Dr. Chaudry, grew up in Pakistan, graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science with honors in Economics and Econometrics and earned a Ph. D. in Economics from Tufts University (1972). He worked at AT&T in the Strategic Planning and served as a Division CFO. He has published several articles and contributed chapters in books on productivity and planning. He also has coauthored with Dr. Robert Crane educational booklets on Islam.

Dr. Chaudry is a Lecturer in business at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey teaching courses on leadership, international business and other management subjects. He also has served as the Campus College Chair for Management and Business at the University of Phoenix - Jersey City Campus and has taught economics for the University of Phoenix Online.

Since the September 11 tragedy, Dr. Chaudry has been active in interfaith dialogs and creating bridges of understanding with the American community at large. He has spoken at numerous churches, synagogues, schools and colleges and conducted workshops on Islam and Muslims for several groups of middle and high school teachers. He regularly teaches well attended courses on Understanding Islam in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Rutgers University that also served as an impetus for writing the current book.

Dr. Chaudry is Co-founder and President of the Center for Understanding Islam (www.cuii.org) established immediately after 9/11 to undertake an educational effort to create a presence of moderate Muslim scholars and thinkers who can effectively counter extremism and to engage in interfaith and intra-faith dialogs with all communities. In an attempt to build an enlightened Muslim presence on the airwaves, he appears frequently on the WABC Radio program, Religion on the Line. He also has appeared on NPR, CBS News and FOX News.

Dr. Chaudry served on the Bernards Township Board of Education (1990 to 1995) in Basking Ridge, New Jersey and led a successful effort during 1996-1997 to build the Bernards Township Community Center. Less than two months after 9/11/2001, he was elected to the Bernards Township Committee and was elected Mayor of Bernards Township in 2004 to become the first Pakistani born Mayor in America.

Dr. Chaudry is among the founding trustees of the Islamic Society of Central Jersey and the Islamic Center of Basking Ridge, and served as President of the American Islamic Academy in Boonton ( NJ) for nearly ten years. He also has served on the boards of many non-profits, including Somerset Hills YMCA, Board of Managers of the Morris County Family Services, and Somerset County Cultural Diversity Coalition.

Robert Dickson Crane, JD

Dr. Crane grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and graduated with a B.A., summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Northwestern University in 1956 and a J.D. (Doctor of Laws) from Harvard Law School in 1959 with a specialization in comparative legal systems and international investment. In 1958 he founded the Harvard International Law Journal and was the founding president of the Harvard International Law Society. He practiced law in Washington, D.C., in the world’s leading international communications law firm, Haley, Wollenberg, and Bader.

In 1962, he became one of the four co-founders of the first Washington-based foreign-policy think-tank, The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). In 1966 he left to become Director of Third World Studies at the first professional futures forecasting firm, The Hudson Institute, led by Herman Kahn. From 1963 to 1968 he was personal adviser to Richard M. Nixon, responsible for preparing a “reader’s digest” of professional articles on key foreign policy issues. President Nixon appointed him in January, 1969, to be Deputy Director for Planning in the National Security Council. He left the government after Watergate and founded his own consulting firm. In 1981, President Reagan appointed him U.S. Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, but at the beginning of 1982 he openly embraced Islam and left the government.

Since 1982, he has been a full-time Muslim activist working out of his own research centers. From 1983 to 1986, he was Director of Da’wa (religious education) at the Islamic Center on Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, D.C., and was the first director of the Dialogue Commission of the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington (IFC). In 1992 he helped to found the American Muslim Council, serving as Director of its Legal Division from 1992 to 1994. In 1993, he became the founding President of the Muslim American Bar Association.

Dr. Crane has authored or co-authored a dozen books, including Detente: Cold War Strategies in Transition, Dulles and Crane, CSIS, Praeger, 1965; Planning the Future of Saudi Arabia: A Model for Achieving National Priorities, Praeger, 1978; Shaping the Future: Challenge and Response, Tapestry, 1997; and The Natural Law of Compassionate Justice: An Islamic Perspective, 2010. These books have been augmented by numerous monographs and by more than 350 articles, of which most have been posted electronically on his defacto web-site/blog, www.theamericanmuslim.org.

As the co-founder and first Chairman of the Board of the Center for Understanding Islam, he continues his research on Islam as part of the effort of American Muslims to present the true message of classical Islamic thought and classical American thought in order to help America promote its founding principles of peace, prosperity, and freedom through faith-based, compassionate justice.

