Professor Fazlur Rahman (1332-1408 AH / 1919-1988 AC)

Abstract

On Dhu al Hijjah 12, 1408 AH, July 26, 1988 Professor Fazlur Rahman
breathed his last as a result of post-cardiac surgery complications at the Billings
Hospital in Chicago. At the time of his death he was the Harold H. Swift
Distinguished Service Professor of Islamic Thought at the University of
Chicago where he had taught for about two decades. Born in Punjab (Pakistan)
in 1332 AH / 1919 AC, Professor Fazlur Rahman was educated at the
universities of Punjab and Oxford. He also taught at Durham (England) and
McGill (Canada) and served as director, Central Institute of Islamic Research
in Pakistan.
A prolific writer and an outstanding scholar of Islam in the tradition
of Mohammad Iqbal, Dr. Fazlur Rahman influenced a whole generation of
young Muslim intellectuals, students, and probably more importantly, his
Western colleagues in the field of Islamic Studies. Although considered
controversial on certain issues, he was a scholar of encyclopedic breadth in
the true tradition of classical Islamic scholarship. His interests ranged from
the classical period to modem times; from the Qur’an and hadrh to$qh,
philosophy and science; and from education and history to contemporary
socio-political developments in the Muslim World. Throughout his career,
however, his first and foremost loyalty and devotion had been to the Qur’an.
He was a brilliant student and an extraordinarily perceptive commentator
of the Qur’an. He lived, wrote, and thought for most of his life within a
framework that was defined by his love and study of the Qur’an.
His was a mind of a logician and a philosopher and a heart of a devout
Muslim. His writings on Islam were not only the product of a meticulous
scholar with great intellectual rigor and analytical skills but also that of a
passionate and devoted Muslim who was deeply concerned about the spiritual,
moral and material well-being of his fellow Muslims. He believed in the
fundamental importance of intellectual renaissance as the most important prerequisite
for Islamic revival. A careful examination of his writings reveals
a vigorous mind working in the highest traditions of human scholarship of
East and West and providing the intellectual and moral underpinnings for ...