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Corresponding author:
Farzad Rafi Khan, Associate Professor, Suleman Dawood School of Business, Lahore University of Management Sciences(LUMS), Opposite Sector U, DHA, Lahore Cantt., 54792, Pakistan
Email: [email protected]
Lenin in Allahs court: Iqbalscritique of Western capitalismand the opening up of thepostcolonial imagination incritical management studies
Farzad Rafi KhanSuleman Dawood School of Business, Lahore University Management Science (LUMS), Pakistan
Basit Bilal KoshulSchool of Social Sciences, Humanities and Law, Lahore University Management Science (LUMS), Pakistan
AbstractOne manifestation of the Eurocentrism present in postcolonial critical management studies is itsfailure to engage with Muslim critiques of Western capitalism on their own terms. In this article
we seek to address this deficiency by introducing the thought of Muhammad Iqbal (d. 1938)one of the most influential thinkers in the postcolonial Muslim world. We do a close reading ofthree of Iqbals poems that are considered among his most representative and poignant critical
reflections on Western capitalism and its imperialistic presence in the Global South. This closereading generates the major contribution of this article which is an alternative critical narrativeon Western capitalism that is characterized by theocentrism and embodied love. We argue thatthis is a distinct way of critiquing Western capitalism which allows us to better recognize the
provincial (i.e. Western) character of postcolonial critical management studies.
Keywords
agency, capitalism, critical management studies, Eurocentrism, imperialism, Islam, MuhammadIqbal, postcolonial theory, religion, spirituality
Organization18(3) 303322
The Author(s) 2011
Reprints and permission: sagepub.
co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1350508411398732
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Article
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304 Organization 18(3)
The philosopher of science Paul Feyerabend (1995: 143) wrote:
There is not one common sense there are many Nor is there one way of knowing, science; there are
many such ways, and before they were ruined by Western civilization they were effective in the sense that
they kept people alive and made their existence comprehensible.
This Feyerabendian insight about the worthiness of non-Western1perspectives seems to be gaining
traction in critical management studies (CMS), particularly in its postcolonialism stream. CMS
scholarships aim is to uncover and overcome the socially divisive and ecologically destructive
broader patterns and structuressuch as capitalism, patriarchy, neo-imperalism and so forththat
condition local action and conventional wisdom (Adler et al., 2007: 3). This objective has led
CMS scholarship in the last 15 years to the Global South where much of the social and ecological
devastation arising from Western capitalism2is taking place (Klein, 2007).
In theorizing about Western capitalisms processes of domination in Global South societies,
some CMS scholars have made use of postcolonial theory. Postcolonial theory seeks to critique
and analyze the complex and multifaceted dynamics of modern Western colonialism (Banerjee
and Prasad, 2008: 91) and to articulate a deep understanding of the ongoing significance of the
colonial encounter for peoples lives both in the West and the non-West (Prasad, 2003: 5).
Postcolonial CMS scholars have examined a vast range of empirical sites in both the First World
and the Global South relating to management and organizations from the US military industrial
complex to small Pakistani villages stitching soccer balls for international brands such as Nike
(Boje and Khan, 2009; Westwood and Jack, 2008). Postcolonial CMS scholarships engagement
with the Global South sites has perforce exposed the former to non-Western perspectives situated
there. By listening to and including these hitherto marginalized (i.e. subaltern) non-Western voices
in their research postcolonial CMS scholars have ended up crafting new critical readings. For
example, the presumed neutral and beneficial knowledge and best practices of Western capitalism
in the Global South have been shown to be at times displacing more sophisticated and effective
local knowledges and techniques as Mir et al. (2008) found out in their investigation of knowledge
transfers between a US MNC and its Indian subsidiary.
While postcolonial CMS scholarship has begun the process of including non-Western voices,
this movement is small and there are plenty of non-Western perspectives that have yet to be heard.
It is thus precisely to help further this movement in postcolonial CMS theory that we are writing
this article. We are doing this by taking the first modest steps instarting a conversation in postco-
lonial CMS on how Muslims have marshalled the resources of Islam, a hitherto neglected non-
Western perspective in postcolonial CMS theorizing, to critique Western capitalism intruding into
their lives either in the guise of outright occupation (i.e. colonization) or in the form of indirect
political, economic and cultural control (i.e. imperialism).
Given that Islam is a diverse and contested discursive tradition, it is not possible in the confines
of a solitary article to give the entire range of Muslim responses to Western capitalism. This would
be the journey of future research. Our objective is a more modest one. We wish to inaugurate stud-
ies of the response to Western capitalism by looking at the contribution of a particular prominent
Muslim poet and philosopher who was situated in what is now a part of the Muslim postcolonial
world (i.e. Pakistan). The person in question is Muhammad Iqbal (d.1938).
Muhammad Iqbal, as Ziauddin Sardar (2002) points out, was one of the most formidable Muslim
thinkers and public intellectuals of the 20th Century. Iqbal championed the cause of Indian Muslim
nationalism against Western British imperialism urging the Muslims to return to the Quran and to
embody it in their lives (Majeed, 2009). His ideas led to the birth of a nation-state (i.e. Pakistan)
(Arberry, 1953) and helped inspire a revolution (i.e. the Iranian Revolution) that threw off a
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Western backed comprador regime (Bayat, 1990; Hyder, 2001). Iqbals ideas and thoughts con-
tinue to circulate and have a transnational resonance in the Global (particularly Muslim) South
today providing key symbolic resources for imagining and legitimating struggles against Western
imperialism (Majeed, 2009: xxiv).
Mustansir Mirs (2006: 141) following observation offers a good entry point into Iqbals socialand political thought:
In studying society and prescribing a course of action for it, [Iqbal] assigns importance both to socio-
economic factors and to religious ideals and ethical norms. He strongly believes, for example, that moral
virtues play an important role in economic competitionand the search for moral virtues brings him to
Islam as a system of thought and conduct.
