Charles le Gai Eaton (also known as Hasan le Gai Eaton or Hassan Abdul Hakeem; 1 January 1921 – 2010)
was a British diplomat, writer, historian, and
Sufi
Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
ic scholar.
Life and career
Early life
Born in
Lausanne
, neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...
,
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
, and raised in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
under the name Gai, Eaton was the son of the married Francis Errington and his
mistress
Mistress is the feminine form of the English word "master" (''master'' + ''-ess'') and may refer to:
Romance and relationships
* Mistress (lover), a term for a woman who is in a sexual and romantic relationship with a man who is married to a ...
, Ruth; to hide her son's
illegitimacy
Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, ''illegitimacy'', also known as '' ...
, Ruth claimed that she had been married to a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
, Charles Eaton (an invention of Errington's, by then supposedly deceased), and that Charles had fathered the child.
Eaton knew Errington only as a friend of the family until the age of 16, when his mother revealed the truth of his parentage.
Brought up
agnostic
Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient ...
, Eaton was educated at
Charterhouse School
(God having given, I gave)
, established =
, closed =
, type = Public school Independent day and boarding school
, religion = Church of England
, president ...
and
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...
, where he studied history and entered into a correspondence with the novelist
Leo Myers.
Diplomatic career
Having been passed over for military service during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
,
in the late 1940s and early 1950s he worked as a lecturer, teacher and newspaper editor in
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
(at
Cairo University
Cairo University ( ar, جامعة القاهرة, Jāmi‘a al-Qāhira), also known as the Egyptian University from 1908 to 1940, and King Fuad I University and Fu'ād al-Awwal University from 1940 to 1952, is Egypt's premier public university ...
)
and
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
, before joining the
British Diplomatic Service
His Majesty's Diplomatic Service (HMDS) is the diplomatic service of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, dealing with foreign affairs and representing British interests overseas, as opposed to the Home Civil Service, which ...
in 1959.
As a diplomat, Eaton's postings included the
Colonial Office
The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created to deal with the colonial affairs of British North America but required also to oversee the increasing number of col ...
outpost in Jamaica and the
Deputy High Commission office in
Madras
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, as well as others in
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...
and
Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
.
Eaton returned to the UK permanently in 1974 and retired from his diplomatic career three years later.
After retiring from diplomatic service in 1977, he spent the next 22 years as a consultant to the
Islamic Cultural Centre in London, where he also edited the Islamic Quarterly Journal.
Academic career
In 1951, with the encouragement of the
Sufi
Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...
academic
Martin Lings
Martin Lings (24 January 1909 – 12 May 2005), also known as Abū Bakr Sirāj ad-Dīn, was an English writer, Islamic scholar, and philosopher. A student of the Swiss metaphysician Frithjof Schuon and an authority on the work of William Sh ...
, Eaton
converted to Islam
Religious conversion is the adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religious denomination to the exclusion of others. Thus "religious conversion" would describe the abandoning of adherence to one denomination and affiliatin ...
.
He was inducted into Lings'
Darqawiyya
The Darqawiyya or Darqawi Sufi order is a revivalist branch of the Shadhiliyah brotherhood which originated in Morocco. The Darqawa comprised the followers of Sheikh Muhammad al-Arabi al-Darqawi (1760–1823) of Morocco. The movement, which became ...
Alwiyya ''
tariqa
A tariqa (or ''tariqah''; ar, طريقة ') is a school or order of Sufism, or specifically a concept for the mystical teaching and spiritual practices of such an order with the aim of seeking ''haqiqa'', which translates as "ultimate truth".
...
'' in 1975.
Eaton was a consultant to the
Islamic Cultural Centre at
Regent's Park Mosque in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
for 22 years.
In 1996, he served on the committee that drafted the constitution of the
Muslim Council of Britain
The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) is a national umbrella body with over 500 mosques and educational and charitable associations affiliated to it. It includes national, regional, local, and specialist Muslim organisations and institutions from ...
.
