Halqa-i-Danish, Gurmani Centre for Languages and Literature announces an extended seminar series in Fall 2015 on Allama Muhammad Iqbal’s book, The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam.
Iqbal’s prominence in the world of modern Muslim thought is unparalleled. His is considered by many accounts the best articulated Muslim response to ‘Modernity’ produced by the Islamic world in the twentieth century.
His response has three dimensions:
· A creative engagement with the conceptual paradigm of modernism at a sophisticated philosophical level through his prose writings, mainly The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam.
· His Urdu and Persian poetry, which is an effective embodiment of poetically mediated thought.
· His role as political activist/ social reformer.
The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam is Iqbal’s philosophical magnum opus, based on his lectures, delivered in Madras, Hyderabad and Aligarh. Three of these lectures will be dealt with during this semester and the rest continued through Spring, from January to May 2016.
The objective of this extended seminar on this dense and engaging book is to carry the participants into the heart of Iqbal’s universe where they might find sufficient glimpses of the Presiding Idea of ‘The Reconstruction….’ It should enable them to understand the overarching questions of Iqbal’s age which are also the towering questions of our own times.
The seminar will be conducted by Muhammad Suheyl Umar, an Iqbal scholar and ex-Director, Iqbal Academy, Pakistan.
