A Concise Guide to Islam (Introducing Islam): Defining Key Concepts and Terms

by Ayman S. Ibrahim

For many in the English-speaking world, Islam remains a mysterious religion. What is Islam in the first place? Does it mean "peace," or does it mean "submission"? Can it mean both? What is jihad? Sharia? Hadith? Who is Allah? What is a caliph, caliphate, or infidel?

In this compact volume, an expert in the study of Islam provides explanations for more than one hundred important Islamic concepts and terms, which are divided into major texts, history, faith and belief, practice and religious duties, jurisprudence, and movements. Ayman Ibrahim first introduces the section, then defines each concept or term briefly. Readers can read a chapter at a time or flip through the book to find concepts or terms as needed. Each term is described based on original Muslim sources, mainly written in Arabic, as well as ample scholarly studies.

This introductory guide is written for anyone with little to no knowledge of Islam. It complements the author's A Concise Guide to the Quran and A Concise Guide to the Life of Muhammad. Together, these three volumes are useful as a set of resources on Islam.

Genres: Religion, Islam

192 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 26, 2023

About the author

Ayman S. Ibrahim(PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary; PhD, Haifa University) is Bill and Connie Jenkins Professor of Islamic Studies and director of the Center for the Christian Understanding of Islam at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He was born and raised in Egypt and has taught in various countries in the Muslim world and in the West. His articles on Islam and Christian-Muslim relations have appeared in the Washington Post, Religion News Service, and First Things, among others. Ibrahim is the author of The Stated Motivations for the Early Islamic Expansion.

Reviews

[Andrew]

An excellent encyclopedia of key terms and categories. This is more of a reference work than a book giving a summary of each category compared to Ayman Ibrahim's other books on Islam. Each section gives both the etymology of key Arabic terms and their background and usage in the Qur'an and hadith. Ibrahim also compares some of the differences between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims in their doctrine and rituals. The resources at the end of the book provide a helpful list for further research. The author is fair to represent different interpretations within Islam for each topic to avoid oversimplifying the data.

The book is divided into the following key sections: Islamic texts, Islamic history, Islamic faith and belief, Islamic practice and religious duties, Islamic jurisprudence, and Islamic Movements.

All the Arabic words transcribed into their Latin alphabet phonetic equivalents so anyone can use this valuable reference work. the last section on Muslim Movements provides helpful etymology and historical background to sects such as salafism and Wahhabism that are important to understand many modern groups and current events such as Al-Qaeda, Taliban, Boko Haram, etc and how they interpret concepts such as jihad and sharia.

[Kara]

Extremely well researched and systematically organized. I learned a ton about the religion and culture of Islam. The fact that it took me 6 months to work through it is testament to the assertion that this book is more of a textbook or encyclopedia than pleasure reading. I probably only retained about 5-10% of the book because of all the intricacies and complexities covered.

[Landon Coleman]

This book is a "chopier" - more dictionary-like - read than Ibrahim's book on the Quran. Still, the definitions and history are helpful for understanding what unites and what separates Muslims around the world.

[Ericka Andersen]

I read this to get a better understanding of Islam and what certain terms mean. I am not sure how much I retained, but it did help with my comprehension. Helpful and informative if uou want the lay of the land.

[Elliot Lathers]

I found this book to be incredibly helpful in understanding Islam and easy to understand. I used it as a source for an annotated bibliography on Muhammad.