Adam Webb (2008) identifies Iqbal, along with Rabindranath Tagore and Liang Shuming, as
voices of tradition from the Global South who articulated a critique of modern, Western culture
during the first half of the 20th Century. Much of this critique had been voiced earlier by 19thCentury European romanticism but in a way less systematically grounded in tradition than that of
Iqbal, Tagore and Liang (Webb, 2008: 196). While they differed on a number of important details,
each saw the divide between (in Liangs terminology) lizhi(practical rationality) and lixing(ethical
rationality) as being the most serious threat to human well being at the individual and socio-
cultural levels. This divide forces the individual to choose between emotive, intuitive and ethical
matters on the one hand and economic, material and practical matters on the other. This divides
primary casualty is human agency because it becomes suspended between the choices of ethical
self-cultivation and worldly (mainly economic) obligations. Tagore, Liang and Iqbal used various
experiences and metaphors from their respective religious traditions to describe the ways to bridge
the divide between inner inspiration and outer mission (Webb, 2008: 194). What sets Iqbal apartfrom the other two thinkers is that:
[I]n some ways he had the most vigorous understanding of inspired agency, colored by Islamic images of
prophethood. Unlike the mystic who withdraws from the world once and for all, a prophet returns to insert
himself into the sweep of time with a view to control the forces of history. (Webb, 2008: 194)
We believe that something would be quite amiss in postcolonial CMS if it ignores such an intel-
lectual from the Global South whose ideas have been having such a massive impact in shaping
responses to Western imperialism there, especially in its Muslim parts. Thus, in this article we
focus on Iqbals thoughts. The specific questions of interest to us are two-fold. First, what are
Iqbals views on Western capitalism, as Iqbal is interpreted and constructed by us. And second,
what do we learn about postcolonial CMS from such views.
In this articles confines, we can do no more than begin and hint at, as opposed to exhaustively
describe, Iqbals position on Western capitalism. We feel that this nonetheless will be an important
step in the wider effort to document the range of postcolonial Muslim responses to the imperial
realities of Western capitalism that are disturbingly absent in current postcolonial CMS. Moreover,
we hope that doing so will lead to a less provincial and more open CMS and organization studies
that will be willing to engage more fully with Islam. A number of benefits to CMS might emerge
by a dialogical engagement with Islam. On an individual level, Quranic teachings articulated in
Sufi wisdom can be used to better understand the dynamics of and resisting egoistical self-interest.
At a more macroscopic level, these resources can be utilised (as is happening in the Muslim world)
to envision non-interest and debt free financial systems as alternatives to the conventional debt
based financial model whose systemic failure is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
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Our article is structured as follows. In the first section we offer a close reading of three of Iqbals
poems: i.e. Lenin in Allahs3Court, The Song of the Angels and Allahs Command to the Angels
(2001 [originally published in 1935]). These poems are considered representative of his perspec-
tive on Western capitalism. This readings goal is to extract certain key themes as suggestive of an
Iqbalian critical narrative on Western capitalism. We detail these themes in our discussion sectionalong with the implications the Iqbalian alternative has for postcolonial CMS theorizing. We con-
clude the article with a summary of its main contributions.
Iqbals critical narrative on Western capitalism
One place where Iqbals critical narrative on Western capitalism can be found in a systematic and
coherent form is in three poems that appear in successive sequence in the collectionBaal i Jibreel
(Wings of Gabriel; published in 1935) (Iqbal, 2001). While they can be read separately, the clarity
and coherence of Iqbals position on Western capitalism emerges when they are read with reference
to each other. We have selected these poems because our reading of Iqbals wider corpus tends toconfirm the view held by notable intellectuals from the Global South who are familiar with Iqbals
works (e.g. Tariq Ali) that these poems encapsulate well the main gist of Iqbals ideas on capitalism
(Ali, 2002). The three poems titles and settings can be summarized as follows:
a) Lenin in Allahs Court. In this poem Lenin appears in front of Allah following his resur-
rection after death. After offering some critical self-reflections about the ideas he enter-
tained while he was alive in the world, Lenin goes on to describe the world that he left
behind and asks Allah some pointed questions regarding the worldly state of affairs.
b) The Song of the Angels. After Lenin concludes his address a chorus of angels offers a
commentary on what they have just heard from Lenin.c) Allahs Command to the Angels. Having heard both Lenin and the angels, Allah gives a
directive to the angels to set certain events in motion in the world.
Without even making the pretense of translating these poems, we will paraphrase them as best
we canall the while keeping in mind that the originals polysemic breadth and semantic depth
have been significantly compromised when rendered into English. We hope our reading will show
that Iqbal is not simply reiterating Leninist-Marxist socialism but rather inflecting it through
Islamic monotheism in deft strategic ways. This allows him to agree with some important points in
the socialist critique of capitalism but (more importantly) expand that critique in new directions
and offer a distinctly different narrative on capitalism in the end.
Poem 1: Lenin in Allahs Court
Following the literary clues in the text itself, the first poem can be divided into four sections. In the first
section Lenin acknowledges the fact that he made a mistake while he was alive in the world, describes
the mistake and then goes on to give a self-critical reflection on the reasons behind the mistake:
All the heavens and souls under it are Your signs
The truth is that alive and sustaining is Your being.
How could I decide whether or not You exist?The ideas of reason were constantly shifting.
The astronomers peering at the star, the biologist studying the plants,
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Khan and Koshul 307
both remain forever clueless about the reality of primordial nature.
Now that I have beheld it, the reality of that realm is proven,
which I had considered to be fabricated myths of religion.
We humans alas are trapped in the cycle of day and night,
You are the Creator of time and the Overseer of all individuals. (Iqbal, 2001: 532)
The fundamental mistake that Lenin made while he was in the world was the failure to recog-
nize the reality of Allah. Now he finds this failure to be all the more stunning because the heavens
and every being under the heavens point towards Allahs realitythey are the ayaat (signs) of
Allah. Even though it is not stated anywhere in the poem in explicit terms, the other equally impor-
tant reality that Lenin did not recognize while he was in the world but which he is personally
experiencing now is the reality of life-after-death.
We can already begin to discern that Iqbal is charting a radically and fundamentally different
course from Lenin. Lenins philosophy was atheistic to the core beholden as it was to Marxs mate-
rialist atheism where God is seen as a projection of human needs and ideals onto a mythical subject
(Bell, 2008). By making Lenins affirmation of the reality of God the poems first poetically rhe-
torical move, Iqbal is criticizing Lenins socialism of having a confused view on reality due to its
atheistic predicates that lead it to reject the truth that alive and sustaining is Your being. It is not
religion that has the world order inverted wherein man creates God as a reflection of his confused
and alienated situation (Bell, 2008: 296). Rather it is Lenins socialism, according to Iqbal, that is
guilty of such a charge by making purchase with atheism that alienates man from God, the Ultimate
Reality, a charge to which Lenin pleads guilty in the poem.
