lenin in allah s court

8/12/2019 Lenin in Allah s Court

1/21


2/21

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

org.sagepub.com

Article

at LAHORE UNIVERSITY OF MGMT SCI on April 16, 2013org.sagepub.comDownloaded from
http://org.sagepub.com/http://org.sagepub.com/http://org.sagepub.com/http://org.sagepub.com/


3/21

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

http://org.sagepub.com/http://org.sagepub.com/http://org.sagepub.com/


4/21

Khan and Koshul 305

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.



5/21


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,



6/21

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:



7/21


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



8/21

Khan and Koshul 309

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.



9/21


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



10/21

Khan and Koshul 311

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



11/21


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



12/21


13/21


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



14/21

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:



15/21


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.



16/21

Khan and Koshul 317

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



17/21


18/21

Khan and Koshul 319

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



19/21


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.

References

Adas, Michael (1990) Machines as the Measure of Men: Science, Technology, and Ideologies of Western

Dominance: Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Adler, Paul. S., Forbes, Linda C. and Willmott, Hugh (2007) Critical Management Studies, The Academy of

Management Annals 1: 11979.

Al-Ghazali, Abu Hamid Muhammad (2005)Al-Ghazalis Letter to a Disciple (T. Mayer, trans.). Cambridge:

Islamic Texts Society.

Ali, Tariq (2002) The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity. London: Verso.

Arberry, Arthur J. (1953) The Mysteries of Selflessness; A Philosophical Poem by the Late Sir Muhammad

Iqbal. London: J. Murray.

Asad, Talal (2003) Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford

University Press.

Banerjee, Subhabrata B. (2000) Whose Land Is It Anyway? National Interest, Indigenous Stakeholders, and

Colonial Discourses: The Case of the Jabiluka Uranium Mine, Organization and Environment 13(1):

338.

Banerjee, Subhabrata B. (2010) Necrocapitalism, Organization Studies 29(12): 154163.Banerjee, Subhabrata B. and Prasad, Anshuman (2008) Introduction to the Special Issue on Critical

Reflections on Management and Organizations: A Postcolonial Perspective, Critical Perspectives on

International Business 4(2/3): 90 98.



20/21

Khan and Koshul 321

Bayat, Assef (1990) Shariati and Marx: A Critique of an Islamic Critique of Marxism, Alif: Journal of

Comparative Poetics 10(1): 1941.

Bell, Emma (2008) Towards a Critical Spirituality of Organization, Culture and Organization 14(3):

293307.

Berger, Peter (1996/1997) Secularism in Retreat, The National Interest 46: 312.

Blaut, James M. (1993) The Colonizers Model of the World: Geographical Diffusionism and Eurocentric

History. New York, NY: The Guildford Press.

Boje, David N. and Khan, Farzad R. (2009) Story-Branding by Empire Entrepreneurs: Nike, Child Labour,

and Pakistans Soccer Ball Industry,Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship 22(1): 924.

Boyacigiller, Nakiye A. and Adler, Nancy J. (1991) The Parochial Dinosaur: Organizational Science in a

Global Context,Academy of Management Review 16(2): 262.

Cals, Marta and Smircich, Linda (2003) Introduction: Spirituality, Management and Organization,

Organization10(2): 32728.

Chakrabarty, Dipesh (2000)Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historic Difference. Princeton,

NJ: Princeton University Press.

Chomsky, Noam (2004) Hegemony or Survival: Americas Quest for Global Dominance. New York, NY:

Henry Holt.

Davis, Nancy and Robinson, Robert (2006) The Egalitarian Face of Islamic Orthodoxy: Support for Islamic

Law and Economic Justice in Seven Muslim-Majority Nations, American Sociological Review 71(2):

16790.

El Diwany, Tarek (2003) The Problem with Interest. London: Kreatoc Ltd.

Feyerabend, Paul (1995)Killing Time: The Autobiography of Paul Feyerabend. Chicago, IL: University of

Chicago Press.

Frenkel, Michal (2008a) The Multinational Corporation as a Third Space: Rethinking International

Management Discourse on Knowledge Transfer through Homi Bhabha, Academy of Management

Review 33(4): 92442.

