Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

Lecture V: THE SPIRIT OF MUSLIM CULTURE

1. Cf. ‘Abd al-Quddës Gangàhâ,Lat«’if-i Quddësâ , ed. Shaikh Rukn al-Di`n,LaÇâfah 79; the Persian text rendered into English here is:

Reference may also be made here to very pithy and profound jottings of Allama Iqbal on the back cover of his own copy of William James’sVarieties of Religious Experience , especially to those under the sub-heading: ‘Mystical and Prophetic Consciousness’ with explicit mention of ‘Abd al-Quddu`s Gango`hi`; see Muhammad Siddiq,Descriptive Catalogue of Allama Iqbal’s Personal Library , Plate No. 8.

2. This great idea is embodied in the Quranic verse 33:40, i.e. ‘Muhammad... is All«h’s Apostle and the Seal of all Prophets, (Muhammad-un rasël All«h wa kh«tam-un nabâyyân ). It has also been variously enunciated in the Àadâth literature (i)y« Muhammad-u anta rasël Ull«h-i wa kh«tam al-anbiy« ’ : ‘O Muhammad! you are Allah’s Apostle and the Seal of all Prophets’; this is what other Prophets would proclaim on the Day of Resurrection (Bukh«râ,Tafsâr : 17). (ii)Wa ‘an«kh«tim-un-nabâyyân : ‘And I am the last of the Prophets’ (ibid.,Man«qib : 7; Muslim,¥m«n : 327). (iii)Laisa nabâyyu ba’dâ : ‘There is no Prophet after me’ (Bukh«râ,Magh«zâ : 77). (iv)L«nabâyya badâ : ‘There is no Prophet after me’ (ibid., Anbâya: 50; Muslim,Im«rah : 44;Fad«’il al-Sah«bah : 30-31). (v)Wa l«nabâyya ba’dahë : ‘And there is no Prophet after him’, said so by Abë Awf« as narrated by Ism«‘âl (Bukh«râ,ÿd«b : 109). (vi)L«nubuwwah ba’dâ : ‘There is no prophethood after me’ (Muslim,Fad«‘ al-Sah«bah : 30-32).

3. Thoughwahy matluww (revelation which is recited or worded revelation) is specific to the Prophets, the Qur’an speaks of revelation in connection with earth (99:5), heavens (41:12), honey-bee (16:68-69), angels (8:12), mother of Moses (28:7) and disciples of Jesus (5:111). As to the different modes of revelation see 42:51.

4. Reference here is to the last but one passage of the Quranic verse 5:3 which reads: ‘This day have I perfected your religion for you and completed My favour unto you and have chosen for you as religional-Isl«m’ . This passage, according to all availableaÁ«dâth on the testimony of the Prophet’s contemporaries, was revealed at ‘Araf«t in the afternoon of Friday, the 9th of Dhu’l-Àijjah 10 A.H., the year of the Prophet’s last pilgrimage to Makkah (cf. Bukha`ri`,¥m«n : 34, where this fact is authenticated by Haîrat ‘Umar b. al-Khatta`b). It is to be noted that the Prophet’s death took place eighty-one of eighty-two days after the revelation of this verse and as it speaks of the perfection of religion in Islam, no precept of legal import whatsoever was revealed after it; cf. R«zâ,al-Tafsâr al-Kabâr .

5. Qur’an, 41:53.

6. The first half of the formula of Islam is:l«il«h ill All«h , i.e. there is no god but Allah, or nothing whatever is worthy of worship except Allah. The other half isMuhammad-un Rasëlull«h , i.e. Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. The expression ‘formula of Islam’ signifies that by bearing witness to the truth of these two simple propositions a man enters the fold of Islam.

7. Cf. Bukh«râ,Jan«’iz : 78;Shah«dah : 3; andJih«d : 160 and 178 (Eng. trans. M. Muhsin Khan, II, 244-45; III, 488-89, and IV, 168-69 and 184-86) and Muslim:Fitan: 95-96 (Eng. trans. A.H. Siddiqi, IV, 1510-15).

8. Cf.Muqaddimah , trans. Rosenthal, Vol. III, Section vi, Discourse: ‘The Science of Sufism’; D. B. Macdonald,Religious Attitude and Life in Islam , pp. 165-74, and M. Syrier, ‘Ibn Khaldu`n and Mysticism’,Islamic Culture , XXI/ii (1947), 264-302.

