A Narrative Summary of Islam Its History, Beliefs, and Varieties
Islam begins, in the story Muslims tell and in the history that followed, with a single man in a small desert city. In the early seventh century CE Muhammad of Mecca, a member of the Quraysh tribe, a merchant and eventually a public figure, experienced a series of revelations that he and his earliest followers understood as the words of the one God (Arabic: Allāh). Those revelations were remembered, recited and later collected as the Qur’an, the central sacred scripture of Islam. From that kernel, a message about the absolute oneness of God, moral responsibility, social justice, and the need for submission to God’s will, grew a religious community and a civilization that would in a few generations stretch from Spain to Central Asia.
The core of Islamic religious life is compact and practical. Muslims speak of the Five Pillars: the testimony of faith (shahāda) that there is no god but God and Muhammad is his messenger; ritual prayer five times each day (ṣalāh); almsgiving (zakāt); fasting in the month of Ramadan (sawm); and, for those able, the pilgrimage to Mecca (ḥajj). These practices shape time, community and conscience. Theology, the study of God, of divine unity and of human accountability, developed hand in hand with law. Muslims believe the Qur’an is final revelation and that the Prophet’s sayings and actions (the hadith) guide how the Qur’an should be lived. From these sources jurists developed sharia, a broad term for Islamic law and ethics, and over centuries produced detailed legal schools that governed worship, family life, commercial relations and public order.
From the start Islam was not uniform. Within a generation of Muhammad’s death in 632 CE political disagreements about leadership produced the first major division: Sunnis, who looked to established communal practice and the caliphal leadership that emerged, and Shi‘a, who insisted leadership should remain in Muhammad’s family, especially his cousin and son-in-law Ali and Ali’s descendants. That early split grew into deep theological, ritual and political differences that still shape Muslim communities today. Over the centuries further diversity appeared: legal schools (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi‘i, Hanbali in Sunni Islam; Ja‘fari and others in Shi‘a contexts), theological schools (Mu‘tazilite rationalism, Ash‘arite and Maturidi positions on God’s attributes and human responsibility), and spiritual movements such as Sufism, inward, mystical approaches to encountering God that produced poetry, devotional practices and orders (ṭuruq) with wide social influence.
Historically, Islam very quickly became a global civilizational force. The first centuries after Muhammad’s death saw the Rashidun and Umayyad caliphates extend Muslim rule across the Near East, North Africa and into the Iberian peninsula. The Abbasid era brought a flowering of intellectual, artistic and scientific life, centered in Baghdad, where translations, philosophy, law and the natural sciences flourished and where Muslim scholars preserved and transformed knowledge from Greek, Persian and Indian sources. Those centuries also saw the growth of trade networks that carried Islam and Islamic institutions to sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia, where conversion often happened gradually through merchants, Sufi teachers and local rulers.
Political history is a long sequence of empires, polities and local powers. The Umayyads and Abbasids were followed, regionally, by dynasties such as the Fatimids, Seljuks, Mamluks and later the Ottomans, Safavids and Mughals, each leaving its imprint on law, architecture, learning and ritual practice. The Safavids are especially important for turning Shi‘ism into the dominant form in what is now Iran; the Ottomans became the major Sunni imperial power for centuries and the final Ottoman caliphate survived until the early twentieth century.
The modern era challenged Muslim societies as it did others. European colonialism, the rise of the nation-state, industrialization and global capitalism unsettled older authorities and economic structures. New intellectual responses emerged: reformers who looked to the Qur’an and early practice to renew Muslim life; revivalists who emphasized scriptural literalism; modernists who tried to reconcile Islam with science and constitutional government; and political movements that sought to mobilize Islam in the public sphere. In some places nationalist movements used Islam to resist colonial powers; in others secularizing ideologies reduced religion’s public power. The twentieth century also saw decolonization, the establishment of modern Muslim-majority states, and large diasporas that spread Muslim communities across Europe, the Americas and Australasia.
Beyond the broad Sunni–Shi‘a division, Islam’s lived diversity is striking. Sufism remains a powerful force in many regions, expressing devotion through poetry (Rumi being the most famous poet in the English-speaking world), music and communal rituals. Legal schools continue to matter in family law and ritual practice. Smaller sects, like the Ibadi communities in Oman and parts of North Africa, or long-standing heterodox groups in South Asia and Central Asia — preserve unique theologies and customs. In the contemporary world Muslims range from deeply conservative literalists to liberal reformers, from mystics and scholars to ordinary families negotiating modern life.
Two themes thread through the history and the religion. First, the Qur’an and the prophetic model established a moral and legal framework that emphasizes both personal piety and social justice: care for the poor, fair commerce, the dignity of human life, and the moral responsibilities of rulers. Second, interpretation and disputation are inherent to Islam: how to read scripture, how to balance law and mercy, how to adapt to changing circumstances. This hermeneutical contest has produced a rich intellectual tradition — theology, law, philosophy, literary arts and sciences — but also periodic conflict when political power and religious authority align or collide.
In the present day Islam is one of the world’s largest and most diverse religious traditions. It is embedded in national cultures and global flows. Muslim-majority countries display a wide range of governance systems: constitutional democracies, monarchies, revolutionary states, and authoritarian regimes. Muslim communities in plural societies negotiate identity and citizenship in different ways. Global political events, technological change, migration and demographic trends continue to shape how Islam is practiced and understood.
If you step back, Islam’s story is a pattern of rootedness and expansion: a set of foundational texts and practices anchored in seventh-century Arabia, a legal and theological tradition that worked out rules for communal life, a civilizational history marked by both learning and empire, and a modern, global reality composed of many voices and experiences. It is at once a law and a way of life, a poetry of devotion and a set of institutions — and it continues to evolve as millions of people bring it into conversation with the challenges and possibilities of the twenty-first century.
Seven Well Known Books on Islam
Below are seven well-known books that give a balanced introduction to Islam’s scripture, its Prophet, its history and contemporary interpretations.