“Reason in servitude is of no use; free reason is the instrument of God's light.”
— Muhammad IqbalBal-i Jibril (Persian/Urdu verse on reason and freedom); approximate English rendering, paraphrased
Commentary
This line gives a central place to reason, but only reason that is free, and it reflects Iqbal's critique of both traditionalist submission and secular rationalism. The argument that reason must be liberated from servitude to authority or to fashion is one of the principal themes of his poetry and prose. Annemarie Schimmel, in Gabriel's Wing, shows that Iqbal regarded reason and intuition as complementary faculties, and that his defence of free thought drew on the Qur'anic appeal to reflection. Javid Iqbal's biography notes that his father's view of reason was shaped by his European studies in Cambridge and Munich, where he encountered Western philosophy and German idealism. Bashir Ahmad Dar argues that Iqbal's account of reason anticipates his later call for ijtihad, the independent interpretation of religious law, which he developed in his lectures. Schimmel cautions that Iqbal's use of the word reason should not be equated with the purely analytical sense common in modern philosophy. The English rendering is an approximation, and the exact wording should be verified against a critical Urdu text and a named translation before publication.
Commentary
This line gives a central place to reason, but only reason that is free, and it reflects Iqbal's critique of both traditionalist submission and secular rationalism. The argument that reason must be liberated from servitude to authority or to fashion is one of the principal themes of his poetry and prose. Annemarie Schimmel, in Gabriel's Wing, shows that Iqbal regarded reason and intuition as complementary faculties, and that his defence of free thought drew on the Qur'anic appeal to reflection. Javid Iqbal's biography notes that his father's view of reason was shaped by his European studies in Cambridge and Munich, where he encountered Western philosophy and German idealism. Bashir Ahmad Dar argues that Iqbal's account of reason anticipates his later call for ijtihad, the independent interpretation of religious law, which he developed in his lectures. Schimmel cautions that Iqbal's use of the word reason should not be equated with the purely analytical sense common in modern philosophy. The English rendering is an approximation, and the exact wording should be verified against a critical Urdu text and a named translation before publication.