9. Reference here is to the Quranic verses: 41:37; 25:45; 10:6; 30:22 and 3:140 bearing on the phenomena of Nature which have quite often been named in the Qur’an as «y«t All«h, i.e. the ‘apparent signs of God’ (R«ghib,al-Mufrad«t , pp. 32-33); this is followed by reference to verses 25:73 and 17:72 which in the present context clearly make it as much a religious duty of the ‘true servants of the Most Gracious God ‘Iba`d-ur-Rahma`n’ to ponder over these apparent signs of God ‘as revealed to the sense-perception of man’ as to ponder over the Divine communications («y«t al-Qur’an ) revealed to the Holy Prophet - this two-way God-consciousness alone ensures man’s physical and spiritual prosperity in this life as well as in the life hereafter.

10. Cf. G. H. Lewes,The Biographical History of Philosophy (1857), p. 306, lines, 4-8, where Lewes says: ‘It is this work (‘Revivification of the Sciences of Religion’) which A. Schmö lders has translated; it bears so remarkable a resemblance to theDiscours de la mé thod ’ of Descartes, that had any translation of it existed in the days of Descartes, everyone would have cried against the plagiarism’. The second sentence of this passage was quoted by Allama Iqbal in his doctoral dissertation:The Development of Metaphysics in Persia (1908), p. 73, note (1), in support of his statement that Ghazz«lâ anticipated Descartes in his philosophical method’.

It is to be noted that Schmö lders’Essai sur les é coles philosophiques chez les Arabes (Paris, 1842) was not the French translation of Ghazz«lâ’s voluminous ‘Revivification’ (Ihy«’ ‘Ulëm al-Dân in forty books) but that of his autobiographical workAl-Munqidh min al-Dal«l with its earliest edited Arabic text. It seems that the remarkable originality and boldness of Ghazz«lâ’s thought in the French version ofal-Munqidh led Lewes to confuse it with the greater, the more famous ‘Revivification’ (Ihy« ). For the ‘amazing resemblance’ between Ghazz«lâ’s Al-Munqidh min al-Dal«l (Liberation from Error) and Descartes’Discours de la method’ (Discourse on Method), see Professor M. M. Sharif, ‘The Influence of Muslim Thought on the West’, ‘Section: D’,A History of Muslim Philosophy , II, 1382-84.

11. Cf.al-QisÇ«s al-Mustaqâm , trans. D.P. Brewster (The Just Balance ), chapters ii-vi and translator’s Appendix III: ‘Al-Ghazz«lâ and the Syllogism’, pp. 126-30; cf. also Michael E. Marmura, ‘Ghaza`li`’s Attitude to the Secular Sciences and Logic’,Essays on Islamic Philosophy and Science , ed. G. F. Hourani, Section II, pp. 102-03, and Susanna Diwald’s detailed review onal-QisÇ«s inDer Islam (1961), pp. 171-74.

12. For an account of Ishra`qi`’s criticism of Greek logic contained in hisHikmat al-Ishr«q , cf. S. Hossein Nasr, ‘Shiha`b al-Di`n Suhrawardi`Maqtu`l’,A History of Muslim Philosophy , I, 384-85; a fuller account of Ishra`qi`’s logic, according to Nicholas Rescher, is to be found in his extant but unpublished (?)Kit«b al-Talwâh«t and Kit«b al-Lamah«t (cf.Development of Arabic Logic , p. 185). It is to be noted that the earliest explanation of Ishra`qi`’s disagreement with Aristotle that logical definition is genus plus differentia, in terms of modern (Bosanquet’s) logic, was given by Allama Iqbal in hisDevelopment of Metaphysics in Persia , pp. 97-98.

For an expose of Ibn Taimâyyah’s logical masterpieceal-Radd ‘ala’l-Mantâqâyin (Refutation of the Logicians’) cf. Serajul Haque, ‘Ibn Taimi`yyah’ inA History of Muslim Philosophy , II, 805-12; also Majid Fakhry,A History of Islamic Philosophy (pp. 352-53) for a lucid summing up. A valuable study of Ibn Taimi`yyah’s logical ideas is that by ‘Alâ S«mâ al-Nashsh«r inMan«hij al-Bahth ‘inda Mufakkiri’l-Isl«m wa Naqd al-Muslimân li’l-Mantiq al-Aristat«lâsâ , chapter III, sections ii and iii. Al-Nashsh«r has also edited Suyëtâ’sJahd al-Qarih«h fi tajrâd al-Nasâhah , an abridgment of ibn Taimâyyah’sAl-Radd ‘ala’l-Mantiqiyân .

13. Aristotle’s first figure,al-shakl al-awwal oral-qiyas al-k«mil of the Muslim logicians, is a form of syllogism in which the middle term occurs as a subject in the first premiss and as a predicate in the second premiss. It is the only form of syllogism in which the conclusion becomes available in the form of a general (universal - proposition needed for scientific purposes; cf. M. Saeed Sheikh,A Dictionary of Muslim Philosophy , s.v.

