Fr David Strong SJ, The Australian dictionary of Jesuit biography 1848-2015, Second Edition, 2017, post-publication supplement:
Jackson, Paul (HAZ)

Missionary, Islam scholar; born Brisbane, 11 June 1937; died Patna, India, 5 July 2020, aged 83.

Paul Jackson entered the Jesuits at Loyola College, Watsonia, 1 February 1956, and after noviciate and philosophy studies at Loyola, was missioned to India and the Hazaribag region in 1961.

After theology studies, 1965-69, Jackson taught in Jesuit high schools. Here, he was kept busy; dormitory prefect of 40 boys; sports administrator; study supervisor, and prefect. He taught 26 classes daily and was scout master; and oversaw the liturgy for Catholic boys; as well as in charge of the Jesuit community library. It was a complete life of service. Jesuits were forbidden to talk to the boys about Jesus, which raised the question with Jackson as to what he was doing at the school as a missionary who could not talk about Jesus to Hindu and Muslim boys.

The answer came soon after while listening to a lecture by the theological expert at Vatican II, Father Joseph Putz at Xavier's, who said that the Church should open all its doors and windows and reach out to all peoples. Jackson reflected that no one in Hazaribag was reaching out to Muslims; so, after experiencing anti-Muslim riots, thought he would respond to that need. This was to become his life-long vocation.

During theology studies he also studied Hebrew and Greek, and while teaching English to small boys in a mosque school, he would have an Urdu lesson with their teacher, followed by another Urdu teacher.

After theology, Jackson was first assigned to the Hazaribag parish, but soon after was shifted to Maheshmunda to take charge of a Hindi-medium middle school, as well as chaplain to a community of sisters. His next move was to the Hindi-medium high school in Mahuadanr as teacher, hostel-in-charge, and games master.

After a journey to Australia to visit his dying father in 1971, he studied for a B.A. in Urdu. Eventually, due to indifferent health, he moved to Delhi to study history at the Jamia Millia Islamia. During this time, he attended an international conference on the Sufi saint Baba Farid. He discovered that Sufis bring people together and thus he would study a Sufi as a way of entering the lives of the Muslims of Bihar. He studied Persian in Shiraz, Iran, 1974-75, and wrote a thesis on the Sufi saint, Sharafuddin Maneri, for which the Patna University awarded him a PhD (1976-80). Over the years, Jackson translated and commented upon Maneri's spiritual letters. He worked in the reading room of the Khuda Baksh library for 33 years, five days a week, initially for about eight hours a day, also working on Persian manuscripts that included a translation of Manieri's Hundred Letters. This was later published by Paulist Press as part of the series, The Classics of Western Spirituality, in March 1980.

Following a second heart attack in 2009, triple by-pass surgery and the insertion of an ICD, Jackson's work of translating and teaching ceased. But he did manage to edit the translation he had been working on, published as A Mine of Meaning. As his health continued to decline, Jackson was transferred to the Jesuit house for retired Jesuits. However, at the urging of his nephew, he wrote an autobiography entitled Crossing Barriers: A Jesuit Encounters a Sufi in India. Another book was revised and published, Guided by Maneri, as was an unpublished manuscript, A Jesuit Among Sufis. In his latter days Jackson wrote articles, mainly aimed at Christian and Muslim readers, drawing upon both Christian, and Ignatian, sources, and almost exclusively from Maneri's writings for the Muslim input. He was productive to the end.

Professor Akhtarul Wasey called Jackson a 'Catholic Sufi'. A Sufi is a Muslim mystic whose goal in life is to attain the union of love with God. Jackson was indeed a beautiful model Christian Sufi.

Father Christian Troll in his eulogy of Jackson wrote about his firm and unwavering faith, expressed in the Qur'an as certainty, and its fruits, inner peace, and stability. Friends remarked about his discipline and austerity of lifestyle, combined with a remarkable sense of humour. Unforgettable was his broad, loud, contagious laughter that easily filled a whole community refectory. Jackson suffered lifelong from asthma, and with advancing years with heart disease. The climate of Patna did not help his condition.

Remarkable was Jackson's attachment to one place, the Khuda Bakhsh Library, with one academic guide and friend, Professor Hasan Askari: to one city, Patna, and above all, to one subject, Maneri, and the treasure of his writings. Jackson believed that by studying this one saint, his research would be a key to understanding the core and essence of Muslim faith. For 25 years he would teach Jesuit students in Bihar a two-week course on contextualised Islam, an 'exposure to Islam', one that is lived, not as found in a book. Students would go out for field-experience, two by two for ten days, talking to middle class Muslims as well as Sufis, and then return to the seminary for reflection with Jackson.

He played a pivotal role in the foundation of the Islamic Studies association in 1979, being a relentless supporter of all its activities for four decades. He was its president and editor of Salaam for several years. One major publication of the association, The Muslims of India: Beliefs and Practices, was edited by Jackson. This book gave a basic understanding of Indian Muslims.

Jackson's life, dedicated to teaching and writing on Islam, and building spiritual communion and scholarly dialogue between Christians and Muslims, was a legacy that would be a constant source of inspiration for promotion of Christian-Muslim relations and guidance for inter-religious dialogue in Asia and beyond. This life and ministry were a proud link to the tradition of the historic Jesuit mission to the court of the great Mughal Emperor, Akbar, 1580-82, begun by Blessed Rudolf Acquaviva and companions.

(Reproduced by permission of Fr David Strong SJ.)