Listening to Islam: With Thomas Merton, Sayyid Qutb, Kenneth Cragg And Ziauddin Sardar: Praise, Reason And Reflection [Paperback]

John H. Watson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 9, 2005

In today's world, Christianity and Islam are capable of dialogue. Neither faith has a single religious establishment or narrow belief system, both are rainbows of faith and practice. There is difference and there is delight for many believers in both traditions. Tragically, there is also some expression of institutional divergence. In "Listening to Islam" a devout Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, and a dedicated Sufi mystic, live in intimate prayerful relationship. Sayyid Qutb, a major ideologue of the Muslim Brotherhood, was a literary educationalist whose exposition of the Qur'an is justifiably famous, though his version of political Islam is offensive to many Muslims. Bishop Kenneth Cragg is a careful translator, expositor and analyst of the Qur'an and modern Islam. He has devoted much of his life to the Arabic language and its people. He speaks of himself and his Muslim interlocutors as those who believe in one God. Ziauddin Sardar, who describes himself as 'a sceptical Muslim in search of Paradise', writes with remarkable fluency on the current confrontation between the West and Islam. Through "Praise, Reason and Reflection", these four dialogists provide compelling evidence of the complexities, differences and rewards of exchanging ideas and opinions on the development and necessity of Islamic-Christian interfaith understanding.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It seems to me that mutual comprehension between Christians and Muslims is something of very vital importance today, and unfortunately it is rare and uncertain, or else subjected to the vagaries of politics." -- Thomas Merton, writing to the Pakistani Sufi scholar Abdul Aziz on St. Stephen's Day, 26 December 1962.

About the Author

The Revd Dr John Watson is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society. He studied Islam and Buddhism in the Far East, and has travelled extensively, exploring faith systems and lecturing world-wide. He works as an Assistant Priest in a Dorset village, writes the fortnightly Coptophile column for Cairo's Watani (the leading Christian newspaper in the Middle East), and contributes regularly to Kirche im Dialog in Mannheim, Germany. He is the author of Among the Copts (2000) and Christians Observed (2004), both published by SAP.

Product Details

• Paperback: 109 pages
• Publisher: Sussex Academic Pr (August 9, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1845191013
• ISBN-13: 978-1845191016
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,853,588 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Expert Views on Strength & Ailings of Islamic Thought, August 21, 2005

By 

Didaskalex "Eusebius Alexandrinus" (Kellia on Calvary, Carolina, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Listening to Islam: With Thomas Merton, Sayyid Qutb, Kenneth Cragg And Ziauddin Sardar: Praise, Reason And Reflection (Paperback)

Listening to four Views:
Ecumenist Rev. Dr. John Watson, reports in a tightly woven quartet of essays on listening, analyzing, and concluding with four outstanding thinkers: Thomas Merton: A Christian Sufi-phile, Episcopalian Bishop Kenneth Cragg, an Islamic scholar and Arabist. Alternatively, he exposes their thought 'in contrast with' two eminent Moslem Thinkers. Late Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian theorist of the Moslem Brotherhood, who claimed, "Islam is the solution that should be imposed by force, 'is compared with Ziauddin Sardar, a contemporary post modern Islamist, a sociopolitical think-tank, who relates world problems to the scope and execution of Fundamental Evangelicals, led by U. Chicago's Strauss, and their agenda as described by S. Huntington in "The clash of Civilizations."

The Four Islamic Scholars:
Dr. Watson, a master biographer, introduces the thinkers in a thorough but lively and personal way. To listen attentively, you should know the strong credentials of the speaker. Starting with Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk, mystic and poet, of whom the author proposes in a cautionary remark that, "There is no evidence that Merton grasped any of the essential conflicts within Islam," he proceeds with more authoritative thinkers on the issues of Islamic thought.
He contrasts the Mystic with the late Sayyid Qutb, a contemporary Radical Islamic theorist, and the modern legislator of Islamic Fundamentalism who has composed the Moslem brotherhood non compromising radical Ideological and Political agenda of Jihad; before his execution by Nasser in 1965. Qutb's main manifesto is exposed in, "In the Shade of the Quran."

Hopful Vs Prophetic Views:
From the grim views of violence to the hopeful concepts of Bp. Kenneth Cragg; an Arabic scholar, who translated the Quran, and an acclaimed author in the field of Muslim-Christian relations. He made his debut in his outstanding book, 'Call of the Minaret' half a century ago. Cragg continued writing profusely on interfaith issues including; 'Jesus and the Muslim,' and 'Muhammad and the Christian,' within his abiding faith in Christ love, he has a heart for Moslems.
Ziauddin Sardar; is the last but not the least, a highly renowned advanced Islamic thinker and sociopolitical critical analyst. He became one of U. K. leading intellectuals and writes on a wide variety of subjects in the English Media, worldwide. Sardar Addresses the frame of mind that Islamic terrorists ultimately fail, defeated by America's Crusade that fastidiously succeeds, in 'democratizing' two Moslem nations, Afghanistan & Iraq. He authored the "quartet for revolution," last of which is his international bestseller "Why Do People Hate America?"

Abrogation Concept:
Abrogation undermines peaceful relations with 'People of the Book,' or believers in Judaism and Christianity. In Islamic theology and Ethics, the concept of abrogation employed by some schools of Muslim thought refers to the notion that later Quranic revelations in Medina annul and abolish earlier pacific and fraternal Meccan revelations. According to the leading ulama the position of zimmies (non-Muslim) in the Islamic States would be that they will not have the same rights as Muslims, and pay a head tax.
This controversial core issue was underlined by the author, who calls for the extremely difficult task of subjecting Muslim holy scripture to textual and theological criticism, a call that recently endangered the life of the exiled Egyptian professor Nasr Abu Zaid, and endangered the careers of his precursors.

Understanding upon reflection:
The author draws parallels between Qutb's terrorist manifesto, and thesis of the 'Christian abortive crusades', postulating that violence, if only a temporary sedation, is not a lasting cure for this mental illness of terrorism, which is both contagious and dangerous. While every essay gives the reader a different angle of the vast scene, I confirmed my conviction that Qutb is the ideologue who represents today's minority violent attitude to the revival of the Islamic Ummah, within a helpless majority of peaceful Moslems.
Bishop Cragg's views, in spite of his deep understanding is either a hopeful or overdue expression of a Christian utopia; a mirage of dialogue with the few Moslem elite who has no influence on the Islamic Street. The evident example is there in "The Islamic Republic of Iran," the only nation which can claim Islam as a social and political driving power behind its governing theocracy.