Reform and Its Perils in Contemporary Islam offers an intellectual history and critical analysis of Abu Zayd's work. Abu Zayd believed there could be a positive relationship between modernity and Islam. He sought to reinterpret central aspects of the Islamic tradition to render them more conducive to modern conceptions of religion, society, and politics. Nadia Oweidat situates this prominent Muslim scholar both within his modernist intellectual milieu and in opposition to his numerous critics, elucidating and providing summary translations of Arabic texts that, until now, have remained largely unknown to Western audiences. Abu Zayd's fate, Oweidat argues, illustrates the hostility faced by modernist intellectuals who attempt to subject the Islamic tradition to academic scrutiny.