Speeches of Iqbal & Contemporary Intellect

Abstract

The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam is a book of the greatest importance among those written after the period of our downfall. It leads us to comprehension of the spirit of our cultural and civilizational progress and the basic causes of our decadence. It leads to the ways of understanding the requirements of the new age and the reconstruction of our present and future. It guides us to the principles on which our renaissance is possible. The lectures are spread over the canvas of the religious, intellectual, theological, political, and practical problems created for the Muslims in the evolution of the new life in the Indian subcontinent of the Muslim World. This article aims at identifying the need and importance of the lectures from this perspective. In the whole Islamic world, the basic challenges faced by religion itself and the Muslim Ummah for its existence and continuity have been addressed in the background of Islam and its relationship with the West in an unprecedented manner. Iqbal formulated some basic questions with the background of Western philosophy and Islamic theology and answered them as well. Even if Iqbal had not offered answers to these questions, he would have enjoyed unique eminence. But the greatness of Iqbal lies in his not leaving these questions hanging in the air and trying to provide their answers with serious thought and deep insight. These “lectures” of Iqbal are a mirror of our national perceptions. We neither do nor should insist on the finality of the thought presented in the “lectures”. On the other hand, as said by Allama Iqbal in the “Preface” to the “lectures”: “We carefully must watch the progress of human thought, and maintain an independent critical attitude towards it”.