Universal values and discursive traditions

This chapter further investigates the bifurcation of Islam into rational idealism and juristic realism and sheds light on the idealism-realism dialectics under Islam and the generation of a discursive tradition that was crucial to keeping the socio-religious and socio-historical groups engaged in an open debate. This leads to the examination of the ethical foundation and the humanistic dimension of Islam that gave rise to religious pluralism and facilitated the establishment of worldwide civilization that brought unity to the Axial societies and to the rise of the high culture in metropolitan cities from Central and South Asia in the East to the Iberian Peninsula in the West. The chapter concludes by examining the contractual relationships between Muslim and non-Muslim communities that allow non-Muslims greater moral and religious autonomy.