It is an irony of history that although the ideological foundations of the French Revolution of 1789 were laid down by a number of writers and thinkers - the most well-known among them being Rousseau and Voltaire - these intellectuals neither led nor even played any active role in the actual revolutionary struggle. Similarly, even though the intellectual basis of the Russian Revolution of 1917 was provided by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels while working in Prussia (now Germany) and later in England, they were unable to start any movement on their own; indeed, no popular voice favoring Marxism was ever raised in the two countries where they lived and worked. The Communist Revolution, when it did happen, was brought about in Russia by the efforts of the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks, and under the adventitious leadership of Lenin. Even in the Muslim history following the age of the Companions (RAA), we see that those who became prominent in intellectual and scholarly fields usually lacked the ability of political and military leadership, the only exception to this rule being the versatile personality of Imam Ibn Taimia (RA). Thus, although Imam Abu Hanifa (RA) - the greatest scholar and jurist of the second century A.H. - did provide moral and monetary support to the revolutionary struggle of Hadrat Muhammad Ibn Abdullah (Al-Nafs Al-Zakkiyya), he did not participate on behalf of the latter in the actual armed conflict. Similarly, in the beginning of the second millennium of Muslim history, two great sages and mystics arose in the Indian subcontinent, i.e., Sheikh Ahmad Sirhindi (RA) and Shah Waliyullah Dehlvi (RA), but the efforts of both were limited to either literary and scholarly endeavors or mystical and spiritual pursuits.
In the same way, if we find that the achievements of Allama Iqbal were limited to the theoretical reconstruction of the Islamic revolutionary thought, and that he neither started any revivalist movement nor joined any existing one, then this is not at all surprising, and does not lower his exceptionally high status in any way. As a matter of fact, just as the great Mujahideen movement, launched by Sayyid Ahmad Barelvi (RA) in the 19th century, was actually a manifestation of the revivalist efforts of Shah Waliyullah, in the same way the 20th century Islamic revolutionary and revivalist movements are actually based upon, and are a direct result of, the efforts of Allama Iqbal vis-à-vis the reconstruction of Islamic revolutionary thought. Although the conditions prevailing presently in Pakistan are rather disappointing, if Almighty Allah (SWT) so wills and if this part of the world becomes the cradle of Islamic Renaissance and the starting point for the global system of Khilafah, then this would represent the ultimate triumph of Iqbal´s contribution in reviving the revolutionary teachings of Islam. To comprehend and appreciate this fact, however, it is necessary to place the personality of Iqbal in the proper historical background