by psychiatrists; therapeutic techniques have also been devised for
reintegrating the split personality.
We now see clearly that there is nothing substantial about
personality as it is conceived by the psychologist. It is merely a
structural form which mental elements may take on or discard.
Turning to the philosophers, we find that the Existentialists
refuse to believe in any transcendental entity. They refuse to take a
single step beyond the world of experience. For them too, the
human self does not partake of Reality.
The Logical Positivists promptly reject any concept which
cannot be traced back to a fact of experience. Their vision too does
not extend beyond the horizon of experience. Whatever is not an
experiential fact they dismiss as non-existent.
At this point, is natural to ask whether deen can get along with the
concept of personality or of empirical self. Obviously it cannot. It
can have no use for the ephemeral self of the psychologist or
Logical Positivist. It needs something real which can enter into a
meaningful transaction with the ultimately Real. It needs self which
exists in mental phenomena and is also their underlying ground.
Deeni activity is the expression of the reality in man and it is directed
to the Real in the universe. The concept of personality may be
scientifically sound, but somehow it leaves us dissatisfied. We feel
that the object we pursued has eluded us and what we have grasped
is a mere shadow. We suspect that scant attention has been paid to
the depth factors in human life. The psychologist works from the
surface of the mind downwards, and often fails to plumb the depths
of the human mind.
At a later point in our discussion we will examine the Qur’anic
concept of the self. Here let us pause to consider the effect of the
scientific view of the self on the life of the modern man. The
modern man lives at as superficial level. He pursues petty and selfish
ends. No wonder that he is discontented and unhappy. His deepest
cravings are left unsatisfied. Thus he is in conflict both with himself
and with his fellow beings. In this connection, Iqbal’s remarks
deserve to be quoted in full:
Thus, wholly overshadowed by the results of this intellectual activity,
the modern man has ceased to live soulfully, i.e. from within. In the
domain of thought he is living in an open conflict with himself; and in
Islam: A Challenge to Religion 56