Muhammad Iqbal
Perhaps the most important figure in modern Islam, Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938)
was a mystic and theologian whose highly original and creative ideas have been widely
influential but have not yet been surpassed.  Much of what he said is still awaiting the
kind of critical examination and appreciation that could match his own genius.  Known
mostly for his ground-breaking poetry or for his vision of a Muslim homeland in the
Indian Subcontinent, Iqbal deserves to be taken seriously for many other, and more
important, reasons as well, not only by Muslims but also by anyone concerned with the
nature and destiny of humankind.

While Iqbal did not write any formal exegesis of the Qur’an, he did succeed in
elucidating many subtleties of the Islamic Scripture both in his poetry and prose.  Just
as Jalaluddin Rumi had earlier translated the wisdom of the Qur’an into poetic verse so
that it could be easily accessible to the non-Arabic speaking masses, Iqbal has played the
same role in the modern period.

Among his many achievements, Iqbal’s notion of “reconstruction” stands out as being
supremely relevant to the reform and revival of Islam under the conditions of late
modernity.  Iqbal brought to the fore the urgent need and the immense significance of
developing a new kalam, i.e., of reconstructing the Islamic philosophic theology in the
light of modern knowledge and of rebuilding the edifice of religious belief on the basis of
newly available scientific data.

Iqbal attempted to demonstrate that the intellectual and scientific progress that was
achieved by European societies during the last few centuries was actually a
manifestation and unfolding of the Qur’anic spirit.  According to Iqbal, the birth of
Islam was the birth of inductive intellect; it was the Qur’anic emphasis on observation
and experience, as well as its stress on the concrete and the finite, which gave rise to the
scientific method of inquiry.  The scientific spirit was born as a result of the imperative
by the Qur'an to give up all superstitious and fanciful beliefs, to rely on the senses and
the faculty of reason for gaining knowledge of the material world, and to contemplate
the physical and natural phenomena because these are signs of God.  It was under the
influence of such Qur’anic teachings that the inductive method of inquiry blossomed
among the Arabs, before being carried through the universities in Muslim Spain into
Europe, paving the way for the Renaissance.  It was in this sense that Iqbal saw the
intellectual side of the European culture as “only a further development of some of the
most important phases of the culture of Islam.”