Essential Islam: A Comprehensive Guide to Belief and Practice

Essential Islam: A Comprehensive Guide to Belief and Practice is the ideal beginner s resource on the core elements of a faith that, like Christianity and Judaism, offers a guide to holy living and a path to salvation one that like other world faiths has inspired peace and war, tolerance and brutality, enlightenment and abysmal ignorance.--Essential Islam offers an insightful, objective look at Islam from its inception to the present day, including a discussion of Islamic beliefs about God, history, warfare, marriage, the afterlife, and the relationship between Islam and other faiths. It is a rich source for dispelling misconceptions for example, only 10 percent of Muslims are Arabic, and only a quarter of those reside in the Middle East and for understanding tensions between groups within and outside Islam. More importantly, it gives readers a portrait of Islam not as a religion of extremists, but as a dynamic living faith practiced by people of all kinds in virtually every corner of the world.--