The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam

Seven lectures delivered between 1928 and 1929 at Madras, Hyderabad, and Aligarh, in which Sir Muhammad Iqbal — poet, philosopher, and the spiritual father of Pakistan — attempts to reconstruct Muslim religious thought 'with due regard to the philosophical traditions of Islam and the more recent developments in the various domains of human knowledge.' Iqbal draws on Bergson, Whitehead, Einstein, and the new physics to argue that classical theological frameworks no longer suffice; that the ego is the central reality; and that ijtihad — independent reasoning — is the principle of movement that must be reopened. The source is the digital edition maintained by Iqbal Academy Pakistan.