Fazlur Rahman – författare

Fazlur Rahman (1919-88), one of the most important Muslim scholars of the twentieth century, devoted his career to helping students understand the Qur'an's teachings about God, man, and society. Back in print for a new generation of students and scholars to discover, "Major Themes of the Qur'an" is his introduction to one of the richest texts in the history of religious thought. In this classic work, Rahman unravels the Qur'an's complexities with the deep attachment of a Muslim educated in Islamic schools and the clarity of a scholar who taught for decades in the West.

"As Professor Fazlur Rahman shows in the latest of a series of important contributions to Islamic intellectual history, the characteristic problems of the Muslim modernists—the adaptation to the needs of the contemporary situation of a holy book which draws its specific examples from the conditions of the seventh century and earlier—are by no means new. . . . In Professor Rahman''s view the intellectual and therefore the social development of Islam has been impeded and distorted by two interrelated errors. The first was committed by those who, in reading the Koran, failed to recognize the differences between general principles and specific responses to ''concrete and particular historical situations.'' . . . This very rigidity gave rise to the second major error, that of the secularists. By teaching and interpreting the Koran in such a way as to admit of no change or development, the dogmatists had created a situation in which Muslim societies, faced with the imperative need to educate their people for life in the modern world, were forced to make a painful and self-defeating choice—either to abandon Koranic Islam, or to turn their backs on the modern world."—Bernard Lewis, New York Review of Books "In this work, Professor Fazlur Rahman presents a positively ambitious blueprint for the transformation of the intellectual tradition of Islam: theology, ethics, philosophy and jurisprudence. Over the voices advocating a return to Islam or the reestablishment of the Sharia, the guide for action, he astutely and soberly asks: What and which Islam? More importantly, how does one get to ''normative'' Islam? The author counsels, and passionately demonstrates, that for Islam to be actually what Muslims claim it to be—comprehensive in scope and efficacious for every age and place—Muslim scholars and educationists must reevaluate their methodology and hermeneutics. In spelling out the necessary and sound methodology, he is at once courageous, serious and profound."—Wadi Z. Haddad, American-Arab Affairs

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.

This highly regarded volume was the first to explore the doctrine of prophetic revelation, a critical and definitive area of Islamic religious and political thought. In it, the esteemed Islamic scholar Fazlur Rahman traces the inception of this doctrine from ancient Greek texts, its interpretation and elaboration by Muslim philosophers in order to suit their vision of the Prophet, and finally, the varying degrees of acceptance of these convergent ideas by the Muslim orthodoxy. The latest edition of this classic text includes a new foreword by Islamic studies expert Michael Sells, confirming "Prophecy in Islam" as the best source on its subject after more than half a century.

This authoritative book argues that what is considered today to be Islamic fundamentalism is inconsistent with the true meaning of this faith. Rahman demonstrates that the true roots of Islamic teachings advocate adaptability, creativity, and innovation.

Fazlur Rahman's mother died tragically when he was only seven years old, but her words reverberated throughout his life: "Someday you will be a doctor, Fazlur, and save lives." Eventually, he fled his war-torn homeland and, after years of training in New York and Houston, became a cancer doctor. He could never have imagined that his medical career would unfold in remote West Texas and that he would be a pioneer oncologist for a vast region. Over a 35-year career, Rahman poured himself into not just taking care of his patients' challenging medical needs but learning from them, getting to know their lives, their families, and the circumstances that made each patient unique. He narrates the instructive stories of five cancer patients: surviving against all odds; walking a long path with cancer and still making a daily life; bearing the crushing burdens of the exorbitant costs of cancer drugs, sometimes dictating a decision either to save one's own life or leaving enough for your family to live on; navigating the vagaries of old age and coping with malignancy; and patients' desire for dignity, dignity that we all want, rich or poor. These compassionate tales are a blend of storytelling, cancer science, and Rahman's personal reflections and struggles on making medical decisions that treat a patient as a whole person, not just as a person with a disease.

Fazlur Rahman's mother died tragically when he was only seven years old, but her words reverberated throughout his life: "Someday you will be a doctor, Fazlur, and save lives." Eventually, he fled his war-torn homeland and, after years of training in New York and Houston, became a cancer doctor. He could never have imagined that his medical career would unfold in remote West Texas and that he would be a pioneer oncologist for a vast region. Over a 35-year career, Rahman poured himself into not just taking care of his patients' challenging medical needs but learning from them, getting to know their lives, their families, and the circumstances that made each patient unique. He narrates the instructive stories of five cancer patients: surviving against all odds; walking a long path with cancer and still making a daily life; bearing the crushing burdens of the exorbitant costs of cancer drugs, sometimes dictating a decision either to save one's own life or leaving enough for your family to live on; navigating the vagaries of old age and coping with malignancy; and patients' desire for dignity, dignity that we all want, rich or poor. These compassionate tales are a blend of storytelling, cancer science, and Rahman's personal reflections and struggles on making medical decisions that treat a patient as a whole person, not just as a person with a disease.

A veteran cancer physician, Dr Fazlur Rahman's story is astonishing. He was born and raised in a Mullah family, an old-line Muslim clan, in a remote village in what is now Bangladesh, with its hardships and heartaches, its myths and superstitions. The people, places and cultures that he was a part of have almost entirely disappeared. The temples, mosques and palaces, though gone, come alive again in this beautifully written memoir. And the tales of love, suffering and fate of the village occupants are intertwined with Rahman's unlikely story of finding medicine and success in America. As a young boy, Rahman lost his mother, the heart of his family, and soon after, barely survived kala-azar, a parasitic illness. The Temple Road: A Doctor's Journey is an inspiring story of love, joy, suffering, medicine and achievement that takes readers from the jungles of Bangladesh to Dr Rahman's training in leading medical centers in New York and Houston, and the overwhelming emotions that come with his work as one of the most talented oncologists in the US.

This authoritative book argues that what is considered today to be Islamic fundamentalism is inconsistent with the true meaning of this faith. Rahman demonstrates that the true roots of Islamic teachings advocate adaptability, creativity, and innovation.