Islam and Other Faiths

Abstract

My first reaction to this eminent book of collected articles and lectures givenby Professor Ismail Raji al-Faruqi is one of frustration that I was not able tomeet the man. He died in 1986. I would have loved to have known him, for Ifound in reading this book that so many of his thoughts and ideas coincidedwith my own hopes concerning the future of Islam and its relationship with theother peoples of the Book, especially the Christians. I was a Christian theolegian and teacher until my conversion to Islam in 1986.Professor Ismail's book provides a good cross-section of his contribution tothe study of comparative religion and covers a wide spectrum of interreligiousissues, spanning more than two decades of his work. Essays which deal directlywith other faiths, Christianity and Judaism in particular, were specificallyselected but they should be seen against the background of his huge contributionto the study of religions through his many other eminent publications.Here, the volume concentrates on those aspects of Islam which the Ahl al-Kitab(the People of the Book) have in common rather than their differences.I have long felt that this was the correct way forward. As a former Christianwho initially came to Islam by studying the teachings of Jesus rather than theQur'an, I was always aware of the commonality of the faith and its development through the prophets of Judaism to Christianity, to its deviation throughTrinitarianism, and through the Prophet of Islam who was sent to bring newunderstanding of Tawhid and the way to find the Straight Path to God.Therefore, I was horrified and disturbed when I ran into the walls of hostilityand misunderstanding from all sides-particularly the hostility of Muslimstoward Christians and Jews, theological hostilities and racist ones, too. Muchof this was and is caused by the complete ignorance of the practicing membersof one faith for the others, a situation that will still take years to remedy.However, scholars such as Professor Ismail are trailblazers in this field, and Irepeat my disappointment that I missed knowing him personally.He was a Palestinian, born in 1921, and graduated from the AmericanUniversity of Beirut in 1941; he served as District Governor of Galilee inPalestine. He left Galilee as a refugee in 1948 when Palestine was partitioned; ...