INTERPRETATION OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE IN MUHAMMAD IQBAL’S PHILOSOPHY OF THE RELIGION

Abstract

It is well known that the modernist era greatly exalted science, turning it into a unique value. There is no doubt that this was a trend born of positivism. According to the theory of positivism, only experiences based on empirical observation can attain the status of science. While this trend increased the value of scientific experience, one could say it diminished or devalued religious experience. Muhammad Iqbal, a Muslim philosopher who left his mark on the 20th century, attempted to find a solution to this issue within the framework of the philosophy of religion. In his philosophy of religion, he revealed the importance of religious experience from a different perspective and offered a new interpretation of it. In his view, there is no a priori contradiction between scientific theories and religious doctrines. Nor is there any difference between religious experience and other levels of experience. In other words, religious experience, like our other experiences, serves as a basis for epistemology. That is, it has a cognitive aspect in its interpretation. Iqbal's central idea is that the existential problems of the modern person can only be resolved through religious experience.

In this article, we attempt to explore the issue of religious experience in Iqbal's worldview. In the introduction, we broadly examine mystical experience and its epistemological features. This is because it would be insufficient to proceed with explaining Iqbal’s concepts without first addressing the concept’s general philosophical underpinnings. In the first part of our article, we will examine how Iqbal critiques classical philosophy’s proofs about God from the standpoint of religious experience. In the second part, we will conclude our article by examining the epistemological aspect of religious experience in Iqbal’s philosophy and its philosophical foundations.