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Iqbal's Concept of God: An appraisal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Mohammed Maruf
Affiliation:
Vice-Principal, Government College, Sheikhupura, Pakistan

Extract

I do not agree with Professor M. M. Sharif in his book About Iqbal and His Thought that Allama Iqbal's concept of God passed through three stages, and that at one stage he identified him with ‘Beauty’. This may be said on the basis of his few earlier poems (included in Baang-i-Darā), but they never purported to give any idea about God; they were at best ghazals on nature and offered only stray reflections. Iqbal properly developed his concept of God in his lecture entitled ‘The Conception of God and The Meaning of Prayer’ (included in The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam). I may mention at the outset that I am going to base my appraisal on the said lecture of Iqbal.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

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References

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page 375 note 2 Collection of Urdu poetry (Lahore: Ghulamali, 1924).

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page 375 note 5 The Quran, ch. CXII.

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page 377 note 1 Reconstruction, p. 65.Google Scholar

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page 377 note 8 The Quran, 11: 117 and many other verses.

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page 378 note 10 Ibid. p. 56: Iqbal calls it the feeling of ‘I-amness’.

page 378 note 11 Ibid. p. 72.

page 379 note 1 Muhammad ibn Asad (A.D. 1427–1502) who wrote the book Al-zoura.

page 379 note 2 Perhaps a contemporary of Dawani and the author of Lama'at.

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page 381 note 6 Reconstruction, p. 81.Google Scholar It cherishes the hope of man's eventual victory over evil and betterment of the universe by effort.

page 381 note 7 Ibid. p. 81.

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page 381 note 9 Both Bradley and G. E. Moore believed in the ‘organic’ nature of ‘things’.

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