Iqbal’s Intellectual Journey

From Enlightenment to Quranic Revival and Reform

Abstract

This article explores the intellectual and spiritual transformation of Sir Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938) in the context of 19th-century thinkers and the role of his mentor, Syed Mir Hasan, in shaping Iqbal’s understanding of Islamic teachings, the Quran, and Islamic history. It delves into Iqbal’s exposure to the Quranic knowledge and the Prophetic sayings, highlighting the Prophet’s warnings about following in the footsteps of Jews and Christians in distorting the divine message. Iqbal’s intellectual journey, marked by his dissatisfaction with the conventional understanding of Islam, led him to Europe, where he encountered Western scholarship and philosophy, significantly influencing his thought process. The article traces the impact of European intellectual movements, particularly in Biblical studies, on Iqbal’s evolving critique of religious distortions and his deep engagement with the Quran. It examines how Iqbal, through his study of Western historical criticism and the methods used to analyze the Old and New Testaments, came to understand similar distortions within the Muslim world. This realization led Iqbal to emphasize the importance of reformation and returning to the original doctrines of the Quran.

Furthermore, the article discusses Iqbal’s internal conflict between abandoning poetry for prose, influenced by his desire to focus on research and reform, and how his mentor, Professor Thomas Arnold, guided him to continue using poetry as a means to convey his philosophical and religious ideas. The article concludes with a reflection on Iqbal’s poetry as a medium for his intellectual, religious, and societal reforms, underscoring his call for a revival of the true spirit of the Quran and Islamic thought to rejuvenate the Muslim Ummah.