Mazhar Mallouhi

Mazhar Mallouhi

Mazhar Mallouhi (born 1935) is an Arab Syrian novelist and writer widely read in the Middle East. A self-described "Sufi Muslim follower of Christ," and having lived in many Arab countries, Mallouhi seeks to bridge the chasm of misunderstanding between Muslims and Christians through his novels and practical theology by demonstrating how Christ can bridge the gap between the two. Building on the common Middle-Eastern heritage the Christian faith shares with Islam, Mallouhi’s work illustrates the importance of removing Western cultural and religious trappings associated with Christ in the minds of Muslims.

Mallouhi has gained great respect among Muslim leaders and popularity with Muslim readers. His sound scholarship and literary giftedness have earned him unique acceptance in the literary and intellectual communities of the Middle East. He is the subject of Paul-Gordon Chandler’s book Pilgrims of Christ on the Muslim Road: Exploring a New Path Between Two Faiths, of which Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu says, “The issues dealt with in this timely book demonstrate God's divine embrace, providing a bridge in the gap."

Life

Mazhar Mallouhi, a well-known novelist in the Middle East, comes from a family that traces their lineage from the Prophet Muhammad. Coming from a Muslim background, when Mallouhi decided to follow the teachings of Christ (paradoxically through the life of Gandhi, a Hindu, because of Gandhi's personal fascination with Christ and commitment to following Christ’s Sermon on the Mount), he left Islam and its religious culture, at the encouragement of the Christian Church, and became culturally "Christian". Yet, from the beginning he struggled with this “foreign” identity, always sensing himself an outsider to Christianity and at the same time ostracized from his own Muslim community. Mallouhi’s life has been a journey toward again becoming an insider in Islamic circles. Today, he calls himself a "Muslim follower of Christ,” and he embodies the understanding that following Christ does not necessitate joining another religious (“Christian”) culture. Today he embraces his Middle Eastern, and even Islamic, roots. In his lifetime he has moved from being completely dislocated from his religious community to once again becoming an insider in Islamic society. Mallouhi’s life experience and approach to Islam is not one of radical discontinuity from his faith of origin and illustrates how a Muslim may follow Christ fully and remain an insider in Islam.

Work in the Muslim world

Mallouhi, who is said to be respected^{[weasel words]} by Muslim authorities as a "Muslim follower of Christ,” has become is a powerful force for peace and healing between Muslims and Christians throughout the Middle East and North Africa and an influential voice for the teachings of Christ within the Arab Muslim world. He has also greatly influenced Western circles, being a well-known figure to many Christian leaders focused on the Middle East and Islamic world. Mallouhi advocates a peaceful and sacrificial approach among Muslims, which is non-confrontational in nature, and focused on relationship. His approach is best described as one that "wages peace on Muslims," and seeks to build on the commonalities between the Christian and Muslim faiths.

Mallouhi exerts great effort to build on the common Middle Eastern cultural heritage the Christian faith shares with Islam. Perhaps his most significant contribution is that of effectively stripping Christ of his Western trappings and developing publications that present to Muslims a Christ who was born, lived and died in the Middle East. In addition to his novels, his most important projects focus on re-presenting the Christian Scriptures as the ancient Middle Eastern sacred writings that they are - returning them to their authentic Middle Eastern cultural origins for today.

Mallouhi's approach of presenting the Christian Scriptures as culturally Middle Eastern has resulted in unprecedented acceptance and access for them throughout the Arab Muslim world, as they do not bear stigma of "Christian" literature, and they have been endorsed by many Arab Muslim leaders. His most recent works are groundbreaking collaborations between Muslim and Christian scholars, such as An Eastern Reading of the Gospel of Luke, A Sufi Reading of the Gospel of John, and The True Meaning of the Gospel of Christ.

Mallouhi’s approach to communicating Christ has helped many Muslims learn about the Christ of the Gospels, albeit not necessarily through Christian channels and in Church circles. His consuming passion, evidenced in his writings and life work, is seeing his fellow Muslims come to know about Christ as clearly as possible by removing the Christian cultural and religious associations with Christ in their minds.

In 1998 Mallouhi founded Al Kalima, a publishing association, to publish and distribute books that build bridges of understanding between Muslims and Christians. All of Al Kalima's books are published by Dar Al Jil and Dar al-Farabi, major Arab publishers and distributors headquartered in Beirut, Lebanon. In 2005, Al Jazeera TV did a 30-minute program on Mazhar Mallouhi and his wife Christine.

Works

Mazhar Mallouhi’s primary works to date:

Novels

• The Traveler—first published in 1963 by Arabic Literature Mission (ALM), and now published by Dar Al Jil (Beirut, Lebanon)
• The Fugitive—first published in 1964 by Arabic Literature Mission and now published by Dar Al Jil (Beirut, Lebanon)
• Lost in the City—first published in 1967 by Arabic Literature Mission, and now published by Dar Al Jil (Beirut, Lebanon)
• The Long Night—first published in 1989 by Dar Al Jil (Beirut, Lebanon)
• Moment of Death—first published in 1991 by Dar Al Jil (Beirut, Lebanon)

Non-fiction

Mallouhi has written several Middle Eastern- and Muslim-focused presentations of the Christian Scriptures.

• An Eastern Reading of the Gospel of Luke (Dar Al Jil, Beirut, Lebanon, 1998)
• Genesis: The Origin of the World and Humanity (Dar Al Jil Beirut, Lebanon, 2001)
• A Sufi Reading of the Gospel of John (Dar Al Jil, Beirut, Lebanon, 2004)
• The True Meaning of the Gospel of Christ (Dar al-Farabi, Beirut, Lebanon, 2008---a new translation of the four Gospels and Acts into modern literary Arabic with academic annotation and articles)

Further reading

Books

Paul-Gordon Chandler. Pilgrims of Christ on the Muslim Road: Exploring a New Path Between Two Faiths: Cowley Publications (an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield), September 2007.

Articles

Paul-Gordon Chandler, Mazhar Mallouhi: Gandhi's Living Christian Legacy in the Muslim World: International Bulletin of Missionary Research, April 1, 2003.

External links

• Mazhar Mallouhi’s literary website

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Name	Mallouhi, Mazhar
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Date of birth	1935
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