impressed by her intellectual prowess as well which is evident from the fact that Iqbal sought her opinion about his Ph.D. thesis.



When we read Atiya Faizi’s diaries, we observe that she mentions Iqbal in a way one mentions a lover and not just a friend. [1] Her relation with Iqbal had reached the stage where it becomes difficult to differentiate between friendship and love.



Iqbal’s return to India in 1908, after completing his education, resulted in a psychological crisis for him. After sampling the liberalism of the West, Iqbal could not cope with the conservatism of his own society. In such a mental state, Iqbal wrote a letter to Atiya Faizi in which he described his thoughts very candidly. This letter is mentioned by many commentators including Iqbal’s biographer Abdul-Majeed Salik in "Zikr-e-Iqbal". The letter became one of the most talked about of all the letters Iqbal ever wrote. In the letter, Iqbal expressed his frustration and anger towards his life. To a certain extent, Iqbal blamed his wife to be the cause of his miseries. He wrote that his father had wedded him at a young age against his will and this marriage had now become an unwanted burden for him. Iqbal wrote that he sometimes wished to drown his frustration in alcohol because he felt that alcohol made committing suicide easy. Iqbal wrote that he was perfectly willing to support his wife financially for the rest of his life but he just couldn’t bear the torture of her being part of Iqbal’s daily life. In the same letter, Iqbal wrote that being a human being, he had the right to be happy and if society tried to deprive him of that right, he would rebel against it. The only choices he was left with, he wrote, were to either leave the cursed country or become an alcoholic to numb his feelings. According to Iqbal, dead and barren pages of books could not give him happiness and he had enough fire in his soul to burn those books along with the Eastern traditions to cinder. [2]



This particular letter betrays the depth of despair Iqbal was going thru at the time. His suppressed rage—against his wife, the outdated values of his society and traditional nature of his family—was coming to the surface. Atiya Faizi responded to this profound letter in a very sympathetic manner and advised Iqbal to seek psychological comfort in the company of his friends.



It seems that Iqbal’s life at this point had come to a crossroads. He had turned sour not just towards his marriage but towards his culture, traditions and religion as well. He was experiencing a conflict between the traditional demands of his society and his desire to live in the open society of Europe which enticed him with economic opportunities as well as the proximity of Atiya Faizi.



It is quite possible that Iqbal wanted Atiya Faizi to become his life partner. If that was the case, he never overtly expressed that desire—maybe for the lack of courage. Despite his admission that he was extremely unhappy with his marital life, Atiya never made any suggestive moves towards Iqbal. She was a wise and seasoned woman who knew that what Iqbal needed was a psychiatrist and not a second wife.



The realization that Faizi was not going to become his life partner may have intensified the psychological crisis in Iqbal. When someone is thru an emotional and psychological crisis, one tends to make emotional decisions guided by the frustration and rage—and that is exactly what happened to Iqbal. He decided to marry again and, without seeking anyone’s counsel, Iqbal chose Sardar Begum to be his second wife. Soon after the nikah, the religious ceremony of wedding, and before the traditional departure of the bride to the house of her newlywed husband, Iqbal received anonymous letters questioning Sardar Begum’s character. Iqbal was so disheartened by those letters that he decided to divorce Sardar Begum.



In the meantime, Iqbal received a proposal to marry Mukhtar Begum, the daughter of the famous Dr. Subhan Ali from Ludhiana, Punjab. Iqbal’s sister, Karim Bibi, went to Ludhiana to meet Mukhtar Begum. Upon her return, Karim Bibi praised the beauty of Mukhtar Begum in such persuasive manner that Iqbal immediately agreed to marry Mukhtar Begum.