Acknowledgements

This book is a result of guidance and assistance from many individuals who have supported the Center for Understanding Islam (CUI) since its inception in 2001.

After intense discussions among CUI Board members and supporters in 2002, we published the first edition of a modest booklet, ISLAM, Short Answers to Key Current Questions. This was made possible only through invaluable help from many dedicated supporters of the CUI mission.

The second edition (August 2003) was enhanced by the addition of a section entitled Toward a Common Vision for America, prepared by Dr. Robert Dickson Crane. We received a great deal of positive feedback about the value of this publication, especially in interfaith dialogue work.  Many readers suggested, however, that adding some information on the basic Islamic beliefs and practices would be helpful to non-Muslims.

The impetus for this book came in 2007 from the rising scourge of Islamophobia in the wake of 9/11 resulting in a barrage of books, videos, and articles attacking Islam and Muslims.  In March 2010, we published a 37-page introductory booklet entitled The Spirit of Islam, which was based on the early drafts of the first few chapters of this book.

We also wish to acknowledge the support of Dr. Raphael J. Caprio, Vice President, Division of Continuing Studies at Rutgers University, where co-author, Dr. Chaudry, is a member of the faculty, teaching management courses such as leadership skills and multinational business management for the School of Business Camden.

Special thanks are due to many CUI supporters, who worked with us at various stages.  They read parts or all of the manuscript and provided helpful insights from their perspectives. We are especially indebted to Imam Hamad Ahmad Chebli of the Islamic Society of Central Jersey for reviewing the entire manuscript, word by word, and for his invaluable comments and advice on the content and its presentation.

We also are grateful for the endorsements from Professors John Esposito of Georgetown University, Hossein Nasr of George Washington University, Hassan Abbas of Columbia University / Harvard University, Christopher Taylor of Drew University, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf of the Cordoba Initiative and Rabbi Jack Bemporad of the Center for Interreligious Understanding.  They gave us great advice and offered deep insights and encouragement to enhance the content to emphasize the centrality of the Qur’an and Sunnah and to bring out the simplicity and spiritual beauty of Islam.

We owe special thanks to Nasir Shamsi who read most of the manuscript throughout its development and provided invaluable advice in presenting the material consistent with the CUI mission. He also contributed Appendix S on the Shi’a perspective and provided useful references to the Shi’a literature included in the bibliography. We appreciate the efforts of Dr. Tulsi Maharjan, Dr. I. J. Singh (through the courtesy of Dr. Harbhajan S. Nayar), and Sonal Shah who contributed to the appendix on eastern religions in order to broaden the perspective beyond the three Abrahamic faiths on which most of this book is focused. We wish to thank Joe Ritacco, an interfaith activist and a former student in Dr. Chaudry’s course on Understanding Islam at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Rutgers University, who provided us very detailed comments on most of the chapters not only from his Christian perspective, but also from the vantage point of a general reader. He challenged us throughout the writing of this book to make our meanings clearer in simple and plain English.  We also thank Walter Ruby of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and Rabbi Jack Bemporad of the Center for Interreligious Understanding for providing feedback from the Jewish perspective.

We wish to acknowledge the linguistic advice of Dr. Hebatalla Elkhateeb-Musharraf who teaches Arabic at Princeton University for her help in preparing the transliteration guide and for explaining the roots and meanings of Arabic words used in the book.  She also contributed the Arabic script throughout the book.

This effort has been supported by many individuals associated with CUI who generously contributed funds for the research and writing in the early stages and provided feedback on various drafts of the book. We also wish to thank Mr. Akram Choudry, the ANC Foundation, Mr. Ajaz Ahmed and Dr. Adiba Shamsi of the Al-Huda Foundation for their continued encouragement and for their generous financial support for the first printing of the book.

We wish to thank our families and especially our wives for their patience and support throughout the research and writing process.  We are especially thankful to Victoria Shahnaz Chaudry who prepared delicious meals during the many marathon 24/7 writing sessions over the course of three years required to research and write this book.  We also took seriously her advice that “in order to explain Islam to non-Muslims,” we “must understand what came before Islam.”

Of course, we are ultimately responsible for any remaining errors or omissions and plan to continue our efforts to improve and expand the content. We would welcome comments and suggestions from our readers in the general public and from faculty and students who may decide to use this book for introductory courses on Islam.

Sincerely,

M. Ali Chaudry

Robert Dickson Crane

February 2011

Endorsements

Praise for Islam and Muslims

"Islam and Muslims is a rich resource for students of Islam and the world religions. It provides an accessible and engaging synthesis and perspective on Islam's rich tradition of faith, history, and culture."

