Cook has achieved something special in this work. He demonstrates that he is a rare and gifted scholar with an awesome ability to intregrate vast seas of thought into one coherent whole. This work covers "Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong" from its origins in the Koran up until modern times, though he focuses upon the classical period throughout the vast majority of his book. All sects with a significant body of material are represented. Why this topic?-- Basically, this doctrine has historically proved to be the major foundation of any Islamic social ethic; therefore, how it is concieved usually predetermines how one thinks justice ought to be established in this word or by whom it should be established. Cook possesses a talent for giving seemingly distant and irrelevant doctrines a timely relation to today insofar as his studies illuminates how two different cultures approach moral actions in their respective societies. Parts of this book are vast and copiously detailed; however, it was exhaustively documented and extremely efficiently organized throughout. Thus, it is enormously accessible and immensely useful for reference as well. The high price is unfortunate, but it is without a doubt worth the money for anyone interested in Islamics.