At the turn of the millennium, new sensibilities are opening for the human spirit. Dimensions of the mind long forgotten since the beginning of the Enlightenment and its reductivist focus upon reason are now re-emerging in human consciousness. Levels of human sensibility such as feeling and imagination, as well as the creativity of whole cultures, now come into view as essential to the properly humane character of philosophical awareness. In this light, we turn to the cultures and traditions of different peoples for more than history. Their experience of what it means to be human and how to live in their circumstances the dignity and glory of human life now able serve as a genial resource for a world facing the new challenges which have come with the end of the bipolar world structure and the intensification of inter-communication.

A major task for philosophers is to rediscover the riches of these cultures and to bring them to the common table. In contrast to the past histories of contrast and even conflict, and in the image of all peoples on pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain, the prospect of the coming millennium should be one of convergence and mutual enrichment.

It is in this spirit that the present volume has been written. It is the work of the Council for Research in Values and Philosophy to promote such discovery and to help in the sharing of its results. Hence, we celebrate this achievement by the Department of Philosophy at the University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan and wish them well as they lead their people into the global dialogue, which promises to constitute a new era for humankind.

Islam has always known that philosophy is a human creation, but also that humans are creatures of God. Hence the challenge of the philosophy of the deeply Islamic people of Pakistan is to be able to see deeply enough into human life in time to unveal its transcendent dignity and eternal destiny. The present work is an outstanding effort toward this goal. It reflects a mobilization of philosophers intent upon contributing to the realization in modern times of an Islamic society and culture; it reflects a series of studies which situate this effort in its historical and trans-historical horizon; and it tests out the strengths and weaknesses of a number of muslim approaches to philosophy with a view to their ability to contribute to the achievement of this goal.

The work begins with a preface by Naeem Ahmad which identifies the historical context and parameters of this effort. He looks back into the major stages of this effort, especially in Islam, and delineates the characteristics of its present challenge.

Part I lays out the character of the philosophical effort as a search to unite all in the Transcendent. Chapter I by M.M. Sharif, "The Philosophical Interpretation of History" lays bare the character of the challenge by asking what, after all, is history. The challenge could be bypassed were history to be seen as static, or at least unilinear. Instead, he points out its character as a process which includes diversity, which he sets in a teleological context open to creative effort. Hence, history must be read in terms not of a mechanistic and deterministic science, but of creative aesthetic sensitivity.

Chapter II by Khalifa Abdul Hakim, "One God, One World, One Humanity", sets this within the unity of God as articulated through metaphysics. In this relation the human person is seen as the vice-regent of God in time. The surrender of the human to the divine is a breakthrough which sublimates human freedom. In these terms ethics points out a unity of virtues which orient human life and social reform.

Chapter III by Q.M. Aslam, "Iqbal’s `Preface’ to the Lectures on The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, reflects the complexity of this vision for humanity as not only spiritual but bodily. It points out well the importance that Iqbal recognizes for the physical sciences, their empirical contribution and the need to proceed by induction rather than by authority. But Iqbal states clearly the overall intent of his work in the very first pages where he points out the essential requirement for a Total Absolute as a condition for human thought. In this light the empirical work of the physical sciences is recognized as but only a first layer of the work of the mind. Iqbal goes on to identify its real teleology and destiny as transcending, but not forgetting, this narrow band of truth in order to uncover the real meaning of the physical world in terms of the divine destiny of humankind.

Chapter IV by C.A. Qadir, "A Case for World Philosophy: My Intellectual Story", makes this clear by an initial review the human options in philosophy. He sees the need to move beyond the ideal, whether that of Plato or of Kant, but also the inadequacy of a logical positivism unable to justify its own principle of verifiability. He concludes that clarity is not enough for a philosophy which must point the way in the basic realities of life. This is detailed in the following parts.

Part II describes the metaphysical character of classical Islamic philosophy. Chapter V by Intisar-ul-Haq, "How I see philosophy", provides a first survey of that tradition, indicating its indicative character. He does not restrict this to an empirical approach, but shows how this unfolds from a philosophy of science, through an epistemology, to social philosophy and philosophy of religion.

