Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Sharia Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia to the Streets of the Modern Muslim World

Ever since 9/11, fears about the shariaIslamic lawhave been spreading. A word that originally conveyed nothing more sinister than a direct path to water has become associated not with salvation but with brutality and compulsion. And as the legal historian and human rights lawyer Sadakat Kadri realized when he began writing this book, we are all worse off for not knowing its true meaning.In Heaven on Earth, Kadri recounts Islams thrilling and turbulent history with wit and precision and shows how fourteen hundred years of tradition have been turned upside down in just forty years by hardline extremists. Traveling through more than half a dozen countries, he explores how the sharia is currently perceivedby scholars, critics, and ordinary believers alike.Heaven on Earth is a brilliantly iconoclastic tour through one of humanitys great collective intellectual achievements. At a time when the sharia is shaping political crises and the lives of more than a billion Muslims worldwide, Kadri clarifies the realities of modern Islamand helps us anticipate how it is going to look in the future.