"This collection of essays by one of the best known contemporary Muslim scholars writing in the English language covers many facets of Islamic life and thought. The author has brought together studies dealing with practical as well as intellectual aspects of Islam in both their historical and contemporary reality. Although concerned with the scholarly dimension of the subjects with which he deals, the author devotes himself especially to the contemporary significance of such themes as religion and secularism, the meaning of freedom, and the tradition of Islamic science and philosophy. The traditional perspective of the author runs throughout all of these studies and provides a unified framework for the work despite the diversity of the subjects treated. The essays, many of which have appeared over the years in various journals and collections on Islamic studies, have been rewritten and revised in the light of later research and scholarship as well as certain issues which have become of special contemporary significance. Considering the current interest in the Islamic world in the West and the necessity felt by many to gain firsthand knowledge of Islam as both religion and civilisation, the present work is a timely addition to the small collection of writing in European languages which provide veritable keys for a better understanding of Islam and Muslims while remaining faithful to the perspective of the Islamic tradition." (From the blurb)
Today in the West, as well as in the Islamic world itself, there is an ever greater need to study both the principles and manifestations of Islam from its own authentic point of view in a manner comprehensible to contemporary man, or at least to one who possesses sufficient intelligence and good intentions. Moreover, this needs to be achieved by using methods of analysis and description which are at once logical and in conformity with the Islamic perspective; for this latter places the highest value upon intelligence (al-'aql) and logic, which is inseparable from it, although of course the transcendent realities cannot be reduced to logical categories. This type of writing which can 'translate ' Islamic teachings into a contemporary idiom without betraying it is very important not only for non-Muslims who wish to learn about Islam but most of all for young Muslims, who are now mainly products of modern educational systems." (From the Introduction)