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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Reviving Islamic Ethos Revivingg Islamic Ethos ========================== "O 'Believers! Obey God and His Messenger when He calls you to that which gives you life, and know that God comes in between man and his 'heart' and that He it is to Whom you will be gathered." (The Qur'an, 8:24) Previously I intended to talk about the philosophy of martyrdom on this day, commemorating the fortieth day of Imam Husain's martyrdom at Karbala.

Historically, this is the occasion when those who cherish their empathy for the great martyrs journey to the shrine of Imam Husain (a.s.) in the manner of Jaber Bin Abdullah Ansari, the first pilgrim. This had to be postponed until a later date.

During the last three sessions here (at the Hussainiyeh Irshad Lecture Hall, Tehran), it has been suggested that I should give a one-half-hour talk on Allama Iqbal, the great Islamic thinker, and his outline of 'The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam', a book published at Lahore (about fifty years a go). Considering that the topic merited careful preparation and not one but a series of lectures, a separate programme was arranged, resulting in this and the subsequent lectures.

Iqbal's book: "The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam" is a compendium of seven lectures: (1) Knowledge and Religious Experience (2) The Philosophical Test of the Revelations of Religious Experience (3) The Conception of God and the Meaning of Prayer (4) The Human Ego - Man's Freedom and Immortality of the Soul (5) The Spirit of Muslim Culture (6) The Principle of Movement in the Structure of Islam , and (7) Is Religion Possible?

All the lectures were apparently addressed to intellectual gatherings. Their intellectual content is rather of a high calibre. These are of not only religious, but scientific and sociological interest. The theme underlying these is the same as that of the title of his book. This lecture, too, concentrates on the same subject of reviving Islamic ethos. Iqbal's close familiarity with Europe was derived also from his higher studies there.

His modern education, including scientific orientation, is reflected in his clear thinking, acknowledged by Europeans, too. No doubt, his criticism of European civilization was not based on any vague imagination of the conditions there. Nor is his appreciation of the intellectual and scientific assimilation of modern sciences by Muslim youth.