After acknowledging his mistake, in the most chivalrous manner, Lenin seeks Allahs permis-
sion in the poems second section to ask a most pressing question:
With Your permission, I would like to ask a question,
a question which all philosophers failed to answer.
For as long as I lived under the sky,
I was constantly haunted by this question.
One loses sight of the etiquette of conversation,
when certain ideas rise to stir the spirit.
Where does one find the mortals who worships you?
Are they among the human mortals living on earth?
The deity worshipped in the East is the white European,
the deity worshipped in the West is shining metal. (Iqbal, 2001: 532533)
The question is as daring as it is simple. While he was living in the world Lenin heard many people
talking about the existence of a God. Even though he heard much talk about this God, he did not see
any human beings actually worshipping Him. The human beings living in the East had taken the white
Europeans as the highest ideal and were enthusiastically abandoning their own cultures and traditions
in favor of Western culture. The human beings in the West, for their part, had taken to worshipping
shining metals. The rest of the poem (as well Iqbals other poems) leave it to the reader to decide if
shining metals refers to gold/silver coins or metal machinery. The fact that the deities being actu-
ally worshipped in the world were very different from the One Deity that Lenin had heard so much
about remained a source of great confusion and distress for him as long as he lived in the world.
Since the deities being actually worshipped in the world cannot be separated from the modern
West, Lenin goes on to offer in the poems third section a description of different aspects of Western
culture that he left behind:
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308 Organization 18(3)
There is much glitter, learning and refinement in the West.
The truth is that this darkness cannot nurture life.
In terms of architectural grandeur, prestige, and attendance,
the banks leave the churches far, far behind.
What appears as economic activity is actually a game of dice.
The interest charged by one is sudden death for many.
This science, this philosophy, this research, this politics
sucking human blood, while preaching human equality.
Unemployment and debauchery and drunkenness and waste
are these the mean accomplishments of Western civilization?
The nation that is cut off from heavenly inspiration,
the limits of its greatness is steam and electricity.
The dominion of the machine means the death of the heart,
manufactured tools suffocate all feelings of human kindness.
(Iqbal, 2001: 533534)
Here Lenin is describing the material conditions of the world that he left behind. It is not at all
surprising that the earthly conditions that he would consider most problematic are the economic
conditions. However, it is an Iqbalian Lenin that is speaking and the inflections are worth noting.
For example, Iqbal has Lenin condemn finance capitalism first and foremost. Here an argument
can be made that Iqbal is doing a straightforward reading of Lenins (1999 [1917]) Imperialism:
The highest stage of capitalism. In that text, Lenin viewed Western capitalism as changing its
character by the turn of the 20th Century. It had gone from exporting manufactured goods to
exporting capital and then committing massive resources (military and administrative) to protect
its investments abroad (imperialism) (Harding, 1998). Competition was replaced by monopoly
structures with big banks assuming a defining role in dominating the state. The banks pressed thestate onwards for colonial exploitation in order to realize profits by securing cheap resources and
markets for finished goods in the Global South (Fuchs, 2010). Thus, it would not be surprising if
Iqbal has Lenin condemning financial capitalism and some may be saying that Iqbal is offering
nothing different from Lenin in these verses. We would beg to differ.
Iqbal does indeed take Lenins condemnation of financial capitalism on board but inflects it in
ways that flow from his commitments to Islam. Iqbal singles out for particular attention the giving
and taking of financial interest that result in the deaths of millions. This institution of the financial
system is not given much weight by Lenin who focuses instead on consolidation of monopoly capi-
tal and its shaping of public policy. We believe that Iqbal is able to focus on this aspect of financial
capitalism because of the strong prohibition of interest in the Quran. Traditional scholars of Islampoint out that the offense that is condemned in the harshest terms in the Quran after disbelief in
God is the taking of interest. This offense is an invitation for a declaration of war from God and His
messenger (peace be upon him) by those who indulge in this practice (El Diwany, 2003). Thus, it
is clear that Iqbals critique of capitalism goes beyond the merely economic and materialistic
Marxist-Leninist critiqueIqbals critique has a religious and moral dimension rooted in the
monotheistic tradition.
The significance of the religious and moral dimension of Iqbals critique is highlighted in this
sections last two lines. These lines condemn the progressive industrialization and mechanization
of human culture. This is a clear break from Lenins materialistic views which were quite positive
regarding the role of technology in providing the output necessary to construct the communistutopia. As Scott (1998) points out, Lenin had no major problems with the mechanized factories
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operating on Tayloristic principles and in fact was a strong advocate of Taylorism. This, at least
from the verses cited above, seems to be at odds with Iqbals take on technologically and machine
intensive industrialization. For Iqbal then it is not just monopoly capitalism but rather a broader
complex of capitalism including its industrial technology that is being condemned.
As Adas (1990) points out, the demonstrable pragmatic results of Western technologies thatappeared to do magical things (e.g. making goods and people move at hitherto unheard of speeds)
were used by Western imperial authorities to help prove the superiority of the Western episteme and
the backwardness of local knowledge traditions in the Global South as well as shift the understandings
of progress and civilization to mean the ability to make such machines. Since the West excelled in
such abilities it was then excelling in civilization and progress as well. Adas uses the phrase machines
as the measure of men to encapsulate this mechanistic-materialistic Western ideology.
By denouncing machines and industrial technology, Iqbal is offering resistance to this particular
imperial ideology. Juxtaposing the machines with the death of the heart, he is reminding his audi-
ence (primarily colonized Muslims in the Indian subcontinent but also beyond) of the Quranic
teachings that it is the heart not machines that matters (Yusuf, 2004). The thrust of the verses is amodern expression of the key teachings of traditional Islam, best embodied in the Sufi tradition.
