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[[File:Ismail-al-faruqi-photo.jpg|thumb|upright|Isma'il Raji' al-Faruqi]]

'''Ismaʻīl Rājī al-Fārūqī''' (إسماعيل راجي الفاروقي January 1, 1921 – May 27, 1986) was a  [[Palestinian people|Palestinian]]-[[United States|American]] philosopher. He spent several years at [[Al-Azhar University]] in [[Cairo]], then taught at several universities in North America, including [[McGill University]] in [[Montreal]]. He was Professor of Religion at [[Temple University]], where he founded and chaired the [[Islamic Studies]] program. Al-Faruqi was also the founder of the [[International Institute of Islamic Thought]]. He wrote over 100 articles for various scholarly journals and magazines in addition to 25 books, the most notable being ''Christian Ethics: A Historical and Systematic Analysis of Its Dominant Ideas''. He also established the Islamic Studies Group of the American Academy of Religion and chaired it for ten years. He served as the vice president of the Inter-Religious Peace Colloquium, The Muslim-Jewish-Christian Conference and as the president of the [[American Islamic College]] in [[Chicago]].

==Early life and education==
Al-Faruqi was born in [[Jaffa]], in British-mandate [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]]. His father, 'Abd al-Huda al-Faruqi, was an Islamic judge (''[[qadi]]'') and a religious man well-versed in Islamic scholarship. Faruqi received his religious education at home from his father and in the local mosque. He began to attend the French Dominican [[Collège des Frères de Jaffa]] in 1936.

His first appointment was as a registrar of cooperative societies (1942) under the [[Mandatory Palestine|British Mandate]] government in [[Jerusalem]], which appointed him in 1945 as the district governor of [[Galilee]]. After the partition plan of [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]], and the creation of the independent [[Jewish]] state of [[Israel]] in 1948, al-Faruqi at first emigrated to [[Beirut]], [[Lebanon]], where he studied at the [[American University of Beirut]], then enrolled the next year at [[Indiana University Bloomington|Indiana University]]'s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, obtaining his M.A. in [[philosophy]] in 1949. He was then accepted for entry into [[Harvard University]]'s department of philosophy and was awarded his second M.A. in philosophy there in March 1951, with a thesis entitled ''Justifying the Good: [[Metaphysics]] and [[Epistemology]] of Value'' (1952).

His dissertation was deeply influenced by the phenomenology of [[Max Scheler]] (1874–1928), particularly the latter's notion of [[axiological intuitionism]]. Al-Faruqi argued that Scheler's axiological intuitionism privileged feeling as knowing, thus recognizing the logic of the heart as an ''a priori'' emotional intuition of value. Such recognition could justify carving out a conceptual as well as practical space for the emergence of a critique of post-Enlightenment Reason from the standpoint of a non-Western philosopher. However, he decided to return to Indiana University; he submitted his thesis to the Department of Philosophy and received his Ph.D. in September 1952. By then he had a background in classical philosophy and the developing thought of the Western tradition. At the beginning of 1953, he and his [[Lois Lamya al-Faruqi|wife]] were in [[Syria]]. He then moved to [[Egypt]], where he studied at Al-Azhar University (1954–1958) again to acquire another Ph.D.

In 1958, al-Faruqi was offered a position as a visiting fellow at the Faculty of Divinity at [[McGill University]] in [[Canada]]. During his two-year tenure at McGill, he studied Christian theology and Judaism and became acquainted with the famous Pakistani Muslim philosopher [[Fazlur Rahman Malik|Fazlur Rahman]]. During these years, al-Faruqi was preoccupied with his anti-Zionist Arab identity. Rahman reminisced in 1986 that al-Faruqi's blunt anti-Zionism and his refusal to play the detached scholar "frightened" his McGill colleagues. Although he was soft-spoken with unfailing smiles, at McGill he was considered to be, in Rahman's words, "an angry young Muslim Palestinian". In order to challenge al-Faruqi's Arabocentric views of Islam, and to broaden his scope of understanding the [[ummah]], in 1961, Rahman arranged a two-year appointment for him in Pakistan at the Central Institute of Islamic Research. Rahman intended to expose al-Faruqi to the cultural diversity of Muslims and their contributions to Islam. "Except", Rahman (1986) later recalled, "it was his Arabism which drew a great deal of fire both inside and outside the Institute, as well as his academic preference for Cairo".

