Islam in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives - Islamic Books ...

1 1 2Islam i n World Cult u r e sSayyid became both a loyal British supporter and a staunch Muslim nationalist.Tracing his own intellectual heritage to Shah Wali Allah, he argued that theQur’anic worldview was entirely compatible with science and rational thought.Sir Sayyid was convinced that the survival of South Asia’s Muslims demandedboth the incorporation of Western ideas and accession to British rule. To thisend, he embarked on a broad campaign of intellectual and institutional reform.His efforts to persuade South Asian Muslims to adopt modern scientificmethods, acquire new technological skills, and embody the spirit of Europeanliberalism culminated in the establishment of such progressive institutions asthe Scientific Society (1863), the All-India Muslim Educational Conference(1886), and, most important, the Mohammaden Anglo-Oriental College(1876), later known as Aligarh Muslim University. Through his writings and institutionbuilding, Sir Sayyid struggled to meet the challenges of modernity byappropriating Western education and ideology while giving new direction toMuslim social, educational, and religious ideals.In twentieth-century South Asia, the figure of Muhammad Iqbal(1877–1938) also looms large among Muslim modernists. Educated in Lahore,London, and Munich, Iqbal was a true renaissance man: a poet, philosopher,l a w y e r, writer, and activist. Inheriting the legacy of both Shah Wali Allah andSir Sayyid, Iqbal fluidly combined Western and Islamic thought. Throughouthis philosophical magnum opus, The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam([1934] 1982), Iqbal describes his vision of Islamic history as a dynamic, creative,and adaptive tradition. He views the s h a r i ’ a as the cultural backbone ofthe Islamic community, arguing that it provides both an anchor of stability anda blueprint for adaptive change. Iqbal’s famous poem “Shikwa” [Complaint],ends with an emotive, nostalgic call for the reform of Indo-Muslim culture viaa return to the foundational paradigm of Prophetic tradition:Let the lament of this lonely bulbul [nightingale] pierce the hearts of all,Arouse the hearts of the sleeping, with this my clarion call.Transfused with fresh blood, a new compact of faith we’ll sign.Let our hearts thirst again for a sip of the vintage wine.What if the pitcher be Persian, from Hijaz [the region in Arabia where theProphet Muhammad was born] is the wine I serve.What if the song be Indian? It is Hijazi in its verse. (Iqbal 1981, 58)In Iqbal’s mind, Islam’s essential dynamism had been corrupted and ossifiedby the u l a m a , sequestered behind the walls of their m a d r a s as. Rejecting theclosing of the doors of i j t i h a d , therefore, he called for an end to conserv a t i s m ,i n f l e x i b i l i t y, and intellectual stasis. And it was Iqbal who first articulated theidea of an independent homeland for South Asian Muslims—a movement thatgained rapid momentum and culminated in 1947 with the creation of the Is-