This book seeks, as its title suggests, to present Islam as it is, by drawing on original sources, rather than leaving it to be judged by latter-day interpretations and commentaries, or the practices of present-day Muslims in different parts of the world. This method of evaluation brings out the distinction between Islam as presented to the world by the Prophet Muhammad and his Companions (information about which is available to us in the Qur?an and the sunnah) and Islam as mirrored in the lives of later Muslim generations.