The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (Encountering Traditions) - Hardcover

Iqbal, Mohammad

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 080478146X ISBN 13: 9780804781466

Publisher: Stanford University Press, 2013

Synopsis

The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (1930) is Muhammad Iqbal's major philosophic work: a series of profound reflections on the perennial conflict among science, religion, and philosophy, culminating in new visions of the unity of human knowledge, of the human spirit, and of God. Iqbal's thought contributed significantly to the establishment of Pakistan, to the religious and political ideals of the Iranian Revolution, and to the survival of Muslim identity in parts of the former USSR. It now serves as new bridge between East and West and between Islam and the other Religions of the Book. With a new Introduction by Javed Majeed, this edition of The Reconstruction opens the teachings of Iqbal to the modern, Western reader. It will be essential reading for all those interested in Islamic intellectual history, the renewal of Islam in the modern world, and political theory of Islam's relationship to the West.

About this title

About the Author

Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938), beloved poet of the modern state of Pakistan, was also one of the most important Muslim and Western religious philosophers of the 20th century.
Javed Majeed is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at King's College, London.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN ISLAM

By MUHAMMAD IQBAL, M. Saeed Sheikh

Stanford University Press

Copyright © 2012 Iqbal Academy Pakistan
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-8047-8146-6

Contents

Preface to the American Edition Basit Bilal Koshul........................
vii
Introduction to Muhammad Iqbal's The Reconstruction of Religious Thought 
in Islam Javed Majeed.....................................................
xi
Editor's Introduction M. Saeed Sheikh.....................................
xxxi
Preface....................................................................
xlv
LECTURE I Knowledge and Religious Experience..............................
1
LECTURE II The Philosophical Test of the Revelations of Religious 
Experience.................................................................
23
LECTURE III The Conception of God and the Meaning of Prayer...............
50
LECTURE IV The Human Ego—His Freedom and Immortality......................
76
LECTURE V The Spirit of Muslim Culture....................................
99
LECTURE VI The Principle of Movement in the Structure of Islam............
116
LECTURE VII Is Religion Possible?.........................................
143
Notes and References.......................................................
158
Bibliography...............................................................
215
Qur'anic Index.............................................................
236
Index......................................................................
242

Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Knowledge and Religious Experience

What is the character and general structure of the universe inwhich we live? Is there a permanent element in the constitutionof this universe? How are we related to it? What place do weoccupy in it, and what is the kind of conduct that befits the placewe occupy? These questions are common to religion, philosophy,and higher poetry. But the kind of knowledge that poeticinspiration brings is essentially individual in its character; it isfigurative, vague, and indefinite. Religion, in its more advancedforms, rises higher than poetry. It moves from individual tosociety. In its attitude towards the Ultimate Reality it is opposedto the limitations of man; it enlarges his claims and holds out theprospect of nothing less than a direct vision of Reality. Is it thenpossible to apply the purely rational method of philosophy toreligion? The spirit of philosophy is one of free inquiry. Itsuspects all authority. Its function is to trace the uncriticalassumptions of human thought to their hiding places, and in thispursuit it may finally end in denial or a frank admission of theincapacity of pure reason to reach the Ultimate Reality. Theessence of religion, on the other hand, is faith; and faith, like thebird, sees its "trackless way" unattended by intellect which, inthe words of the great mystic poet of Islam, "only waylays theliving heart of man and robs it of the invisible wealth of life thatlies within." Yet it cannot be denied that faith is more than merefeeling. It has something like a cognitive content, and theexistence of rival parties– scholastics and mystics– in the historyof religion shows that idea is a vital element in religion. Apartfrom this, religion on its doctrinal side, as defined by ProfessorWhitehead, is "a system of general truths which have the effectof transforming character when they are sincerely held andvividly apprehended." Now, since the transformation andguidance of man's inner and outer life is the essential aim ofreligion, it is obvious that the general truths which it embodiesmust not remain unsettled. No one would hazard action on thebasis of a doubtful principle of conduct. Indeed, in view of itsfunction, religion stands in greater need of a rational foundationof its ultimate principles than even the dogmas of science.Science may ignore a rational metaphysics; indeed, it hasignored it so far. Religion can hardly afford to ignore the searchfor a reconciliation of the oppositions of experience and ajustification of the environment in which humanity finds itself.That is why Professor Whitehead has acutely remarked that "theages of faith are the ages of rationalism". But to rationalize faithis not to admit the superiority of philosophy over religion.Philosophy, no doubt, has jurisdiction to judge religion, butwhat is to be judged is of such a nature that it will not submit tothe jurisdiction of philosophy except on its own terms. Whilesitting in judgement on religion, philosophy cannot give religionan inferior place among its data. Religion is not a departmentalaffair; it is neither mere thought, nor mere feeling, nor mereaction; it is an expression of the whole man. Thus, in theevaluation of religion, philosophy must recognize the centralposition of religion and has no other alternative but to admit itas something focal in the process of reflective synthesis. Nor isthere any reason to suppose that thought and intuition areessentially opposed to each other. They spring up from the sameroot and complement each other. The one grasps Realitypiecemeal, the other grasps it in its wholeness. The one fixes itsgaze on the eternal, the other on the temporal aspect of Reality.The one is present enjoyment of the whole of Reality; the otheraims at traversing the whole by slowly specifying and closing upthe various regions of the whole for exclusive observation. Bothare in need of each other for mutual rejuvenation. Both seekvisions of the same Reality which reveals itself to them inaccordance with their function in life. In fact, intuition, asBergson rightly says, is only a higher kind of intellect.

