The Importance of Political Institutions in Islam

Iqbal saw a no tension between extolling rational science and cherishing the prospect of super-rational intuition, as described in the Sufi tradition. The ascetic traditions within Sufism are something he dismisses as corruptions due to influence from world-denying traditions like neoplatonism or Buddhism. In place of the false Sufism of unity with an otherworldly divinity, Iqbal wants to achieve unity within this world. This is his understanding of Taohid, the central Islamic tenet of God's oneness.