& e d b i at e ‘This wide-ranging volume is a timely intervention in studies of Iqbal, sd i as well as in the intellectual history of modern Islam and its interaction tby with Western thought and philosophy. It places Iqbal in multiple bH i philosophical and historical contexts, and though admiring in tone, l. C a it illuminates the complexity of his work and many aspects of his l. H contemporary relevance with care.’ ki l o Javed Majeed, Professor of Comparative Literature and English, King’s College London l si he r Examines the ideas central to Muhammad Iqbal’s thought u l and life: religion, science, metaphysics and nationalism There are few moments in human history where the forces of religion, culture and politics converge to produce some of the most significant philosophical ideas in the world. India in the early twentieth century saw one of these moments with the rise M of activist-thinkers like Nehru, Jinnah and Gandhi, individuals who liberated not only human lives but their minds as well. One of most influential members of that group U was the poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal. Commonly known as the ‘spiritual father of Pakistan’, Iqbal’s philosophical and political ideas shaped not just the face of Indian H Muslim nationalism but also the direction of modernist reformist Islam around the world. New developments in research on Iqbal’s thought are collected here, coming from A a range of prominent and emerging voices from political science, philosophy and M religious studies. They offer new and novel examinations of the ideas that lie at the heart of Iqbal’s own thought: religion, science, metaphysics, nationalism and religious identity. Readers will (re)discover many new connections between the ‘Sage of the M Ummah’ and the greatest thinkers and ideas of European and Islamic philosophies. A Key Features • Responds to the renewed interest in Iqbal by developing new interpretations and D MUHAMMAD understandings • Examines ideas central to Iqbal’s thought such as the connection between religious I belief and modern knowledge, and the political dimension of Muslim identity Q IQBAL • Explores the links between Iqbal and other European philosophers who were his contemporaries including Bergson, Pierce and Whitehead B H. C. Hillier is a Lecturer in the Department of Society, Culture and Environment at A Wilfrid Laurier University. L Basit Bilal Koshul is Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. Cover image: Photograph of Muhammad Iqbal by Amrita Shergil, Wikipedia Commons Cover design: Kit Foster ESSAYS on the reconstruction of ISBN 978-0-7486-9541-6 modern muslim thought edited by 9 780748 695416 H. C. Hillier & basit bilal koshul 891 eup Hillier&Koshul_PPC.indd 1 20/04/2015 08:06 Muhammad Iqbal Muhammad Iqbal Essays on the Reconstruction of Modern Muslim Thought Edited by H. C. Hillier and Basit Bilal Koshul © editorial matter and organisation, H. C. Hillier and Basit Bilal Koshul, 2015 © the chapters, their several authors, 2015 Edinburgh University Press Ltd The Tun – Holyrood Road 12 (2f) Jackson’s Entry Edinburgh EH8 8PJ www.euppublishing.com Typeset in 11/15 Adobe Garamond by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 0 7486 9541 6 (hardback) ISBN 978 0 7486 9542 3 (webready PDF) ISBN 978 1 4744 0595 9 (epub) The right of the contributors to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498). Contents Preface vii 1 Introduction 1 Riffat Hassan 2 The Human Person in Iqbal’s Thought 12 Ebrahim Moosa 3 Achieving Humanity: Convergence between Henri Bergson and Muhammad Iqbal 33 Souleymane Bachir Diagne 4 The Contemporary Relevance of Muhammad Iqbal 56 Basit Bilal Koshul 5 Pragmatism and Islam in Peirce and Iqbal: The Metaphysics of Emergent Mind 88 Richard Gilmore 6 Between Hegel and Rumi: Iqbal’s Contrapuntal Encounters with the Islamic Philosophical Traditions 112 Sajjad Rizvi 7 Reconstructing Islam in a Post-metaphysical Age: Muhammad Iqbal’s Interpretation of Immortality 142 Christopher Scott McClure vi | muhammad iqbal 8 Iqbal, Bergson and the Reconstruction of the Divine Nexus in Political Thought 167 H. C. Hillier 9 Muhammad Iqbal: Restoring Muslim Dignity through Poetry, Philosophy and Religious Political Action 201 Dayne E. Nix Index 235 Preface There are few moments in human history where the forces of religion, culture, and politics converge to produce some of the most significant ideas and movements in the world. India in the early twentieth century was one of these moments, where the rise of activist-thinkers like Nehru, Jinnah, and Gandhi not only liberated human lives but their minds as well. Among them was the poet, philosopher, and politician Sir Muhammad Iqbal (widely known as Allama Iqbal) (1877–1938). He is widely considered one of the most original and influential Muslim thinkers of modern times. Standing between multiple worlds – the worlds of British colonialism and post-c olonial India, the worlds of Islamic and European civilisations, and the worlds of tra- dition and modernity (among others) – Iqbal aspired to build bridges where others only saw divides and thereby transform the way that we know our world and the manner in which we act in it. Commonly known as the ‘spiritual father of Pakistan’, the philosophi- cal and political ideas of Iqbal not only shaped the face of Indo-Pakistani Muslim nationalism, but also the direction of modernist reformist Islam around the world. As a subject under