Muzaffar Iqbal


Muzaffar Iqbāl is a Pakistani-Canadian Islamic scholar and author. Iqbal earned his doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Saskatchewan and then left the field of experimental science to devote himself fully to his chosen fields: literature, history, philosophy, Islamic intellectual and spiritual traditions. Between 1984 and 1990, he taught Urdu at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, wrote two acclaimed novels in Urdu, Inkhila and Inqta. During 1980 and 1990, he published a number of translations of poetry of Latin American poets and wrote a series of literary essays on South American writers. He also wrote on literary theory.
Since 1990, Islam, its spiritual and intellectual traditions, and Muslim encounter with modernity have been the focus of his work. In 2009, he initiated the project to produce the first Encyclopedia of the Qur'an by Muslims, the Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qur'an.He has published over 100 articles on various aspect of Islam and Muslims. His published works on the relationship between Islam and science have appeared in many journals. He is the author of Islam and Science and editor of four volume Routledge publication Islam and Science: Historic and Contemporary Perspectives.

Career

Between 1992-1996, Iqbal worked as Director COMSTECH, the Ministerial Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation of the OIC established by the Third Islamic Summit of OIC held at Makkah, Saudi Arabia in January 1981. From 1996-1998, he served as Director of Pakistan Academy of Sciences. Later, Iqbal became the founding president of the Center for Islamic Sciences, Alberta, Canada,. He has written/edited twenty-three books. Iqbal is editor of a journal of Islamic perspectives on science and civilization, Islamic sciences.
Iqbal's published works are on Islam, Sufism, Muslims and their relationship with modernity.
Iqbal appeared on PBS's Ask the Experts in 2003, discussing science and Islam.
In an article on Islamic Science, the New York Times quoted Iqbal as explaining that modern science did not claim to address the purpose of life, whereas in the Islamic intellectual tradition, the question of purpose was integral to the quest for knowledge.
Iqbal was one of the experts called on by the Physics and Cosmology Group of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, alongside scientists including Andrei Linde of Stanford University, John Polkinghorne of Cambridge University, Paul Davies of Macquarie University and Charles Townes of the University of California, Berkeley. Between 1996 and 2003, the group conducted an intensive public dialogue on science and spirituality.

Reception

Roxanne D. Marcotte, reviewing Iqbal's Islam and Science, published in 2002, wrote that it "presents an articulate and concise historical introduction to intellectual developments that have shaped Islamic civilization, both religious
and scientific."
The first volume of the Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qur'an has been described by Andrew Rippin as "sumptuous and carefully produced," "an impressive beginning", and "a considerable contribution to the study of the Qur'an".

Books by Iqbal

Iqbal has written, edited, and translated twenty-three books. A complete list is available:

In Urdu