How did critics connect Muhammad Iqbal’s ideas with Friedrich Nietzsche?

Critics connected Muhammad Iqbal’s ideas to the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche primarily due to the themes presented in Iqbal’s 1915 long Persian poem, Asrār-e khūdī (The Secrets of the Self).1

In this work, Iqbal championed a theory of the self that strongly condemned the self-negating quietism—the belief that spiritual peace is found through passive contemplation—often associated with classical Islamic mysticism. By advocating for creative self-affirmation as a fundamental virtue, Iqbal’s message shocked many contemporaries who were accustomed to traditional, more passive poetic styles. Consequently, his critics argued that he was imposing Nietzschean concepts of individualism onto the framework of Islam.12

Iqbal and his supporters, however, maintained that his focus on self-awareness and the development of personality was rooted in a desire to revitalize the Muslim community, urging them to move away from decadence toward a life of active self-realization.12