Prominent Scholar of Qur’an Dr Irfan Ahmad Khan Passes Away
By Dr A. Khan
Chicago, IL
Eminent scholar of the Qur’an, Dr Irfan Ahmad Khan, passed away in the morning of April 4, in Chicago. Dr Khan was 85 and he is survived by his wife, five daughters and two sons.
During the past five decades Dr Khan was zealously promoting the scholarship and understanding of the Qur’an. Just two weeks prior to his departure from this earthly abode, despite his poor health, he traveled to Georgia and California to promote scholarship and understanding of the Qur’an.
Dr Irfan Ahmad Khan, was born in UP, British India in 1931. After graduating from the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) with a BSc, he pursued higher studies in Qur’an and classical Arabic at Rampur. After completing his Master of Arts in Philosophy from AMU (1958), he taught western philosophy, Indian religions and Muslim theology (1958-1973). In the early 1960s, Dr Khan served as the editor of Islamic Thought – a journal dedicated to Islamic research. In 1974, he came to the United States and earned a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Illinois at Chicago. During the past four decades, Dr Khan taught Western and Islamic Philosophy at various schools in the United States.
Dr Khan was a founding trustee of the Parliament of World’s Religions and International Committee for the Peace Council and the Interfaith Engagement Project for the 21st century. Dr Khan also served as the director of the Association for Quran’ic Understanding which promoted understanding of theQur’an though a global networking among scholars.
Dr Khan authored many articles and two major books on the Qur’an and Islam and won accolades for his scholarship. Contrary to the opinion of many scholars, Dr Khan believed that the Qur’an should be understood directly by the reader.
Dr Khan’s magnum opus Reflections on the Qur’an: Understanding Surahs Al-Fatihah & Al-Baqarah, features Qur'anic translation and commentary. He used innovative thematic structure approach for Qur’anic exegesis.
Reflecting on Dr Khan’s scholarship for his book “Understanding the Qur’an,” Dr Joseph Elder, Professor of Sociology, Languages and Cultures of Asia, University of Wisconsin, Madison, had observed, “Dr Khan’s path-breaking contribution helps understanding the Qur’anic text ‘with one’s own minds.’…It is a remarkable achievement for which readers will be deeply grateful.” In the preface of the book, Dr Khan observes, “In Qur’an, it is God, the Lord of the Humankind, Who is talking to God’s servants. It is an open book which invites each human to its reading. We are supposed to listen to the Divine Words attentively and strive to understand it…I believe that understanding the Book (Qur’an) is a continuing process – as Prophet (pbuh) exclaimed: ‘its treasures will never be exhausted.’ …In a plural world where we have readers of other scriptures one should know how to respect each other, how to learn from each other, and how to work together in this global village for our common good. The Qur’an claims itself to be the last edition of the Book, given to Moses (pbuh), Jesus (pbuh), and other messengers of God. We will request even the non-believers to give it a trial. Maybe they can see the possibility of its Divine origin!”
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) had said: “The best among you is the one who learns Qur’an and teaches it…” Dr Irfan Ahmad Khan was a living example of this Hadith. May Allah (SWT) bless his soul for his great service to the Qur’an.
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