Islam and the Destiny of Man

253 Pages·10.919 MB·English

by  Gai Eaton

ISLAM
AND THE
DESTINY
OF MAN
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2021 with funding from
Kahle/Austin Foundation
https://archive.org/details/islamdestinyofma0000eato_r5o7
ISLAM
AND THE
DESTINY
OF MAN
GAI EATON
Published
in association with
The Islamic
Texts Society
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS
THE ISLAMIC TEXTS SOCIETY
Iranian Garden Carpet C. 1800
cover photograph courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Gift of William R. Pickering, 1967.
Title letterforms courtesy Marjorie Corbett;
Cover design by Sushila Blackman.
©The Islamic Texts Society/George Allen & Unwin (Publishers) Ltd
This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. No reproduction
without permission. All rights reserved.
First published in U.S.A, by State University of New York Press,
Albany, 1985
American rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied
in critical articles and reviews.
For information, address:
State University of New York Press
State University Plaza
Albany, N.Y. 12246
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Eaton, Charles Le Gai, 1941-
Islam and the destiny of man.
(SUNY series in Islam)
“Published in association with the Islamic Texts Society.”
Includes index.
1. Islam I. Title II. Series.
BP16L2.E27 1985 297 85-14877
ISBN 0-88706-161-3
ISBN 0-88706-163-X (pbk.)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
1 have relied principally upon The Glorious Koran (Muhammad Picthall,
published by Allen & Unwin) and The Message of the Qur’an (Muham­
mad Asad, published by Dar al-Andalus) for translations of Quranic
verses quoted in this book, and upon Mishkat al-Masdbih (translated by
James Robson, published by S. Muhammad Ashraf, Lahore) for many of
the ahadith. I am indebted to the late Eric Schroeder’s remarkable collec­
tion of early, texts, Muhammad’s People (published by The Bond Wheel­
wright Company, Portland, Maine in 1955), for many of the anecdotes
quoted in Chapters 7 and 8.
SUNY series in Islam
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Editor
At a time when so much attention is concentrated upon the role of Islam on
the stage of contemporary history, it is important to focus upon the roots
and sources of Islam and the spirituality which has infused it over the ages
and which has been and remains its perennial fountainhead of energy and
rejuvenation. In this series, under the general editorship of Seyyed Hossein
Nasr, works of a scholarly nature which at the same time treat the spiritual
aspects of the Islamic tradition will be made available to the English-
speaking public. Some of these books concern the Islamic religion itself,
others its inner dimension as contained in Sufism, and yet others the
intellectual teachings of those schools which have been intertwined with
and are inseparable from islamic spirituality and which in fact represent a
most important expression of this spirituality. It is hoped that in this way
the series will provide a more in depth knowledge of Islam and the Muslim
peoples at a moment when broad and yet profound knowledge of the
Islamic tradition has become so necessary for the contemporary world.
CONTENTS
Introduction page 1
Part I AN APPROACH TO THE FAITH
1 Islam and Europe 9
2 Continuity and Contrast 31
3 Truth and Mercy 52
Part II THE MAKING OF THE FAITH
4 The World of the Book 73
5 The Messenger of God 96
6 The City of the Prophet 112
7 The Successors 130
8 The Way of the World 144
Part III THE FRUITS OF THE FAITH
9 The Rule of Law 163
10 The Human Paradox 181
11 Art, Environment and Mysticism 203
12 Other Dimensions 223

INTRODUCTION
Religion is a different matter.
Other subjects may lend themselves, in varying degree, to objective
study, and in some cases personal commitment serves only to distort what
should be a clear and balanced picture. Religion is a different matter
because here objectivity only skims the surface, missing the essential. The
keys to understanding lie within the observer’s own being and experience,
and without these keys no door will open. This is particularly true of Islam,
a religion which treats the distinction between belief and unbelief as the
most fundamental of all possible distinctions, comparable on the physical
level to that between the sighted and the blind. Believing and understand­
ing complement and support one another. We do not seek for an adequate
description of a landscape from a blind man, even if he has made a
scientific study of its topography and has analyzed the nature of its rocks
and vegetation. In Islam every aspect of human life, every thought and
every action, is shaped and evaluated in the light of the basic article of
faith. Remove this linchpin and the whole structure falls apart.
For the unbeliever this article of faith is meaningless and, in conse­
quence, nothing else in the life of the Muslim makes sense. Even for the
faithful Christian the ،sublime’ and the ،mundane’ relate to different
dimensions, and he is disturbed by any confusion between the two. Islam
does not recognize this division. For the Muslim, his worship and his
manner of dealing with his bodily functions, his search for holiness and his
bartering in the market, his work and his play are elements in an indivisible
whole which, like creation itself, admits of no fissures. A single key unlocks
the single door opening on to the integrated and tight-knit world of the
Muslim.
That key is the affirmation of the divine Unity, and of all that follows
from this affirmation, down to its most remote echoes on the very
periphery of existence, where existence touches on nothingness. Islam is
the religion of all or nothing, faith in a Reality which allows nothing to
have independent reality outside its orbit; for if there were such a thing,
however distant, however hidden, it would impugn the perfection and the
totality of that which alone is.
It follows that one cannot speak of Islam without adopting a specific
point of view and making that point of view quite explicit. This book is
written by a European who became Muslim many years ago, through
intellectual conviction and within the framework of a belief in the tran­
scendent unity of all the revealed religions. The word ،convert’ implies the