ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the second part of this book. The second part of the book presents the studies of different aspects of Islamic religious history and practice to consider topics specifically related to the Qur'an, that most central phenomenon in Islamic spirituality and, to a large degree, everyday life and the wider world of Islamic culture. It focuses on the Qur'an as primarily an oral/aural reality rather than simply or even primarily a written book in its primary functions in Muslim practice and piety. It also investigates the Qur'an's invocations of the natural world and specifically how Nature is used didactically, literarily, and theologically in the overall message of the scriptural text. It further argues that Muslim analog in the Qur'an's preaching about God's dealing with humankind to the concepts of God's grace in the Christian tradition.
