Islam is both a religion and a civilization, a historical
reality that spans over fourteen centuries of human history
and a geographical presence in vast areas stretching over the
Asian and African continents and even parts of Europe. It is
also a spiritual and metahistorical reality that has transformed
the inner and outer life of numerous human beings
in very different temporal and spatial circumstances. Today
over 1.2 billion people from different racial and cultural
backgrounds are Muslim, and historically Islam has played
a signifi cant role in the development of certain aspects of
other civilizations, especially Western civilization.
