Iqbal the Ambivalent Philosopher: Affinities, Antagonisms, and Critical Departures

"Nature was not quite decided what to make of Plato - poet or philosopher. The same indecision she appears to have felt in the case of Goethe," remarks Muhammad Iqbal in his private notebook Stray Reflections at a moment when Nature appears to be undecided about what to make of Iqbal—poet or philosopher. By 1910, when this remark is made, Iqbal is already an acclaimed poet with a doctorate in Philosophy but greatly reluctant to be, or be perceived as, a mere poet or an unambiguous philosopher. This article foregrounds the affinities, antagonisms, and ambivalences that characterize Iqbal's relation to philosophy and philosophers. It also examines Iqbal's conception of philosophy as a "station of thought" that must be both inhabited and abandoned for further stations and their infinite nexts.