About the book
An absorbing and exceptionally detailed study of one of the world's great religions.
Islam is a simple religion: it requires of its followers only two things— one, a belief in the unity of God and, two, a belief in the prophethood of Muhammad. Despite the pure and homogeneous nature of the faith, the history of Islam has been one of conflict. The first problem Islam faced was the issue of succession to the Prophet. From then on, Islam has been riven by dissent—a result of the almost uninterrupted face-off between Islamic rulers, who were usually secular and flexible in their interpretation and implementation of the rules and practices of Islam and fundamentalist theologians, jurists and their followers, who insisted on a rigid adherence to the Quran and the Sunna.
