No god but God (Updated Edition): The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam
by Reza Aslan
updated 9mo ago
by Reza Aslan
updated 9mo ago
by Kim Ghattas
because it did not empower a priesthood as the intermediary between the faithful and their god, Islam did not bind the individual so tightly into an ordered religious community. Its clerical elite, the ulama, were teachers, judges and scholars, not priests. Sufis and pirs, or holy men, exerted spiritual leadership, not religious authority.