When Iqbal published his lectures on “the reconstruction of religious thought in Islam,” he decided to add a brief preface. The preface begins with the following statement: The Qur’an is a book which emphasizes ‘deed’ rather than ‘idea’. This is a significant statement, considering where it appears: in the preface to a book which is…
In the final paragraph of his summary of Asrar-e Khudi, Iqbal addresses one of his favorite themes—the ideal human personality whose manifestation on a large-scale would represent the culmination of millions of years of spiritual evolution. While Iqbal tends to talk about that ideal personality as if it were a single (male) individual, this is…
I can no longer recall exactly how or why I started commenting upon Iqbal’s philosophical summary of Asrar-e Khudi. Regardless of the original motivation, the whole exercise has benefited me tremendously. For instance, I have become much more aware of the significance of believing in an afterlife. Among the three Western monotheisms, Islam certainly has the most to…