John L Esposito, University Professor & Founding Director, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University

*

“With all the misinformation and sometimes disinformation about Islam so prevalent today, there is the greatest need for authentic expositions of the Islamic religion and civilization. This book, Islam and Muslims, based on long experience, both personal and scholarly, of the Islamic religion, as well as on so many facts of Islamic civilization and the encounter between Islam and the West, is an important response to this need. It is a very accessible and authentic account which can serve as a reliable introduction to the world of Islam.”

Seyyed Hossein Nasr, University Professor of Islamic Studies, The George Washington University

*

“This book marshals the rich tradition in Islam and other Abrahamic faiths to help interfaith leaders translate their sacred texts' Common Word of love and compassion into solidarity of action in support of human responsibilities and universal human rights. This comprehensive compendium of knowledge and wisdom published a decade after 9/11 provides essential resources for building a better future through cooperation among leaders of all faiths.”

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, ASMA Society - Cordoba House, NYC, and author of What Is Right with Islam.

*

“This important book is long overdue. Encyclopedic in its coverage, Islam and Muslims, offers students and general readers critical insight into how thoughtful Muslims themselves understand their faith. There are several excellent introductions to Islam written by non-Muslim scholars available. This book goes a long way to filling a huge gap by providing readers with insight into how Muslims themselves understand their religious tradition and its history. A particular strength of the book is the fact that it acknowledges that there is not just one Muslim view of things, and serious efforts have been made to incorporate views of all major Muslim communities.”

Professor Christopher S. Taylor, Department of Religious Studies and Director, Center on Religion, Culture and Conflict (CRCC), Drew University

*

"Islam and Muslims is an outstanding guide book that shows the authors’ clarity of thought, passion for the subject, and deep understanding. This extensive scholarly treatise unravels the intricacies as well as the beauty of Islam and clarifies the dynamics that galvanize and mobilize its diverse adherents across the world. Thoroughly researched and well written, this book will attract both experts and laymen. It deserves wide recognition for its balance, profundity, and vision."

Professor Hassan Abbas holds the Quaid-i-Azam Chair at Columbia University. He also is a senior advisor at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and is a former Police Commander from the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan.

*

Preface

The impetus for this book came from the rising scourge of Islamophobia in the wake of 9/11. As a part of the response, the Center for Understanding Islam (CUI) was established soon after the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001 in order to help Muslims better understand their own religion in order to develop principled answers to key currently popular questions about the teachings of Islam. When the barrage of books, videos, and articles attacking Islam and Muslims became a torrent, the urge to respond grew stronger.

Given the rising level of interest in Islam, starting in 2006, co-author, Dr. Chaudry began teaching a ten-week-long course on Understanding Islam for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Rutgers University (OLLIRU). Since no comprehensive book existed that could adequately support such a course, much less a full semester Islam 101 course, it helped crystallize the need for this book sharply in 2007. Instead of responding to individual episodic attacks by the Islamophobes, we decided to write a comprehensive textbook to help readers understand all aspects of Islam and Muslims.

Our overall purpose in writing this book is to help readers create a common framework for explaining the wisdom of Islam in the contemporary world and to help address questions about Islam with relevant citations from the Qur’an, Hadith, and various commentaries by scholars.

This book is designed to provide a comprehensive treatment of all current key questions about Islam on the minds of non-Muslims. Instead of responding to specific narrow issues raised by the critics of Islam and Muslims, we felt that most Americans genuinely wanted to understand Islam in its full context. The content is organized in five parts as follows, with some details placed in a set of appendices.

Part One: Basic Principles
Part Two: Early History
Part Three: Islamic Civilization
Part Four: Key Current Questions
Part Five: Challenge and Response

In Part One, Chapter 1, we introduce the spirit of Islam and provide an overview of the first things a student of Islam needs to know, viz., the foundational beliefs of Islam anchored in Abrahamic monotheism; sources of guidance for Muslims; and key Islamic institutions and sources of authority. Building on this foundation and on further discussion in Chapter 2 on practical aspects of the faith in the Five Pillars of Islam, which connect various themes of this textbook on Islam and Muslims, we go on to describe a comprehensive framework for human rights and responsibilities in Islam through ijtihad in Chapter 4. This is further developed in Chapter 5 as these human rights relate to economic and social justice. Finally, in Chapter 6 we point out the key commonalities, as well as differences, among the monotheistic faiths and other faiths, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, and Sikhism.

