Islam, Religion, Practice, Culture and World Order

Abstract

Isma‘il al-Faruqi (1921-86), a reformer, a visionary, and a great modern scholar, wrote on several aspects of Islam and Muslim interactions with major spiritual traditions of the world. This short book is a collection of his brief reflections on Islam’s basic ideals. Thus it is not a research work, but rather an explication on how Islam should be comprehended on its own merit. Expressed in simple language to make its contents accessible to the general public and containing no references, it consists of seven parts each comprised of three or four chapters. The arrangement of topics was not chronological, even though one would have expected its editor, Imtiyaz Yusuf – one of al-Faruqi’s students – to pay attention to such order by rearranging the chapters. For example, one would logically expect the discussion of the isrOE’ and mi‘rOEj to come before the discussion of the hijrah ...