Indeed, Chapter VI by Muhammad Hanif Nadvi, "God, Universe and Man", reverses the field in a way that is perhaps more true to the overall Islamic context. He would begin from the classical ontological, cosmological and teleological ways to God, and suggest that they are all ways that reveal one’s personal experience of God. This chapter was completed in Urdu only days before Professor Nadvi’s death and was translated by Dr. Abdus Khaliq.

Chapter VII by Javid Iqbal, "Iqbal on the Material and the Spiritual Future of Humanity", follows this theme by pointing out how for Iqbal philosophy done in terms of physical reality missed the human center and unity which could be regained only by a religious philosophy attentive to the human spiritual center.

Chapter VIII by M. Saeed Sheikh, "Philosophy of Religion: Its Meaning and Scope", reviews a number of approaches to such a philosophy of religion: empirical, historical, existential and phenomenological, concluding to the essential importance of religion for the future of humankind.

Chapter IX by Abdul Khaliq, "The Function of Muslim Philosophy", relates this work of Islamic metaphysics and philosophy of religion to the Qur`an. He points out the importance of logic as well as of allegorical interpretation in order to appreciate divine grace and the character of human life in time as a watching and waiting for divine generosity.

Chapter X by B.H. Siddiqui, "Knowledge: An Islamic Perspective", integrates this Islamic and hence religious view of philosophy by pointing out the importance of knowledge in Islam. It is seen as a gift of God, basic to human virtue, able to unite faith and reason, and thereby capable of researching the meaning of life in our time.

Part III presents a mode of proceeding in philosophy more reflective of the British heritage of Pakistan and its positivist character. Chapter XI by Kazi A. Kadir, "On Sense and Nonsense", points out how that tradition progressively reduces all philosophy to nonsense. Chapter XII by Ali Dkhtan Kazmi, "Quantification and Opacity", is a more positive illustration of the virtuoso logic evoked by this effort to reason in empirical terms alone. Chapter XIII by Absar Ahmad, "The Nature of Mind", shows how this tradition is in effect a concerted effort to understand all in physical terms. Finally, Chapter XIV by Abhl Hameed Kamali, "Knowledge of Other Minds", indicates how this can be strengthened not directly, but by attending to the cultural context of the other -- though it is not clear how culture can be grasped in empirical terms alone.

Part IV points out a more promising phenomenological and existential path.

Chapter XV by Manzoor Ahmad, "The Notion of Existence", attempts to proceed in empirical terms by the use of family resemblances, but comes to the need to proceed rather in terms of human freedom. This meets the challenge of technology to the sense of self and to religion. The way ahead may consist precisely in facing these challenges.

Chapter XVI by Waheed Ali Faroqi, "From Anguish to Search", pursues this through such basic human challenges as that of death. In this context philosophy contributes by examining death critically and opening the self to the other, not in a syncritism but in conveying the deep truth one’s experiences.

Chapter XVII by Muhammad Ajmal, "Individual and Culture", considers the variety of the symbolic expressions of this center of personal meaning, placing it at the heart of culture and thereby situating anew the classic role of law in Islamic life.

Chapter XVIII by Shahid Hussain, "Descartes’ Concept of Person", follows the theme of human subjectivity as reflected in Descartes’ Meditations. He adds to this from the analytic tradition reflected in Part III, showing thereby what the combination of logical clarity and insight into human subjectivity might contribute.

The work culminates in a veritable tour de force in Chapter XIX by Khawja Ghulam Sadiq, "God and Values". This faces the weakness of a phenomenological approach when taken exclusively in terms of the human person. Instead, a proper contribution of Pakistani philosophy in the Islamic tradition is to enable its sense of the unique reality of the divine to provide a foundation of human meaning and values. This is found in the absolute love which reaches from God to man whom in turn it bears up and exalts.

In the appendix, the late Richard V. De Smet, S.J., carries out a truly exceptional work. He reviews the entire philosophical output of Pakistan’s thinkers during the fifteen years following partition and analyses in detail the issues they treat and the positions they take. This provides a solid philosophical basis from which the present work emerges. De Smet’s study is a massive work of intellect analyzing each field; it needs to be continued in order for Pakistani philosophers to be able to situate their work and build effectively on that of their colleagues. Even more, it stands equally as a monument to De Smet’s life of loving service to the philosophers of the subcontinent.