Islam: Concept of Religion and the Foundation of Ethics and Morality

Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas

Paperback

9789671570432

Originally a lecture delivered at the 1976 International Islamic Conference in London, this monograph offers a radically different account of religion from the Islamic viewpoint. The author shows that the concept couched in the Arabic term 'din' is not the same as the word 'religion' as understood throughout Western religious history. By means of a careful semantic analysis, al-Attas takes up the notion 'din' as a unifying theme, connecting it with other key concepts within the worldview of Islam, such as the notion of human nature, soul, freedom, justice, happiness, change, progress, and development.