←IndexThe Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam

Lecture 5: The Spirit of Muslim Culture

Section 10 of 14

History as a source of human knowledge

Section summary

In brief

Iqbal turns to the third Qur'anic source of knowledge — History, 'the days of God' — and argues that all lines of Muslim thought converge on a dynamic conception of the universe. Citing five verses that command the reader to 'traverse the Earth' and observe the patterns of rising and falling nations, he presents Ibn Khaldūn's Muqaddimah as the direct fruit of the Qur'an's insistence on history as a field of empirical and moral inquiry.

Section 9 examined ʿIrāqī's Sufi metaphysics of space, identifying both its genuine insights (the hierarchy of spaces, the interpenetration of spatial orders) and the Aristotelian-Neoplatonic assumptions that blocked ʿIrāqī from reaching the Qur'anic vision of continuous creation. Section 10 now turns from the second source of Qur'anic knowledge (Nature, treated in Sections 4–9) to the third: History — 'the days of God' — which the Qur'an regards as a field of divine signs no less revelatory than the natural order.

The section opens with a synthesising statement: 'all lines of Muslim thought converge on a dynamic conception of the universe.' The empirical method, the mathematical idea of function, the evolutionary orientation, the Sufi engagement with space and time — all of these, Iqbal claims, point in the same direction: a universe that is becoming, not merely being. History is the domain in which this dynamic character is most directly observable, because history is where the rise and fall of nations, the consequences of collective choices, and the patterns of civilisational development are enacted in real time.

Iqbal cites five Qur'anic verses that establish the historical orientation. The first (14:5) introduces the concept of 'the days of God' (ayyām Allāh) — a phrase that transforms historical events into signs of divine activity. The next three (7:181–83, 3:137, 3:140) establish the Qur'anic insistence that historical patterns are real, observable, and morally significant: God 'alternates the days of successes and reverses among peoples,' and the reader is commanded to 'traverse the Earth' and see what happened to those who falsified God's signs. The fifth verse (7:34) — 'Every nation hath its fixed period' — is the most philosophically consequential: it 'suggests the possibility of a scientific treatment of the life of human societies regarded as organisms.'

The section then connects this Qur'anic historical orientation to Ibn Khaldūn, whose Muqaddimah Iqbal presents as 'mainly due to the inspiration which the author must have received from the Qur'an.' Even Ibn Khaldūn's judgements of character — his famous assessment of the desert Arabs — are shown to be amplifications of specific Qur'anic verses (9:97–98). The point is not merely that the Qur'an influenced Ibn Khaldūn but that the Qur'anic insistence on history as a source of knowledge made possible the kind of scientific historiography that Ibn Khaldūn pioneered.

Original text

Thus all lines of Muslim thought converge on a dynamic conception of the universe. This view is further reinforced by Ibn Miskawayh's theory of life as an evolutionary movement, and Ibn Khaldūn's view of history. History or, in the language of the Qur'an, 'the days of God', is the third source of human knowledge according to the Qur'an. It is one of the most essential teachings of the Qur'an that nations are collectively judged, and suffer for their misdeeds here and now.⁴⁰ In order to establish this proposition, the Qur'an constantly cites historical instances, and urges upon the reader to reflect on the past and present experience of mankind.

'Of old did We send Moses with Our signs, and said to him: "Bring forth thy people from the darkness into the light, and remind them of the days of God." Verily, in this are signs for every patient, grateful person' (14:5).

'And among those whom We had created are a people who guide others with truth, and in accordance therewith act justly. But as for those who treat Our signs as lies, We gradually bring them down by means of which they know not; and though I lengthen their days, verily, My stratagem is effectual' (7:181–83).

'Already, before your time, have precedents been made. Traverse the Earth then, and see what hath been the end of those who falsify the signs of God!' (3:137).

'If a wound hath befallen you, a wound like it hath already befallen others; We alternate the days of successes and reverses among peoples' (3:140).

'Every nation hath its fixed period' (7:34).⁴¹

The last verse is rather an instance of a more specific historical generalization which, in its epigrammatic formulation, suggests the possibility of a scientific treatment of the life of human societies regarded as organisms. It is, therefore, a gross error to think that the Qur'an has no germs of a historical doctrine. The truth is that the whole spirit of the 'Prolegomena' of Ibn Khaldūn appears to have been mainly due to the inspiration which the author must have received from the Qur'an. Even in his judgements of character he is, in no small degree, indebted to the Qur'an. An instance in point is his long paragraph devoted to an estimate of the character of the Arabs as a people. The whole paragraph is a mere amplification of the following verses of the Qur'an:

'The Arabs of the desert are most stout in unbelief and dissimulation; and likelier it is that they should be unaware of the laws which God hath sent down to His Apostle; and God is Knowing, Wise.

'Of the Arabs of the desert there are some who reckon what they expend in the cause of God as tribute, and wait for some change of fortune to befall you: a change for evil shall befall them! God is the Hearer, the Knower' (9:97–98).

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9. ʿIrāqī on space and the limits of Sufi metaphysics

11. The foundations of historical criticism

Original text

'Already, before your time, have precedents been made. Traverse the Earth then, and see what hath been the end of those who falsify the signs of God!' (3:137).

'If a wound hath befallen you, a wound like it hath already befallen others; We alternate the days of successes and reverses among peoples' (3:140).

'Every nation hath its fixed period' (7:34).⁴¹

'The Arabs of the desert are most stout in unbelief and dissimulation; and likelier it is that they should be unaware of the laws which God hath sent down to His Apostle; and God is Knowing, Wise.