The Vision of Islam

The Vision of Islam forms part of a series, entitled Visions of Reality,designed to focus on religions as worldviews. According to the statement of theeditorial board on the flyleaf, each religion studied in the series will be presentedin the context of its own inner dynamic or ethos using a methodologyappropriate to itself. Murata and Chittick have succeeded admirably in livingup to this commiunent by allowing Islam to speak through abundant quotationsfrom the Qur'an and the hadith.The outgrowth of an introductory course on Islam taught by the authors atthe State University of New York at Stony Brook for more than a decade, Visionis organized in an innovative manner. After a brief introduction to the Qur'an,its translations, and the life of the Prophet, the authors recount the "hadith ofGabriel" transmitted by both al-Buk:haf1 and Muslim on the authority of 'Umaribn al-Kha.t.tab. According to this repon, the Prophet was questioned by anunknown stranger about the significance of submission (islam), faith (iman),and doing what is beautiful (Ihsan ). After explaining these concepts, the Prophetthen identified this mysterious individual as the angel Gabriel, the being throughwhom God revealed the Qur'an. The remainder of the book is structured aroundthese three elements or dimensions, as the authors term them.Dealing first with the several senses of submission, acceptance, or commitment,Part I describes the essential practices of Islam: the five pillars. An oftenmisunderstood sixth pillar, jihad or struggle, is also discussed cogently. Theauthors then explain the historical articulation of these practices in the formationof the Sunni and Shi'i schools (madhahib), the Shari'ah, and Islamic jurisprudence.Here and elsewhere, variations among the schools are noted.Part II, dealing with imiin, accounts for more than two-thirds of the book,an indication of the relative weight the authors give this dimension. The threefundamental principles of faith-divine unity, prophecy, and eschatology-arethe major topics of this section. The nature of God's absolute unity and transcendenceis explored through a discussion of His signs, attributes, and acts (asmanifested in creation), and Islamic angelology. Here, the text is infused withthe metaphysics of illuminationist philosophy. Notions such as good and evil,human free will and determinism, are linked convincingly with the concepts ofdivine unity and the hierarchy of creation. This argument, in tum, leads logicallyto an account of the role of prophecy and humanity's acceptance of ...