Muhammad Iqbal Event Limits and Transcending Limits.
The Antagonism of Philosophy and Religion
The event will be dedicated to the thoughts of the Islamic poet and philosopher Muhammad Iqbal (who died in 1938). Experts, students as well as interested guests will have the opportunity to engage in intensive dialogue about the rich heritage of the Islamic ‘allround scholar’ in whose honour the German sculptor Karl Oppenrieder created a memorial on Habsburger Platz in Munich in 1968. As Muhammad Iqbal’s works represent an explicit focus in the research activities of the Professorship for Kalam, Islamic Philosophy and Mysticism, the Centre for Islamic Theology Münster (ZIT) will hold an annual Muhammad Iqbal Event from 2015. This expert meeting will not only allow for discussion and in-depth deliberations but it will also include accounts of the individual research activities surrounding the work of Muhammad Iqbal.
Muhammad Iqbal is one of the most important intellectuals of 20th century Islamic tradition. From the outset of his intellectual creative process, the issue of religion represents the Archimedean point in the poet-philosopher’s thinking. However, Iqbal’s much respected and followed work is linked and interwoven with questions which cannot all be traced back to a single discipline. He picks up on Islam as a religion, its genesis, its social and political roots, both from a philosophical and spiritual but also existential point of view, as, according to the Islamic scholar, philosophy and religion always point to the limits of human cognition; at the same time, they always transcend limits in their respective purpose while never becoming estranged. Between East and West, between lively and flowery poetry and exact philosophical definitions, between theological austerity and spiritualism, between trembling faith and doubt, Muhammad Iqbal raises questions whose originality is hard to top and which are of key importance for our present lives. How can we define philosophy and religion based on the entire works of Muhammad Iqbal? How can Islam understand the relationship between religion and philosophy? How can we define religion within the limits of reason? With all this, not only questions regarding the relationship between God and humanity are of vital importance but also the issue of creation. To find answers to these and other questions will be the aim of this expert event.