As to the criticism of the first figure referred to here, it is more rightly to be ascribed to Fakhr al-Dân R«zâ, who, besides his own now available logical works, wrote quite a few critical commentaries on the works of Ibn Sân«, rather than to the eminent physician of Islam, Abë Bakr Zakarâya R«zâ, none of whose short treatises on some parts of the AristotelianOrganon seems to have survived; cf. Nicholas Rescher,The Development of Arabic Logic , pp. 117-18. Happily this stands confirmed by Allama Iqbal’s Presidential comments (almost all of which have been incorporated in the present passage) on Khwajah Kamal’s Lecture (in Urdu) on ‘Islam and Modern Sciences’ in the third session of the All-India Muhammadan Educational Conference, 1911, in Delhi; see S.’A.’Vahid (ed.), Maq«l«t-i Iqb«l, pp. 239-40; cf. also Allama’s letter dated 1st February 1924 to Sayyid Sulaim«n Nadvâ, Iqb«ln«mah, I, 127-28; reference in both cases is to Fakhr al-Dân al-R«zâ and not to Abë Bakr R«zâ.

It is to be noted that of all the writings of Allama Iqbal including his more than 1200 letters Abë Bakr R«zi`is mentioned only inDevelopment of Metaphysics in Persia : ‘as a physician and as a thinker who admitted the eternity of matter, space and time and possibly looked upon light as the first creation’ (pp. 24, 96). In a significant passage on p. 96 of this work Allama has listed about ten Muslim thinkers who were highly critical either of Greek philosophy in general or Greek logic in particular - Abë Bakr R«zâ’s name does not appear in this list.

14. This is Ibn Hazm’sÀudëd al-Mantiq referred to in his well-knownKit«b al-Fisal (I, 4 and 20; V, 70 and 128) under somewhat varied titles; also mentioned by his contemporary and compatriot Sa`’id b. Ahmad al-Andalusâ in hisñabaq«t al-Umam (p.’118) and later listed by Brockelmann inGAL ; Supplementbä nde (I, 696). C. van Arendonk, however, in his article on ‘Ibn Hazm’ inThe Encyclopaedia of Islam (II, 385) and I. Goldziher, s.v. in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, VII, 71 have declared that ‘the work has not survived’. And certainly very little was heard of this work until Dr Ihsan ‘Abba`s of the University of Khartoum discovered possibly the only MS and published it under the title:al-ñaqrâb li-Àadd al-Mantiq (The Approach to the Limits of Logic) in 1959. Allama’s comments on Ibn Àazm’s ‘Scope of Logic’ (Hudëd al-Mantiq ), at a time when it was generally considered to have been lost is a proof of his extraordinary knowledge of Muslim writers and their works.

15. Cf.Development of Metaphysics in Persia (1964), p. 64, where it is stated that ‘Al-Birënâand Ibn Haitham (d. 1038) . anticipated modern empirical psychology in recognizing what is called reaction-time’: in the two footnotes to this statement Allama Iqb«l quotes from de Boer’sHistory of Philosophy in Islam , pp. 146 and 150, to establish the positivism, i.e. sense-empiricism respectively of both al-Birënâ and Ibn Haitham. On pp. 151-52 of this work is a passage (possibly referred to by Allama Iqbal here) which describes reaction-time very much in the modern sense: ‘not only is every sensation attended by a corresponding change localized in the sense-organ, which demands a certain time, but also, between the stimulation of the organ and consciousness of the perception an interval of time must elapse, corresponding to the transmission of stimulus for some distance along the nerves.’

As to al-Kindâ’s discovery that sensation is proportionate to stimulus, cf. de Boer,op. cit ., p. 101, where he speaks of ‘the proportional relation existing between stimulus and sensation’ in connection with al-Kindâ’s mathematized theory of compound remedies. This is given in al-Kindâ’s celebrated treatise:Ris«lah fi Ma‘rifah Quwwat-Adwâyat al-Murakkabah which was at least twice translated into Latin (Sarton,Introduction to the History of Science , II, 342 and 896).

16. Cf.Opus Majus, trans . Robert Belle Burke, Vol. II, Part V (pp. 419-82). It is important to note that Sarton’s observation on Roger Bacon’s work on optics is very close to that of Allama Iqbal. ‘His optics’, says Sarton, ‘was essentially based upon that of Ibn al-Haitham, with small additions and practical applications’ (op. cit ., II, 957). As reported by Dr M. S. N«mës, Allama Iqbal helped him in understanding the rotographs of the only MS (No. 2460 in Bibliothé que Nationale, Paris) of Ibn Haitham’sT«hrâr al-Man«zir for a number of days; cf.Ibn al-Haitham: Proceedings of the Celebrations of 1000th Anniversary (held in November 1969 under the auspices of Hamdard National Foundation Pakistan, Karachi), p. 128.

