The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam [Paperback]

Muhammad Iqbal (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Kazi Publications (June 1999)
• ISBN-10: 0686184823
• ISBN-13: 978-0686184829
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,158,691 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Awful text errors. Avoid this edition!, April 30, 2010

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Yunus Wesley "Emory University religion grad ... - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (Dodo Press) (Print on Demand (Paperback))

Get any other edition at all of Iqbal's critically important work. This 2009 production from the ridiculously named "Dodo Press" suffers from terrible textual problems presumably resulting from 1) translation of one electronic text format to another and 2) no proofreading! For example, on the bottom of page 2, Qur'an is rendered "Qur'«n" --presumably the source text had a diacritic character for the long a, but the text has been corrupted. Qur'«n continues, page after page, and the problem gets worse as longer names of people, titles of books, and quoted passages come in from Arabic, Persian, and Urdu.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Book, February 5, 2006

By 

Aamir R. Hashmi (Singapore) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (Paperback)

This is a good and innovative book that will be of interest to most modern day educated muslims who are fed up with the dogmatic outlook of their religion. Non-muslims will not find it interesting because it is primarily written by a muslim for his fellow muslims. The main messages of the book are the following. First, this universe is dynamic and so is God. He is the Creator and is constantly busy in creation. Second, God has given man complete freedom of choice and man is not restricted by his destiny. Third, muslims have made a big mistake by discontinuing the evolution of Islamic law and by confining themselves to four major (Sunni) schools of law. Since the world is constantly changing, we need constant evolution of Islamic law to keep pace with the world. Modern democracy can go a long way in achieving this goal and the concept of 'caliphate' can be replaced by the concept of 'republic'. Fourth, mystic religious experience is not only possible but is the only way to find the Ultimate Reality.
At times the author is lost in philosophical jargon and makes a simple point look very complicated. Most of the big talk in the book is based on mere theory (or whim). Nonetheless, the book offers some food for thought and courageously challenges the status quo. No wonder then that according to Wikipedia this book is banned in Saudi Arabia.

5.0 out of 5 stars The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, December 22, 2011

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Turkey11 - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (Hardcover)

Mohammed Iqbal was a brillant philosopher as well as famous poet. In this book, he lays out a strong case that religious thought in Islam has been in stagnation for some 500 years, and this does a disservice to the real and dynamic meaning to the Quran. Iqbal was writing at a time when he was trying to both (a) inspire fellow Muslims in India, circa 1930s) to rise to the occasion to defend their religious and political rights as an independent India was going to emerge, and (b) to promote pan-Islamic conscientiousness and cooperation- a type of League of Nations. While the text of the book is complex, he presents fascinating arguments and backs his assertions with numerous references and interpretations of the Quran as well as from noted Islamic and western scholars. Iqbal argues that the Quran offers Muslims an opportunity for a journey in person growth and spirituality which is unique and evolutionary, and yet unites the faithful in a deep spiritual communion with God. Although a demanding reading trek, the effort to study, rather than just try to read, this book, all said done, is very worthwhile.