An Endless Search - Syed Hasan Askari interview by Rev Earl Hanna

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• published: 06 Mar 2016
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Inter-faith pioneer Prof. Syed Hasan Askari interviewed by Rev'd Earl Hanna - 1988 radio show "An Endless Search". A beautiful encounter through dialogue between spiritual seekers. At the time of the interview Prof Askari was Louise Iliff Visiting Professor at Iliff School of Theology in Denver. For more about the visionary work of Prof Syed Hasan Askari (1932-2008) please visit www.spiritualhuman.wordpress.com Professor Syed Hasan Askari (1932-2008) an inter-faith pioneer. He figures as one of the eight important Muslim thinkers in Kenneth Cragg’s The Pen and the Faith & acknowledged in the West as an uncompromising advocate for inter-religious spirituality. He lectured-taught at several universities in India, Lebanon, Germany, Holland, Britain and the United States. He was also Louise Iliff Visiting Professor at Iliff School of Theology in Denver. Hasan Askari was an early Muslim respondents to the Christian initiative to Dialogue figuring extensively in the study, “Striving Together in the Way of God: Muslim Participation in Christian-Muslim Dialogue” by Dr Charles Kimball who writes, “Hasan Askari is among the most active and visible Muslims engaged in interreligious dialogue. Since 1970, he has participated in numerous international and local dialogue meetings & lectured widely on various dimensions of what he terms “inter-religion”…His prominence in the field of Christian-Muslim encounter is noted by Kenneth Cragg, a pioneer and acknowledged authority in the area of Christian-Muslim relations." Hasan Askari’s works include The Experience of Religious Diversity – co edited with the late Professor John Hick, Spiritual Quest – An Inter Religious Dimension, Towards a Spiritual Humanism – A Muslim Humanist Dialogue, Alone to Alone : From Awareness to Vision, Seers & Sages, Solomon's Ring : The Life and Teachings of a Sufi Master, Inter-Religion. Professor Jane I Smith (formerly at Harvard Divinity School) writes, “This is the deeper dimension of interfaith conversation to which Hasan Askari calls persons of religious sensitivity, a dialogue that leads not simply to a new epistemology but to what he would call a new ontology. A long time partner in dialogue sessions sponsored through the World Council of Churches and other agencies, Askari has been a courageous and sometimes lone voice urging that conversation move to levels at which this kind of transformation indeed can take place. A philosopher, a mystic, an historian and a social scientist, Askari pleads with religious persons everywhere to transcend the limitations we have placed on ourselves and to move together to new levels of understanding.” Hasan Askari was committed to co-presence & dialogue between diverse forms of spirituality and he emphasised the urgent need to revive the discourse on soul and promoting Spiritual Humanism as an alternative ideology. Hasan Askari's article "From Inter-religious Dialogue to Spiritual Humanism", I have always looked at religious diversity with a sense of wonder...The intuition underlying the ancient saying, "the lamps are many but the light is one," gently led me on to look for a theological affirmation and validation of more than one religion...I clearly realized that transcendental reality could not be equated with any one religious form...Each religious form should then express the beauty and the splendour, and the transcendence and the mystery, of the Supreme One...By the theological affirmation of religious diversity, our coming together in dialogue becomes akin to an act of worship, our exclusive witness is transformed into co-witness." "As soon as you talk of the soul you talk of the whole of Humanity. There is no other conclusion." (Syed Hasan Askari)