CFP: Muhammad Iqbal: The Relevance of a Legacy

The University of Religions and Denominations (URD) in Iran together with the University of Paderborn, the University of Oslo, and LUISS Guido Carli University of Rome announce awinter school with the titleThe Potentials of Muhammad Iqbal’s Thought for Questions of Todaythat will take place on 9-10 February 2024.  

Modern pressing questions of today, both on the socio-political as well as the intellectual-academic level, is the challenge the Islamic speculative tradition is faced with. Repeating, again and again, the traditional, classical responses to the modern and new questions is of no help. On the one hand, there are the serious socio-political questions (including ecological issues, human rights, and women’s rights) and on the other hand, the modern questions discussed within the discourse of philosophy of religion and theology, including the compatibility between human free will and the classical assumption of infallible divine fore-knowledge, the problem of evil and the possibility of the existence of an all good, all-knowing and all-powerful God, and the ethical critiques against the traditional theodicy-discourse, pluralism and religious truth claims among others are strongly challenging the Islamic intellectual tradition. The resistance of Muslim thinkers to think the Islamic tradition anew and their inclination to repeat the old answers to the new questions keep the Islamic tradition of thought far away and back from the current discussions in the philosophy of religion and modern theologies, and the challenges they are faced with. This lack of interest and involvement causes Muslims to lose their vitality in the contemporary intellectual discourse.

Muhammad Iqbal is a Muslim thinker who helps us to think about our traditions differently and to engage with modern questions actively. Standing firm in his own Islamic tradition and relying on the Qur’an, due to being well-versed in Western philosophical thought, he provides us with a novel metaphysics that can well serve as the foundation for a new Islamic philosophico-theological system, unprecedented in the Muslim thought, that can help us address modern questions, both on the socio-political as well as intellectual and academic level.

The aim of this winter school is thus to bring together Iqbal experts, in order to investigate the potentials in his thought for new theologies (process theology, existential theology, eco-theology, etc.) and by discussing these potentials to address current questions, familiarize the young Muslim students and such engage them with Iqbal’s thought.

that are cardinal questions in classical and modern Islamic theologies and philosophies:

·       Philosophy of religion in modern Islamic thought;

·       Human free will and the question of infallible divine fore-knowledge;

·       The problem of evil and the question of the existence of an all good, all-knowing and all-powerful God;

·       Pluralism and religious truth claims;

·       Human liberty, human rights, and the rights of nature;

·       Process theology, existential theology, and ecotheology;

·       Time, space, and the challenge of artificial intelligence.

The symposium is open to receive contributors that touch these issues, and related ones, comparatively, in conversations with philosophies and theologies of different traditions and periods of time.

We do plan to convert this first online initiative to a physical scholarly encounter and book project afterwards.

Time frame:

Submit an abstract, along with a short bio, by 15 September 2023.

Accepted abstracts will be notified on 16 October 2023.

The final programme will be communicated by 16 November 2023.

Free registration for online attendance can be expressed from now to the contact info below, or later on when the full programme is publicly communicated.

For further information and to submit proposals, please write to the coordinator of the event Dr Saida Mirsadri:[email protected]