==From Arabism to Islamism==

In 1963, after returning to the United States, he was hired as a visiting professor at the [[University of Chicago|University of Chicago's]] [[University of Chicago Divinity School|Divinity School]]. Between 1964 and 1968, al-Faruqi established himself as an associate professor at the Department of Religion at [[Syracuse University]], where he initiated its programme in Islamic Studies. In 1968, he accepted a position at [[Temple University]] as a professor of religion, where he also founded the Islamic Studies Programme. He held that position until his death in 1986.

Much of al-Faruqi's early thought is associated with what he called ''urubah'' (Arabism). In his 1962 book, ''On Arabism: Urubah and Religion'', he argued that urubah comprises the core identity and set of values which embrace all Muslims, a single community of believers ([[ummah]]). Al-Faruqi formulated the notion of ''urubah'' in contradistinction to two other hegemonic ideologies: [[Arab nationalism]] and non-Arab [[Islamic revivalism]]. Adopting an overtly essentialist position, he argued that more than merely the language of the [[Qur'an]], Arabic provided the only possible linguistic structure within which the Islamic conception of the world could be apprehended. Therefore, he asserted that ''urubah'' captured the core of Muslim consciousness, its values and faith – it was inseparable from the identity of all Muslims (al-Faruqi, 1962: 2–30).

He also maintained that ''urubah'' was the only context within which the non-Muslim Arab countries could integrate into their larger societies. Even non-Muslim Arabs, according to al-Faruqi, could identify with ''urubah'' expressed in the Qur'an. In effect, ''urubah'' left non-Muslim Arabs and non-Arab Muslims at the mercy of combined linguistic and religious essentialisms. Any other form of consciousness and identity was a distortion created by colonial penetration (al-Faruqi, 1962: 211).

Though few would question Arab influence on non-Arab Muslim faith and culture or Arab Muslim influence on non-Muslim Arabs, the implication that they both find their ultimate expression and fulfilment in al-Faruqi's interpretation of Arabism might be regarded by some as an attempt to establish the hegemony of Arab Islam or, more precisely, Arab Muslim culture. Both Arab nationalists and non-Arab Muslim intellectuals shunned al-Faruqi's agenda to bring non-Arab Muslims and non-Muslim Arabs together through ''urubah''. While many Muslim intellectuals such as Fazlur Rahman agreed with al-Faruqi's assertion that the Qur'an could not achieve the same eloquence and expressiveness in any other language except Arabic, they were critical of al-Faruqi's blatant Arab chauvinism. Al-Faruqi's sojourn in Pakistan did little to alter his doctrine of ''urubah''.

It was in the United States several years later that he began to question the foundations of his earlier position. In 1968, for the first time, he encountered members of the Muslim Students' Association (MSA) at Temple University. The convergence of Muslim students from diverse cultural backgrounds dramatically swayed his perception of Arab versus Islamic identity. In the spring of 1968, while a patient at the Johns Hopkins Ophthalmology Centre, al-Faruqi confided in one of the active members of the MSA, Ilyas Ba-Yunus, "Until a few months ago, I was a Palestinian, an Arab, and a Muslim. Now I am a Muslim who happens to be an Arab from Palestine" (Ba-Yunus, 1988: 14).

==Scholarly Achievements==

[[File:Almarhum-ismail-al-faruqi-signature.png|thumb|Signature]]

Al-Faruqi's early emphasis was on [[Arabism]] as the vehicle of [[Islam]] and Muslim identity. He was also one of those who proposed the idea of [[Islamization of knowledge]] and founded the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) together with [[Taha Jabir Alalwani]], [[Abdul Hamid AbuSulayman]], former Rector of [[International Islamic University Malaysia]] (IIUM), and [[Anwar Ibrahim]], in 1980. 

During his years as a visiting professor of Islamic studies and scholar-in-residence at [[McGill University]], a professor of Islamic studies at [[Karachi]]'s Central Institute of Islamic Research as well as a visiting professor at various universities in Northern America, he wrote over 100 articles for various scholarly journals and magazines in addition to 25 books, of the most notable being ''Christian Ethics: A Historical and Systematic Analysis of Its Dominant Ideas''. He also established the Islamic Studies Group of the [[American Academy of Religion]] and chaired it for ten years. He served as the vice president of the Inter-Religious Peace Colloquium, The Muslim-Jewish-Christian Conference and as the president of the [[American Islamic College]] in [[Chicago]].

