Author: Alam Khundmiri
Editor: M T Ansari
Publisher: Sage Publications
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: 308
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0761995617
Description
This volume brings together Khundmiri's seminal essays which set out his dominant concerns: Marxism, with its indifference to questions of minorities in nationalism; existentialism, which he saw as being closed off to the problems of community; and Islam, which he examined in relation to history and notions of time and change.
Following the introductory essays by M T Ansari and Asghar Ali Engineer, this book is divided into four sections. The first contains essays on Islamic traditionalism in the context of modernization. Apart from discussing the Islamic perspective on God, they tackle problems of inter-religious understanding and the application of religion in modern life. The next section focuses on Islamic theology and philosophy where Khundmiri discusses the central arguments of noted philosophers of classical and later Islam, particularly the work of al-Ash'ari, al-Farabi, al-Ghazali and Rumi.
The third section highlights Khundmiri's intense appreciation of the work of Mohammad Iqbal, engaging exclusively with Iqbal's political philosophy, notions of time and self, understanding of human knowledge and his contribution to Indian Sufism. The final section completes the exercise of placing Islam in a contemporary socio-cultural context and examines the religion in relation to concepts such as secularism, fascism and democracy.
Overall, this absorbing collection of essays encapsulates Khundmiri's dual project of situating Islam in the modern context and scrutinizing the modern in the light of Islam. Particularly relevant in the present context of the increasing sacralization of politics, it will be read with great interest by students and scholars of philosophy, history, sociology, Islamic studies, Marxism, comparative religion, cultural studies, and political and social theory, as well as by the aware and concerned lay reader.
Contents
Foreword
Introduction : In the Interstices of an Indian Islamic Identity
Perspectives on Islam and Philosophy
PART I
CHAPTER 1
A Critical Examination of Islamic Traditionalism with Reference to the Demands of Modernization
CHAPTER 2
God-The Contemporary Debate : The Islamic Perspective
CHAPTER 3
Some Problems of Inter-religious Understanding
CHAPTER 4
Religion and its Application to Modern Life : The Islamic Problem
PART II
CHAPTER 5
Man's Nature and Destiny : The Philosophic View in Islam
CHAPTER 6
Al-Ghazali's Repudiation of Causality : The Destruction of Philosophical Enquiry in Islam
CHAPTER 7
The Meaning of Reason in the Systems of al-Farabi and Ibn Sina
CHAPTER 8
Eastern Aristotelians and Time
CHAPTER 9
The Tension between Morality and Law in Islam
PART III
CHAPTER 10
Iqbal on Human Knowledge
CHAPTER 11
Iqbal and Indian Sufism
CHAPTER 12
Iqbal on time and Self
CHAPTER 13
Iqbal and the Existentialist Thinkers : Nietzsche, Kierkegaard and Heidegger
CHAPTER 14
The Political Philosophy of Iqbal
PART IV
CHAPTER 15
Secularism : Western and Indian
CHAPTER 16
Some Distinctive Features of Indian Sufism
CHAPTER 17
The Changing Concept of Man in Sufi Literature
CHAPTER 18
Islam and Fascism
CHAPTER 19
Islam and Democracy
CHAPTER 20
Obscurantism and the Indian Situation (with Special Reference to the Indian Muslim Community)
CHAPTER 21
Contemporary Religious Situation : An Existential Analysis
Published Works of Alam Khundmiri
Index