After examining Islam as a concept (or, rather, an array of different conceptualizations), a subject of academic inquiry, and an intellectual challenge (in terms of defining what is included into and excluded from this elastic category), we will undertake a comparative exploration of Islamic discursive theology (kalam), legal theory (fiqh), philosophy (falsafa), and modern-day Islamic reformism (islah) and “fundamentalism” (Salafism; salafiyya). We will pay special attention to the question of how these diverse fields of intellectual endeavor – varying in methodology and purpose – have conceived of God and his relationship with the world he created, especially the world of human beings. Islamic doctrines and practices have always evolved within concrete socio-political circumstances that decisively, if indirectly, shaped their evolution across time and space. Recent and current debates inside and outside the Muslim world over current and future directions of Islamic thought and practice, as well as the burning geopolitical issues faced by the global Muslim community (umma), will be discussed in detail. Last, but not least, we will evaluate the usefulness and suitability of recent Western sociological, hermeneutic, and anthropological methodologies in explaining the intellectual, ritual, and spiritual aspects of the life of the umma. We will also attempt to formulate and propose new, original ways of approaching the complex and multi-faceted phenomenon that we call “Islam.”