Islam

Abstract

This volume, which is the print component of an introduction to Islamiccivilization course produced by the Foreign Policy Association in cooperationwith National Public Radio and the University of Texas at Austin, wasmade possible by funds from the Exxon Education Foundation and the Corporationfor Public Broadcasting. Written specifically for adult readers withlittle or no background in Islamic studies, the book lacks the scholarlyparaphernalia of footnotes and diacritical marks.Divided into 14 chapters, the work features the writings of luminaries suchas Fazlur Rahman, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Francis Peters and John O. Voll,to name but a few of the list of contributors. Opening the work is the 28-pagechapter of Peter J. Awn, who gives a comprehensive and introspectiveaccount of Muslim faith and practice. He reminds his predominently Westernaudience that, contrary to the writings of educators, writers and journalistsin the West, Islam is historically a Western religion, deriving from the sameSemitic spritual sources as Judaism and Christianity. After pointing out thehistorical links between Islam and the other Semitic traditions, he goes onto discuss a number of issues in the Islamic religion. Awn’s discussion of thefive pillars of Islam is certainly refreshing, for it shows a sense of sympathyand understanding which has not yet been evident among many of the oldergenerations of Islamicists called orientalists. In his discussion of the diversityin the Muslim Ummah, Awn takes the position that the Sunni/Shite divideshould not be seen in terms of an orthodoxy/heterodoxy dichotomy. He goeson to explain the historical evolution of the tvcro communities in terms of politicsin the early Islamic state, and his account follows the familiar interpretationsin the Western works.The second chapter, written by University of Chicago Professor, Dr. FazlurRahman, treats us to a 25-page study of the Prophet Mohammad. Drawingfrom his earlier work, Professor Rahman gives a very illuminating historicalaccount of the Prophet’s struggle with the Meccan Polytheists. Indeed, whatmakes this chapter quite interesting is the manner in which the author ...