BOOK REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW Name of the Book: The Blackwell Companion to Contemporary Islamic Thought No. of pages: 696 ISBN-13: 978-1405121743 Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell In this issue of Spirit of Islam, we present the book The Blackwell Companion to Contemporary Islamic Thought. The book is a compilation of research papers on various contemporary Muslim intellectuals and Islamic movements. Each paper in the book is penned by different writers and the collection is edited by Mr Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi‘. In the words of the editor, “The Blackwell Companion to Contemporary Islamic Thought (presents) the works of those Muslim intellectuals who represent a variety of social and intellectual positions, and in that sense the various articles in this Companion will help us appreciate the core ideas discussed by some of the main intellectuals in the contemporary Muslim world.” Chapter 4 of the book is titled Islamic Thought in Contemporary India: The Impact of Maulana Wahiduddin Khan’s Al-Risala Movement. This paper is written by Mr Irfan A. Omar. He is an Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies at Marquette University. He is co-editor (with Bradford E. Hinze) of Heirs of Abraham: The Future of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Relations (Orbis, 2005). He served as guest editor for the special issue of Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations (Birmingham, UK), entitled, “Islam in Dialogue,” 15/1 (January 2004), and is currently an associate editor of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies. The following is a selection from this paper. For the sake of uniformity, certain spelling changes have been made. Introduction Maulana Wahiduddin Khan has had a rather challenging and, by all standards of scholarly rigour, a productive and stimulating life. His writings continue to fill the pages of the monthly journal Al-Risala