Muzaffar Iqbal

Muzaffar Iqbāl (Punjabi/Pakistan/Urdu: مظفر اقبال) (born December 3, 1954 in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan) is a Pakistani-Canadian Islamic scholar and author. Iqbal earned his doctorate (1983) in Chemistry from the University of Saskatchewan and then left the field of experimental science to devote himself fully to his chosen fields: literature, history, philosophy, Islamic intellectual and spiritual traditions. Between 1984 and 1990, he taught Urdu at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1984–85), wrote two acclaimed novels in Urdu, Inkhila (Uprooting) and Inqta (Severance). During 1980 and 1990, he published a number of translations of poetry of Latin American poets and wrote a series of literary essays on American and South American writers including Herman Melville, Nabokov, Borges, Pablo Neruda, and Garcia Marquez. He also wrote on literary theory.

Muzaffar Iqbal
Born1954 (age 66–67)
Lahore, Punjab.
NationalityCanadian
CitizenshipCanada
Alma materUniversity of the Punjab
University of Saskatchewan
Known forIslam and science, Intelligent design, Qur'anic studies and Islam and the West

Since 1990, Islam, its spiritual and intellectual traditions, and Muslim encounter with modernity have been the focus of his work. In 2009, he initiated the project to produce the first Encyclopedia of the Qur'an by Muslims, the Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qur'an (IEQ).[1]He has published over 100 articles on various aspect of Islam and Muslims. His published works on the relationship between Islam and science have appeared in many journals. He is the author of Islam and Science and editor of four volume Routledge publication Islam and Science: Historic and Contemporary Perspectives.

Career

Between 1992-1996, Iqbal worked as Director (Scientific Information) COMSTECH, the Ministerial Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation of the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) established by the Third Islamic Summit of OIC held at Makkah, Saudi Arabia in January 1981. From 1996-1998, he served as Director (Scientific Cooperation) of Pakistan Academy of Sciences. Later, Iqbal became the founding president of the Center for Islamic Sciences,[2] Alberta, Canada, (called Center for Islam and Science when founded in 2000). He has written/edited twenty-three books. Iqbal is editor of a journal of Islamic perspectives on science and civilization, Islamic sciences.[3]

Iqbal's published works are on Islam, Sufism, Muslims and their relationship with modernity.

Iqbal appeared on PBS's Ask the Experts in 2003, discussing "Can We Believe in Both Science and Religion?"[4] In another show in 2003, he joined a panel to discuss "Can Religion Withstand Technology?"[5]

In an article on Islamic Science, the New York Times quoted Iqbal as explaining that modern science did not claim to address the purpose of life, whereas in the Islamic intellectual tradition, the question of purpose was integral to the quest for knowledge.[6]

Iqbal was one of the experts called on by the Physics and Cosmology Group of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, alongside scientists including Andrei Linde of Stanford University, John Polkinghorne of Cambridge University, Paul Davies of Macquarie University and Charles Townes of the University of California, Berkeley.[7] Between 1996 and 2003, the group conducted an intensive public dialogue on science and spirituality.[8]

Reception

Roxanne D. Marcotte, reviewing Iqbal's Islam and Science, published in 2002, wrote that it "presents an articulate and concise historical introduction to intellectual developments that have shaped Islamic civilization, both religious and scientific."[9]

The first volume of the Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qur'an has been described by Andrew Rippin as "sumptuous and carefully produced," "an impressive beginning", and "a considerable contribution to the study of the Qur'an".

Books by Iqbal

Iqbal has written, edited, and translated twenty-three books. A complete list is available: Muzaffar Iqbal (Publications)

In Urdu
  • Muzaffar Iqbal. Jang-e Azadi Sey Hasooley Azadi Tak. Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publishers, 1977. A book on the history of the Pakistan Movement. In Urdu.
  • Muzaffar Iqbal. Inkhila (Uprooting). Book I of the fiction trilogy Hijratayn (Exiles). Lahore: The Circle, 1988. In Urdu.
  • Muzaffar Iqbal. Inqta (Severance). Book II of the fiction trilogy Hijratayn (Exiles). Islamabad: Leo Books, 1994. In Urdu.
  • Muzaffar Iqbal. Herman Melville: Life and Works. Serialized in Savera (1995-1998).

In English
  • Muzaffar Iqbal. Abdullah Hussein: From Sad Generations to a Lonely Tiger. South Asian Centre, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1985. Repr. as Abdullah Hussein: The Chronicler of Sad Generations. Islamabad: Leo Books, 1993.
  • Muzaffar Iqbal and Zafar Ishaq Ansari (Translators). Towards Understanding the Qur'an. Vol. VII. Islamic Foundation, 2001. English translation of Syed Abul Ala Mawdudi's Tafhim al-Qur'an.
  • Muzaffar Iqbal. Islam and Science. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002. Reprinted in the Routledge Revivals series 2017; reprinted in Pakistan as Islam and Science: Explorations in the Fundamental Questions of the Islam and Science Discourse. Lahore: Suheyl Academy, 2004. Persian Translation, Astana Quds, Mashhad, 2010.
  • Muzaffar Iqbal. Science and Islam. Greenwood Press, 2007. Repr. with Afterword as The Making of Islamic Science. Islamic Book Trust, 2009.
  • Muzaffar Iqbal. Islam, Science, Muslims, and Technology: Seyyed Hossein Nasr in Conversation with Muzaffar Iqbal. Islamic Book Trust, 2007. Repr. Sherwood Park: al-Qalam Publishing, 2007; Tehran: Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, 2008; Islamabad: Dost Publications, 2009.
  • Muzaffar Iqbal. Dew on Sunburnt Roses and other Quantum Notes. Dost Publications, 2008.
  • Muzaffar Iqbal. Dawn in Madinah: A Pilgrim's Passage. Islamic Book Trust, 2008. Repr. Dost Publications, 2009.

Books edited by Iqbal (Literature, English)
  • Colours of Loneliness: An anthology of Pakistani Literature, Oxford University Press, 1999.
  • Pakistani Literature (ed.) vol. 1, 2 and 4, Pakistan Academy of Letters, Islamabad 1992-93.
  • Islam and Science: Historic and Contemporary Perspectives, 4 vols., Aldershot: Ashgate, 2011, reprinted by Routledge, 2018.

References
  1. The first volume was published in 2013.
  2. http://www.cis-ca.org
  3. http://www.cis-ca.org/journal
  4. "PBS: Ask the Experts". Ask the Experts: Muzaffar Iqbal Ph.D. pbs.org. 2003. Retrieved August 26, 2020.
  5. "PBS: Ask the Experts". Ask the Experts: Muzaffar Iqbal Ph.D. pbs.org. 2003. Retrieved August 26, 2020.
  6. Overbye, Dennis (October 30, 2001). "New York Times". How Islam Won, and Lost, the Lead in Science. nytimes.com. Retrieved November 21, 2011.
  7. Physics and Cosmology Group of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences Retrieved November 21, 2011
  8. CTNS: SSQ Program Retrieved November 21, 2011
  9. Marcotte, Roxanne D. (2006). "Ars Disputandi" (PDF). Book Review: Islam and Science by Muzaffar Iqbal. arsdisputandi.org. pp. Volume 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 15, 2012. Retrieved November 21, 2011.
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