The Qur'an and the Secular Mind; A Philosophy of Islam (2008) - Shabbir Akhtar

8 Introduction
especially Islamic ones, since western culture has sanctified and empowered its
secularist ideology.
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This book has a complex structure. There are three chapters in Part I. In Chapter 1,
I explore the origins of Islam before locating contemporary Islam in a world of
rival faiths and ideologies. These tasks are factual and historical but nonetheless
interpretive; and all sustain broader conceptual and philosophical implications.
I discuss the life and ideological achievements of Muhammad as he was inspired
by the event of the Quran’s revelation. Muhammad started his ideological career
relatively late in life and he framed it entirely in terms of the descent of the Quran,
that is, 610 CE to 632. The Arabic Quran inspired a unique religious achievement
associated with a known historical figure.
Chapter 2 explores the office of secular reason, especially anxieties about its
proper role in the appraisal of revealed religion. Chapter 3 examines the moral
component in this tale of the emerging hostility between religions and the secular
world, with special reference to Islam, a faith that has prevented the emergence of
a tradition of conscientious atheism. I construct, as a by-product of this project, a
framework for a dialogue between Muslims and atheists (and agnostics) of various
leanings. This aim, self-consciously introduced in Chapter 3, remains a standing
item on our agenda.
Parts II and III focus on the Islamic scripture. Until recently in the West, understood
ideologically, not geographically, there was little serious scholarly interest in
the Quran in its own right as the founding script of a major world civilization. There
prevailed a special prejudice which prevented a western appreciation of the Quran:
the persistent orientalist myth of ‘primitive prophet, therefore primitive book’. In
this philosophical essay, I examine the Islamic scripture in its phenomenological
integrity rather than mine its contents for alleged biblical equivalents or, worse,
Christianize and liberalize its doctrines and imperatives to make these (falsely)
appear appealing to contemporary westerners.
This essay ranges over the whole of the Quran’s vast religious and conceptual
terrain. Quranic allusions and references to various themes may be unique, frequent
or routine. I cite a representative selection for key claims so that the number and
range of citations indicates the nature of the reference (isolated or occasional)
and the quality of the emphasis (consistent, repeated, or terminative). Fairly wellknown
literary material recording the normative deportment of Muhammad is
occasionally cited but only to supplement or reinforce an insight found in the
Quran.
The four chapters of Part II explore the status and authority of the Arabic Quran
against the backdrop of relevant secular (and some Judaeo-Christian) reservations.
In Part III, four further chapters investigate Quranic themes that challenge
the secular perspective: the alleged divine presence in nature and society, mediated
through the ‘signs of God’; religious faith and the varieties of rejection; the
Quran’s portrait of human nature; and the delicate task of making room for the