Iqbal and his new bride arrived back at Lahore after the marriage ceremony. The next day, when Iqbal had the first real opportunity to see his wife closely, he was utterly dismayed because she was nothing like how Iqbal’s sister had described her. She was not beautiful at all. It was later revealed that Iqbal had been conned into marrying Dr. Subhan Ali’s niece whose name was also Mukhtar Begum. By the time Iqbal came to know this, it was too late because he had consummated his marriage. It is still a mystery as to who was responsible for this deception. At the outset, it seemed that Iqbal’s sister was deceived on her visit to Ludhiana but it is hard to rule her out as an accomplice because of the statements of Rasheeda Begum (Iqbal’s daughter-in-law who married iqbal’s elder son Aftab). Rasheeda Begum alleges that Iqbal’s sister had a soft corner for Iqbal’s first wife and she was the one who wrote the anonymous letters against Sardar Begum. It’s quite possible that when Karim Bibi saw that her brother was determined to marry again even after getting disheartened by Sardar Begum affair, she deliberately sabotaged Iqbal’s marriage with Mukhtar Begum by misleading her brother into marrying a woman who was not as beautiful as Iqbal expected.



While Iqbal was still suffering from this shock, he received a letter from Sardar Begum, his second wife, who he had mentally divorced and who was still living with her parents. Sardar Begum wrote to Iqbal that she was waiting for him to take her to his home and if Iqbal rejected her, she would never marry again. She expressed her profound sorrow that a person of Iqbal’s mental caliber had judged her only on the basis of gossip and rumor. The letter was bound to make Iqbal feel guilty and he became extremely sad when he later found out that the anonymous letters regarding Sardar Begum were probably written by an advocate by the name of Nabi Bakhsh who wanted Sardar Begum to marry his own son (Rasheeda Begum, as quoted above, disagreed with it and maintained that the letters were the handiwork of Iqbal’s sister). Iqbal talked to some of his friends who knew Sardar Begum’s family and they told Iqbal that there was no truth in the allegations. Embarrassed and guilt-ridden, Iqbal wanted to bring Sardar Begum to his house but there was still an obstacle. Iqbal thought that he had divorced Sardar Begum in his mind and according to some of his friends with religious bent, once divorced, Iqbal could not marry her. She first had to marry someone else, get divorced and only then could Iqbal marry her again according to the religious concept of halala. Confused, Iqbal sought the opinion of a Muslim cleric who told him that what Iqbal’s friends had suggested didn’t apply to Iqbal’s situation because Iqbal had not consummated his marriage with Sardar Begum. Still somewhat confused, for the satisfaction of his mind, Iqbal went thru the marriage rites again with Sardar Begum before bringing her home and so Sardar Begum, who Iqbal married twice, became his second and fourth wife. In the period of two years, Iqbal had added three marriages and two wives to his life. Interestingly, Iqbal’s first wife, who was living in Sialkot till that time, also decided to live with him in Lahore with his other two wives. Iqbal had two kids, Aftab and Mairaj, with his first wife, so, at a certain point in his life, Iqbal was living with three wives and two kids.



This polygamous setup of Iqbal’s household was not very practical and could not last long. One day, the mother of Iqbal’s first wife came over, told Iqbal that he was a very irresponsible husband and took her daughter and her daughter’s kids away with her. [3]



Iqbal’s various biographers agree that Sardar Begum was Iqbal’s favorite wife who was the most beautiful of the three. Iqbal had two kids, Muneera and Javed, with her. With the passage of time though, the love started to fade away from his relationship with Sardar Begum as well. Iqbal was not someone equipped with the abilities of coping with the demands of traditional family life. Sardar Begum also realized that though Iqbal was a successful poet and philosopher, he was a failure at being a good husband. This feeling led Sardar Begum to become irate towards Iqbal. Iqbal’s son, Javed Iqbal, describes the relationship between his parents by writing, “we were always short of money for household expenses so my mother wanted my father to take his law practice seriously. We were also renting at that time and my mother wanted us to buy a house. I can still recall the usual scene of my mother crying and cursing at my father and telling him that while she was working like a servant and making every effort to save some money, my father was busy lying down writing poetry, and my father laughing his embarrassed laugh.” [4]



This description of Iqbal’s household tells us that Iqbal, the great intellectual who could stare any politician, poet or intellectual in the eyes, could not give any satisfactory answer to his wife’s objections. If such was his relation with his favorite wife, one can imagine the state of his relationship with his other wives.



