The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam

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The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam is a compilation of lectures delivered by Muhammad Iqbal on Islamic philosophy which got published in 1930. These lectures were delivered by Iqbal in Madras, Hyderabad, and Aligarh. The last chapter, "Is Religion Possible", was added to the book from the 1934 Oxford Edition onwards.

Contents

In Reconstruction, Iqbal called for a re-examination of the intellectual foundations of Islamic philosophy. The book is a major work of modern Islamic thought. It was a major influence on Iranian sociologist Ali Shariati and other contemporary Muslim reformers, including Tariq Ramadan.

Chapters

Reviews

D.S. Margoliouth, an orientalist and a professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford, wrote "From the Qur'anic law of inheritance which makes the share of the male equal to that of two females the superiority of the male over the female has been inferred; such an assumption would, Sir M.Iqbal observes, be controversial to the spirit of Islam."The Qur'an says: And for women are rights over men similar to those for men over women." [1] William Owen Carver (1898-1943) observed "His [Iqbal's] aim was "to reconstruct Muslim religious philosophy with due regard to the philosophical traditions of Islam and the more recent developments of human knowledge." [2] Edward Hulmes noted "One of the author’s [Iqbal's] motives was to encourage his fellow countrymen to explore their own cultural roots after years of British colonial rule. But his aim was also to transcend the limited boundaries of national identity in order to ‘build bridges’ between peoples of different cultures and religious traditions." [3]

Editions

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Muhammad Iqbal was a prolific writer who authored many works covering various fields and genres such as poetry, philosophy and mysticism. His philosophical writings and poetical works had a notable impression on the religio-cultural and social revival of the East particularly subcontinent Muslim. The central theme of his philosophical thought throughout his works, prose and poetry, especially in The Secrets of the Self,The Secrets of Selflessness and Message from the East is the Doctrine of Khudi. As a Muslim sage he realized that the revival of man both as an individual and as a member of social group can only come from the ultimate central principle of his being, namely, the Self or Khudi. His knowledge convinced him that the decadent condition of Muslims was due to those philosophical systems which regard the world as a mere illusion not worth striving for, and to certain classes of Sufis who regarded self-annihilation as the highest goal of human life. He use of term Khudi is synonymous with the world of Ruh as mentioned in the Quran. To him the main purpose of the Quran is to awaken in man "the higher consciousness of his manifold relations with Allah and the universe". In his opinion the undeveloped condition and the miserable plight of the Muslim nations were due to lost real identity of Khudi and to keep distance from the true spirit of Islam. Iqbal's ideal for individual as well as social life is Self-affirmation not Self-negation which was the common teaching of Hindu intellectualism and Sufi pantheism. Hence Iqbal tried to establish a firm theoretical foundation for his viewpoints, and to discover a proper philosophical terminology for conveying his message to all the humanity. To Iqbal Khudi is a universal and comprehensive reality with different degrees in expression, which moves perfection. Various factors and principles-which are mostly the same positive and negative religio-moral qualities can strengthen or weaken Khudi in human beings until it reaches the highest stage of perfection, that is, Vicegerency of God on earth. Iqbal, therefore, condemned the doctrine of dissolution of the human self into the featureless Absolute as an Ideal of inaction and poverty of life, and developed his own doctrine based on self-affirmation under the unique name of Khudi. According to him:

  1. Khudi is a reality neither an abstract thought nor an idea that reveals itself as a unity of what we call mental states. Mental states does not exist in mutual isolation. They mean and involve one another. They exist as phases of a complex whole, called mind. To Iqbal, inner experience is the ego or Khudi at work. In deed our appreciation of the ego itself in the act of perceiving, judging and willing depends ultimately on the conviction that Khudi is real and is not merely an illusion of the mind.
  2. Khudi is a universal and multi-degree reality. There is a gradually rising note of egohood in the whole universe which differs in degree among the creatures. We are conscious of this in our own self, in nature before us and in the ultimate principle, of all life, the Ultimate Ego.
  3. Khudi is the gauge of the degree of reality of any living organism. In the scale of life the status of every object is fixed according to extent it develops its Khudi and gains mastery over the environment. Khudi attains highest development in man and here it becomes Personality.
  4. Khudi is not an independent reality. God the Infinite Khudi, is the Source of life for the finite Khudi which can maintain its existence only as long as it is in contact with this All-embracing Divine Khudi. This Khudi, born in the heart of the Infinite Khudi developing in Him, and yet distinct from Him, unable to exist without Him, but also unable to be non-existent in His presence.
  5. Khudi in human beings is individual and uniqueness. Iqbal says that our pleasures, pains, desires and experiences related to different things and persons which are exclusively ours, forming a part and parcel of our private Khudi alone. It is this unique interrelation of our mutual states that we express by the word ‘I’.
  6. Khudi is not a datum; it is an achievement. Khudi has the quality of growth as well as the quality of corruption. To Iqbal if Khudi does not take the initiative, if he does not evolve the inner richness of his being, if he ceases to feel the inward push of advancing life, then the spirit within him hardens into stone and he is reduced to the level of dead matter. The greater man's distance from God, the less his individuality.
  7. The highest stage of development of Khudi is not self-negation-Fana but self-affirmation-Baqa. The fully developed Khudi does not dissolve even when the Reality is seen face to face as in mystic experience. He who comes nearest to God is the completes person. Nor that he is finally absorbed in God. Fand to Iqbal is not in the meaning of annihilation of Khudi but according to the Prophetical tradition, Takhallaqu bi-Akhlaq-i-Allah, it is essentially the annihilation of human attributes and their substitution by Divine ones.Thus man becomes unique by becoming more and more like the most unique Individuality.
  8. The basis of Iqbal's doctrine of khudi is a strong faith in the evolution of man. To Iqbal this evolution is to be attained by fortifying Khudi. The most important factors which strengthen Khudi are: Love, desire, Action, Faqr, Courage, Suffering, Tolerance and Forbearance. Khudi in this evolutionary process towards uniqueness has to pass through three stages; Obedience to Law, Self-Control and Divine-Vicegerency.
  9. By the side of factors and rules which strengthen Khudi, the fully grown Khudi will not be attained unless it associates with other Khudis in the community to which it belongs. So the kind of society in which the greatest scope for the free development of Khudi is provided is of the great importance. According to Iqbal's philosophy of Khudi, a nation is, just as the individual, a Khudi, and has to follow the same lines of conduct as the individual does. Hence the same rules and elements required to flourish the individual Khudi are applied to the community as the national Khudi as well.
<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muhammad Iqbal's political philosophy</span>

Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938) is the national poet of Pakistan and is regarded as the soul behind creation of Pakistan. He is equally famous and well known in India and beyond for his philosophical, poetic and political works and services that he rendered for Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Iran, and the Muslim world at large. The political objective condition of Indian subcontinent in pre-partition time influenced his poetry and politics in marked way. These political conditions ranged from British and Indian rivalry to the Muslim/Non Muslim or Muslim League and Congress rivalry. Iqbal in his poetry and practices has eloquently given expression to these conditions. Not only expressed it, but he also delivered speeches, addresses, and wrote about the amicable solutions of all these problems in the best interest of all. The political philosophy of Muhammad Iqbal went through several phases of development. The first was pan-Indian nationalism with a belief in the nationhood based on language, culture, race, and geography. The second (1905–08) was transitional/mental conflict and the third (1908–26) was Pan-Islamism/Muslim nationalism advocating political unity of the Muslim world. The fourth (1926–38) was Supranationalism or Internationalism wherein the Muslim ummah was universal, the boundaries of the state were for administrative convenience only and the affinity was spiritual.

References

  1. Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, p. 161, Oxford University Press, 1934.
  2. Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, p. v, Oxford University Press, 1934.
  3. in: The Heythrop Journal, Volume 55, Issue 3, (May 2014), p. 516.

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