See, however, Professor A. I. Sabra’s scholarly article: ‘Ibn al-Haytham’ inDictionary of Scientific Biography , VI, 189-210, especially p. 205 where he gives an up-to-date information about the MSS of Ibn Haitham’sKit«b al-Man«zir . According to Professor Sabra, ‘The reference in Brockelmann to a recension of this work in the Paris MS, ar. 2460 (Brockelmann has 2640) is mistaken; the MS is a recension of Euclid’sOptics which is attributed on the title page to Hasan ibn (Mës«ibn) Sh«kir’.

17. ‘Ibn Hazm’ here is a palpable misprint for ‘ibn Haitham’ - the context of the passage more fittingly demands and latter rather than the former name. Ibn Hazm’s influence on Roger Bacon’sOpus Majus , a predominantly science-oriented work, looks somewhat odd. There seems to be no evidence of it in the text ofOpus Majus - Ibn Hazm is not even so much as mentioned by name in this work. Sarton, despite his great praise for Ibn Hazm’s scholarship (op. cit . I, 713), nowhere hints at his contributions to ‘science’ or his influence of Roger Bacon, nor is this to be found in other standard works, for example, in the sixteen-volumeDictionary of Scientific Biography .

18. Qur’an, 53:42.

19. For ñësâ’s discussion of the parallel postulate (also named ‘axiom of parallelism’), see his ‘Al-Ris«lat al-Sh«fâyan ‘an al-Shakk fi’l-Khutët al-Mutaw«zâyah’ in (ñësâ’s)Ras«’il , Vol. II, Pt. viii, pp. 1-40. Commenting on this work Sarton observes (op. cit ., II, 1003): ‘NaÄâr al-Dân’s discussion was remarkably elaborate’. Cf. also Cajori,A History of Elementary Mathematics , p. 127, Q. À«fiz ñauq«`n,Tur«th al-‘Arab al-‘Ilmâ , pp. 97-98, R. Bonola,Non-Euclidean Geometry , pp. 12-13 and 37-38 and Dr S. H. Nasr’s article: ‘Al-ñësâ’ inDictionary of Scientific Biography , XIII, 508-14 especially p. 510.

20. This passage may be read in conjunction with Allama Iqbal’s observation on ñësâ in his Sectional Presidential Address (delivered at the Fifth Oriental Conference, Lahore, on 20 November 1928): ‘A Plea for the Deeper Study of Muslim Scientists’: ‘It is Tusi’s effort to improve the parallel postulate of Euclid that is believed to have furnished a basis in Europe for the problem of space which eventually led to the theories of Gauss and Riemann’ (Speeches, Writings and Statements of Iqbal , p. 138). Euclid’s parallel postulate is Postulate V of the first book of hisElements. What it means to say is that through a given point ‘P’ there can be only one straight line ‘L’ parallel to a given straight line. It is to be noted that to Euclid’s successors this postulate had signally failed to appear self-evident, and had equally failed to appear indemonstrable - hence, Allama Iqbal’s generalized statement that ‘since the days of Ptolemy (87-165 A.D.) till the time of NaÄâr ñësâ nobody gave serious thought’ to the postulate. Deeper and wider implication of the postulate, however, cannot be denied. ‘The innumerable attempts to prove this fifth postulate on the one hand and the development of the non-Euclidean geometries on the other are as many tributes to Euclid’s wisdom’, says Sarton (op. cit ., I, 153). A long note on the postulate by Spengler - well versed in mathematics - in hisDecline of the West , 1, 176, admirably brings out its deep philosophical import.

These non-Euclidean geometries were developed in the nineteenth century by certain European mathematicians: Gauss (1777-1855) in Germany, Lobachevski (1792-1856) in Russia, Bolyai (1802-1860) in Hungary and Riemann (1826-1866) in Germany. They abandoned the attempt to prove Euclid’s parallel postulate for they discovered that Euclid’s postulates of geometry were not the only possible postulates and that other sets of postulates could be formulated arbitrarily and self-consistent geometries based on them. They further discovered that the space assumed in Euclidean geometry is only a special case of a more general type. These non-Euclidean geometries assumed immense scientific significance when it was found that the space-time continuum required by Einstein’s theory of gravitation is non-Euclidean.

