Islam’s middle position can be recognized by the fact that Islam has always been attacked from two opposite directions: from the side of religion that it is too natural, actual, and tuned to the world; and from the side of science that it contains religious and mystical elements. There is only one Islam, but like man, it has both soul and body……

For the future and man’s practical activity, Islam means the call to create a man harmonious in his soul and body, and [the call to create] a society whose laws and socio-political institutions will maintain – and not violate – this harmony.

Shattering the Myth: Islam Beyond Violence, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998. 237 pp. Paperback edition: 2000. Special Millennium Edition from Oxford University Press, Karachi: 2000. Arabic translation, Obeikan Publishers Riyadh, 2004