In this translation of a work that is regarded throughout the Muslim world as a classic study of the Prophet's Message and its meaning for all men today, I have tried to preserve the literary wealth of the classical Arabic. To this end, I have re viewed the entire translation with `Azzam Pasha to make certain that I have accurately portrayed his views in English, particularly in regard to terminology.

Non-Muslim readers need to hold in mind the fact that the various writings which `Azzam Pasha consolidated in this book were aimed exclusively at a Muslim audience. As he says in his Preface, these essays were intended as an exposition of Islam to its adherents, not as a sermon to Westerners, and the book therefore presumes a cultural orientation that is foreign to English-speaking people. It is always extremely difficult to translate Muslim terms and concepts into Western languages. Professor Bernard Lewis explains this difficulty in these words:

The European writer on Islamic history labours under a special disability. Writing in a Western language, he necessarily uses Western terms. But these terms are based on Western categories of thought and analysis, themselves de riving in the main from Western history. Their application to the conditions of another society formed by different influences and living in different ways of life can at best be only an analogy and may be dangerously misleading. To take an example: such pairs of words as Church and State, spiritual and temporal, ecclesiastical and lay, had no real equivalent in Arabic until modern times, when they were created to translate modern ideas; for the dichotomy which they express was . . . unarticulated in the mediaeval Muslim mind. The community of Islam was Church and State in one, with the two indistinguishably interwoven; its titular

head, the Caliph [imam], was at once a secular and a religious chief. . . . Such words as "religion," "state," sovereignty," "democracy," mean very different things in Islamic context and indeed vary in meaning from one part of Europe to another.1

For the translation of the verses of the Koran, I have relied heavily on Marmaduke Pickthall's The meaning of the Glorious Koran, and certain changes have been made in the wording, spelling, and punctuation of that translation by `Azzam Pasha. Pickthall is aware of the difficulties in translating the Koran into English, for he frankly ackhowledges that "The Koran cannot be translated. …The Book is here rendered almost literally and every effort has been made to choose befitting language. But the result is not the glorious Koran. . . It can never take the place of the Koran in Arabic, nor is it meant to do so." 2

The reader will notice that many quotations stand without Source notes. These quotations are almost exclusively part of Arabic oral tradition-sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, 3 events in his life, reports and parables of famous Islamic scholars and writers-which may be found printed in many different places. So familiar are Muslims with these and the words of the Koran that in the original edition of the present work, as in all Arabic scholarly books, no source notes were given; for the English edition, however, Koranic references have been supplied. Other footnotes, approved or written by `Azzam Pasha, have also been added in explanation of terms or data with which Western readers might be unfamiliar.

In the interest of correct pronunciation, the linguistically preferred transliterations of Arabic names and words have been adopted rather than generally accepted English usage (where such exists); hence Muhammad instead of Mohammed. Exceptions have been made in cases where the English pronunciation accords with the preferred transliteration, as Necca (instead of Makka), Koran (instead of Qur'an), and the like.

I am grateful to the American Council of Learned Societies for its kind cooperation in making this translation possible. The first part was written directly in English by the author, and Part IV, "The Islamic State," was translated by the late Professor Husein Kamil Selim of Cairo University from the second Arabic edition.4