Eaton was frequently critical of mainstream
British Muslim
Islam is the second largest religion in the United Kingdom, with results from the 2011 Census giving the total population as 2,786,635, or 4.4% of the total UK population,[Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...]
in the 2000s. Regarding the
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...
, in an interview with
''Emel'' magazine, he stated, "I am very torn either way and I cannot quite make up my mind what I think ...
addamwas our monster, it should have been for us to deal with him. But we are so hopeless and helpless we leave it to other people who have their own motives and their own objectives."
In the same article, Eaton called for the creation of a British Islamic identity: "It is time for the Muslims in Britain to settle down, to find their own way, to form a real community and to discover a specifically British way of living Islam. The constant arrival of uneducated, non English-speaking immigrants from the
subcontinent
A continent is any of several large landmasses. Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, up to seven geographical regions are commonly regarded as continents. Ordered from largest in area to smallest, these seven ...
makes that more difficult."
His works include ''The Richest Vein'' (1949),
''King of the Castle: Choice and Responsibility in the Modern World'' (1977), ''Islam and the Destiny of Man'' (1994; listed on
Q News' list of "Ten Books to Take to University"), and ''Remembering God: Reflections on Islam'' (2000). He frequently contributed articles to the quarterly journal on comparative religion and traditional studies, ''
Studies in Comparative Religion''. Eaton's last book and autobiography, ''A Bad Beginning and the Path to Islam'' (2009), was published by
Archetype
The concept of an archetype (; ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis.
An archetype can be any of the following:
# a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that ot ...
in January 2010. Many British converts to Islam have been inspired by his books,
which are also expositions of Islam for
Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
readers, both religious and secular.
Gai Eaton was an adherent of the
Traditionalist School
The Traditionalist or Perennialist School is a group of 20th- and 21st-century thinkers who believe in the existence of a perennial wisdom or perennial philosophy, primordial and universal truths which form the source for, and are shared by, al ...
, along with
Frithjof Schuon
Frithjof Schuon (, , ; 18 June 1907 – 5 May 1998) was a Swiss metaphysician of German descent, belonging to the Perennialist or Traditionalist School of thought. He was the author of more than twenty works in French on metaphysics, spiritual ...
,
Martin Lings
Martin Lings (24 January 1909 – 12 May 2005), also known as Abū Bakr Sirāj ad-Dīn, was an English writer, Islamic scholar, and philosopher. A student of the Swiss metaphysician Frithjof Schuon and an authority on the work of William Sh ...
and others.
Personal life
![Gai Eaton Grave Brookwood](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Gai_Eaton_Grave_Brookwood.jpg)
From his first marriage (1944–50) to the actress Kay Clayton, he was the father of Leo Eaton (b. 1945),
an
Emmy-winning director and producer of documentary films.
In 1956, Eaton married Corah Hamilton, an expatriate
Jamaican artist, with whom he had one son and two daughters; Hamilton died in 1984.
Eaton was the grandson of the author and journalist
J. E. Preston Muddock.
He is buried in the Muslim Section of
Brookwood Cemetery
Brookwood Cemetery, also known as the London Necropolis, is a burial ground in Brookwood, Surrey, England. It is the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in Europe. The cemetery is listed a Grade I site in the Regist ...
.
References
External links
Autobiography at Salaam Books*
ttp://www.livingislam.org/k/thge.html "Texts (and Audio) by or related to Shaykh Hassan Gai Eaton"br>
Gai Eaton website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eaton, Charles Le Gai
20th-century British writers
20th-century British diplomats
20th-century scholars
21st-century British writers
Alumni of King's College, Cambridge
British autobiographers
British diplomats in East Asia
British essayists
British expatriate academics
British expatriates in Egypt
British expatriates in Jamaica
British historians
British newspaper editors
British people of Swiss descent
British religious writers
British Sufis
Cairo University faculty
Converts to Islam from atheism or agnosticism
Members of HM Diplomatic Service
20th-century Muslim scholars of Islam
People educated at Charterhouse School
People from Lausanne
Writers from London
Place of death missing
1921 births
2010 deaths
20th-century essayists
21st-century essayists
Burials at Brookwood Cemetery
Traditionalist School