Overcoming nihilism through sufism: Muhammad Iqbal, his philosophy, and political theology

This dissertation is interested in how Muhammad Iqbal’s philosophy (1877 – 1938), one of the leading modern Muslim philosophers, is interpreted and analyzed in the literature. Arguing that existing interpretations lack a philosophical perspective in approaching Iqbal and his ideas, this study contributes to Iqbal literature by offering an alternative interpretation and narrative of Iqbal’s ideas and intellectual development from a philosophical perspective. In doing this, this study situates Iqbal in a philosophical context and problematic and shows how he discusses this problem. Analyzing Iqbal’s writings from 1900 to 1934, this dissertation demonstrates that Iqbal’s philosophy and intellectual development is best analyzed and understood within the context of, and as a response to, the problem of nihilism in its epistemological, metaphysical, moral and political dimensions. Accordingly, this study also demonstrates that Iqbal’s response, or solution, to the problem of nihilism is a reconstructed form of Sufism.