Ali ibn Abi Talib, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, is respected by all Muslims. He was among the earliest Meccans to convert to Islam and was one of the four Rightly Guided (Rashidun) caliphs of the new Muslim state. At the same time, he is also seen as a controversial figure whose…

We often assume that religions are shaped on the basis of ideas: about the world, about humans and their relations to that world. In a similar vein, we might compare the different world religions in terms of their ideational bases. For example, we might hasten to think that Islam and Zoroastrianism are different by virtue…