Conceptions of Religion: Exploring the Converging and Diverging Religious Philosophies of Muhammad Iqbal and Friedrich Nietzsche

Popular conceptions of Pakistan are visions of violence, terrorism, and radical Islam. However, the idea of Pakistan originates with poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal (d. 1938) who cited a need for a state where Indian Muslims could live as true Muslims. Embedding his religious philosophy in poetry, Iqbal was a well-educated, progressive thinker, and had a variety of influences, including Friedrich Nietzsche (d. 1900). Nietzsche, sometimes called The Great Atheist, is most well-known for his pronouncement, God is dead. This thesis explores the apparent irony of how Iqbal, a deeply religious Muslim, took such philosophical inspiration from an apparent enemy of religion like Nietzsche