Reading Iqbal in the Light of Kierkegaard: Toward an Existentialist Approach to Islam

Taking the Christian existentialist approach—ushered in by Søren Kierkegaard—as a model, this contribution seeks to introduce an Islamic existentialist approach, which can be detected in Muhammad Iqbal's thought and works. The characteristics of this approach could be enumerated as follows: there is (1) an emphasis on that aspect of reality that is beyond the realm of reason, (2) the contention that reason is incapable of giving knowledge about God, (3) an emphasis on the need for a subjective approach to God and faith rather than an objective one, and (4) a practical way that is introduced that enables the individual in appropriating and living the truth—thus building a subjective relationship with it.