"An Introduction to Islam, Fourth Edition, provides students with a thorough, unified and topical introduction to the global religious community of Islam. In addition, the author's extensive field work, experience, and scholarship combined with his engaging writing style and passion for the subject also sets his text apart. An Introduction to Islam, places Islam within a cultural, political, social, and religious context, and examines its connections with Judeo-Christian morals. Its integration of the doctrinal and devotional elements of Islam enables readers to see how Muslims think and live -- engendering understanding and breaking down stereotypes."--Publisher's website.

Includes maps of: Arabian Peninsula and the Near East; Global Map of Muslim Populations.

Part 1: Religion and common life in the pre-Islamic Near East. Early civilizations and the origins of Judaism and Christianity ; Pre-Islamic Arabia : beliefs, values, way of life -- Part 2: The coming of Islam : the prophet, his people, and God's religion. Muhammad and the early Muslim community ; The Arab conquests and Islamic rule : the stuggle for a unified Umma -- Part 3: The Islamic religious system. The basic beliefs and worship practices of Islam ; The nature and function of the Qur'an ; The prophet's Sunna as preserved in the Ḥadīth ; Muslim creeds and theologies : their purposes and varieties ; Law and the state in classical Islamic formulations -- Part 4: The Sufi way of mysticism and fellowship. Islamic mysticism and the disciplines of exoteric piety ; Masters and disciples : the forms and functions of Sufi orders -- Part 5: Patterns of Islamic personal and communal life. The Islamic life cycle and the family ; Ideals and realities of Islamic community life -- Part 6: Islam in the modern world. Major movements and trends in renewal and reform ; Three forms of Islamic revival : "fundamentalism," feminism, and establishing the Umma in North America ; Whither Islam and the Muslims? Progressive Muslims with a vision of an "Islam without borders" -- Glossary.