This book seeks to distinguish clearly between traditional Islam and both modernism and the ‘fundamentalist’ or resurgent forms of Islam which are often confused with traditional Islam. The author delineates how traditional Islam, as rooted in the Quran and the prophetic Sunnah , and as lived over the centuries by Muslims, differs from both the modernist and the ‘fundamentalist’ schools in so many domains ranging from art and science to politics. He then discusses the encounter of traditional Islam with the challenges which face it in the modern world in general, as well as in the specific realms of education, science, philosophy and architecture and urbanism which are of central concern to the contemporary Muslim world.