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‘Not a single word can be taken or heard in isolation. All represent nuclei of meaning that are cumulative and cohere, serving as triggers to activate the profoundest depths of religious consciousness’. Anthony John’s reflection on the language of the Qur’ān at the end of his essay on Job, speaks also to the quality of these essays which shine with the lucidity and humility of a lifetime’s scholarship. The Dye of God opens the spirituality of the Qur’ān and the manifold tradition of Islam, carefully and respectfully exploring its theological distinctiveness as well as its resonances with other Abrahamic faiths. This is a rich resource for deepening understanding between faith communities, and for encouraging all in the love of God. — Rev Dr Sarah Bachelard, Director, Benedictus Contemplative Church, Canberra, Australia
The author has found a way to give readers, even those without Arabic, some sense of the majesty of the Qur’ān’s language and the range of its concerns. These are studies of stories that tell of exhorting the great prophets to their most courageous resolutions, and of ministering to their moments of greatest frailty. By listening to the Qur’ānic stories so carefully, by finding the music in language to render them, and by meditating on the learned reflections of the great commentators who went before him, Johns is able to offer the modern reader an insight into why the narratives resonate through all aspects of Islamic life. — Dr AD Street, School of Divinity, Cambridge, UK
Anthony H Johns is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Department of Political and Social Change at the Australian National University of which he is Emeritus Professor. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Australian Catholic University. He was appointed to the then Canberra University College in 1958, and to the Foundation Chair of Indonesian Languages and Literature in the Faculty of Asian Studies of the Australian National University in 1963.
His appointment was in the context of a Commonwealth initiative to encourage Asian Studies at Australian Universities. His PhD (University of London) was on Sufism In the Malay World. In this position he developed the teaching of languages and the literary cultures of Indonesia. In the course of time, he gave increasing personal emphasis to the spiritual traditions of Islam in the wider Malay world with special reference to tasawwuf (mysticism) and Qur’ānic exegesis, stressing that Southeast Asia was an integral part of the world of Islam. Much of his research was an exploration of the spiritual and literary foot print in the region—or more poetically, the distribution of the tinctures of ‘The Dye of God’.
He has published a number of significant papers on the transmission and fecundation of Islamic learning in Malay/Indonesian language, leading, inter alia, to a continuing engagement with the text of the Qur’ān, and Qur’ānic exegesis. He has studied and taught in centres in Cairo, Jerusalem, Toronto, Oxford, London and other centres in the UK, as well as in Pakistan and Indonesia.
