Iqbal’s Matrix Of Cultural Reforms In Islam

Abstract

To Iqbal, the prophet of Islam seems to stand between ancient and modern world. So far as the source of revelation is concerned he belongs to ancient world; in so far as the spirit of his revelation is concerned he belongs to the modern world. This is because he attributes the birth of inductive logic to the advent of Islam. Iqbal sees prophetic and mystic level of consciousness on two different planes. Former essentially value oriented capable of transforming the world with moral weltanschauung wherefrom gushes forth a cultural world; the latter is content free devoid of any moral program as Ghazali and Ahmad Sarhandi state and Iqbal accepts their viewpoint lock, stock and barrel. In Iqbal’s view had the nexus of dictatorship, Catholicism and mysticism not made inroads into the polity of Islam soon after Prophet and righteous caliphs, equipped with socio-economic and political ideals Islam would have brought the whole world into its folds even without raising sword. The conquests of Islam expanded its polity but as a gigantic cultural force it failed to liftoff.However, unlike doubters, doomsters and gloomsters Iqbal seems quite hopeful about the future of Islam as a grand cultural force provided Islam finds geography to materialize its moral program aided and abetted by spiritual democracy laid bare in Quran and Sunnah. This paper intends to unlock and discern Iqbal’s viewpoint on how Islam as a cultural force can contribute to the world, what went wrong with its original élan. It is based on qualitative research.