A revised and updated edition of the best-selling introduction to Islam written by one of the foremost scholars in the field. Ideals and Realities of Islam seeks to answer criticism brought against Islam by presenting the point of view of Islam. In six chapters dealing with the universal and the particular aspects of Islam, the Qur’an, the Prophet and the Prophetic tradition, the Shari’ah, Sufism, and Shi’ism, Seyyed Hossein Nasr outlines the essential aspects of the Islamic beliefs, making frequent references to other religions in general and Christianity in particular. Drawing mainly on the Qur’an and the hadith, but also on the works of some contemporary Western scholars, the author presents the Islamic spiritual and intellectual tradition in the light of contemporary modern thought. This edition includes a new introduction by the author and an updated annotated bibliography. 

Seyyed Hossein Nasr was born in Teheran to a family of traditional scholars and physicians. After receiving his early education in Iran he went to America where he studied physics , and the history of science and philosophy at M.I.T. and Harvard, where he received his doctorate. Nasr was Professor at Teheran University and founder and first President of the Iranian Academy of Philosophy. He is currently Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University and author of numerous books including: Islam and the Plight of Modern Man, A Young Muslim’s Guide to the Modern World and Science & Civilization in Islam, all published by The Islamic Texts Society.

‘Seyyed Hossein Nasr dominates his subject ... he unites in his person an Islamic structure which encompassed two points of view: that of religious law and contemplation, and a supreme knowledge of modern scientific methods.’ From the Preface by Titus Burckhardt.

Table of Contents

Preface by Titus Burckhardt

Foreword by Huston Smith

Introduction to the First Edition

Introduction to the New Edition

1.Islam—The Last Religion and the Primordial Religion—Its Universal and Particular Traits

2.The Quran—The Word of God, the Source of Knowledge and Action

3.The Prophet and Prophetic Tradition—The Last Prophet and Universal Man

4.The Shari’ah—Divine Law—Social and Human Norm

5.The Tariqah—The Spiritual Path and its Quranic Roots

6.Sunnism and Shi’ism—Twelve-Imam Shi’ism and Isma’ilism

Bibliography

Index

Excerpt from "Ideals and Realities of Islam"

Islam—The Last Religion and the Primordial Truth—Its Universal and Particular Traits

Every revealed religion is the religion and a religion, the religion in as much as it contains within itself the Truth and means of attaining the Truth, a religion since it emphasizes a particular aspect of the Truth in conformity with the spiritual and psychological needs of the humanity for whom it is destined and to whom it is addressed. Religion itself is derived from the word religio whose root meaning is to bind. It is that which binds man to the truth. As such every religion possesses ultimately two essential elements which are its basis and foundation: a doctrine which distinguishes between the Absolute and the relative, between the absolutely Real and the relatively real, between that Which has absolute value and that whose value is relative; and a method of concentrating upon the Real, of attaching oneself to the Absolute and living according to the Will of Heaven in accordance with the purpose and meaning of human existence.

These two elements, the doctrine and the method, the means of distinguishing between what is Real and what appears to be real, and attaching oneself to the Real, exist in every orthodox and integral religion and are in fact the essence of every religion. No religion, whether it be Islam or Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism, can be without a doctrine as to what is Absolute and what is relative. Only the doctrinal language differs from one tradition to another. Nor can any religion be without a method of concentrating on the Real and living according to It although the means again differ in different traditional climates.

Every religion is rooted in a transcendent Reality that stands above the world of change and becoming. Yet, no religion has claimed that the world on its own level of existence is completely unreal. Even the Hindu maya is not so much illusion as the “Divine play” or lila which veils and hides the Absolute. Were the world and the soul to be completely unreal, there would be no meaning in trying to attach the soul to the Real, to the Absolute. The doctrine is thus a discrimination between the Absolute and the relative and between grades of reality, degrees of universal existence. And the method is precisely the means of attaching the relatively real to the absolutely Real once one realizes that the reality of the soul and the world that surrounds it is not absolute but relative, that both the soul and the world derive their sustenance from a Reality that transcends both the soul and the world.

Now, Islam like every orthodox religion is comprised of a doctrine and a method and it is for us to see how the Islamic revelation deals with these cardinal elements, how it envisages the relation between man and God. It is of course God who is the Absolute and man the relative. And it is for man to come to realize this truth, to know that only God is God, that is, only He is the Absolute, and that man is a relative being who stands before Him given the free choice of either accepting or rejecting His Will.

This relation between man and God, or the relative and the Absolute is central in every religion. Only each religion emphasizes a certain aspect of this relationship, while inwardly it contains the Truth as such in its teachings, whatever the outward limitations of its forms might be. That is why to have lived any religion fully is to have lived all religions and there is nothing more meaningless and even pernicious than to create a syncretism from various religions with a claim to universality while in reality one is doing nothing less than destroying the revealed forms which alone make the attachment of the relative to the Absolute, of man to God, possible. Without the “dictum of Heaven,” without revelation in its universal sense, no religion is possible and man cannot attach himself to God without God having Himself, through His grace, provided the means for man to do so. Every orthodox religion is the choice of Heaven and while still intact contains both the doctrine and the method which “save” man from his wretched terrestrial condition and open to him the gates of Heaven. 

In the confrontation of man and God, Islam does not emphasize the descent or incarnation or manifestation of the Absolute, nor the fallen, imperfect and sinful nature of man. Rather, it considers man as he is in his essential nature and God as He is in His absolute Reality. The Islamic perspective is based upon the consideration of the Divine Being as He is in Himself not as He is incarnated in history. It is based on the Absolute and not on the “descent of the Absolute!’ Likewise, Islam considers man not as what he has become after that very significant event which Christianity calls original sin and “fall” but as man is in his primordial nature, in his fitrah, a nature which he bears deep down within his soul.

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