This book is designed to take people on the first steps in understanding Islam and the way that Muslims think and see the world. It grows out of extensive experience of teaching the course on which it is based. The arrangement of material builds a framework to understand Islam on its own terms rather than through an externally applied structure. Islam is linked to the essential guidance of God to all humankind from the beginning of creation. This is then traced through a series of steps such as a world-view, prophecy, revelation, history, belief and practice. The structure of a whole life based on Islam is explored together with Islam"s approach to other faiths and Muslims in contemporary Britain and Europe.