Iqbal and Nietzsches concept of eternal recurrence

Abstract: Nietzsche has been a strong influence on some influential Muslim thinkers. He has been appropriated in divergent perspectives from mystical to nihilistic. Amongst the responses of Muslim thinkers to Nietzsche, Iqbals is perhaps the most articulate and interesting. The present paper has two main objectives: to examine a critical understanding of the Nietzsches most ambiguous idea of eternal recurrence and to explore Iqbals response to it. Nietzsches concept of eternal recurrence, seen by some philosophers as his most significant concept, has been questioned by Iqbal as the weakest link in his philosophy. Iqbal argues the case for transcendence and upholds the Islamic doctrine of fate which allows enough space for freedom of spirit in contrast to the absolutely deterministic view of Nietzsche. Iqbals sufi conception of the Perfect Man differs from Nietzsches Superman in the ability to deploy creativity and freedom for remoulding of the self and appropriating divine attributes. Thus, Iqbal deploys Islamic mystical resources in problematizing alternative models of human perfection and the response to tragic fact that a horizontal existence of man in an indifferent universe seems to be