While living with three wives, Iqbal continued his correspondence with Atiya Faizi. Iqbal’s love life was so typical of the life of an Eastern poet; he couldn’t marry the woman he loved and he couldn’t love the women he married.



Iqbal never moved to Europe but he maintained contacts with European ladies. They used to come over to India and meet Iqbal and Iqbal showed equal enthusiasm meeting them. After the death of Sardar Begum, instead of hiring an Indian woman, Iqbal hired a German governess for Javed and Muneera who used to call her aunt Doris. It seems that Doris was serving dual purpose of looking after the kids and assuaging Iqbal’s nostalgia about Europe.



As a psycho-therapist, Iqbal’s love life came to me as a surprise. I am surprised to note that The Poet of the East, who had a solution for every problem afflicting his nation, remained clueless about the solutions of his own romantic and marital problems. I find it hard to believe that he got separated from his first wife and their kids after sixteen years of marriage, that he divorced his second wife based only on anonymous letters, that he realized that he was deceived only after he had consummated his marriage with his third wife, and more surprisingly, that he sought an edict from a cleric and then ignored the edict before marrying Sardar Begum a second time.



I guess Iqbal must have concluded from these experiences that it was easier for him to have a successful creative life than a successful marital life. Words came easy to Iqbal but the answers to the tough questions of his romantic dilemmas did not. Maybe that is why he wrote,

References:



1- Letters and diary of Atiya Faizi. Translation by Zia uddin Ahmad Burni. Iqbal Academy, Karachi, Pakistan, 1969.

2- “Zikr-e-Iqbal”, Abdul Majeed Salik, Chaman Book Depot, Delhi, India (p. 95)

3- “Iqbal and his elder son, Aftab Iqbal”, Rasheeda Aftab, Ferozesons Karachi, Pakistan, 1999 (p. 80)

4- “Apna garebaN chaak”, Javed Iqbal, Sang-e-Meel Publishers, Lahore, Pakistan, 2002 (p. 20)

Plasma Role In Universe

It is known that 99 % of visible matter in the Universe is in the plasma state. Only us have the luck of living in our Earth, which belongs to the one percent of the other states of the matter. But even in our Earth we find plasma: within the channels of the lightnings, in the ionosphere, in the auroras or Northern and Southern Lights and in the Earth’s magnetosphere. In the Solar System the plasma is found in the solar wind, in the planet’s magnetospheres and the comets. Around Jupiter and Saturn we even have plasma that forms gigantic plasma toroids. The Sun itself and the rest of the stars are enormous plasma balls and such phenomena as the Sun spots, spicules, chromosphere eruptions, coronal mass ejections and protuberances belong to the typical plasma manifestations. Not only the stars, but also a good deal of the nebulae within the galaxies is composed of plasma. In the nebulae again we observe plasma manifestations: filamentation product of the electric and magnetic fields, particle acceleration up to a remarkable high energy and luminous radiation (in different wavelengths) result of different mechanisms. Near the centre of our Galaxy it has been observed extensive plasma filaments, with lengths of around 250 light years, perpendicular to the plane of our Galaxy. In the rest of the galaxies are found similar formations, namely, those tracked within the nuclei of the active galaxies (AGN - Active electric current (for example our Milky Way with the Magellanic Clouds). The jets and two radio spots near the quasars, the active galactic nuclei and others are again plasma formations, and have its origin in the plasma properties. The numerical simulations of the last years show that probably the plasma phenomena should have a dominant role in the star formation from the creation of the protostellar cloud, making possible the creation of the primary globules without having to accomplish the Jean’s criterion regarding the minimum size of the nebula and even without a “starter” shock wave from a neighbor supernova. In the same manner the numerical simulations show that the arms of the galactic spirals can be the result of the electromagnetic interaction of global magnetic fields and need not to be only gravitational manifestations. Nowadays it also seems that the most energetic particles, which are observed in the cosmic rays, were accelerated in the plasma spatial filaments inside an electric double layer. Therefore the possible picture that we can make of our Universe changes, since the Universe is not only gravitational interaction, as we have thought until recently. In the formation of the Universe has contributed in the same manner the electromagnetic interaction and its diverse manifestations. With the introduction of the X-ray studies we have come literally with an attack from plasma physics to the study of our Universe. The test of any scientific theory is based upon the relationship between its predictions and observations. Let's see how well the big bang has done:

