Nietzsche considered reason a necessary but not sufficient condition for human life, yet he became known as an anti-rationalist thinker. Iqbal Lahori, too, in criticizing Western modern rationality, sought to reconstruct religious thought in Islam. Understanding the nature and formulation of these two thinkers' critique of modern rationality and their interpretation of the world and human life is the central issue of this article. Nietzsche attempts to avoid absolutism, limit and specify the function of reason, and simultaneously liberate it from ideological domination, then place it alongside instinct and emotion. Iqbal, in his poems and writings, also emphasizes experience and intuition while critiquing philosophical reason. Nietzsche sees the world as meaningless and emphasizes the passion for life and the Dionysian aspects of it. By acknowledging the death of God, he negates any religious and moral system-building. However, Iqbal considers reason a divine blessing and intends to interpret the world and understand the meaning of life based on a coherent religious thought system composed of three sources of knowledge: nature, history, and experience. Thus, he pays attention to both Apollonian and Dionysian aspects of the world and human life simultaneously.This article attempts to identify the commonalities and differences in their thoughts regarding the interpretation of human life by examining the semantic network of each thinker. The findings suggest that the most important feature of Nietzsche and Iqbal's thought is their critical and tradition-breaking aspect. They do not consider human reason alone capable of understanding the becoming of existence and deem it necessary to connect humans with life to interpret the world. They attribute the highest level of awareness and philosophizing of philosophers to their hidden instincts. In this research, the author intends to examine the views of these thinkers using Quentin Skinner's intentionalist and author-centered hermeneutic method and collecting information through library research, a task that has not been done before.