Every year, just before Ramadan, the Muslim community waits for the appearance of the new moon – an early crescent – as a signal for the start of a month’s fasting, prayer, contemplation and spiritual nourishment. Like the early crescent, which has to grow before it becomes clearly visible, contemporary Muslim thought has made an appearance, but is still developing. It is substantial, connected to the continuum of its heritage, concerned both with the particular and the universal, and with present and future problems. In this book leading Muslim scholars reflect on the crucial questions facing Muslims today, and attempt to define the epistemology of contemporary Islamic scholarship in science, technology, the social sciences, architecture and the environmental sciences.