Many cosmologists think that nearly 99 percent of the universe is unobservable and made of dark matter. The universe we do see, the stars, galaxies, and literally everything else, only constitutes about 1 or 2 percent of the total amount of matter in the universe. The rest is some strange and unknown form of matter, particles that are necessary for the big bang theory to work. Theorists realized that there is just too little matter in the universe for the gravitational forces to have created the universe in the form that it's in today. So something has to create the needed gravity, hence the theory of dark matter. This idea was introduced about 20 years ago and has since become a fundamental part of the big bang cosmology.

Plasma is regarded as a fourth phase of matter, the other three being solid, liquid, and gas. It is a hot state of matter in which electrons have been stripped from atoms to leave positively charged ions, which mingle freely with the electrons. The Northern lights are a naturally occurring form of plasma, as is St. Elmo's fire. You've probably seen the “Eye of the Storm” or similar plasma balls in stores. They're those really cool objects that have the tiny electrical storms inside the glass spheres. When you bring your hand in contact with the glass surface, the bolts of plasma electricity inside react to ions surrounding your hand.

• It predicts that there should be no object older than 20 billion years and larger than 150 million light years across. And as we've discussed, that's certainly not the case.

• It predicts that the universe, on the large scale that it exists, should be smooth and homogeneous. It's not—it's clumpy!

• The third problem has to do with the strongest evidence in support of it, cosmic microwave background radiation. In order for the universe to produce the galaxies we see around us, the fluctuations found in the background radiation indicates that there must be a hundred times more dark matter than visible matter. But there is no experimental or observable evidence that dark matter exists. It's a theory to make the big bang work. So if there is no dark matter, the theory predicts that we can't have galaxies, but we live in one—the Milky Way.

So while the big bang predicts the things in the preceding list, observations have shown them to be incorrect. However, this is the accepted theory for now, and many scientists assume that it's right. To abandon it would not be easy. Few theories in science are ever left behind when there is no alternative in sight. So what are we left with? Well, there is a new alternative on the horizon. It's called plasma cosmology. Here's a basic idea of what it's about.

The advocates of plasma cosmology believe that the evolution of the universe in the past must be explained in terms of the processes occurring in the universe today. In other words, events that occur in the depths of space can be explained in terms of phenomena studied in the laboratories on earth. This approach rules out the concepts of a universe that began out of nothing, somewhere in time, like the big bang. We can't recreate the initial conditions of the big bang in laboratories. The closest we can get is in the particles created in accelerators. Plasma cosmology supports the idea that because we see an evolving universe that is constantly changing, this universe has always existed and has always evolved, and will continue to exist and evolve for eternity.

Another aspect of this new theory is that, while the big bang sees the universe in terms of gravity alone, the plasma universe is formed and controlled by electricity and magnetism, not just gravitation. With the introduction of electromagnetism the “clumpiness” of the universe and the fluctuations in microwave background radiation can be easily accounted for. Even the expansion of the universe can be explained by the electromagnetic interaction of matter and antimatter.

PENTOSE

A pentose is a monosaccharide with five carbon atoms.


They have either an aldehyde functional group in position 1 (aldopentoses) or a ketone functional group in position 2 (ketopentoses).

The aldopentoses have three chiral centres ("asymmetric carbon atoms"), and, so, 8 different stereoisomers are possible.

The 4 D-aldopentoses, in the Fischer projection, are
D-Ribose D-Arabinose D-Xylose D-Lyxose

The ketopentoses have 2 chiral centers and, therefore, 4 possible stereoisomers — ribulose (L- and D-form) and xylulose (L- and D-form).

