Book: Islam
Author: Fazlur Rahman
Pages: 278 pages
Published:  University Of Chicago Press (1979)

About the book:
 Fazlur Rahman's Islam is aptly titled, in that this slim volume constitutes an incisive and surprisingly comprehensive history and analysis of Islam—its history, its conflicts, its legacy—and its prospects. From Mohammed to the late twentieth century, Rahman traces the development of Islam as a religion and, more importantly, as an intellectual tradition, offering both an easily understood introduction to the faith and an impassioned argument for its future direction.

About the Author:
Fazlur Rahman (September 21, 1919 – July 26, 1988) was a well-known scholar of Islam. Born in the Hazara area of British India (now Pakistan), Rahman studied Arabic at Punjab University, and went on to Oxford University where he wrote a dissertation on Ibn Sina. Afterwards, he began a teaching career, first at Durham University where he taught Persian and Islamic philosophy, and then at McGill University where he taught Islamic studies until 1961.
He moved to the University of Chicago in 1969 and established himself there becoming the Harold H. Swift Distinguished Service Professor of Islamic Thought. At Chicago he was instrumental for building a strong Near Eastern Studies program that continues to be among the best in the world. In his memory, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago named its common area after him, due to his many years of service at the Center and at the University of Chicago at large.
Fazlur Rahman realized the need for Islamic religious thought to move beyond its current literal mold so that the Muslim thinking and the Muslim societies do not get stagnated in face of the general progression of human history, life and thought. Rahman has been widely praised as one of the most incisive scholars of Islam of the contemporary world. His goal was to reassess the Islamic intellectual tradition and provide a way forward for Muslims. In his view, a re-examination of Islamic methodology in the light of the Qur'an itself was a pre-requisite for any reform in Islamic thought." Fazlur Rahman greatly stressed the ethical aspect of the Qur'an.

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