Muhammad Iqbal's Constitutionalism

Abstract

In this article, I look at Muhammad Iqbal’s legal vision for an Islamic Republic. By focusing on the 1930s, the last decade of his life, I piece together how Iqbal’s constitutionalism was hospitable to legal transformation up until sovereign power conflicted with the principles of tauhid (unity of God) and the somewhat obscure concept khatm-e-nabuwwat (finality of prophethood). In mapping the conceptual tension of Iqbal’s thought in relation to the individual, the community, and politics in late colonial India, this article speaks directly to debates on Islamic constitutionalism, conceptual counter-geographies of international law, and the intellectual history of Pakistan and India’s Constitutions.

Keywords: Islamic Constitutionalism, Muhammad Iqbal, Pakistan, India, Ahmadiyya.