Creation from a Muslim Perspective

A few of you wanted to know who was the author of this reading.  His name is Christopher T.R. Hewers, and he is currently a Fellow in Christian-Muslim Relations at St. Ethelburga’s Centre in London, England. He earned his PhD in 1998 and a post-graduate diploma (2003) from the University of Birmingham (Centre for the Study of South Asian Religions and Christianity University). He has also completed a number of graduate degrees and attained Postgraduate Certificates in Inter-religious studies and in Open and Distance Education. He is currently a member of the Al-Mahdi Institute. Established in 1993, the institute seeks to students with a structured degree course in the field of Arabic and Islamic sciences within a multi-cultural and pluralist society.

Here is an excerpt from the introduction of his book “Understanding Islam: An Introduction”

The author is a Christian, and as such it is clear that he cannot accept everything Islam teaches or see the world in exactly the same way a Muslim does. Were that so, then the author would have to become a Muslim immediately or risk being condemned as a hypocrite. To accept that the Qur’an is the ultimately revealed scripture from God that corrects all others and that Muhammad was the infallible sinless Prophet of God, in the way that Muslims believe, would make it necessary to leave the Christian faith and become a Muslim. Nevertheless, the author’s position is that Muslims are cousins in faith in the one God, and this requires that we take seriously the message of the Qur’an and the lived example of Muhammad and ask what Christians might learn from this. The Qur’an is held by Muslims to be guidance for all humanity and not just for Muslims; similarly, Muhammad was sent with a universal mission to all humankind (Q. 34:28)

As I mentioned in the discussion, his approach of explaining the Islamic worldview for a Western audience is useful to us in explaining Islam to our attendees. The link to his book is here:

Understanding-Islam-An-Introduction

I have bought and read this book, and I definitely recommend it. Here is chapter 1 of the book:

Islamic Worldview – for interfaith

One comment

  1. It is a very interesting book. Christopher T.R. Hewers did great job. Probably not as interesting as yours Ahmad lecture on Islam 101 I attended, but your book on Introduction to Islam is still not published. Christopher T.R. Hewers stated:
    “…There is no tension between religion and science in Islam. Both have their source in God and ultimately must agree. …Again and again in the Qur’an, we read that we should use our heads to puzzle things out, to reason and question, so that we more perfectly understand the world around us “in which there are signs from God” (Q. 6:98-99,105).”

    We all have knowledge about Dark Ages, how treasuries of philosophy, religion, history have been destroyed in Europe. We must be very thankful to Muslims for their saving of our culture; without their involvement, without their great libraries in Baghdad, Samarkand, Bukhara… we will be without our culture.

    I like to add something to this discussion. In the book “Lost History: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Scientists, Thinkers, and Artists” Michael Hamilton Morgan shows how early Muslim advancements in science and culture laid the cornerstones of the European Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and modern Western society. Practically most of Aristotle’s books what we have right now come to us by Arabic translations; we do not have original texts. Islam from very beginning introduces scholars like Ibn Al-Haytham, Ibn Sina, Al-Tusi, Al-Khwarizmi, and Omar Khayyam. Ibn Sina (Avicenna) has been recognized by both East and West, as one of the great figures in intellectual history. Thanks to him we have knowledge of Hippocrates (Greek physician of the Age of Pericles). He is referred to as the “Father of Modern Medicine”.

    In this book you can see the line of spiritual leaders from Muhammad to Suleiman the Magnificent who encouraged intellectual knowledge, and support all humanity.
    This book has outstanding Foreword by His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan; this is great addition to this book.

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