Nursi and Iqbal's Approaches to Prophethood and the Prophet

The two great thinkers of Western Asia/Anatolia and South Asia, Said Nursi (CE 1877-1960)and Muhammad Iqbal (CE1877-1938) revisited the role and function of prophethood in the last century. In fact, it was in the agenda of the reform movement of their predecessor Muhammad Abduh (CE 1849-1905) and Rashid Ridda (CE 1838-1897). In a rapid world of change and emergence of modernity, ideologies of secularism, materialist thought and the essential nature and role of religion in society were in question. According to Islamic tradition, at the heart of any ‘change’ lies a great leader or champion of change – prophets of God. Therefore, after the Qur’an and God’s Oneness (tawhid) prophethood (nubuwwa) was sought to be re-affirmed by Muslim theologians as ‘agents of change’ or ‘role models’ that would be the ‘agency’ for change or the ‘pillar’ of continuity in society. To this effect the various aspects of prophethood and the Prophet Muhammad became important in the 21st century, in particular, the prophetology of Nursi and Iqbal. For this reason a comparative study of their views of prophethood, due to their subjective relatedness - as an important concept at the heart of theological reform in the 20th century, as well as the primacy each gave in their respective works, addresses, sermons, articles and personal letters, is significant.