In trying to understand Islamic civilization, it is essential
to remember not only the diversity of the arts and the sciences, but also the diversity of theological and philosophical
interpretations of Islamic doctrines and even of Islamic Law.
There is nothing more erroneous than thinking that Islam is
a monolithic reality and that Islamic civilization did not
allow the creation or subsistence of diversity. Although a
sense of unity has at all times dominated everything Islamic,
there has always existed a diversity of interpretations of the
religion itself as well as various aspects of Islamic thought
and culture. The Prophet of Islam even considered the diversity of views of the scholars of the Islamic community a
blessing from God. When one studies Islamic civilization,
one sees not only differences of language and dress, writing
and singing, color of skin and physical features, cuisine, and
response to different climatic conditions, but also different
interpretations of verses of the Quran, sayings of the Prophet, and tenets of the Divine Law
as well as theological and philosophical questions. And yet a
remarkable unity predominates in the civilization, as it does
in the religion that created that civilization and has guided
its history over the ages.
In this book I hope to provide a clear and succinct introduction to the religion of Islam as well as its history and
civilization, at least in its intellectual aspects. The present
work, as all of my earlier writings on Islam, is written from
within the Islamic perspective and from the traditional point
of view, from the perspective of the sacred and universal
teachings of Islam as they were revealed and later transmitted over the ages. This point of view stands opposed to both
modernism and its complement, so-called fundamentalism,
and speaks from the view of those Muslims who have
remained faithful to their sacred traditions despite the
onslaught of the secularizing forces that have invaded the
Islamic world during the past two centuries and reactions to
those forces in the form of narrow “fundamentalism” or
extremism of one kind or another.
The norm in the Islamic world even today, despite all the
political tragedies that have befallen it, is not what many in
the media and popular literature in the West claim. It is not
religious extremism or “fundamentalism”; nor is it secularist
modernism. The norm is traditional Islam, in comparison to
which both secularist modernism and “fundamentalism” are
extremes. At the present juncture of human history, it is of
the utmost importance for Westerners who seek understanding
and goodwill to comprehend clearly the norm with respect
to which all forms of extremism must be measured. And it is
important to distinguish authentic knowledge of the subject
matter at hand from ideologically distorted accounts of it.
The present book is related especially to two other of my
works: Ideals and Realities of Islam and The Heart of Islam.
The first was written over thirty-five years ago and deals
solely with classical Islam from the traditional point of view.
According to some it has become a “classic” introduction to
this subject in many languages and has been reprinted
numerous times over the years. It does not, however, deal
with Islamic history and the intellectual aspects of Islamic
civilization, as does the present book. The Heart of Islam,
which is being published nearly at the same time as this
book, deals with various aspects of Islam in direct response
to the challenges posed by the tragedy of September 11,
2001, and the questions raised in the minds of many Westerners as a result of that horrific event. Each of these works
is distinct unto itself, and yet this book in a sense complements the other two. What they have in common, besides the
subject matter of Islam, is the universalist perspective and
respect for other religions, to which the Quran refers so often
and which has been my perspective in all of my writings for
more than four decades.
I hope that this short work will facilitate better mutual
understanding between Westerners and Muslims, an understanding essential to the survival of both East and West. I
wish to thank Stephen Hanselman of Harper San Francisco
for making the appearance of this volume possible. This
work was originally a part of Our Religions, edited by A. Sharma
and published by Harper. It has been revised and includes a
new introduction and bibliography. I also wish to thank
Katherine O’Brien for preparing the manuscript of this work
for publication.
Wa mātawfīqīillābi’Llāh
Bethesda, Maryland
June 2002
Rabī‘ al-awwal a.h.1423
