A faith for all seasons

It was said: 'Islam is the best religion with the worst followers'. After Rushdie, many say: Islam is the worst religion with the worst followers. In this unique book, Dr Shabbir Akhtar, himself a Muslim, argues that traditional Islam certainly has resources for a more congenial encounter with secular modernity.

The author censures his co-religionists for the current intellectual paralysis in Islamic circles. He believes that the beginning of the fifteenth Muslim century marks the end of an age of innocence. If Muslims are to repossess the legacy of Muhammad for the needs of the modern age, they must show their critics that Islam is a progressive and responsive faith.

A Faith for All Seasons is an attempt to create a Muslim response to western modernity - to set the agenda for the 'Islamic Enlightenment'. The author does not offer facile solutions to complex worries about a distinctively Muslim identity in an age of varied voices and irreligious confidences. But he does show us how believers can cultivate a reverent yet penetrating scepticism that teaches the ignorant, disturbs the orthodox while agitating and educating the different.