The D-isomers of both are known to occur naturally as is the L-isomer of xylulose:


D-Ribulose D-Xylulose

The aldehyde and ketone functional groups in these carbohydrates react with neighbouring hydroxyl functional groups to form intramolecular hemiacetals and hemiketals, respectively. The resulting ring structure is related to furan, and is termed a furanose. The ring spontaneously opens and closes, allowing rotation to occur about the bond between the carbonyl group and the neighbouring carbon atom — yielding two distinct configurations (α and β). This process is termed mutarotation.

Ribose is a constituent of RNA, and the related deoxyribose of DNA.

A polymer composed of pentose sugars is called a pentosan.

Competence and performance

The current generation of language processing systems is based on linguistically motivated competence models of natural languages. The problems encountered with these systems suggest the need for performance-models of language processing, which take into account the statistical properties of actual language use. This article describes the overall set-up of such a model. The system I propose employs an annotated corpus; in analysing new input it tries to find the most probable way to reconstruct this input from fragments that are already contained in the corpus. This perspective on language processing also has interesting consequences for linguistic theory

INDIVIDUALISM

"Individualism is at once an ethical-psychological concept and an ethical-political one. As an ethical-psychological concept, individualism holds that a human being should think and judge independently, respecting nothing more than the sovereignty of his or her mind; thus, it is intimately connected with the concept of autonomy. As an ethical-political concept, individualism upholds the supremacy of individual rights ..." -- Nathaniel Branden HERE


"INDIVIDUALISM: The term 'individualism' has a great variety of meanings in social and political philosophy. There are at least three types that can be distinguished: (1) ontological individualism, (2) methodological individualism, and (3) moral or political individualism. Ontological individualism is the doctrine that social reality consists, ultimately, only of persons who choose and act. Collectives, such as a social class, state, or a group, cannot act so they are not considered to have a reality independent of the actions of persons. Methodological individualists hold that the only genuinely scientific propositions in social science are those that can be reduced to the actions, dispositions, and decisions of individuals. Political or moral individualism is the theory that individuals should be left, as far as possible, to determine their own futures in economic and moral matters. Key thinkers include Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Robert Nozick, John Locke, and Herbert Spencer." -- Stephen Grabill and Gregory M. A. Gronbacher HERE



"The foundation of individualism lies in one's moral right to pursue one's own happiness. This pursuit requires a large amount of independence, initiative, and self-responsibility.

"But true individualism entails cooperating with others through trade, which facilitates the pursuit of each party's happiness, and which is carried out not just on the level of goods but on the level of knowledge and friendship. Trade is essential for life; it provides one with many of the goods and values one needs. Creating an environment where trade flourishes is of great importance and great interest for the individualist.

"Politically, true individualism means recognizing that one has a right to his own life and happiness. But it also means uniting with other citizens to preserve and defend the institutions that protect that right." -- Shawn E. Klein HERE

"Individualism regards man -- every man -- as an independent, sovereign entity who possesses an inalienable right to his own life, a right derived from his nature as a rational being. Individualism holds that a civilized society, or any form of association, cooperation or peaceful co-existence among men, can be achieved only on the basis of the recognition of individual rights -- and that a group, as such, has no rights other than the individual rights of its members." -- Ayn Rand HERE

"Individual rights are the means of subordinating society to moral law." -- Ayn Rand

"Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual)." -- Ayn Rand

FANTASTIC FANS OF PAKISTANI CRICKET

THERE ARE NUMBER OF LOVER OF PAKISTANI CRICKET AND THEY ALWAY ENCOURAGE PAKISTANI TEAM ON THEIR GOOD PERFORMANCE

Pakistani team must do good performances on matches for their lovers.

PAKISTANI CRICKET TEAM CATAIN

Pakistani Public Opinion is that Afridi should lead Pakistan cricket team better:

This survey is conducted by Pakool.com. The large majority of voters think Shahid Afridi is best choice for Pakistan captain. A massive 65% people voted in favour of Afridi, and the closest contender is Younis Khan with just 12% votes.

The detail ranking is as below:

Shahid Afridi (65%)
Younis Khan (12%)
Other (11%)
Shoaib Malik (5%)
Mohammad Yousuf (5%)
Kamran Akmal (2%)