Dr. Sir Allamah Muhammad Iqbal as the author of "Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam" has put him in a crucial and phenomenal position in the development of Islam in the modern world. Especially in the context of his attribute as a Muslim philosopher of the 20th century, he became someone very rare in the context of modern Islam.
Aside from being a thinker, ideologue, politician, lawyer, Muhammad Iqbal was a poet. He is a legend and of his works have left a great deal of thoughts.
"Quoting the opinion of A. Mukti Ali, Muhammad Iqbal is a phenomenal figure. More than anyone, Iqbal had reconstructed a philosophy of Islam which can support Muslim individuals to face materialistic Western civilization or fatalistic Eastern tradition," said Syarif Hidayatullah , M.Ag., MA, in the Notonegoro Auditorium, Faculty of Philosophy UGM, Wednesday (9/11) during a book review "Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam" by Dr. Sir Allamah Muhammad Iqbal.
In the view of Syarif Hidayatullah, if implemented, philosophical concepts by Iqbal have extensive implications on humanitarian and social area. Therefore it becomes a natural thing, when many works of Muhammad Iqbal, poetry and prose, were translated into various languages of the world, including Indonesian.
Iqbal’s thought is so complex, so there is no one who could reconstruct his expert thinking comprehensively. Even the most competent person, like Syed Abdul Vahid, who has written Iqbal: His Art & Thought in 300-page which is the result of 30-year study still says: "To give the life history of a genius so great and so versatile in brief sketch is like an attempt to paint a landscape on a postal stamp (quoted by Rizal Lolombulan Kontu Study, 2011).
"Similarly, reading this book (Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam), for me, is not something that is very easy to be understood only by reading every paragraph, page, chapter, and, moreover, the whole book once," said the lecturer of the Faculty of Philosophy UGM.
Meanwhile, Haidar Bagir, Managing Director of Mizan Group, publishers that print books by Muhammad Iqbal, said that of the approximately twenty-one books written by Muhammad Iqbal, only two are in prose, the rest is poetry and rhymes. Two prose works of Muhammad Iqbal is The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam and Development of Metaphysics in Persia; A Contribution on The History of Muslim Philosophy.
"Moreover, the work of Iqbal is mostly in the form of poetry and verse. But it cannot be denied that Muhammad Iqbal remained on the ranks of thinkers who had a big contribution in the development of Islamic intellectual. Even Iqbal mostly wrote poetry or rhyme," said Haidar Bagir in his paper.