This in short is the movement of the idea of parallel postulate from Euclid to Einstein. Allama Iqbal with his seer-like vision for ideas was very much perceptive of this ‘movement’ and also of the scientific and philosophical significance of the non-Euclidean geometries. It is to be noted that Allama’s keenly perceptive mind took full notice of the scientific developments of his days, for example, of anti-mechanistic biologism (neo-vitalism) of Hans Driesch and J. S. Haldane and of quantum theory as well as of relativity-physics especially as expounded by Eddington, Louis Rougier, Lord Haldane, Wildon Carr and other philosopher-scientists. Among other things, one may notice a score of books on the ‘Philosophy of Contemporary Science, more than half of which are on relativity-physics (mostly published between 1920 and 1928) in his personal library alone. See M. Siddiq,Descriptive Catalogue of Allama Iqbal’s Personal Library , pp. 4-7 and 71-76, as well as Plates Nos. 22 and 23 giving the facsimiles of Allama’s signatures dated July 1921 and September 1921 on his own copies of Einstein’s work:Relativity: The Special and the General Theory :A Popular Exposition (1920) and Edwin E. Slosson’sEasy Lessons in Einstein (1920); cf. also Dr Ahmad Nabi Khan,Relics of Allama Iqbal (Catalogue) , books listed at IV. 41 and IV. 46. The first book TheMystery of Space by Robert T. Browne by its very sub-title: ‘A Study of the Hyperspace Movement in the Light of the Evolution of New Psychic Faculties and an Inquiry into the Genesis and Essential Nature of Space’ suggests that it was probably this book which was foremost in Allama’s mind when he spoke of highly mathematical notion of ‘hyperspace movement’ in connection with Tusi’s effort to improve the parallel postulate here as well as in his ‘Plea for Deeper Study’ (Speeches, Writings and Statements of Iqbal , p. 141). Allama’s keen interest in higher mathematics is evinced by his references in the present rather compact discussion on Newton’s interpolation formula, recent developments in European mathematics and Whitehead’s view of relativity as distinguished from that of Einstein. For the development of Allama’s interest in certain mathematical key-concepts and in sciences in general see M. Saeed Sheikh, ‘Allama Iqbal’s interest in the Sciences’,Iqbal Review , XXX/i (April-June, 1989), 31-43.

21. Cf. a fairy long passage from Spengler’sDecline of the West (I, 75) quoted in Allama’s Address: ‘A Plea for Deeper Study of the Muslim Scientists’ and an account of the way he went into the authentication of al-Bârënâ’s view of mathematical function (Speeches, Writings and Statements of Iqbal , pp. 135-36). Allama’s interest in ‘mathematical idea of function’ seems to be two-fold: religio-philosophical and scientific. The function-idea, he says, ‘turns the fixed into the variable, and sees the universe not as being but as becoming’. This is in full accord with the Quranic view of the universe which God has built with power and it is He Who is steadily expanding it (cf. M. Asad,The Message of the Qur’an , p. 805, note 31) and again ‘He adds to his creation whatever He wills: for verily, God has the power to will anything’ (35:1). The Quranic view of the growing universe is thus ‘a clear departure’ from the Aristotelian view of the fixed universe. Aristotle’s doctrine of potentiality passing into actuality fails to resolve the mystery of becoming, in its living historicity and novelty or, as W. D. Ross has put it: ‘The conception of potentiality has often been used to cover mere barrenness of thought’ (cf. his Aristotle, p. 176). Hence, Allama’s repeated pronouncement, that the spirit of the Qur’an is essentially anti-classical. Philosophically speaking, time, which in the present context has been linked up with the notion of functionality and rightly so, is the most indispensable condition for the very possibility and reality of human experience, cognitive or moral. This explains, partly at least, why ‘Time’ is the recurring theme in Allama’s works in both prose and verse.

In mathematics function is a relationship of correspondence between two variables called independent variable and dependent variable and is expressed by saying ‘y is a function of x’ which means y change with x , so that for a certain value of x, y has a certain value (or values). In Europe though the term ‘function’ in its full mathematical sense was first used by Leibniz in 1694, the theory of functions had already emerged with the analytic geometry of Pierce Fermat in 1629 and that of the father of modern philosophy Ré ne Descartes - Descartes’La Geometrie appeared along with his betterknown Discours de la mé thode in 1637. After that such rapid advances took place in mathematics that within, say, fifty years it was completely metamorphosed into its modern form or, as Spengler puts it: ‘Once this immense creation found wings, its rise was miraculous’. Being well versed in mathematics, Spengler gives an exciting account of the new discoveries of the Western mathematicians and their impact of European science and arts (op. cit ., I, 74-90). Two of his statements are to be noted. Not until the theory of functions was fully evolved, says Spengler, ‘could this mathematics be unreservedly brought to bear in the parallel sphere of our dynamic Western physics’. Generally speaking, this means that Nature speaks the subtle and complex language of mathematics and that without the use of this language the breath-taking progress of science in the West, since the seventeenth century, would have been a sheer impossibility. Spengler, however, did not care to know that the mathematical idea of function originated, not in the West, but in the East, more particularly with the most brilliant al-Bârënâ’s Al-Qnën al Mas‘ëdâ in 1030, i.e. six hundred years before Fermat and Descartes.

