Articles
Posted on Sun 1 June 2008
Iqbal Academy: Iqbal, Rumi and the Sufi Tradition
It is extremely fortunate that this seminar to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Muhammed Iqbal’s sojourn in Europe is taking place as this university is also celebrating the 400th anniversary of the birth of John Milton. Iqbāl had, for long, wanted to emulate Milton and in his Taskhīr-i-Fitrat (overcoming of nature) he was eventually able to retell the story of Paradise Lost and Regained from his own perspective of the self’s ability to overcome its lower instincts and to clear away all obstacles in its path until it reaches its destiny. This is, of course, a very different kind of anthropology from the biblical one of creation, fall and redemption but one which is entirely characteristic of Iqbal’s work in his post-European period.[1]