In the present case...

In the present case, the crucial points and statements translated into English required a critical appraisal of their meaning and contextual significance in the light of both Mutahhari's and Iqbal's lectures in Persian and English respectively. Clearly, one has to demonstrate more than mere proficiency in languages, specially when dealing with abstract and abstruse ideas, such as encountered in religious books.

It is all the more necessary when a pliable editor happens to be unavailable to make up for shortcomings on a translator's part. With regard to the subject-matter of the present work, it emphasizes the need for proper assimilation and dissemination of Islamic ethos in the process of its revival. This necessarily implies an adequate indication of the thinking that characterised the Muslims some five hundred years ago, as well as a broad identification of the deviations since then.

The lectures of Iqbal and Murtada Mutahhari both are hardly sufficient in this regard. Iqbal's "Reconstruction..." was found inadequate (for reasons different from the above) by two recent critics of diverse cultural backgrounds.

The first critic, a Persian-speaking one, suggests that it was a "condescending and apologetic study of Islamic Thought from the point of view of Western Philosophy."1 He does not necessarily imply that Iqbal was unaware of the "still-living tradition of Islamic philosophy" manifest in Arabic and Persian languages in particular. This may be due to the fact that Iqbal wrote in Persian, too.

The other critic affiliated to Western Europe suggests that Iqbal's "Reconstruction" could have been that of "Thought" rather than that of "Religious Thought in Islam". He opines that Iqbal's work boils down to no more than emphasizing that "Islam must be rethought in modern terms."2 He did not evidently consider it worthwhile to assign any reasons for this verdict.

On the other hand, Murtada Mutahhar's "Revival" evidently presupposes the "death" of the Islamic Thought evolved by the earlier generations of Muslims. He invites present-day Muslims to retrieve and adhere to the original Islamic way of thinking based on "Tauheed" or subservience to the One and the Only God.