Islam: Religion of Life

The continuing vitality of Islam is taken for granted by a billion Muslims, but continues to astonish most outsiders. While other religions quietly fade away, the creed of the Quran, accepted by the faithful as God’s final message to mankind, seems everywhere to be enjoying a resurgence, defying the materialism of an age in spiritual decline.

Voices of warning have long been raised in Islam, reminding the West that secularism creates an atomised and amoral society in which human worth is defined only in terms of earning power. Access to the fertile resources of the Muslim tradition of prayer and selflessness has been obstructed, however, by ancient prejudices, worsened by the aberrations of extremists.

In this brief introduction to Islam, which originated as a series of radio broadcasts on Radio Cairo’s Africa Service, the Shaykh suggests how the present crisis of the West could be resolved by an openness to the spiritual and social values of Islam, the world’s last religion. The result is an Islamic manifesto which is both readable and explosive.