LAHORE: (Thursday, July 05, 2012): Renowned scholar of Philosophy Prof Dr Munawar Anees has said that the Muslim civilization stands at crossroad, bereft of its identity and vision. He was addressing a seminar organized by Punjab University Department of Philosophy in connection with Annual Iqbal Memorial Lecture 2012 under the topic “The Muslim Intellect: Triumph and tragedy” at the Center for Undergraduate Studies’s Al Raazi hall here on Thursday. Arts and Humanity Dean Dr Qalb-e-Abid, Department of Philosophy Chairman Prof Dr Abdul Hafeez, Quran Academy Honorary Director Dr Absar Ahmad, faculty members and a large number of students were present at the event.

Dr Anees said that as Muslims we did not have theologically sound understanding of our faith. Even the early discourse on speculative theology was absent from our circles. He said that we were engulfed in seemingly endless wars of rhetoric and anger among ourselves and against the West. He said that Orthodoxy has won over reason and rationalism, skepticism and individualism had been mercilessly sacrificed at the altar of a totalitarian Puritanism. He said that we were suffocating due to the loss of pluralism and progressive thought so distinctive a trait of the Muslim past. He said that Iqbal’s idea of free will, equated with Khudi, amd talem as a substratum for evolutionary epistemology is already making inroads into the modern Muslim scholarship. He said that Dr Muahhmad Rafi-ud-Din, undoubtedly the greatest Iqbal scholar, was an ardent proponent of Iqbal’s philosophy. He said that the challenge of post scientific society was that of reasserting a spiritual identity. He said that cultural relativism and plurality as vindicated by postmodernism put an even higher premium on soul searching by Muslims. He said the answer lies not in holding fast to the paling phantom of scientific fundamentalism but carving new cognitive niches without losing touch with substantive knowledge.