Iqbal, Pakistani logic & Love vs Power

The Punjab has produced the most sublime spiritual and religious poetry from the time of the Vedic Rishis. Though the Punjabis have a great martial tradition, in Punjabi poetry- as in Milton's Paradise Lost (which features canons!)- Love is always a stronger force than military might. But this is also the case with the grand tradition of Arabic poetry. Who remembers the philandering Imru' al-Qais? Who doesn't know the virginal Qais Majnoon? If the majority of Punjabis are now Muslim- it is because the Prophet Muhammad, before entering on his Divine Mission and the death of his beloved wife, was as wholly monogamous and faithful as Lord Ram. This is not to say he lacked in martial or virile qualities to fulfil God's plan.

Yet, like a Mother's plan for her beloved son or daughter, it is one which unfolds without any display of power- or 'shock and awe' or the sort of Imperial power the British displayed in Iqbal's Punjab.

Yet he writes-

Christianity describes God as love;

Because there is the Virgin Mary and the Baby Jesus who is consubstantial with his Daddy, God. This 'Love' is Vatsalya or the natural mutual love between Baby and Mummy/Daddy. Nothing wrong with this at all. This is 'oikeiosis'. But, no Punjabi Muslim does not feel that, as a baby, he or she too was not of the 'family of the cloak'. We all cuddled under that blanket. 

Islam as power.

God is all powerful in all religions. The question is, does desire for power or love for his Creation cause him to reveal Scripture and send us Prophets and Saints? Aurangzeb wanted power though he claimed to serve God. Iqbal has the Saint, Ali al-Hujwiri, speak from the tomb denouncing the Emperor as one motivated by 'zamin bhook'- hunger for land.  

How shall we decide between the two conceptions?

Aurangzeb failed though he had 4.4 million men at arms. Saint al-Hujwiri's single heart prevailed because it was filled with love and devotion.

I think the history of mankind and of the universe as a whole must tell us as to which of the two conceptions is truer.

Hitler failed. Gandhi succeeded.  

I find that God reveals Himself in history more as power than love.

Iqbal thought the Crusades were lovely. Come to think of it, he first praised Lenin before deciding that the Sun shone out of Mussolini's backside- even though Mussolini was massacring Muslims in Libya at that time.  

I do not deny the love of God; I mean that, on the basis of our historical experience, God is better described as power.

The problem with this view is that even if Stalin and Hitler were Gods because of the huge power they wielded, such Gods might fight with and annihilate each other. Power Gods were displaced by the Single God of Love, Mercy and Compassion. 

Iqbal also said ' “Nations are born in the hearts of poets; they prosper and die in the hands of politicians.' Sadly, Pakistan was born in the heart of a poet who, with Pakistani logic, thought that though power is merely the means by which Love brings about existence, it must exceed that which uses it as its tool. Thankfully, Iqbal did not actually act on this belief. Thus if his girl-friend sent him a passionate love-letter, he did not promptly have sex with the postman. Firaq Gorakhpuri was less fastidious in this respect.