Traditional Islamic teachings see the heart as not merely a material/physical organ but also as the
centre of ethical consciousness and spiritual awareness (Al-Ghazali, 2005). For the Sufis, the
hearts death does not primarily mean its physical demise but rather its spiritual death. Consequently,
the central focus of Sufi teachings is to keep the heart alive by purging it of ethical and spiritual
impurities (e.g. greed) (Yusuf, 2004). It is this supra-physical/material heart that sets the standards
for measuring men, a teaching long held in the Islamic traditions. According to the latter, what
separates human beings from one another is not gender, race, or class but a ethical/spiritual condi-
tion of the heart, Taqwa, (roughly translated as piety and God consciousness) (Al-Ghazali, 2005).
In the poems last section, Lenin notes that when he departed from the world he had begun tofeel the winds of change:
At last one sees hints of the winds of change approaching,
Divine decree will checkmate their cunning planning.
The foundations of the tavern have begun to shake,
and the elites in the West are brooding worriedly.
The brightness that you see glowing on their faces,
it is either makeup or the result of imbibing wine.
You are Lord and You are Just but in your domain,
the hours of the laborer are crushingly difficult.
When will the regime of capital be sunk?The world awaits the coming of Your judgment. (Iqbal, 2001: 534)
The poem ends with a questiona question that is no less pressing than the one that Lenin had
asked earlier. Lenin describes a fundamental contradiction between Reality and certain facts on the
ground. The Reality is that Allah is both the Supreme Lord and the Most Just. The facts on the
ground are that the regime of capital has made the existence of the masses a daily experience of
destitution, suffering and injustice. Just as the fact of the white European being the deity of the East
and shining metal being the deity of the West made the Reality of God practically unrecognizable,
the fact of the suffering of the masses puts the Reality of Allahs power and justice into question.
The manner in which the poem ends suggests that Reality will remain (at best) obscured if not (asis more likely) altogether unrecognizable if the facts on the ground do not change.
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Poem 2: The Songs of the Angels
In this poem a chorus of angels responds to what they have just heard from Lenin. It is interesting
to note that they do not reply to Lenin directly. As a matter of fact it looks like they are emboldened
by Lenins address to Allah and use it as an opportunity to air some of their own observations. Like
Lenin, the angels also directly address Allah:
Reason remains unbridled, ishq (love) remains un-embodied,
O Master Craftsman, your handiwork is not yet complete.
The secular and religious authorities are still in the crosshair of Gods creatures,
for now the days and nights continue to revolve as always.
Since the rich are trapped by luxury, the poor trapped by need,
the masses cant rise from the streets, the elites cant descend from heights. (Iqbal, 2001: 535)
This part of the poem affirms a significant part of Lenins observation by describing some of the
material conditions in the world that are responsible for the status-quo. The masses and the elitesare equally incapable of initiating change in the world because of their respective material condi-
tions. Both the material destitution of the masses (leading to their obsession with daily survival)
and the material wealth of the elites (leading to their absorption in luxury) create a situation where
the status-quo appears to be unchangeable. Even as it is largely agreeing with Lenin, the beginning
part of the angels song brings a dimension and a vocabulary to the discussion that is missing in
Lenins materialist conception of reality (i.e. angels and ishq-love). Thus we see Iqbal continuing
to inflect Lenin with his own Quranically inspired concerns, thereby distancing his narrative on
capitalism from that of Lenins.
The chorus of the angels suggests why the facts on the ground are divorced from Reality. Reason
has not attained maturity. It continues to display the lack of discipline that is characteristic ofimmaturity.Ishq-love has also not fully matured because it is yet to be fully embodied
This means that the self has to embody this love, i.e. expressing it through bodily action. But the
question is begged about who is to be the object of this ishq-love. The answer lies in another poem
of Iqbal where he distills what many Muslim theologians consider Islams key message for human
liberationliberation that is attained by a synthesis of human effort and Divine Grace:
If you are faithful to Muhammad We are yours.
The world is but a trifling thing. The pen and table to write Destiny are yours . (Iqbal, 2001: 308)
While accepting the insights of Fanon and Marx about the role of the human subject as a historicactor, Iqbal gives these insights an altogether different inflection. The transformative and liberating
motor of historic change is not the human self engaging in acts of violence or class struggle perpe-
trated by the human subject but an inner transformation of the self producing a burning love for the
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). This is the love that the khudi-human self needs to
embody to act as a historic actor in a way that is life-preserving and life-enhancing.
The unique characteristic of Iqbals vision of human liberation and self-realization is high-
lighted when compared with other visions. Marx, Durkheim and Iqbal all understood that there was
much turbulence and angst in the human soul caused by the modern condition as symbolized in
Lenins confession in the first poem. Marx called it alienation and sought its answer in the worker
regaining control of his work (Giddens, 1999). For Durkheim it was anomie (a state of normless-ness) and its cure was to be a reconnection of the individual with a society that could provide for
his social and material needs (Giddens, 1999). Iqbal too recognized the confusion of the soul in
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modern times. However, in his characteristic distinctive voice, Iqbal gave a different answer. The
answer, the sword that is to be unsheathed to end capitals tyranny and quell the human soul, was
to emulate the Prophet of Islam. Once again, we see how Iqbals theistic commitments to Islam
lead him to formulate a response that falls quite outside the parameters of the more well known
Western responses to a particular issuein this case capitalistic modernitys alienation/anomie andits cure.
The songs remaining last four lines explicitly identify ishq-love, as understood above, rather
than class consciousness (or collective effervescence for that matter), as the catalyst of the process
that will culminate in bridging the gaps between facts on the ground and Reality:
Religion and culture, science and artall slaves of self-interest.
That only ishq-love can cut the Gordian knotthis is not yet widely known.
The pearl of life is ishq-love, the pearl of ishq-love is khudi-human self,
But this sharp sword is not yet unsheathed. (Iqbal, 2001: 535)
The angels are saying that the human being has the potential to change the world of facts butbecause of certain circumstances the potential remains latent and has not been actualized.
Summarily stated, self-interest is the one factor that is putting all the latent potential to waste. Iqbal
has the angels identify ishq-love as the sword that can cut the Gordian knot created by self-interest.
The reason that ishq-love has failed to perform this task up till now is because the khudi-human
self has not yet grasped and embraced the significance of ishq-love.
Poem 3: Allahs Commands to the Angels
Upon hearing both Lenins apology and the angels song, Allah finally pronounces to the angels:
Rise! Go and awaken the wretched poor of My earth.