Al-Faruqi viewed the existence of [[Israel]] as an affront towards [[Judaism]] due to its state ideology of [[Religious anti-Zionism#In Islam|Zionism]]. He said that the injustice caused by Zionism is such as to necessitate war. He proposed a resolution in which Israel is dismantled and its institutions de-Zionised, and that former Israeli Jews who have renounced Zionism would live as an "ummatic community" and move freely throughout the Muslim world:{{quote|[Islam] requires the Jews to set up their own rabbinic courts and put its whole executive power at its disposal. The ''shari'ah'', the law of Islam, demands that all Jews submit themselves to the precepts of Jewish law as interpreted by the rabbinic courts, and treats defiance or contempt of the rabbinic court as rebellion against the Islamic state itself, on a par with like action on the part of a Muslim vis-à-vis the Islamic court."

==Death==
In May 1986, Al-Faruqi and his wife were murdered in their Pennsylvania home, in a knife attack committed by Joseph Louis Young, who was also known as Yusuf Ali. Young confessed to the crime and was sentenced to the death penalty and died in prison of natural causes in 1996.

==Bibliography==
===Books===
* (1953) ''From Here We Start'', tr. from the Arabic of K.M. Khalid. [[Washington, DC]]: [[American Council of Learned Societies]]
* (1953) ''Our Beginning in Wisdom'', tr. from the Arabic of M. al Ghazali. Washington, DC: American Council of Learned Societies
* (1953) ''The Policy of Tomorrow'', tr. from the Arabic of M. B. Ghali. Washington, DC: American Council of Learned Societies
* (1962) ''`Urubah and Religion: An Analysis of the Dominant Ideas of Arabism and of Islam as Its Heights Moment of Consciousness'', vol. 1 of ''On Arabism'', [[Amsterdam]]: Djambatan
* (1964) ''Usul al Sahyuniyah fi al Din al Yahudi'' (An Analytical Study of the Growth of Particularism in Hebrew Scripture). [[Cairo]]: Institute of Higher Arabic Studies
* (1968) ''Christian Ethics: A Systematic and Historical Analysis of Its Dominant Ideas''. Montreal: [[McGill University Press]] and Amsterdam: Djambatan, Amsterdam
* (1980) ''Islam and the Problem of Israel''. [[London]]: The Islamic Council of Europe {{ISBN|983-9541-34-X}}
* (1982) ''Trialogue of the Abrahamic Faiths'', ed. [[Herndon, Virginia|Herndon]], [[Virginia|VA]]: IIIT {{ISBN|0-915957-25-6}}
* (1982) ''Islamization of Knowledge''. Herndon, VA: IIIT
* (1982) ''Tawhid: Its Implications for Thought and Life''. [[Kuala Lumpur]]: IIIT
* (1985) ''Islam and Other Faiths''. [[Beltsville, Maryland|Beltsville]], [[Maryland|MD]]: Amana Publications
* (1986) ''The Cultural Atlas of Islam''. New York: [[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]]

===Posthumous===
* (2012) Imtiyaz Yusuf, ''Islam: Religion, Practice, Culture & World Order'', London: IIIT 
* (2021) Imtiyaz Yusuf, ''Essential Writings: Ismail Al Faruqi'', Kuala Lumpur: IBT Books

===Articles===
* "On the Ethics of the Brethren of Purity and Friends of Fidelity (''Ikhwan al Safa wa Khillan al Wafa''')", ''[[The Muslim World]]'', vol. L, no. 2, pp.&nbsp;109–21; no. 4, pp.&nbsp;252–58; vol. LI, no. 1, pp.&nbsp;18–24
* "On the Significance of Reinhold Niebuhr's Ideas of Society", ''[[Canadian Journal of Theology]]'', vol. VII, no. 2, pp.&nbsp;99–107. Reprinted in ''Muslim Life'', vol. XI, no. 3 (Summer 1964): 5–14

===In the press===
* ''An Anthology of Readings on Tawhid''. [[Kuwait]]: IIFSO
* ''Training Program for Islamic Youth''. Kuwait: IIFSO
* ''The Life of Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab''. [[Riyadh]]: The Ministry of Higher Education

==References==
* Muhammad Shafiq, ''Growth of Islamic Thought in North America: Focus on Isma'il Raji al Faruqi'', Amana Publications, 1994 {{ISBN|0-915957-16-7}}
* Imtiyaz Yusuf, [https://www.amazon.com/Islam-Knowledge-Faruqis-Concept-Religion/dp/178076068X Islam and Knowledge: Al Faruqi's Concept of Religion in Islamic Thought] London: [[I. B. Tauris]], 2012. Festschrift in honor of Prof. Ismail al-Faruqi.

==External Links==
* [https://ismailfaruqi.com Ismail Faruqi Online] Website on the life and works of Dr. Ismail Faruqi