ISLAMIC STUDIES [FIRST EDITION]. Islamic studies encompass the study of the religion of Islam and of Islamic aspects of Muslim cultures and societies. At the outset we must recognize that the word Islam itself is used in very different senses by faithful Muslims, for whom it is a norm and an ideal, and by scholars (Muslim and non-Muslim Islamicists), who refer to it as a subject of study or a kind of symbol for the focus of their inquiry, as well as by the larger public in the West who are outsiders and give different appreciations of what is felt by them to be "foreign." By extension, a sharp distinction must be made between normative Islam (the prescriptions, norms, and values that are recognized by the community as embodiments of divine guidance) and actual Islam (all those forms and movements, practices and...