Rattle the doors and walls of the ruling elites mansions.
Energize and embolden the slaves through the fire of faith,
make the timid sparrow courageous enough to fight the falcon.
The age of the rule of the masses has arrived,
obliterate every vestige of inherited hierarchy.
Any field whose crop does not first feed the peasant, ,
burn to the ground every grain of its standing crop.
Why should barriers continue to separate the Creator from creatures?
Throw the priests out of the temples dedicated to Me.
The truth prostrates in subjugation and its the idols of falsehood that circumambulate it is better that you extinguish the lanterns in the Masjids [mosques] and Temples.
I am dismayed and sickened by the marble columns,
Build me a new entirely earthen Haram (inviolable sanctuary of worship in Mecca)
Modern civilization is only a hall of mirrors,
Go [smash it] by teaching the Poet of the East the etiquette of selfless passion . (Iqbal, 2001: 536537)
In the final poem, Iqbal is giving full vent to his anger at the injustices described in the first two
poems. Given that the two immediately preceding poems, which set the context for this poem, deal
at considerable length with Western capitalism it seems warranted to suggest that the elites being
referred to in the last poem are those in charge of this system.It is also instructive to note that religious authorities and their places of worship are singled out
as being complicit in this crime against humanity. While Iqbal sees religion as being essential for
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312 Organization 18(3)
worldly human liberation and other-worldly salvation, the last poem leaves little doubt that he is
aware that it can be an oppressive and reactionary force in history. In this sense, he would not dis-
agree with Lenin or CMS scholarship on religion that sees it largely as a colonial force often mis-
used by the powerful (Bell, 2008). Given Iqbals commitments to Islamic monotheism, he would
argue that this is a narrow view and that religion can play an emancipatory role. Thus, we see anuanced thinker cognizant of religions repressive as well as emancipatory potentialities.
According to Iqbal, religions, in this particular case Islams emancipatory potentialities do not
appear to be restricted to just Muslims. If they were so restricted, then Iqbal, by championing
Islam, could be seen to be a proponent of a global colonizing Islam that advocates freedoms for
only Muslims. However, if one looks carefully at these commands, it hits one with striking clarity
how these commands of Allah are non-denominational, making it difficult to position Iqbal as a
chauvinistic Muslim zealot. The angels are being instructed by Allah to not restrict themselves to
assisting the oppressed and exploited Muslim poor. Rather, the commands are universal cutting
across gender, race and religious affiliations. All of the wretched poor on Allahs earth, have to be
collectively organized against the elites orchestrating the system of Western capitalism that causedso much confusion and pain to Lenin.
Much of the actions that Iqbal calls for here Lenin would agree with. The difference is that these
actions are occurring on a very different set of epistemic and metaphysical coordinates that make
these actions of a qualitatively different nature. For Lenin the system has to be abolished to end the
needless suffering of humanity. For Iqbal one has to abolish the system because it is obstructing
humanity from recognizing its Creator.
Discussion
Having presented a reading of the three poems, we are now in a position to identify at least two keyfeatures or axes of Iqbals critical narrative on Western capitalism. One belongs to the realm of
knowledge. The other to the realm of action. Taken together they seem to suggest that a different
and alternative (i.e. theistic) narrative to what passes for standard (secular) postcolonial CMS
scholarship is being articulated here.
Before discussing these two key features of Iqbals alternative narrative, we would just like to
state that we are cognizant of the fact that we are the ones constructing Iqbals narrative on Western
capitalism and its two key features but we hope our construction is faithful to Iqbals ideas and
simultaneously will open up new spaces and resources in CMS postcolonial imagination.
Theocentric epistemic and metaphysical knowledge commitments
Iqbals narrative on capitalism is a critique whose vocabulary contains God, Angels, faith,
Life after death. It is obvious that all of these elements stand outside the secular theoretical per-
spectives, vast as the spectrum may well be from Marxism to poststructuralism, within which the
dominant discourse in postcolonial CMS theorizing situates itself. In spite of the numerous differ-In spite of the numerous differ-
ences found in this spectrum between the various contending critical perspectives we can easily
identify some of the fundamental characteristics that they share when Iqbal is brought into the
conversation. The common characteristic being theoretical agnosticism but practical atheism about
three things: (1) the reality of a Creator God; (2) the reality of this Creator God communicating to
humanity via revelation and (3) the reality of life here-after.Theoretical agnosticism/practical atheism has been the usual way to perform radical critiques in
CMS (Bell, 2008). Theistic priorities do not play much of a role in CMS. This can be seen for
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314 Organization 18(3)
then one strategy would be to invite the theists (in the North and the South) into its domain and
contribute to its conversations on their own terms.
Embodied love-ishq as agency
Postcolonial CMS scholars who would pay attention to Iqbals critical narrative on capitalism
would come away with an appreciation that religion can be a motivating force for individuals
resisting capitalisms dominion in the Global South. This sensitivity may help them better locate
the subjectivity (experience of the subject) as well as resistance and agency (the subjects effectiv-
ity) dynamics that are taking place in the struggle against Western capitalism and its organizational
and managerial knowledge/practices in the Global (particularly Muslim) South.
If they were to engage with the Muslim other in the Global South armed only with their pre-
established agnostic or atheistic commitments they might give secular reasons for agency and
resistance in organizations enacting capitalism (e.g. MNCs). This would forestall the possibility of
posing (and thereby investigating) alternative propositions that indicate that the key aspects of
agency dynamics in those places are arising from religious motivations and that religion is condi-
tioning agency. Let us illustrate these points with an example.
Frenkel (2008a) reflects on research that looks at resistance of Jordanian managers working in
a subsidiary in Jordan belonging to an Israeli MNC. Frenkel (2008a: 936) describes the resistance
dynamics of these Jordanian managers as follows:
The agreement of Jordanian managers to implement certain practices at the demand of their Israeli MNCs
managers at a time of peace, followed by their refusal to implement very similar practices when the
Al-Aqsa Intifada broke out two years later (Mizrachi, Drori and Anspach, 2007) constitutes another
excellent example of the way resistance should be understood as strategic action embedded in a broader
geopolitical context of core-periphery relations.
Al-Aqsa is the third holiest site in Islam. The action is taking place in Jordan a country that is
not only predominantly Muslim but also a country whose citizens want the Sharia (Islamic Law)
as the only legal framework for their country by an overwhelming majority according to surveys.
