Ismail I

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Lore & Background

Al-Faruqi was born in Jaffa, in British-mandate Palestine, to a father who was an Islamic judge (qadi). He received his early religious education at home and in the local mosque. In 1936, he began attending the French Dominican Collège des Frères de Jaffa. Later he moved to Beirut, Lebanon, to study at the American University of Beirut (AUB), where he was influenced by Arab nationalist movements and prominent Christian Arab nationalists such as Constantin Zureiq, Nabih Amin Faris and Nicola Ziadeh. In 1942, he was appointed as a registrar in the Arab Cooperative Societies under the British Mandate government in Jerusalem. In 1945, he became the district governor of Galilee. Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, he enrolled at Indiana University, obtaining his M.A. in philosophy with a thesis titled 'The Ethics of Reason and the Ethics of Life (Kantian and Nietzschean Ethics)' in 1949. He followed this with a second M.A. in philosophy from Harvard University in 1951 and earned his Ph.D. with a thesis titled 'On Justifying the Good' from Indiana University in 1952. During this period, he met and married Lois Lamya al-Faruqi. Within six years of arriving in the United States, he recognized the need for a more thorough study of Islam, which led him to study at Egypt's Al-Azhar University from 1954 to 1958.

Reader's Guide

Al-Faruqi taught at McGill University in Canada from 1958 to 1961, then in Pakistan at the Central Institute of Islamic Research in Karachi as a visiting professor until 1963. In 1964, he returned to the United States, holding concurrent roles as a visiting professor at the University of Chicago's Divinity School and as an associate professor at Syracuse University. In 1968, he joined Temple University as a professor of religion, where he founded the Islamic Studies Program and held the position until he died in 1986. A prolific author, he published over 100 scholarly articles and 25 books, including 'Christian Ethics: A Historical and Systematic Analysis of Its Dominant Ideas' (1967) and 'Al-Tawhid: Its Implications for Thought and Life' (1982). He also co-founded the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) and played an active role in interfaith and Muslim educational initiatives. In May 1986, al-Faruqi and his wife, Lois Lamya al-Faruqi, were murdered in their home in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, by Joseph Louis Young, also known as Yusuf Ali. Young confessed to the crime, was sentenced to death, and died in prison of natural causes in 1996. Their daughter, Anmar el-Zein, who was pregnant at the time, survived multiple stab wounds and required extensive medical treatment.

Did You Know?

• Al-Faruqi's father, 'Abd al-Huda al-Faruqi, was an Islamic judge (qadi).
• He earned two M.A. degrees in philosophy—one from Indiana University in 1949 and another from Harvard University in 1951—before earning his Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1952.
• His first doctoral student at Temple University was John Esposito.
• Al-Faruqi and his wife were murdered in their home in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, in May 1986.
• Their daughter Anmar el-Zein, who was pregnant at the time, survived multiple stab wounds and required extensive medical treatment.