Islam is the fastest growing of the world's major religions. Yet the pervasive hostility to Islam in the West makes understanding its expanding global reach virtually impossible. Islam is all too often seen through a lens that focuses on the small minority of violent extremists rather than the overwhelming majority of Muslims who make up to the moderate mainstream. It is the centrist mind and heart of Islam that captures new adherents in such impressive numbers.
For centuries, Abu Dharr al Ghifari, the seventh-century companion of the Prophet Muhammad, has provided a human face for Islamic justice as the core value of the faith. The influence of Abu Dharr has sometimes faded. Extremism may challenge the moderate and tolerant heart of the Islam of the Qur'an that Abu Dharr represents. Invariably, however, Islamic intellectuals have stepped forward to restore balance and moderation. Our time is such a period of renewal and the sweeping awakening of midstream Islam.
In this study of justice in Islam, Raymond Baker focuses on the work of major intellectuals who have contributed to this Islamic Awakening. They include: the Egyptians Hassan al Banna, Sayyid Qutb, and Shaikh Muhammad al Ghazalli; the Turkish scholar Sa'id Nursi; the Lebanese Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Fadlallah; the Iraqi Grand Ayatollah Baqir al Sadra; the Iranian radical intellectual Ali Sheriati; and the American athlete and Muslim convert Muhammad Ali. Baker argues that appreciation for the work of these preeminent figures is indispensable to understanding how an awakened Islam with justice at its core has become a global phenomenon.
Justice rather than the jihad or "holy war" of the Western imagination defines the Islam of the Qur'an and explains the global appeal of Islam's quest for the righteous community. For centuries, Abu Dharr al Ghifari, the seventh-century companion of the Prophet Muhammad, has provided a human face for Islamic justice as the core value of the faith. In this study of justice in Islam, Raymond Baker focuses on the influence of Abu Dharr, and the work of major intellectuals who have contributed to the Islamic Awakening.
The message of the book is essentially that a study of Islamic intellectual history will provide the West with a better understanding of the Muslim world and minimize the policy bungle the West too often suffers from.
