2011 Reports

The Muslim Community through the Muslim Individual

Faulkner, Rebecca Lynn

The philosophy of Muhammad Iqbal offers a new way of thinking about what it means to be an individual and suggests a course of action which celebrates the individual and by doing so describes what he thinks a Muslim individual (and therefore community) should be. My previous paper was an investigation into the question of individuality and the evolution of that question over time worked around a concept of individual in terms of inner unity of consciousness, self-recognition and identification, and awareness of personal agency. By framing the individual with these subcategories, I have prepared this paper to suit a discussion of what it means to be one amongst many and what collective identity is and does, and to include an explanation of how Iqbal's philosophy serves to structure a community (collective identity) through individuals (personal identity).