The Emergence of Islam

The Emergence of Islam, a free English rendering of twelve lectures delivered by Dr. Muhammad Hamidullah, attempts to highlight the basic thrust of Islamic teachings and to outline the formative period of Islam’s intellectual and institutional history. The work, which is of equal significance for scholars and laymen, explains at some length the genesis and growth of Islamic thought, society and state, of the institutions which were developed to translate Islamic norms into practice. The author has eminently succeeded in conveying a synthetic picture of Islam as it emerged in the early period of its history --- as a religion, as a community, as a state, and as an intellectual tradition.

The present work is a major contribution to a better understanding of Islam and Muslims. The book is also well-timed since it appears at a stage of history when the world has shrunk into a global village; and when ignorance of the ideals by which one-fifth of humanity lives, is not only an academic shortcoming, but a perilous anachronism.