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 --  Dr Mohammad Iqbal in the Preface of The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam.

What is the character and general structure of the universe in which we live? Is there a permanent element in the constitution of this universe? How are we related to it? What place do we occupy in it, and what is the kind of conduct that befits the place we occupy? These questions are common to religion, philosophy, and higher poetry. But the kind of knowledge that poetic inspiration brings is essentially individual in its character; it is figurative, vague, and indefinite. Religion, in its more advanced forms, rises higher than poetry. It moves from individual to society. In its attitude towards the Ultimate Reality it is opposed to the limitations of man; it enlarges his claims and holds out the prospect of nothing less than a direct vision of Reality, writes Dr Mohammad Iqbal in Lecture 1 of The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam

Scholastic philosophy has put forward three arguments for the existence of God. These arguments, known as the Cosmological, the Teleological, and the Ontological, embody a real movement of thought in its quest after the Absolute. But regarded as logical proofs, I am afraid, they are open to serious criticism and further betray a rather superficial interpretation of experience, writes Dr Mohammad Iqbal in Lecture 2 of The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam.

We have seen that the judgement based upon religious experience fully satisfies the intellectual test. The more important regions of experience, examined with an eye on a synthetic view, reveal, as the ultimate ground of all experience, a rationally directed creative will which we have found reasons to describe as an ego. In order to emphasize the individuality of the Ultimate Ego the Qur’«n gives Him the proper name of Allah, and further defines Him as follows: ‘Say: Allah is One:
All things depend on Him;
He begetteth not, and He is not begotten;
And there is none like unto Him’ (112:1-4), writes Dr Mohammad Iqbal in Lecture 3 of The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam

THE Qur’«n in its simple, forceful manner emphasizes the individuality and uniqueness of man, and has, I think, a definite view of his destiny as a unity of life.¹ It is in consequence of this view of man as a unique individuality which makes it impossible for one individual to bear the burden of another,² and entitles him only to what is due to his own personal effort,³ that the Qur’«n is led to reject the idea of redemption. Three things are perfectly clear from the Qur’«n:

(i) That man is the chosen of God: ‘Afterwards his Lord chose him [Adam] for himself and turned towards, him, and guided him, (20:122).

(ii) That man, with all his faults, is meant to be the representative of God on earth,

says Dr Mohammad Iqbal in Lecture 4 of The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam

(ii) That man, with all his faults, is meant to be the representative of God on earth, says Dr Mohammad Iqbal in Lecture 5 of The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam

Broadly speaking religious life may be divided into three periods. These may be described as the periods of ‘Faith’, ‘Thought’, and ‘Discovery.’ In the first period religious life appears as a form of discipline which the individual or a whole people must accept as an unconditional command without any rational understanding of the ultimate meaning and purpose of that command. This attitude may be of great consequence in the social and political history of a people, but is not of much consequence in so far as the individual’s inner growth and expansion are concerned. Perfect submission to discipline is followed by a rational understanding of the discipline and the ultimate source of its authority. In this period religious life seeks its foundation in a kind of metaphysics - a logically consistent view of the world with God as a part of that view. In the third period metaphysics is displaced by psychology, and religious life develops the ambition to come into direct contact with the Ultimate Reality. It is here that religion becomes a matter of personal assimilation of life and power; and the individual achieves a free personality, not by releasing himself from the fetters of the law, but by discovering the ultimate source of the law within the depths of his own consciousness, says Dr Mohammad Iqbal in Lecture 7 of The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam.

INDEX

The Reconstruction of Religious
Thought in Islam 

By

Dr. Muhammad Iqbal

Bibliography

The Reconstruction of Religious
Thought in Islam 

by

Dr. Muhammad Iqbal

 NOTES AND REFERENCES

The Reconstruction of Religious
Thought in Islam 

by

Dr. Muhammad Iqbal