Frenkel, Michal (2008b) Reprogramming Femininity? The Construction of Gender Identities in the Israeli Hi

tech Industry Between Global and Local Gender Orders, Gender, Work & Organization 15(4): 35274.

Fuchs, Christian (2010) Critical Globalization Studies and the New Imperialism, Critical Sociology 36(6):

83967.

Giddens, Anthony. (1999) Capitalism and Modern Social Theory: An Analysis of the Writings of Marx,

Durkheim and Max Weber: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Graaff, Johann (2006) The Seductions of Determinism in Development Theory: Foucaults Functionalism,

Third World Quarterly 27(8): 1387400.

Haley, Alex. (1999) The Autobiography of Malcom X: As Told to Alex Haley. New York, NY: Ballentine

Books.

Harding, Neil (1998) V.I. Lenin. in R. Benewick and P. Green (eds) The Routledge Dictionary of Twentieth-

Century Political Thinkers, pp. xvLondon; New York, NY: Routledge.

Hyder, Syed A. (2001) Iqbal and Karbala: Re-Reading the Episteme of Martyrdom for a Poetics of

Appropriation, Cultural Dynamics 13(3): 33962.

Iqbal, Muhammad (2001).Kulliyat-e-IqbalUrdu. Karachi: Fazli Sons.

King Jr., James (2008) (Dis)Missing the Obvious: Will Mainstream Management Research Ever Take

Religion Seriously?,Journal of Management Inquiry 17(3): 214224.

Klein, Naomi (2007) The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. New York, NY: Metropolitan

Books/Henry Holt.

Lenin, Vladimir I. (1999 [1917])Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism. Sydney: Resistance Books.

Mahmood, Saba (1996) Talal Asad-Modern Power and the Reconfiguration of Religious TraditionsAn

Interview, Stanford Electronic Humanities Review 5(1). Available at: http://www.stanford.edu/group/

SHR/5-1/text/asad.htmlMajeed, Javed (2009)Muhammad Iqbal: Islam, Aesthetics, and Postcolonialism. New Delhi: Routledge.

McNay, Lois (1994)Foucault: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Mir, Mustansir (2006)Iqbal. Lahore: Iqbal Academy Pakistan.



21/21


Mir, Raza., Banerjee, Subhabrata B. and Mir, Ali (2008) Hegemony and its Discontents: A Critical Analysis

of Organizational Knowledge Transfer, Critical Perspectives on International Business 4(2/3): 20327.

Mizrachi, Nissim, Anspach, Renee R. and Drori, Israel (2007) Repertories of Trust: The Practice of Trust

in a Multinational Organization Amid Political Conflict,American Sociological Review 72(1): 14365.

Petras, James F. and Veltmeyer, Henry (2001) Globalization Unmasked: Imperialism in the 21st Century.

Halifax, Nova Scotia: Zed Books.

Prasad, Anshuman (2003) Gaze of the Other: Postcolonial Theory and Organizational Analysis. in A. Prasad

(ed.)Postcolonial Theory and Organizational Analysis :A Critical Engagement, pp. 343. New York, NY:

Palgrave Macmillan.

Said, Edward W. (1978) Orientalism. New York, NY: Pantheon Books.

Said, Edward W. (1993) Culture and Imperialism. New York, NY: Knopf.

Said, Edward W. (1997) Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of

the World. New York, NY: Vintage Books.

Sardar, Ziauddin. (2002, January). Rethinking Islam, Seminar509: 4851.

Scott, James C. (1998) Seeing Like a State. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Steingard, David S. (2005) Spiritually-Informed Management Theory: Toward Profound Possibilities for

Inquiry and Transformation,Journal of Management Inquiry14(3): 227241.

Webb, Adam K. (2008) The Countermodern Moment: A World-Historical Perspective on the Thought of

Rabindranath Tagore, Muhammad Iqbal, and Liang Shuming,Journal of World History 19(2): 189212.

Westwood, Robert and Jack, Gavin (2008) The US Commercial-Military-Political Complex and the

Emergence of International Business and Management Studies, Critical Perspectives on International

Business 4(4): 36788.

Yusuf, Hamza (2004)Purification of the Heart: Signs, Symptoms and Cures of the Spiritual Diseases of the

Heart. Chicago, IL: Starlatch Press.

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]

lenin in allah s court

Documents