اقبال کا تصور علم - حواس، عقل اور قلب کے تناظر میں

Iqbal’s Concept of Knowledge: In the Perspective of Senses, Reason, & Heart

Abstract

This article examines Allama Iqbal’s scattered reflections on the concept of knowledge (epistemology) as presented in his poetry and prose. Unlike his focused engagement with theology and Islamic jurisprudence, Iqbal did not formulate a systematic philosophy of knowledge. Nevertheless, his insights suggest that human understanding is derived from multiple sources: sense-perception, reason, and intuition or the heart (fu’ad). He views philosophy, religion, and poetry as distinct yet interconnected disciplines addressing the same fundamental questions of existence. For Iqbal, philosophy operates within the limits of reason and critical inquiry, while religion expresses the whole of human experience, and poetry articulates the aesthetic consciousness. He acknowledges the limitations of sense-perception, bound by space and time, but insists that complete knowledge of reality emerges when sense-perception is integrated with inner intuition and the heart’s vision. In this synthesis, knowledge becomes both empirical and transcendental, offering a “complete vision of Reality.” The article highlights Iqbal’s critique of purely rationalist and Platonic approaches, his engagement with Kantian philosophy, and his Qur’anic emphasis on the role of the heart in epistemology. It concludes by raising critical questions about the coherence of Iqbal’s thought and the extent to which his epistemology reconciles reason, perception, and intuition.