These are the two books I still have, from when I took a class on the subject:
"Islam from Within: Anthology of a Religion" by Kenneth Cragg and Marston Speight
and
"An Introduction to Islam" by Frederick Mathewson Denny
Aside from that I know a lot of people who are themselves Muslim, either observant or raised Muslim and currently pretty secular (several of them are people my husband works with, and nobody in the sciences seems to be particularly religious -- maybe it's own topic) and the whole Muslim/ Hindu thing is a huge aspect of the many modern Indian novels I've read. I've also taken other classes in which Islam was at the periphery, such as whatever class I took for which "Wombs and Alien Spirits" was a textbook. (Fascinating book.)
My main influence, though, I've talked about before -- the professor of the class I took in college about Islam. He was one of those too good for this world types, just gentleness incarnate, and so
upset at what extremists were doing to his beloved religion. (I took the class a few years after the fatwa on Rushdie.) He placed a lot of emphasis on the kindness, generosity, and gentleness of the religion, and made a convincing case.
This is one aspect I remember making an impression on me (copied/ typed out from Denny's book):
[b]Zakat: Legal Almsgiving[/b]
The earliest documents we have regarding Muslim practices -- the Qur'an and other contemporary and somewhat later sources -- speak often of calling the people to worship by means of the salat and of almsgiving by means of the [i]zakat[/i]. These two basic religious activities are clear indicators of the importance of the vertical relationship between humankind and God through prayer and obedience, on the one hand, and [b]the horizontal relationship of Muslims with one another through the giving of one's wealth[/b], on the other. [b]Next in importance to worship is concern for others, both individually and as a community of Muslims[/b]. The zakat is a legal, obligatory act and considered part of one's service to God, as a technical part of worship in the sense of [i]'ibada[/i]. Zakat is not to be confused with charity, which is known as [i]sidaqa[/i]. [b]Muslims are commanded to give charity often and freely, with emphasis on discretion and concern for the feelings of the recipients[/b]. Zakat, however, is more like a tax payable once a year and computed as a percentage of one's various forms of wealth. A manual of Islamic practices written for English-speaking converts describes zakat as being owed on "three C's: cash, cattle, and crops." The Arabic word [i]zakat[/i] has as one of its meanings "purity", and though that sense is secondary, it does apply as a characterization of the wealth remaining to the owner after alms have been paid. That is, the wealth is purified for use of its owner. If no zakat has been paid on it during the year in which, acccording to Islamic law, it was due, the property is considered to be illicitly held and "unclean". [b]This, again, is a powerful symbol of Islam's sense of community.[/b]
(Bolding within text is my emphasis.)