The second statement to be noted is that, according to Spengler, ‘The history of Western knowledge is thus one of progressive emancipation from classical thought’ (ibid , p. 76). As it is, Allama Iqbal has the least quarrel with Spengler on the truth of this statement for he says: ‘The most remarkable phenomenon of modern history, however, is the enormous rapidity with which the world of Islam is spiritually moving towards the West. There is nothing wrong in this movement, for European culture, on its intellectual side, is only a further development of some of the most important phases of the culture of Islam’ (Lecture I, p. 6: italics mine). And further, ‘Spengler’s view of the spirit of modern culture is, in my opinion, perfectly correct’ (p. 114). What Allama Iqbal, however, rightly insists is ‘that the anticlassical spirit of the modern world has really arisen out of the revolt of Islam against Greek thought’ (ibid ). This revolt consists in Islam’s focusing its vision on ‘the concrete’, ‘the particular’ and ‘the becoming as against the Greeks’ search for ‘the ideal’ ‘the universal’ and ‘the being’. Spengler failed to see these Islamic ingredients of modern culture because of his self-evolved thesis ‘that each culture is a specific organism, having no point of contact with cultures that historically precede or follow it’. Spengler’s thesis has its roots, not in any scientifically established dynamics of history, but in his uncompromising theory of cultural holism (note the sub-title of the first volume of his work:Gestalt und Wirklichkeit ). Cf. W. H. Dray’s article, ‘Spengler, Oswald’, inEncyclopedia of Philosophy , VII, 527-30 for critical evaluation of Spengler’s philosophical position.

22. Cf. M. A. Kazim, ‘al-Bârënâ and Trignometry’, al-Bârënâ Commemoration Volume, esp. pp. 167-68, for the English translation of the passage from al-Bârënâ’sal-Q«nën al-Mas‘ëdâ wherein al-Bârënâ generalizes his interpolation formula ‘from trignometrical function to any function whatever’. This is likely the passage pointedly referred to by Allama Iqbal in his ‘A Plea for Deeper Study of the Muslim Scientists’ (Speeches, Writings and Statements of Iqbal , p. 136). See, however, Professor E. S. Kennedy’s highly commendable article on ‘al-Bârënâ’ inDictionary of Scientific Biography , II, 147-58. He bases al- Bârënâ’s theory of function on his ‘Treatise on Shadows’ already translated by him.

23. Cf. M. R. Siddiqi, ‘Mathematics and Astronomy’,A History of Muslim Philosophy , ed. M. M. Sharif, II, 1280, and Juan Vernet, ‘Mathematics, Astronomy, Optics’,The Legacy of Islam ed. Joseph Schacht and C. E. Bosworth, pp. 466-68. According to Sarton, al-Khaw«rizmâ may be called one of the founders of analysis or algebra as distinct from geometry’ and that his astronomical and trignometric tables were the first Muslim tables which contained, not simply the sine function, but also the tangent’ (op. cit ., I, 563).

24. Cf.Al-Fauz al-Asghar , pp. 78-83; alsoDevelopment of Metaphysics in Persia , p. 29 where an account of Ibn Maskawaih’s theory of evolution is given as summed up by Shiblâ Nu’m«ni in his ‘Ilm al-Kal«m , pp. 141-43.

25. This is a reference to the views of Khw«jah Muhammad P«rs«as contained in his short but valuable tractate on time and space:Ris«lah dar Zam«n-o-Mak«n , the only extant MS (6 folios) of which, perhaps, is the one listed by A. Monzavi in hisCatalogue of Persian Manuscripts , Vol II, Part I, p. 800. I am greatly indebted to Q«zâ Mahmëd ul Haq of British Library, London, for the microfilm of this MS. This resulted as a preliminary in the publication of Urdu translation of Khw«jah Muhammad P«rs«’sRis«lah dar Zam«n-o-Mak«n along with a brief account of his life and works by Dr Khw«ja Hamâd Yazd«nâ inAl-Ma‘«rif (Lahore), XVII/vii, July 1984), 31-42, 56. Cf. Nadhr S«birâ,Gh«yat al-Imk«n fi Ma’rifat al-Zam«n by Shaikh Mahmëd Ashnawâ, ‘Introduction’, p. ‘r’ where it is alleged that Khw«jah P«rs«made an extensive use of Ashnawâ’s said tractate on space and time, which is not very unlikely seeing the close resemblance between the two tractates; yet at places Khw«jah P«rs«’s treatment of the subject is sufistically more sophisticated.

