Charles Taylor argues:

The reason that Iqbal ‘had to come back’ is because he speaks to us today. Taylor notes that while Iqbal could be read for different reasons ‘we also have shared reasons, Western, Muslim and Eastern merged together, in reading this remarkable man’ (Taylor 2010: xi). These shared reasons are the result of the modern cultural condition that is characterised by ‘a deep and mutual mistrust’ of the alien other. The source of this mistrust is the way in which the modern self constructs its identity:

In constructing its identity, the modern self requires that the alien other be neglected/rejected, marginalised, and eventually demonised. Taylor argues that we need a radical change in perspective in light of the fact that in the contemporary cultural condition we constantly come face to face with the alien other. We need a way/method of constructing our identity that makes it possible for us to ‘seek out and define oneself using references found in the other's tradition’ (Taylor 2010: xi). In this way, instead of the ‘gaze of others’ being a cause of fear, suspicion, and xenophobia, it becomes a resource of self-discovery, self-awareness, and self-affirmation. Given the dominant orthodoxies in philosophy, religion, and science this appears to be logically, theologically, and sociologically impossible. Taylor argues that Iqbal's thought opens up possibilities that the dominant orthodoxies close down: