It's All About Love

I wrote in my previous post about how I was wondering whether to change the topic of my thesis or not, from one of Indian/Hindu nationalism to something about Iqbal (most probably the idea of destiny). Having thought about it for the past little while, I think I'll stick to my current topic for a bunch of reasons. That being said, this 'break' is going to be spent doing some serious soul searching and I may change my mind again. I can't wait to go home and shoot questions off of certain people - two in particular...

Anyway. As you've probably noticed, I've become more inspired by Iqbal as the semester has progressed, to the point where I know that I'll be learning Farsi soon, just so I can read his work in the original. My plan to go to Lucknow and learn Urdu over the summer (let's hope this materializes!) is also connected to this (and to my general obsession with Urdu poetry and literature).

One idea that Iqbal deals with constantly is the idea of Love. Not the romantic type of course, but the more spiritual one - one in which the love of G/god(s) and of the world are key. It's an inspiring philosophy. He speaks about how through love, we build ourselves, we strengthen ourselves and become better people. I won't go into it in too much detail here, but let's just say that the Ana al-Haq tattoo is becoming less important in face of the 'ishq one.



Don't necessarily like this representation of it - but you get the idea...