A Faith for All Seasons

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.