The Field of Comparative Religion in Islamic Thought
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is taken from “Comparative Religion in Islamic Thought” by Shaykh Nur ad-Din Abu ‘Ubadah ‘Ali ibn Juma’ah. The discipline of comparative religion is characterised by investigation into religious doctrines, study of the extent of their verity, the points of commonalities as well as differences among them, and other related matters. Here we shall expound certain matters necessary to understand this discipline, its aims, and the possibility of achieving them. We shall not try to reconcile various contemporary scholarly positions, as they range over varied methodological and thematic approaches. At the outset, a number of methodological questions ought to be raised: Is it possible to simultaneously understand the manifest aspects of different religions thematically and also to approach them comparatively? And, if so, what comparative method ought to be followed? More broadly, how might we define the discipline of compara