26. Cf. Lecture II, pp. 60-61.

27. Misprinted as ‘weight’ in previous editions; see also the significant Quranic text repeated in verse 34:3.

28. Cf.Gh«yat al-Imk«n fi Dirayat al-Mak«n , ed. Rahâm Farmanâsh, pp. 16-17; English trans. A. H. Kamali, p. 13. On the authorship of this sufistic tractate on space and time, see note 34 in Lecture III.

29.Ibid ., p. 17; English trans., p. 13.

30.Ibid ., p. 23; English trans., p. 17.

31.Ibid ., pp. 24-25; English trans., pp. 18-19.

32.Ibid ., p. 25; English trans., p. 19.

33.Ibid ., p. 17; English trans., pp. 20-21.

34.Ibid ., pp. 27-28; English trans., p. 21.

35.Ibid ., pp. 28-29; English trans., pp. 21-22.

36. Cf. Space,Time and Deity , II, 41; also R. Metz,A Hundred Years of British Philosophy , pp. 634-38, and article ‘S. Alexander’ inThe Dictionary of Philosophy , ed. D. D. Runes, wherein it is made clear that the term ‘deity’ is not used by Alexander in any theological sense but in terms of his doctrine of emergent evolution: ‘The quality next above any given level (of evolution) is deity to the beings on that level’.

37. Alexander’s metaphor that time is mind of space is to be found in statements such as this: ‘It is that Time as a whole and in its parts bears to space as a whole and its corresponding parts a relation analogous to the relation of mind . or to put the matter shortly that Time is the mind of Space and Space the body of Time’ (Space, Time and Deity , II, 38). Allama Iqbal’s references to Alexander’sSpace, Time and Deity , in the sufistic account of space and time in the present Lecture as also in his address earlier: ‘A Plea for Deeper Study of Muslim Scientists’ (Speeches, Writings and Statements , p. 142) coupled with his commendatory observations on Alexander’s work in his letter dated 24 January 1921 addressed to R. A. Nicholson (Letters of Iqbal , p. 141) are suggestive of Allama’s keen interest in the metaphysical views of Alexander.

Of all the British philosophers, contemporaries of Allama Iqbal, Alexander can be singled out for laying equal emphasis on space and time as central to all philosophy. ‘All the vital problems of philosophy’, says Alexander, ‘depend for their solution on the solution of the problem what Space and Time are and, more particularly, in how they are related to each other’. According to Allama Iqbal, ‘In [Muslim] . culture the problem of space and time becomes a question of life and death’ (p. 105). ‘Space and Time in Muslim Thought’ was the subject selected by Allama for his proposed Rhodes Memorial Lectures at Oxford (1934-1935) (cf.Letters of Iqbal , pp.135-36 and 183; alsoRelics of Allama Iqbal: Catalogue , Letter II, 70 dated 27 May 1935 from Secretary, Rhodes Trust) which very unfortunately he could not deliver owing to his increasing ill health. A letter dated 6 May 1937 addressed to Dr Syed Zafarul Hasan of Aligarh Muslim University (author of the well-knownRealism , 1928), discovered only recently, shows that Allama Iqbal had already gathered ‘material’ for his Rhodes Memorial Lectures; cf. Rafâal-Dân Ha`shimi`, ‘Allamah Iqbal ke Chand Ghair Mudawwan KhuÇëÇ’,Iqbal Review , XXIII/iv (January 1983), 41-43.

Attention may be called here also to an obviously unfinished two-page draft on ‘The Problem of Time in Muslim Philosophy’ in Allama’s own hand preserved in the Allama Iqbal Museum, Lahore; cf. Dr Ahmad Nabi Khan,Relics of Allama Iqbal: Catalogue , I, 37.

38. Cf.Gh«yat al-Imk«n fi Dir«yat al-Mak«n , pp. 16-17; English trans., p. 13.

39.Ibid ., p. 50; English trans., p. 36.

40. This is a reference to the Quranic verses: 6:6; 9:39; 17:16-17; 18:59; 21:11; 22:45; 36:31.

God’s judgment on nations, also called ‘judgment in history’, according to the Qur’an is said to be more relentless than God’s judgment on individuals - in the latter case God is forgiving and compassionate. Nations are destroyed only for their transgression and evil doings. And when a nation perishes, its good members meet the same doom as its bad ones for the former failed to check the spread of evil (11:116), cf. F. Rahman,Major Themes of the Qur’an , p. 53.

