Understanding Islam

Islam can be one of the most misunderstood religions. For some people, it is a religion of war, whilst for the others it is a religion of peace; as the literal translation of Islam into English indicates. So there is a great need for an academic and sympathetic understanding of Islam. The author introduces Islam in its many dimensions covering the main historical, theological, practical, ethical, spiritual, social, and global themes. The bed-rock of Islam is the unity of God based on the Qur'anic revelation. But on this foundation a wide diversity of approaches and understandings have been built, ranging from the theological, philosophical, and Sufistic to the fundamentalist, traditionalist, modernist and post-modernist of recent times. In this book, however, Islam is presented from a mainstream and moderate perspective.