The ABCs of Islam is a series of short, accessible articles introducing the basic tenets of Islam — written for the educated and curious reader who is looking for reliable, honest, and human answers.

As you can imagine, writing these articles takes considerable time. So why am I doing it?

The honest answer is: my friends made me.

Over three decades ago I left my native Turkey to do a PhD in Economics in the United States. The friends I made there knew little about Turkey or Islam — just as I knew little about Thailand or Argentina, or about Buddhism or Catholicism. We were curious about each other in the way that people who genuinely like each other tend to be.

But they were also hearing about Islam in passing — usually in the context of a war, an immigration crisis, or a terror attack by people who claimed to speak for Muslims. The picture was rarely flattering, and rarely complete.

Sometimes, thankfully, their curiosity came from warmer places:

Why was I not eating — or drinking — anything during the day in Ramadan?Why was that new student in class covering her hair?Why did I believe in God at all?

These are not easy questions to ask someone. But I never felt awkward or defensive about them — perhaps because I grew up in a home where no question was too uncomfortable. My father, a scholar of Islam and a devout Muslim, always responded to my questions with patience and thought. I tried to do the same.

On the contrary, I felt I had found kindred spirits. My friends felt comfortable asking me things they were afraid to ask others — for fear of giving offence, or of seeming ignorant. And I genuinely loved thinking through the answers with them.

Over the following decades I heard the same questions asked again and again — by different friends, in different cities, at different stages of life. It became clear that there must be many others out there wondering the same things.

Which is how this series began.

Here is a selection of the topics this series plans to cover:

On God: Who is God according to Islam? What does He want from us — and what does He promise in return?

On the Quran: What is the Quran? Why do some call it a miraculous book — and why do others find it hard to understand? Who wrote it, what does it contain, and how does it differ from the Bible?

On Muhammad: Who was Muhammad (pbuh)? Where and when did he live? What were his main teachings and what legacy did he leave? Was he a warlord? Who did he marry, and why?

On Jesus Christ: What does Islam teach about Jesus? Is he the Messiah? What about the virgin birth?

On women: What is Islam's view of women, and how do women's rights in Islam compare to other traditions?

On Islam and the modern world: Is Islam compatible with modern science? With democracy? With freedom of conscience?

On other faiths: What do Muslims believe about Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, agnostics, and atheists?

On violence and extremism: What is Jihad — really? Why does Islam so often appear in the context of war and terrorism, and what does that context leave out?

Obviously, this is a short list, and there are many other pressing questions that other readers might want to know about.

So, feel free to submit your questions for future articles using the message form below.

The Quran is the Divine Book of Islam, and Muslims believe that it is the Word of God, unaltered. And Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said it will remain “his greatest miracle until the end of time.”

Clearly, these are bold claims, and a non-Muslim has every right to be skeptical about their truth. I will discuss these claims and the evidence put forward in detail in future posts.

For now though, what matters is that regardless of whether you believe this or not, these statements reflect how Muslims view the Quran.So, if you want to know what Islam is — as understood by Muslims — you start with the Quran.

First: A unique feature of the Quran is its hierarchical structure: that all the (600-page!) Quran is summarized in its first Chapter (1/3-page long!), and that the first chapter is summarized in the first Sentence.

(You may notice that this is precisely the format of modern scientific articles: “Article summarized in Introduction summarized in Abstract”, which I find pretty remarkable for a book that goes back 1500 years.)

So, what does that first sentence say? Here it is: