Description
This book is a translation of Muhammad Abduh’s Al-Islām wa-l-Naṣrāniyya maʿa al-ʿIlm wa-l-Madaniyya (Science and Civilisation between Islam and Christianity). Abduh was an Egyptian jurist, religious scholar, theologian and a reformer of Al-Azhar who died in 1905. His impact on modern Islam cannot be overstated. In fact, much of modern Muslim thought has either been a reaction for or against his ideas. Although numerous English studies have been done on him, only one treatise of his has been translated into English. That is, Risālat al-tawhīd (Theology of Unity) by Ishaq Masaʿad and Kenneth Cragg, in 1966.
Far too little attention has been paid to the treatise translated here. Much less attention has been given to how this treatise impacts the Islamic theology of Christianity. Hence, this translation fills a serious gap in the genre of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations.
Mohamed Gamal Abdelnour is a faculty member at the Faculty of Uṣūl al-Dīn, Al-Azhar University (Cairo) and a research fellow at the department of philosophy, University of York, U.K. He received his primary, secondary and undergraduate education at Al-Azhar, where he memorized the Qur’ān at the age of eleven, deeply studied the various disciplines of the Islamic tradition, and graduated as valedictorian of his class with a bachelor’s in Islamic Studies and Philosophy in 2011 (Al-Azhar University, Cairo). He holds an MA in Catholic Theology (Durham University, U.K.) and a PhD in Comparative Theology (SOAS University of London).
Umran Khan obtained a BA Arabic and History from SOAS, University of London. He works as an Arabic-English translator, editor and proofreader. He also writes on Islamic history and politics, having written for the online magazine Muslim Matters on Islam in the Indian subcontinent and an award-winning essay on Muslim Intellectual Life in 8th Century Baghdad for Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar. He teaches Arabic and Islamic History at the Hounslow Jamia Masjid & Islamic Centre and is currently the programme manager at Al-Salam Institute, London, an institute specialising in teaching Arabic and the Islamic sciences.
Muḥammad ʿAbduh (1849-1905) was a religious scholar, philosopher, jurist, and reformer, who led the late 19th-century movement in Egypt and other Muslim societies to revitalize Islamic teachings and institutions in the modern world.
Muhammad A. S. Abdel Haleem is the King Fahd Professor of Islamic Studies and director of the Centre for Islamic Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies of London University, as well as editor of the Journal of Qur’anic Studies. His Quran translation is one of the most commonly cited in the field.
David Thomas is an Emeritus Professor of Christianity and Islam at the University of Birmingham and a priest in the Church of England. Throughout his career, he has combined teaching and research in Islamic thought and Christian-Muslim relations with church involvement at the parish, diocesan and national levels.