Predicament: Iqbal or Iqbal’s?

Summary This article explores the tension between Muhammad Iqbal’s philological inaccuracies and his historical role as a catalyst for Muslim selfhood. While Muhammad Faruque identifies systematic misreadings of premodern thinkers like al-Jīlī and Bīdil, the author argues these “creative misreadings” were necessary to address the socio-existential crisis of a colonized intelligentsia. By framing Iqbal’s work […]

The Crisis of Modern Subjectivity: Rethinking Muhammad Iqbal and the Islamic Tradition

Summary Muhammad U. Faruque’s paper critically examines Muhammad Iqbal’s intellectual contributions, focusing specifically on his concept of the self (khudi) and his interpretations of Sufism. The author argues that Iqbal’s attempt to synthesize Eastern and Western traditions is undermined by a Eurocentric perspective, which distorts the historical development of key Islamic doctrines. Faruque contends that […]