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Seyyed Hossein Nasr's panoramic study stems from his observation in the Preface that "there is no religion about which so much has been written in the West by those opposed to it than Islam" (p. xiii). According to Nasr, this animus, and the misunderstandings it willfully creates, predate but have been exacerbated by the tragic events of 11 September 2001. Thus motivated, he develops a spirited defense and illumination of "the authentic teachings of Islam anew in light of the challenges of the present-day situation" (p. xiii). Nasr's purview is vast, encompassing the diversity of Islamic voices--"the spectrum of Islam" across Sunnism, Shi
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ism, Sufism, and their subdivisions--and what these voices have to say on divine and human laws and justice, community and society, in the human context and in the relationship of human beings to God. In his exploration, the author delineates those values and traditions that are common to Islam and the two other great Abrahamic faiths (frequently highlighting where they have been jettisoned or diluted in Judaic or Christian practice while maintained in Islam). He also directs us to areas where Islam stands alone: for example, Islam is less rigid in orthodoxy , or assertion of religious truth. There is no magisterium or synod in Islam, where the emphasis is rather on orthopraxy , or the correct practice of received divine truth, embodied in the "pillars" of Islam, which include acts of daily prayer, fasting, alms giving, and pilgrimage. On occasion, Nasr's evolutionary distinction between the Abrahamic faiths may take on...