This is an insightful perspectives on the broader picture of what Islam is, based on the Qur’an. Written just after September 11, 2001. After the attack on September 11th, Greg Parsons contacted Dr. Cragg – a preeminent scholar on Islam, especially the Qur’an – and asked him what he would want to say about Islam at that key moment.

(This letter was published in the December 2001 Mission Frontiers magazine, on pages 21-22.)

Cragg was the co-editor of The Muslim World Journal and wrote many books related to Islam and Christian faith, long before it became popular to do so (after 9/11). A few of them are listed here:

• “The Call of the Minaret” (1956 and 1986)
• “Sandals at the Mosque: Christian Presence Amid Islam” (1959)
• “Alive to God: Muslim and Christian Prayer” (1970)
• “The Event of the Qur’an: Islam in its Scripture” (1971)
• “Readings in the Qur’an: Selected and Translated by Kenneth Cragg” (1988)
• “Troubled by Truth: Life-Studies in Inter-Faith Concern” (1992)

Note the typewritten response. One would wish he had someone to help him share much more of his experiences in these later days of his life. He died at 99 on November 13, 2012.