The Limit of Reason, The Light of Revelation: Iqbal's Epistemic Balance
In exploring Iqbal’s approach to harmonising reason and religion, we find a thoughtful middle ground that speaks to both the strengths and limits of human rationality. Iqbal, much like a bridge-builder, invites us to understand how different forms of knowing—rational thought and religious experience—are meant to complement rather than contradict each other.
Iqbal points out that in history, some traditions, like the Greek philosophical legacy, took reason to an extreme. They leaned heavily on rationalism as the primary route to truth, sometimes neglecting the depth that revelation and direct spiritual experience offer. On the other hand, some Muslim thinkers, as Iqbal notes, went to the opposite extreme, leaning so much into mystical or non-conceptual modes of religious experience that they sidelined the value of reason.
Iqbal’s vision is that the two are not enemies. Reason has its place and its limits—because it works step by step in the flow of time, it can only go so far. Revelation and religious intuition bring the whole picture into view. Once reason leads us to see that revelation is from the divine, it’s entirely rational to give revelation the final word.
In that sense, Iqbal is inviting us to a holistic epistemology: one that respects the role of intellect without turning it into an ultimate authority and that embraces revelation without dismissing the gift of reason. It’s a call to let each form of knowledge do what it does best and to find harmony rather than conflict between the mind and the soul.
Imran Hussein Epistemix
The Limit of Reason, The Light of Revelation: Iqbal's Epistemic Balance
In exploring Iqbal’s approach to harmonising reason and religion, we find a thoughtful middle ground that speaks to both the strengths and limits of human rationality. Iqbal, much like a bridge-builder, invites us to understand how different forms of knowing—rational thought and religious experience—are meant to complement rather than contradict each other.
Iqbal points out that in history, some traditions, like the Greek philosophical legacy, took reason to an extreme. They leaned heavily on rationalism as the primary route to truth, sometimes neglecting the depth that revelation and direct spiritual experience offer. On the other hand, some Muslim thinkers, as Iqbal notes, went to the opposite extreme, leaning so much into mystical or non-conceptual modes of religious experience that they sidelined the value of reason.
Iqbal’s vision is that the two are not enemies. Reason has its place and its limits—because it works step by step in the flow of time, it can only go so far. Revelation and religious intuition bring the whole picture into view. Once reason leads us to see that revelation is from the divine, it’s entirely rational to give revelation the final word.
In that sense, Iqbal is inviting us to a holistic epistemology: one that respects the role of intellect without turning it into an ultimate authority and that embraces revelation without dismissing the gift of reason. It’s a call to let each form of knowledge do what it does best and to find harmony rather than conflict between the mind and the soul.
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