This is an authoritative & comprehensive guide to Islam & Muslims, which allows readers to appreciate a diverse culture & understand real people in their everyday lives. While many books are devoted to the study of Islam, & dozens more to specific Muslim societies (usually Arab ones), this is the first to bring together both, explaining Islam in theory & in practice across the diverse Muslim world. Readers learn not just what Islam says about everything from the nature of God to marriage to politics, but also how individual Muslims (traditional or modern, devout or barely observant) apply teachings in everyday life.