Not Truth But Tolerance

Abstract

I should like to begin this essay with a sincere apology. More than five years have passed since Professor Atif Khalil penned his scholarly critique of some of my suggestive ruminations on intra-Islamic theological ecumenism in the introduction to my translation of Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghâzalî’s Fayṣal al-Tafriqa.1 While scholarly convention – not to mention etiquette ‒ would certainly demand a much more timely response than I have been able to manage, I am afraid that I can plead no better than to throw myself on the understanding of those who have insight into and appreciation for the various ways in which the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001 have skewed the scholarly agenda of many an Islamicist. I sincerely hope that this delay will not be construed as some kind of veiled or surreptitiously snide dismissal of Professor Khalil’s thoughtful analysis. I also hope that it will not have gone so far as to suggest any inability on my part to respond to what I shall argue amounts to a clever but ultimately wrong-minded critique ...