In Part Two, we provide a glimpse of the life of Prophet Muhammad, beginning with his Prophethood and the abuse and oppression of the early Muslims at the hands of the Makkan Pagans, who opposed the message of tawhid (oneness of God). Considerable attention is given to the ensuing defense of the nascent Muslim community against continued attacks by the Makkans after the Muslims had fled to Madinah. Finally we address the present day distortions about Islam and Muslims.

Part Three presents a very high level profile of Islamic civilization as Islam spread to different parts of the world. It also provides a picture of the current demographics of the Muslim world.

Part Four addresses the frequently asked questions regarding jihad, gender equity, democracy, the environment, science, and art and architecture.

Part Five discusses the challenges facing all communities of faith in marginalizing extremism and confronting terrorism.

This framework for developing an enlightened understanding of classical Islam provides a basic foundation and an approach to address challenges stemming from misinterpretations and distortions of Islam, whether they come from extremists within the Muslim community or are invented by professional critics of Islam among some religious and political leaders in the media and in some think-tanks who view Muslims and Islam through a historically Eurocentric lens. This book offers a balanced view of world history that looks at the spread of Islam as seen through Muslim eyes.

While it seems difficult to separate Islam as a spiritual path from Islamdom as a political system, we can isolate the “essence” of Islam as an ontological construct (relating to the argument for the existence of God), and distinguish this from the origin, nature, and methods of Islamdom (as an epistemological and political phenomenon), so that we can then bring out the enlightened axiological or ethical contribution of Islam as a jurisprudential system designed to promote peace, prosperity, and freedom through compassionate justice. This classical Islamic system of normative law, known as the maqasid al shari’ah, is being revived as the Islamic contribution to the rehabilitation and revival of enlightened religion generally throughout the world in place of the parodies of religion propagated by the hijackers who hide out in the proverbial caves of Afghanistan. This focus on the essence of Islam is intended to help the reader make a clear distinction between what Islam teaches as a faith and what different individuals or communities of Muslims do in their own cultural and/or political settings.

This book is designed primarily to serve as a comprehensive textbook for the introductory college courses on Islam that many colleges and universities are beginning to offer. We had written more than 90% of the book when we became aware in 2009 of a fairly comprehensive study conducted between May 2004 and December 2007 by the Center for Islam and Public Policy (CIPP) in Silver Spring, Maryland entitled, The State of Islamic Studies in American Universities. The CIPP has created a database of “231 programs/departments from 197 educational institutions.” This study also reviewed “105 introductory courses on Islam (ISLAM 101)” that fall into three tiers:

Tier I: Degree programs in Islamic Studies

Tier II: Teaching one or more course(s) in Islamic studies

Tier III: Teaching Islam as a part of world religion/comparative religions courses.

This study further noted that while there was “general agreement regarding the content of an introductory course on Islam, there was little consensus on the selection of required textbooks for teaching Islam. More than 200 books were used as required texts to cover different parts of the course syllabi.” Thus the study included the following among its nine recommendations: “Develop a new comprehensive primer for introductory level courses (Islam 101) exclusively focusing on the normative structure and Islamic texts with an emphasis on Islam as a living and lived faith.”

This book also can be a useful resource for interfaith dialog groups and for anyone in the general public who wishes to understand more about Islam and Muslims.

With this purpose in mind, we have attempted to assemble in a single volume what everyone needs to know about Islam and Muslims. We have relied on the basic sources (the Qur’an and Ahadith) and on many commentaries on the Qur’an (tafasir), as well as on other authentic scholarly works by both Muslims and non-Muslims.

Most of the Qur’anic citations in this book are from Muhammad Asad’s translation, The Message of the Qur’an. When necessary for purposes of added explanation or for comparison of the treatment of a subject by different translators, we also use other good translations such as the original edition of, The Holy Qur’an, Text, Translation and Commentary prepared by Abdullah Yusuf Ali. In some cases, we have modified these translations for purposes of clarity, and in some cases, where possible, to facilitate gender free references to God.

It is customary for practicing Muslims to say “Salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam” after saying or hearing the name the Prophet Muhammad (May Allah honor him and grant him peace). It is often represented by the initials “SAAW”. In this book, we have chosen to use the original Arabic phrase in calligraphy every time we mention the name of the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه و سلم.

This book also is available in an electronic form as an eBook. Details are available at www.cuii.org and www.IslamandMuslimseBook.com. The eBook will incorporate any feedback from general readers as well as form professors and students who have used it in their courses.