For example, in a survey conducted in 2003, 79.9% of Jordanians considered the statement that a
good government should implement only the laws of the sharia as either important or very impor-
tant (Davis and Robinson, 2006: 178).
Having looked at the original study by Mizrachi et al. (2007) cited above, we find its analysis
puzzling. There are core-periphery relations, strategic action and geopolitical context but no Islam.
In the entire article by Mizrachi et al. (2007) there are only two cursory references to Islam. Didthe Jordanian managers turn into dependency theorists reading dependency theory to guide their
actions rather than the Quran? Were their own narratives of resistance based on Islam discounted
by the secular postcolonial scholars in favour of core-periphery and geopolitics arguments? Or
working within their secular theoretical prisms the researchers simply could not see the presence
of religion which was one crucial force among others actuating the agency that was observed. After
all, it seems plausible given the information we have supplied here about Jordan and Islam that
these Jordanian managers agency might also have been shaped by their commitments to Islam
where they disobeyed their Israeli MNC headquarters to fulfil what they perhaps felt was a reli-
gious obligation of showing solidarity to their Palestinian Muslim brothers and sisters who they
perceived to be victims of aggression of an occupying force.We do not have the information to know the answers to these questions. However, the above
discussion on the research done on Jordanian managers makes it reasonably plausible to suggest
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Khan and Koshul 315
the possibility that CMS secular commitments may lead it to ignore religious forces shaping
agency in the Global (especially Muslim) South. Even if we grant the concession that Islam was
taken into account by the research on Jordanian managers but ruled out in favour of core-periphery
explanations what appears clear is that with the Iqbalian critical narrative we are put in a position
where we can pose such questions to postcolonial CMS critiques on organizations and organizingin the Global South. This is especially the case when they involve the Muslim other and as a con-
sequence open up the postcolonial imagination in CMS to the possibility of alternative readings of
these research efforts as we hope to have illustrated here with this example.
The discussion above leads us into a broader discussion of agency where we feel the Iqbalian
critical narrative on capitalism has something to offer CMS especially with regard to the way it
conceptualizes agency (of which we can only provide here its faint contours and that too briefly
due to space constraints).
For Iqbal what will set things aright and sink the regime of capital, as mentioned earlier, is the
khudi-selfhood but one that needs to embody ishq-love. Thus, the site of resistance and agency for
Iqbal is the human body carrying ishq-love. Here we see an interesting contact with Foucauldianthought. Foucault too has reflected upon the human body to theorize power. However, he has
viewed the body more as a site of domination rather than as a site of resistance and agency accord-
ing to Foucauldian scholars: In practice Foucault spends much more time detailing the production
of docile bodies (in Discipline and Punish) and bodies saturated with disciplinary technique (in
the History of Sexuality) (McNay, 1994: 102; cited in Graaff, 2006: 1399). Our reading of Iqbals
poems suggests that he has a more positive view of the human body in relation to agency.
Iqbal situates agency in the body as indicated in the second poem. Now for the body (sword) to
produce agency (cutting the Gordian knot of the oppressive material conditions of capitalism) it
has to embody ishq-love of the Prophet. This love of the Prophet, according to the Islamic teach-
ings, is not simply a privatized belief performed in the inner recesses of the mind disconnectedfrom physical reality of the individuals body and social group which is is how faith and belief
tend to be understood in modern times (Asad, 2003). But in pre-modern cultures and religions, one
cannot separate faith from bodily actions and social settings (Mahmood, 1996). For example, all
the five pillars of Islam require bodily acts: the attestation about the Unity of God and the mes-
sengership of the Prophet on the tongue, the five daily canonical prayers, the fasting in Ramadan,
the giving of zakat (religious tithe) and the performance of Hajj (the obligatory pilgrimage to
Mecca). All these are bodily acts. Hence, Al-Ghazali (d. 1111), points out that it is action and bod-
ily acts done in the Prophetic tradition (the Sunnah) that indicates the presence of ishq-love for him
(Al-Ghazali, 2005).
If one reads the poems synchronically, we see that Iqbal is adhering to the traditional view onfaith. For Iqbal faith is a fusion of beliefs and actions whose existence is affirmed and comes to life
when articulated through the medium of the body in deliberative, methodical and conscientious
acts of worship. There is a reflexive relationship between the acts of the body and the inner, mental
attitude of the individual where the one is making and remaking (and is being made and re-made)
by the other. It is through cultivating the body in this highly reflexive-self-making fashion where
body and consciousness operate together in expressing faith that insights about hitherto veiled
domination structures are revealed to the human being along with the courses of actions to over-
come them.
A concrete example may help illustrate this process. Malcolm X (also known as Al Hajj Malik
Al Shahbbaz) gives a first person account of how Hajj turned out to be a defining and transforma-tive experience for him. In a well known letter he describes what he experienced during his pil-
grimage to Mecca shortly after he had left the Nation of Islam in 1964:
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There were tens of thousands of pilgrims ... of all colors, from blue-eyed blondes to black-skinned Africans.
But we were all participating in thesame ritual[our emphasis], displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood
that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and the non-
white. (cited in Haley, 1999: 343)
Here we can see how the performance of bodily acts of worship serves as a catalyst for trans-
forming deeply held inner convictions ultimately producing insights (e.g. that race does not mat-
ter). These insights caused Malcolm X to exercise agency in the form of breaking free from the
clutches of the doctrines of Nation of Islam that preached black racial superiority.
Moreover, those bodily experiences of the Hajj allowed Malcolm X to exercise agency in terms
of stepping outside the discourse of the civil rights movement and beginning a different narrative
on the race issue in the United States. The physical experience of the international dimension of the
Hajj made him see things including the race issue in an international perspective. After the Hajj, he
saw the racism in the United States not as a domestic issue but as an international issue and thus
not as a civil rights problem (that comes under domestic jurisdiction) but as a human rights prob-lem (that comes under international jurisdiction) for which he was seeking the intervention of the
United Nations (Haley, 1999).
