Honouring The Intellectual Legacy of Dr Shabir Akhtar

Ishtiaq Ahmed
Bradford: Dr Shabir Akhtar, was a British Muslim scholar, who sadly passed away just over a year ago. Friends and colleagues from the British intellectual community gathered at the University of Oxford to pay their respect to this genius of the intellectual world from the city of Bradford.

Dr Shabbir Akhtar was a British Muslim philosopher, poet, researcher, writer and multilingual scholar. He was one of the brightest of his generation of British Muslim scholars of Pakistani heritage.

Dr Akhtar, son of a bus driver, came to the UK from Pakistan at the tender age of 8 and went from a comprehensive school in Bradford to study philosophy at the University of Cambridge , St Catherine’s College, in 1980, achieving BA and MA in philosophy.

At the University of Cambridge , he was a student of the Catholic philosopher, Elisabeth Anscombe – one of the literary inheritors of Wittgenstein.

From there he went on to complete PhD in philosophy of religion at the university of Calgary Alberta, Canada , in 1984. His thesis being “Religion in the Age of Reason: Faith and the Apostasy of Humanism.

He returned to Bradford to work in racial equality field and rose to national prominence as a spokesperson for the Bradford Council for Mosques during the the’ Satanic Verses’ controversy, seen frequently on television advocating the Muslim case to the likes of Ian McEwan, Melvyn Bragg and Michael Ignatieff.

From there, Dr Shabir Akhtar went on to work for the Muslim Institute in London with Dr Kaleem Siddique, Malaysia, America and back to Britain with the Faculty of Theology and Religions at the University of Oxford.

He wrote and published several landmark books , tackling some of the most challenging topics , of these most notable being: The Quran and the Secular Mind: A Philosophy of Islam, The Final Imperative: An Islamic Theology of Liberation , A Faith for All Seasons: Islam and the Challenge of the Modern World.

The New Testament in Muslim Eyes: Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, Islam as Political Religion: The Future of an Imperial Faith, The Final Imperative: An Islamic Theology of Liberation, A Faith for All Seasons: Islam and the Challenge of the Modern World, and The Light in the Enlightenment: Christianity and the Secular Heritage , Be Careful with Muhammad!: The Salman Rushdie Affair and several others.

A number of his books have been translated in French, Indonesian, and Bosnian languages. He also contributed extensively to journals and book reviews. A prolific writer of exceptional intellect.

Dr Shabir Akhtar was an exceptional intellectual of great prowess. The intellectual world is much lesser without him. For me I have lost a friend. May his soul rest in peace. Ameen.