The search for rational foundations in Islam may be regardedto have begun with the Prophet himself. His constant prayerwas: "God! grant me knowledge of the ultimate nature ofthings!" The work of later mystics and non-mystic rationalistsforms an exceedingly instructive chapter in the history of ourculture, inasmuch as it reveals a longing for a coherent system ofideas, a spirit of whole-hearted devotion to truth, as well as thelimitations of the age, which rendered the various theologicalmovements in Islam less fruitful than they might have been in adifferent age. As we all know, Greek philosophy has been a greatcultural force in the history of Islam. Yet a careful study of theQur'an and the various schools of scholastic theology that aroseunder the inspiration of Greek thought disclose the remarkablefact that while Greek philosophy very much broadened theoutlook of Muslim thinkers, it, on the whole, obscured theirvision of the Qur'an. Socrates concentrated his attention on thehuman world alone. To him the proper study of man was manand not the world of plants, insects, and stars. How unlike thespirit of the Qur'an, which sees in the humble bee a recipient ofDivine inspiration and constantly calls upon the reader toobserve the perpetual change of the winds, the alternation of dayand night, the clouds, the starry heavens, and the planetsswimming through infinite space! As a true disciple of Socrates,Plato despised sense-perception which, in his view, yielded mereopinion and no real knowledge. How unlike the Qur'an, whichregards "hearing" and "sight" as the most valuable Divine giftsand declares them to be accountable to God for their activity inthis world. This is what the earlier Muslim students of theQur'an completely missed under the spell of classicalspeculation. They read the Qur'an in the light of Greek thought.It took them over two hundred years to perceive– though notquite clearly–that the spirit of the Qur'an was essentially anticlassical,and the result of this perception was a kind ofintellectual revolt, the full significance of which has not beenrealized even up to the present day. It was partly owing to thisrevolt and partly to his personal history that Ghazali basedreligion on philosophical scepticism– a rather unsafe basis forreligion and not wholly justified by the spirit of the Qur'an.Ghazali's chief opponent, Ibn Rushd, who defended Greekphilosophy against the rebels, was led, through Aristotle, towhat is known as the doctrine of Immortality of ActiveIntellect, a doctrine which once wielded enormous influence onthe intellectual life of France and Italy, but which, to my mind,is entirely opposed to the view that the Qur'an takes of the valueand destiny of the human ego. Thus Ibn Rushd lost sight of agreat and fruitful idea in Islam and unwittingly helped thegrowth of that enervating philosophy of life which obscuresman's vision of himself, his God, and his world. The moreconstructive among the Ash'arite thinkers were no doubt on theright path and anticipated some of the more modern forms ofIdealism; yet, on the whole, the object of the Ash'arite movementwas simply to defend orthodox opinion with the weapons ofGreek dialectic. The Mu'tazilah, conceiving religion merely as abody of doctrines and ignoring it as a vital fact, took no notice ofnon-conceptual modes of approaching Reality and reducedreligion to a mere system of logical concepts ending in a purelynegative attitude. They failed to see that in the domain ofknowledge– scientific or religious– complete independence ofthought from concrete experience is not possible.

