Iqbal’s Concept of Modernization and the Current Status of the Muslim World

Abstract

The concept of modernity can be smelled in the work of Iqbal. to it. In one of his poems in Zarb-e-Kalemhe incorporated modernity and its precautions;

’عشق ناپید و خرد میگزدش صُورتِ مار‘
عقل کو تابعِ فرمانِ نظر کر نہ سکا
ڈھُونڈنے والا ستاروں کی گزرگاہوں کا
اپنے افکار کی دُنیا میں سفر کر نہ سکا
اپنی حِکمت کے خم و پیچ میں اُلجھا ایسا
آج تک فیصلۂ نفع و ضرر کر نہ سکا
جس نے سورج کی شعاعوں کو گرفتار کیا
زندگی کی شبِ تاریک سحر کر نہ سکا

“Modern Man’s love fled; Mind stung him like a snake”;

he could not Force it to vision's will.

He tracked the orbits of the stars,

yet could not Travel his own thoughts' world;

Entangled in the labyrinth of his science

Lost count of good and ill;

Took captive the sun's rays, and yet no sunrise

On life's thick night unfurled (Ahmad, 2019).

The goal of this study project is to reexamine Muhammad Iqbal's views on modernism, look into how he specifically created an "Islamic modernity," and understand what implications this has for Muslim culture. The research gap for this paper is, that as various researchers worked on the philosophy of Iqbal and numerous shed light on Iqbal's concept of Modernity, however, none of them categorically worked on analyzing the current status of the Muslim world in the light of Iqbal's modernity, which this research work will cover. Furthermore, the current situation of the Muslim world, barriers to modernism in the Muslim world, and misinterpretation of Iqbal's modernity and the so-called modernity of the west have to be brought to light. For this research, the researchers have used textual analysis as a theoretical framework.