In sum, the Iqbalian approach to agency illustrated through the example of Malcolm X is that
agency emerges from bodily acts of worship (e.g. Hajj). This approach to agency can best be cap-
tured in the deep Sufi aphorism: Act in accordance with what you know for what you do not know
[will] be unveiled to you [by God] (Al-Ghazali, 2005: 40). An aphorism that mirrors well Malcolm
Xs own words My pilgrimage broadened my scope. It blessed me with a new insight (cited in
Haley, 1999: 369). In other words, the emphasis under a pre-modern religious outlook according to
Talal Asad (2003) is on ortho-praxis (correct practice) and less on ortho-doxy (correct beliefs/
insights). If the former is there, as the Sufi aphorism suggest, the latter will follow.Of course, there could be other explanations to the one provided by the Iqbalian approach
to agency for Malcolm Xs transformation and his new narrative. For example, it was his
interaction with other nationalities not the Hajj bodily acts that brought about awareness of an
international dimension to the race issue in the United States. This would raise the interesting
question then of why did such insights not emerge in the United States where Malcolm X must
have come across other nationalities as well. Why did it happen in the Hajj and not in multicul-
tural Harlem?
Nor are we arguing that the Iqbalian view on agency through bodily acts provides theexplana-
tion for the agency of Malcolm X. However, Iqbals view on agency will prove to be a valuable
asset for a CMS scholar because it can provide the theoretical resources to account for particulartypes of faith based agency that remain hidden or obscure when viewed from the orthodox agnos-
tic/atheistic perspectives. It helps the postcolonial CMS scholar to avoid the pitfall of having to
play God and reveal hidden meanings and latent functions on behalf of other mere mortals [the
subalterns] (Graaff, 2006: 1393). Because the Iqbalian approach to agency can come close to the
Muslim subjects own experiences, it may well provide the space for the Muslim subaltern in
the Global South exercising such faith-based agency through bodily acts to speak in postcolonial
CMS scholarship. It will enable the postcolonial CMS theorist to avoid silencing the subaltern
whose action is motivated by ethical and spiritual concerns when theorizing about her.
We are not denying the value of hidden meanings and history working behind the backs of
actors. All we are requesting is that along with these explanations a view on agency should also beentertained that is capable of understanding the subjective experience of the faith-based agency of
the Muslim other on its own termsIqbal offers one such alternative.
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From our perspective, Iqbal provides a theistic approach to agency (especially faith-based
agency) whose contours have been briefly and faintly indicated here. This approach is altogether
different from the dominant secular subaltern (e.g. see Banerjee, 2000) and Foucauldian approaches
(e.g. see Frenkel, 2008a) in postcolonial CMS. In spite of its theistic commitments (e.g. seeing
agency stemming from faith through bodily acts) the Iqbalian approach to agency brings to sharprelief some insights for theorizing agency that these secular postcolonial CMS approaches can
adopt to perhaps extend their own understandings of agency.
For example, postcolonial CMS theory inspired by Iqbal but now inflecting his insights on agency
with its secular commitments can pose interesting questions about agency, such as: How do bodily
acts problematize the smooth functioning of hegemonic capitalistic/managerial discourses and
thereby produce agency? How do bodily acts involving the physical motions of limbs such as sit-ins
or marches or even farting affect the smooth functioning of such discourses and practices as com-
pared to bodily acts involving direct usage of language (e.g. speech through the movement of the
tongue)? What is the relationship between physical/external bodily acts of resistance and non-bodily
acts/internal states of resistance (e.g. forming an internal will to commit to a cause/making the inten-tion not to surrender in ones consciousness). As can be seen, postcolonial CMS scholarship can gain
much by allowing the Iqbalian view of agency some space in it. It can then engage with the insights
Iqbal brings to the conversations on agency such as the explicit focus on the body as agency that
appears under theorized in postcolonial CMS that focuses more on the consciousness and experi-
ences of the subalterns than on their bodily practices and the latters relationship to agency.
The other insight that the Iqbalian approach to agency brings to the attention of the postcolonial
CMS imagination to help it see that agency need not arise solely from manoeuvring between dis-
courses (e.g. Frenkel, 2008b). Agency can also arise from manoeuvring with and within the self,
the movement triggered by experiences gained through bodily acts. In the theistic universe of Iqbal
the bodily acts/movement with the self (the Hajj) create an experience (erasure of racial difference)that generates a subject shift/movement within the self (e.g. conversion to orthodox Islam) putting
the subject on new coordinates (e.g. part of an international brotherhood/community of Muslims/
ummah) from which agency becomes possible (e.g. constructing a different discourse on the race
issue as a problem of international human rights).
Postcolonial CMS theorists can fruitfully engage with the Iqbalian model and see how Iqbals
agency through self-making can be translated to cohere with their secular commitments. For exam-
ple, the bodily acts (which could be secular in nature such as Daniel Ellsbergs visit to Vietnam
during the Vietnam War) can create an experience (this is a war of aggression against a Global
South country) putting the subject on new coordinates (e.g. secular conversion to the cause of the
Vietnamese) enabling agency (e.g. the release of the classified Pentagon Papers showing the lieson the war perpetrated by elite US policy circles thereby disrupting the discourse of the war as a
fight for freedom). But a note of caution is in order in this regard. For Iqbal or any other theocentric
critical perspective to enrich CMS discourse, it is absolutely essential that they be accepted on their
own terms and not be reduced to the existing categories of the dominant secular modes of theoriz-
ing. For this to happen it is important to have the likes of Iqbal present in their authentic forms in
postcolonial CMS scholarship and ward off the temptation of homogenizing out their differences
with conventional understandings of what constitutes proper theory through the reviewing proc-
ess where it is precisely such differences that can provide the resources for critical reflection and
extension of existing theory.
Clearly, there are possibilities of productive engagement between the two styles of theorizing(i.e. the established largely poststructuralist and hence secular canon of postcolonial CMS scholar-
ship and the faith-based radical critiques emerging from the Global (especially Muslim) South
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to be on the look out for and be sensitive to agency driven by religious sentiments. These senti-
ments and others like it from the Global South are likely to be overlooked when viewed from secu-
lar Western atheistic/agnostic theoretical lenses. The problem is not so much with having
perspectives that are Westernper se. Rather the problem is that these Western perspectives anchored
in their own secular epistemic and metaphysical commitments may not be able to explain throughtheir ideas aspects of Muslim agency in the Global South. For example, the Jordanian managers
may have been acting out of religious obligations and secular Western CMS theorys vocabulary
(e.g. core-periphery relations) then becomes quite impoverished in gaining access to and explain-
ing the meanings and intentions driving such faith-based agency.
