Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

The Reconstruction of Religious

Thought in Islam

by

Dr. Muhammad Iqbal

Table of Contents

PREFACE. 3

Lecture I: Knowledge and Religious Experience 4

Lecture II: The Philosophical Test of the Revelations of Religious Experience 20

Lecture III: The Conception of God and the Meaning of Prayer 40

Lecture IV: The Human Ego - His Freedom and Immortality. 58

Lecture V: The Spirit of Muslim Culture 75

Lecture VI: The Principle of Movement in the Structure of Islam. 88

Lecture VII: Is Religion Possible?. 108

NOTES AND REFERENCES. 119

Lecture I: Knowledge and Religious Experience 119

Lecture II: THE PHILOSOPHICAL TEST OF THE REVELATIONS OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE  123

Lecture III: THE CONCEPTION OF GOD AND THE MEANING OF PRAYER  127

Lecture IV: THE HUMAN EGO - HIS FREEDOM AND IMMORTALITY  133

Lecture V: THE SPIRIT OF MUSLIM CULTURE. 138

Lecture VI: THE PRINCIPLE OF MOVEMENT IN THE STRUCTURE OF ISLAM   147

Lecture VII: IS RELIGION POSSIBLE? 156

Bibliography. 159

I.Works of Allama Iqbal 159

(A) Works in Prose 159

(B) Major Poetical Works (With English Translation) 159

(C) Addresses, Articles, Letters, etc. 160

(II) SECONDARY WORKS AND ARTICLES REFERRED. 160

(A) Works 160

(B) Articles 170

PREFACE

The Qur’an is a book which emphasizes ‘deed’ rather than ‘idea’. There are, however, men to whom it is not possible organically to assimilate an alien universe by re-living, as a vital process, that special type of inner experience on which religious faith ultimately rests. Moreover, the modern man, by developing habits of concrete thought - habits which Islam itself fostered at least in the earlier stages of its cultural career - has rendered himself less capable of that experience which he further suspects because of its liability to illusion. The more genuine schools of Sufism have, no doubt, done good work in shaping and directing the evolution of religious experience in Islam; but their latter-day representatives, owing to their ignorance of the modern mind, have become absolutely incapable of receiving any fresh inspiration from modern thought and experience. They are perpetuating methods which were created for generations possessing a cultural outlook differing, in important respects, from our own. ‘Your creation and resurrection,’ says the Qur’an, ‘are like the creation and resurrection of a single soul.’ A living experience of the kind of biological unity, embodied in this verse, requires today a method physiologically less violent and psychologically more suitable to a concrete type of mind. In the absence of such a method the demand for a scientific form of religious knowledge is only natural. In these Lectures, which were undertaken at the request of the Madras Muslim Association and delivered at Madras, Hyderabad, and Aligarh, I have tried to meet, even though partially, this urgent demand by attempting to reconstruct Muslim religious philosophy with due regard to the philosophical traditions of Islam and the more recent developments in the various domains of human knowledge. And the present moment is quite favourable for such an undertaking. Classical Physics has learned to criticize its own foundations. As a result of this criticism the kind of materialism, which it originally necessitated, is rapidly disappearing; and the day is not far off when Religion and Science may discover hitherto unsuspected mutual harmonies. It must, however, be remembered that there is no such thing as finality in philosophical thinking. As knowledge advances and fresh avenues of thought are opened, other views, and probably sounder views than those set forth in these Lectures, are possible. Our duty is carefully to watch the progress of human thought, and to maintain an independent critical attitude towards it.

M.I