A Faith for All Seasons: Islam and the Challenge of the Modern World

by Shabbir Akhtar

This is an unusual book with an unusual purpose. Shabbir Akhtar is an intelligent and erudite Muslim whose writings have attracted the attention of Graham Greene and other English authors. In A Faith for All Seasons he challenges his fellow Muslims to recognize that they live in a secular world of religious pluralism; that they must demonstrate to their critics that Islam is a progressive and responsive faith. In the course of arguing for a more congenial encounter with the modern world, Mr. Akhtar offers a remarkably clear and concise explanation of Islam's basic religious tenets. He discusses its rivalry with Christianity, Marxism, and secular liberalism as ideologies that also claim the allegiance of modern man. Censuring his co-religionists for the current intellectual paralysis in Islamic circles, he shows how believers can cultivate a reverent yet penetrating skepticism which teaches the ignorant, disturbs the orthodox, and agitates the indifferent.

Genres: Islam, Nonfiction, Religion

268 pages, Paperback

First published April 25, 1990

Reviews

[Mayowa Adebiyi]

If you're looking for a modern yet orthodox spokesperson for Islam, one can do no better than Shabbir Akhtar. The book mounts sustained and impressive arguments for Islam's relevance in a modern and secular society. Though the book refuses to engage in apologetic polemics, it is also unashamed about the aspects of Islam that other writers might play down or shy away from entirely. For example, that Islam is a political religion is a fact not at all denied.

Another positive note is that the author does not at all deny the irreconcilable differences between Islam and the other major religion, Christianity. The only reason then, this does not get 5 stars for me, is on those points of disagreement. Nevertheless, this takes nothing away from the fact that Akhtar is an extraordinary interlocutor.