It cannot, however, be denied that Ghazali's mission wasalmost apostolic like that of Kant in Germany of the eighteenthcentury. In Germany rationalism appeared as an ally ofreligion, but she soon realized that the dogmatic side of religionwas incapable of demonstration. The only course open to herwas to eliminate dogma from the sacred record. With theelimination of dogma came the utilitarian view of morality, andthus rationalism completed the reign of unbelief. Such was thestate of theological thought in Germany when Kant appeared.His Critique of Pure Reason revealed the limitations of humanreason and reduced the whole work of the rationalists to a heapof ruins. And justly has he been described as God's greatest giftto his country. Ghazali's philosophical scepticism which, however,went a little too far, virtually did the same kind of work inthe world of Islam in breaking the back of that proud butshallow rationalism which moved in the same direction as pre-Kantianrationalism in Germany. There is, however, oneimportant difference between Ghazali and Kant. Kant, consistentlywith his principles, could not affirm the possibility of aknowledge of God. Ghazali, finding no hope in analyticthought, moved to mystic experience, and there found anindependent content for religion. In this way he succeeded insecuring for religion the right to exist independently of scienceand metaphysics. But the revelation of the total Infinite inmystic experience convinced him of the finitude and inconclusivenessof thought and drove him to draw a line of cleavagebetween thought and intuition. He failed to see that thoughtand intuition are organically related and that thought mustnecessarily simulate finitude and inconclusiveness because of itsalliance with serial time. The idea that thought is essentiallyfinite, and for this reason unable to capture the Infinite, is basedon a mistaken notion of the movement of thought in knowledge.It is the inadequacy of the logical understanding which finds amultiplicity of mutually repellent individualities with noprospect of their ultimate reduction to a unity that makes ussceptical about the conclusiveness of thought. In fact, the logicalunderstanding is incapable of seeing this multiplicity as acoherent universe. Its only method is generalization based onresemblances, but its generalizations are only fictitious unitieswhich do not affect the reality of concrete things. In its deepermovement, however, thought is capable of reaching animmanent Infinite in whose self-unfolding movement thevarious finite concepts are merely moments. In its essentialnature, then, thought is not static; it is dynamic and unfolds itsinternal infinitude in time like the seed which, from the verybeginning, carries within itself the organic unity of the tree as apresent fact. Thought is, therefore, the whole in its dynamic self-expression,appearing to the temporal vision as a series ofdefinite specifications which cannot be understood except by areciprocal reference. Their meaning lies not in their self-identity,but in the larger whole of which they are the specific aspects.This larger whole is, to use a Qur'anic metaphor, a kind of"Preserved Tablet", which holds up the entire undeterminedpossibilities of knowledge as a present reality, revealing itself inserial time as a succession of finite concepts appearing to reach aunity which is already present in them. It is in fact the presenceof the total Infinite in the movement of knowledge that makesfinite thinking possible. Both Kant and Ghazali failed to see thatthought, in the very act of knowledge, passes beyond its ownfinitude. The finitudes of Nature are reciprocally exclusive. Notso the finitudes of thought which is, in its essential nature,incapable of limitation and cannot remain imprisoned in thenarrow circuit of its own individuality. In the wide worldbeyond itself nothing is alien to it. It is in its progressiveparticipation in the life of the apparently alien that thoughtdemolishes the walls of its finitude and enjoys its potentialinfinitude. Its movement becomes possible only because of theimplicit presence in its finite individuality of the infinite, whichkeeps alive within it the flame of aspiration and sustains it in itsendless pursuit. It is a mistake to regard thought as inconclusive,for it too, in its own way, is a greeting of the finite with theinfinite.