One aim of postcolonial theory is to help show the provincial (non-universal) nature of Western
knowledges and challenge their universalizing claims (Chakrabarty, 2000). This is done by bringing
in non-Western perspectives (e.g. Iqbals) that make sense of history and human experience (e.g. on
Western capitalism in the Global South) without an exclusive recourse to concepts that are emerging
from a primarily Western European experience. As these alternative sense-making narratives from the
Global South are brought to light the claims of Western knowledges as being the onlyway to articulateexperience are destabilized. Western knowledges thus end up being provincialized, restricted at best
to the domain of the West and not applicable to the rest who have their own narratives.
We feel that that Iqbalian critical narrative contributes to provincializing postcolonial CMS
scholarship. It shows there are concepts and categories available in non-Western perspectives (e.g.
Islam) that can provide, as Feyerabend also argued, meaningful sense making resources for inter-
preting experience and generating radical critiques (e.g. on Western capitalism in the Global South)
without having to exclusively rely on Western thought formations (e.g. postcolonial CMS). Thus,
the Iqbalian critical narrative helps provincializes postcolonial CMS showing it as animportant
way rather than the onlyway of imagining radical critiques of Western capitalism.
In terms of future research directions, we believe that postcolonial CMS theory will do well interms of reducing its current provincial nature if it takes religion seriously. Without creating space
for religion, we believe that the prospects for postcolonial CMS in the Muslim world, given its ris-
ing religiosity (Davis and Robinson, 2006), are quite bleak. Prospects would be stronger if it is able
to engage with the religious terms and categories contested and diverse as they may well be,
through which Muslims are interpreting their postcolonial experiences. Otherwise, this stream will
be seriously out of touch with what is taking place in the proverbial barricades outside the clois-
tered marble halls of the secular academy, a point that Berger has already noted for the wider social
sciences. Commenting on the surprise expressed by the social scientists in the 1980s and 1990s
upon seeing the emergence of religious fundamentalism and their feverish attempts to understand
it, Berger (1996/1997: 3) notes:
Put simply: The difficult-to-understand phenomenon is not Iranian mullahs but American university
professors. The point ... is that the assumption that we live in a secularized world is false: The world today,
with some exceptions attended to below, is as furiously religious as it ever was, and in some places more
so than ever.
Some may object to our characterization of management and organization studies, including
postcolonial CMS as being devoid of content on religion. They would argue that such bodies of
knowledge have taken heed of Bergers observation and are taking religion seriously as shown by
the burgeoning literature on workplace spirituality (Steingard, 2005) and discussions of spiritualityin CMS (e.g. Cals and Smircich, 2003). However, we would argue along with King Jr (2008) that
religion is being ignored in these conversations as spirituality is being discussed with hardly any
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reference to religion. This is problematic because as King Jr (2008: 220) notes most of the popula-
tion experiences spirituality in or from a religious context, perceiving little distinction between
them. This marginalization of religion in favour of spirituality as Bell (2008) points out also
appears in CMS where religion is either ignored altogether or if addressed is then largely viewed
as a repressive disciplinary force maintaining control of organization members.CMS may well wish to break out of what appears from the foregoing to be its highly secularized
and Westernized intellectual academic ghetto by engaging with religion on its own terms. Iqbal
provides one avenue of doing so. Alternatively, CMS can continue to ignore religion altogether and
decide instead to preach down to theistic-minded others (including Muslims) why their critical
theoretical resources (e.g. God, the Prophet and the Quran) are part of false consciousness in
which case we would all be back to the civilizing mission and the White Mans (or more pre-
cisely White Scholars) Burden. And that would be a shame.
Notes
1 In this article we use the terms Western and the West heuristically to refer primarily to the metropoli-tan centre largely constituted by North America, Western Europe and others included in the dominant
centre of the world order. Non-Western refers to what is commonly referred to as Third World or the
Global South. We recognize the dangers of essentialisms potentially inherent in such terms but we feel
such usage is a necessary device to avoid clumsiness and endless caveats.
2 We prefer the term Western to global capitalism. This is in keeping with the credible understanding of
a considerable part of historical scholarship on imperialism (Blaut, 1993) and the Left-Realist tradi-
tion (Klein, 2007; Petras and Veltmeyer, 2001). They argue that the parameters of capitalism enacted in
the Global South from the colonial period to todays neocolonial era via the market friendly neoliberal
regimes continue to be set largely by organizations (e.g. the World Bank and the IMF) in which large
corporate interests in the West (particularly in the United States) have the decisive say as opposed to other
centres of capitalism (e.g. Japan and China). The latter are effectively subordinate to and work in theGlobal South within the security umbrella and policy regimes set by Western capitalism shored up by the
threat and use of Western imperial arms (Chomsky, 2004).
3 Allah is the Arabic word for God.It is used not just by Muslims but also by Arabic speaking Jews and
Christians among the Abrahamic traditions as well pre-Islamic pagans to refer to God.
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Biographies
Farzad Rafi Khan, Associate Professor, graduated with a PhD in Strategy and Organization fromMcGill University in 2005. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Suleman Dawood School
of Business, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan. His research interests centre on
exploring state capitalism and imperialism, impacts of organizations on society, critical approaches
to management, and Islamic business ethics.Address: Suleman Dawood School of Business,
Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Opposite Sector U, DHA, Lahore Cantt.
54792, Pakistan. Email: [email protected]
Basit Bilal Koshulhas one PhD from Drew University (2003) in the Sociology of Religion and a
second one from the University of Virginia (2011) in Religious Studies. He is Associate Professor
at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. His areas of research include the sociology ofreligion, philosophy of science, the philosophy of religion and the contemporary Islam-West
encounter. Integrating the insights of Muhammad Iqbal, Charles Sanders Peirce and Max Weber is
a key part of his research interests. His publications include The Postmodern Significance of Max
Webers Legacy: Disenchanting Disenchantment (Palgrave, 2005). Address: Suleman Dawood
School of Business, Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Opposite Sector U,
DHA, Lahore Cantt. 54792, Pakistan. Email: [email protected]