41. See also Quranic verses 15:5 and 24:43.

42. For very special circumstances under which a keen sense of history grew in Islam, see I. H. Qureshi, ‘Historiography’,A History of Muslim Philosophy , II, 1197-1203.

43. Abë ‘Abdullah Muhammad b. Ish«q (d. c. 150/767) has the distinction of being the first biographer of the Holy Prophet. His workKit«b Sirat Rasël All«h (‘The Life of the Apostle of God’) has, however, been lost and is now known only through Ibn Hish«m’s recension of it.

44. Abë Ja‘far Muhammad b. Jarâr al-ñabarâ is one of the greatest Muslim historians. His remarkably accurate monumental historyKit«b Akhb«r al-Rusël wa’l-Mulëk (‘Annals of the Apostles and the Kings’), the first comprehensive work in the Arabic language, has been edited M. J. de Goeje and others in 15 volumes (Leiden, 1879-1901). Al-Tabarâ is equally well known for his commendable commentary on the Qur’an:J«mi’ al-Bay«n ‘an T«wâl al-Qur’an in 30 volumes - a primal work for the later commentators because of its earliest and largest collection of the exegetical traditions.

45. Abë’l-Hasan ‘Ali b. al-Husain b. ‘Alâ al-Mas’ëdi (d. c. 346/957), after al-Tabari`, is the next greatest historian in Islam - rightly named as the ‘Herodotus of the Arabs’. He inaugurated a new method in the writing of history: instead of grouping events around years (annalistic method) he grouped them around kings, dynasties and topics (topical method); a method adopted also by Ibn Khaldu`n. His historico-geographical workMurëj al-Dhahab wa’l-Ma‘«din al-Jauhar (‘Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems’) also deals with Persian, Roman and Jewish history and religion.

46. Reference is to the Quranic verses 4:1; 6:98; 7:189; 39:6.

47. See Robert Flint,History of the Philosophy of History , p. 86. Flint’s eulogy of Ibn Khaldën, expressive of his sentiment of a discovery of a genius, now stands more or less confirmed by the realistic assessments made of Ibn Khaldën by eminent scholars such as A. Toynbee,A Study of History , III, 322; Sarton,op. cit ., III, 1262; Gaston Bouthoul in his Preface to de Slane’sLes Prolegomenes d’Ibn Khaldoun (second edition, Paris, 1934-38) and R. Brunschvig,La Berberie orientale sous les Hafsides , II, 391.

48. Cf.Muqaddimah , trans. F. Rosenthal, III, 246-58, also M. Fakhry,A History of Islamic Philosophy , pp. 361-64.

49. Phenomenon of the alternation of day and night is spoken of in many verses of the Qur’an such as 2:164; 3:190; 10:6; 23:80; 45:5.

50. Ibid., 55:29.

51. Cf. p. 107.

52. Cf. p. 106.

53. On the notion of time as held by Zeno, Plato, Heraclitus and Stoics, cf. A. J. Gunn,The Problem of Time , pp. 19-22.

54. Cf. O. Spengler,The Decline of the West , II, 189-323.

55. Cf. Lecture I, p. 3, Lecture III, p. 56 and p. 102.

56. Cf. Spengler,op. cit ., II, 248-55.

57.Ibid ., pp. 235, 240; cf. also note 33 in Lecture IV.

58.Ibid ., p. 238.

59.Ibid .

60.Ibid ., pp. 206-07.

61. Cf.Muqaddimah , Chapter III, section 51: ‘The Fatimid . ‘, trans. Rosenthal, II, 156-200. Ibn Khaldu`n recounts formally twenty-four traditions bearing upon the belief in Mahdi (none of which is from Bukh«râ or Muslim) and questions the authenticity of them all. Cf. also the article ‘al-Mahdi`’ inShorter Encyclopaedia of Islam and P. K. Hitti,History of the Arabs , pp. 439-49, for the religio-political background of theimam-mahdi idea.

Reference may also be made to Allama Iqbal’s letter dated 7 April 1932 to Muhammad Ahsan wherein, among other things, he states that, according to his firm belief (‘aqâdah ), all traditions relating tomahdâ ,masâhâyat andmujaddidâyat are the product of Persian and non-Arab imagination; and he adds that certainly they have nothing to do with the true spirit of the Qur’an (Iqb«ln«mah , II, 231).

And finally it shall be rewarding to read this last paragraph in conjunction with Allama’s important notes on the back cover of his own copy of Spengler’sDecline of the West , facsimile of which is reproduced inDescriptive Catalogue of Allama Iqbal’s Personal Library , Plate No. 33.