Book Announcement:  Islam and the Destiny of Man (Charles Le Gai Eaton)

Description:

Islam & the Destiny of Man is a wide-ranging study of the religion of Islam from a unique point of view. The author was brought up as an agnostic and embraced Islam at an early age after writing a book (commissioned by T. S. Eliot) on Eastern religions and their influence on Western thinkers. The aim of Islam and the Destiny of Man is to explain what it means to be a Muslim, a member of a community which embraces a quarter of the world’s population and to describe the forces which have shaped their hearts and minds. Throughout the book the author is concerned not simply with Islam in isolation, but with the very nature of religious faith, its spiritual and intellectual foundations and the light it casts upon the mysteries and paradoxes of the human condition. Charles Le Gai Eaton was born in Switzerland and educated at Charterhouse at King’s College, Cambridge. He worked for many years as a teacher and journalist in Jamaica and Egypt (where he embraced Islam in 1951) before joining the British Diplomatic Service. He is now a consultant to the Islamic Cultural Centre in London. His King of the Castle was brought out in a second edition by the Islamic Texts Society in 1990. SOME REV I E W S : ‘This is a beautifully written book. It offers a taste of theology, of history, of aesthetics and of eschatology blended in such a way as to provide a whole and balanced image, a vision of life that is both comprehensive and thoroughly Islamic.’ (Parabola) ‘The most remarkable accomplishment of this book is not that it leaves the reader with a basic understanding of Muhammad, the Qur’an and the daily practices of Muslims everywhere, although it certainly does these things. Nor does it lie merely in the clear, open, loving approach the author brings to his subject, though this is striking. Rather his main contribution lies in building bridges of understanding-in showing the Christian’s and the Jew’s essential oneness with the Muslim.’ (Joseph K. Blackman) ‘One ‘of the most important works on Islam to appear in the English language. It should be read by all Westerners interested in an understanding of the Islamic tradition and also by those Muslims who have become cut off from the authentic message of their own religion.’ (S. H. Nasr) ‘This is a book dealing with the most vital and crucial questions now agitating our lives’, (Muslim World Book Review) ‘Deserves to be read over and over again.’ (Muslim Education Quarterly)

Paperback: 242 pages
Publisher: State University of New York Press (February 1986)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 088706163X
ISBN-13: 978-0887061639

Available from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Islam-Destiny-Man-Suny/dp/088706163X