The Bible: An Islamic Perspective - Paul and Early Christianity - Softcover

Jay R. Crook

9781567447347: The Bible: An Islamic Perspective - Paul and Early Christianity

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1567447341 ISBN 13: 9781567447347

Publisher: Kazi Publications, Inc., 2006

"The man who invented Christianity—St. Paul"; thus, Aldous Huxley. Paul and Early Christianity in The Bible: An Islamic Perspective series examines the life and work of the man whose divinization of Jesus, in the opinion of many Muslims, made the coming of the Prophet of Islam a cosmic necessity. The Quran, while making many references to Jesus, Mary, John the Baptist, and other Biblical figures, ignores Paul completely. The remarkable career of Paul, as told in the Bible and other early writings, is reviewed and compared with Surabadi’s medieval Islamic impression of it in his Commentary. By analyzing the Biblical record as well as Surabadi’s story, we may better appreciate Paul’s crucial role in the events that formed early Christianity and the reasons for Islam’s rejection of his Christology. Paul’s battles with the Law and his relations with James, Peter, and others, as well as the mystery of his fate, are detailed.

The Islamic versions of early stories such as the Companions of the Cave, Barsisa, and St. George are also reviewed. Finally, the author’s Afterword to the entire Bible completes the volume with a plea for mutual tolerance.

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About the Author:

Jay R. Crook (Md. Nur) was born in upstate New York, the second son of a clergman, but spent his formative years in the New York metropolitan area. A chance acquaitance awakened his interest in Islamic culture and civilization, and he soon embraced Islam. After completing his military service and saving some money, he traveled to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) to study for a few years. He wound up spending most of his working life in the Middle East, especially in Iran and Saudi Arabia. Hired by the Peace Corps as a field representative, he finished in 1971 as Deputy Director in the Iran program. He then enrolled in the Doctoral Program of Persian Literature for Foreigners at Tehran University and received his Ph.D. in 1978. His doctoral thesis was A Comparison of the Quranic Stories of Surabadi With the Bible. Much revised and expanded, it has become the core of The New Testament: an Islamic Perspective and its companion volume The Old Testament: an Islamic Perspective. Subsequent to leaving Iran in 1980, he worked as an English teacher in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia before retiring in 1997. He now resides in the American Southwest and has translated several books from Persian into English, including Kashifi’s The Royal Book of Spiritual Chivalry and Ghazzali’s The Alchemy of Happiness.

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