During the last five hundred years religious thought in Islamhas been practically stationary. There was a time when Europeanthought received inspiration from the world of Islam. The mostremarkable phenomenon of modern history, however, is theenormous rapidity with which the world of Islam is spirituallymoving towards the West. There is nothing wrong in thismovement, for European culture, on its intellectual side, is only afurther development of some of the most important phases ofthe culture of Islam. Our only fear is that the dazzling exterior ofEuropean culture may arrest our movement and we may fail toreach the true inwardness of that culture. During all thecenturies of our intellectual stupor Europe has been seriouslythinking on the great problems in which the philosophers andscientists of Islam were so keenly interested. Since the MiddleAges, when the schools of Muslim theology were completed,infinite advance has taken place in the domain of humanthought and experience. The extension of man's power overNature has given him a new faith and a fresh sense ofsuperiority over the forces that constitute his environment. Newpoints of view have been suggested, old problems have been restatedin the light of fresh experience, and new problems havearisen. It seems as if the intellect of man is outgrowing its ownmost fundamental categories– time, space, and causality. Withthe advance of scientific thought even our concept ofintelligibility is undergoing a change. The theory of Einsteinhas brought a new vision of the universe and suggests new waysof looking at the problems common to both religion andphilosophy. No wonder then that the younger generation ofIslam in Asia and Africa demand a fresh orientation of theirfaith. With the reawakening of Islam, therefore, it is necessary toexamine, in an independent spirit, what Europe has thought andhow far the conclusions reached by her can help us in therevision and, if necessary, reconstruction, of theological thoughtin Islam. Besides this it is not possible to ignore the generallyanti-religious and especially anti-Islamic propaganda in CentralAsia which has already crossed the Indian frontier. Some of theapostles of this movement are born Muslims, and one of them,Tevfik Fikret, the Turkish poet, who died only a short time ago,has gone to the extent of using our great poet-thinker, Mirza 'Abdal-Qadir Bedil of Akbarabad, for the purposes of this movement.Surely, it is high time to look to the essentials of Islam. In theselectures I propose to undertake a philosophical discussion ofsome of the basic of ideas of Islam, in the hope that this may, atleast, be helpful towards a proper understanding of the meaningof Islam as a message to humanity. Also with a view to give akind of ground-outline for further discussion, I propose, in thispreliminary lecture, to consider the character of knowledge andreligious experience.

The main purpose of the Qur'an is to awaken in man thehigher consciousness of his manifold relations with God and theuniverse. It is in view of this essential aspect of the Qur'anicteaching that Goethe, while making a general review of Islam asan educational force, said to Eckermann: "You see this teachingnever fails; with all our systems, we cannot go, and generallyspeaking no man can go, farther than that." The problem ofIslam was really suggested by the mutual conflict, and at thesame time mutual attraction, presented by the two forces ofreligion and civilization. The same problem confronted earlyChristianity. The great point in Christianity is the search for anindependent content for spiritual life which, according to theinsight of its founder, could be elevated, not by the forces of aworld external to the soul of man, but by the revelation of a newworld within his soul. Islam fully agrees with this insight andsupplements it by the further insight that the illumination of thenew world thus revealed is not something foreign to the worldof matter but permeates it through and through.

Thus the affirmation of spirit sought by Christianity wouldcome not by the renunciation of external forces which arealready permeated by the illumination of spirit, but by a properadjustment of man's relation to these forces in view of the lightreceived from the world within. It is the mysterious touch of theideal that animates and sustains the real, and through it alonewe can discover and affirm the ideal. With Islam the ideal andthe real are not two opposing forces which cannot be reconciled.The life of the ideal consists, not in a total breach with the realwhich would tend to shatter the organic wholeness of life intopainful oppositions, but in the perpetual endeavour of the idealto appropriate the real with a view eventually to absorb it, toconvert it into itself and illuminate its whole being. It is thesharp opposition between the subject and the object, themathematical without and the biological within, that impressedChristianity. Islam, however, faces the opposition with a view toovercome it. This essential difference in looking at afundamental relation determines the respective attitudes of thesegreat religions towards the problem of human life in its presentsurroundings. Both demand the affirmation of the spiritual selfin man, with this difference only that Islam, recognizing thecontact of the ideal with the real, says "yes" to the world ofmatter and points the way to master it with a view to discovera basis for a realistic regulation of life.

What, then, according to the Qur'an, is the character of theuniverse which we inhabit? In the first place, it is not the resultof a mere creative sport:

We have not created the Heavens and the earth and whatever is betweenthem in sport. We have not created them but for a serious end: but thegreater part of them understand it not.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from THE RECONSTRUCTION OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN ISLAM by MUHAMMAD IQBAL. Copyright © 2012 by Iqbal Academy Pakistan. Excerpted by permission of STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 080478146X
• ISBN 13: 9780804781466
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 328