the colonial British Raj, the immedi- ate threat perceived by Iqbal was not merely religious but also intellectual and sociopolitical. While Muslims and Hindus under the British Raj had some religious freedom, politically they were still a largely marginalised and disempowered population who were denied full civil participation. From vii viii | muhammad iqbal this context, Iqbal understood his project as contributing to a wider political debate on the place of the religious person in the modern political world. In order to advocate his cause and resolve the worldview crisis of modernised sociopolitical and philosophical thought, Iqbal undertakes the enormous task of the ‘reconstruction of religious thought in Islam’. To begin with, he finds warrants for this project in the history of the tradition he is reconstructing. Beginning with this warrant he goes on to combine the resources already present in this tradition with developments in Western philosophy and sci- ence in order to present a view of a historic religion. His reconstructed vision of Islam makes Islam not only consistent and relevant to the modern world but also shows that Islam can make a uniquely valuable contribution to the culture of the global village. While Iqbal’s thought has always drawn much attention in the Muslim world, he has drawn only cursory attention in the West. However, in recent years there has been a marked increase in the study of Iqbal in Western academia. Examining Iqbal’s influence on modern philosophy and Islamic thought has seen a renaissance over the past decade. Connections are being made by new scholarship regarding both his influence on the major reformist thinkers around the Muslim world and his relationship with key European philosophers of the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth. The present volume reflects and contributes to this growing interest. The volume is composed of chapters by both established and emerging scholars from various academic fields (philosophy, political science, religious studies and so forth) whose voices relate to Iqbal in different ways. Consequently, this book offers both varied and novel examinations of the ideas that lay at the heart of Iqbal’s own thought on topics such as religion, science, metaphysics, nationalism, and religious identity. In this text, the reader will (re)discover many new connections between the ‘Poet of the East’ and some of the great- est thinkers and ideas from both the Islamic and Western traditions. This book opens with an ‘Introduction’ by Riffat Hassan (University of Louisville, United States), a pioneer in Iqbal studies and women rights advocacy around the world. In her essay, Hassan highlights Iqbal’s paradoxi- cal extraordinary uniqueness as both a poet and philosopher. The ability to communicate both logical and symbolic concepts, even those that shy away from logical assertion, is exceptional in its own right. Yet to also inspire preface | ix and energise millions, places him in an exclusive position within human history. Hassan continues to highlight Iqbal’s most significant intellectual contributions to humanity, notably his concept of khudi (selfhood), ijti- had (independent reasoning), mysticism, and a commitment to a religion that empowers believers. From these, one can still see how Iqbal becomes a renewed source of inspiration for those today torn between tradition and modernity, between their own culture and Westernisation. In Chapter 2, Ebrahim Moosa (University of Notre Dame, United States) examines the philosophical anthropology of Muhammad Iqbal’s theory of khudi (selfhood or personhood). Asserting that this is Iqbal’s great- est contribution to philosophy, Moosa shows how Iqbal rehabilitated the concept and used it as the source of inspiration for the social reconstruction of Muslim society. Stripped of its selfish egotism, and rooted in Iqbal’s epis- temological metaphysics of intuition, khudi now becomes a positive signifier for a renewed identity for the individual and also the impetus for a creative revolution (or a revolution of creation) in the world. In Chapter 3, Souleymane Bachir Diagne (Columbia University, United States) highlights the ‘convergence’ between the philosophers Muhammad Iqbal and Henri Bergson on key philosophical concepts. At the centre of this encounter is the theory of the self (khudi). This vision of ego-unity challenges the empiricist and rationalistic theory of the self as a unity of consciousness and is rooted in the intuitive experience of reality rather than the fragmented sense-based experience of the world. For both philosophers, this intuitive experience of reality reveals an inherent unity of the vitality- empowered cosmos. In a vision that seeks to free the interpretation of the Qur’an from the cosmology of Greek philosophy, Iqbal sees the cosmos as being fundamentally characterised by continuous creation, novelty, and originality. According to both Bergson and Iqbal, this cosmology manifests itself in human societies, where the intuitively inspired creative openness of mystics and prophets founds and drives them forward towards new possibili- ties and horizons. In light of renewed interest in his thought, Chapter 4 has Basit Bilal Koshul (Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan) analysing Muhammad Iqbal’s continuing relevance. Asserting that the centre of this continuing relevance has its roots in the ability of Iqbal’s philosophy to bridge