Islam and Knowledge (ePub)

Born in Palestine in 1921, Professor Isma'il Raji al Faruqi was a major figure in Islamic Studies and international interfaith dialogue. He is remembered as an intellectual, a philosopher, and a pioneering authority in comparative religion. A prolific writer, described as a 'creative mind', al Faruqi saw God as the only way to understand reality, laying the foundations for a new interpretation of the Islamic Concept of Tawhid (oneness of God). Al Faruqi was one of the founding fathers and the first President of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), an intellectual forum which promotes and supports research projects and cultural events and publishes scholarly works relating to the Islamic World. We live in an era when the Islamic World is making a range of attempts to redefine itself and to grapple with the challenges of modernity, technological progress and globalization. Many schools of thought - some traditional and revivalist, others a more direct response to the developments in the information age - have emerged that seek to position modern Islam within the context of this rapidly changing contemporary world. Exploring and defining therelationship between religion and knowledge was the centre-piece of the ideas of Isma'il Raji al Faruqi. A distinguished twentieth-century Arab-American scholar of Islam, al Faruqi formulated ideas that have made substantial contributions to the Islam and modernity discourse. This book's exploration of the interaction between Islam and knowledge takes in not only a philosophical examination of this relationship, but also the ways in which an Islamic perspective can relate to our understanding of science, the arts, architecture, technology and a whole range of other knowledgebased fields of enquiry. Many distinguished scholarshave contributed to this illuminating volume, including Seyyed Hossein Nasr, John Esposito,Charles Fletcher and others, producing a body of insight and perspective which will prove an essential reference point both for scholars of Islam as well as students of philosophy and comparative religion.