"For the fourteen centuries of Islam's existence, non-Muslims have, in the main, studied it mainly to combat it. Where such ulterior motive was absent, Western study of Islam has been 'scientific' and 'empirical' to the point of missing the meaning of piety, ethicality, and sense of beauty that constitute the core of Islamic religiosity. The unprejudiced study of the history of religious discipline, which normally aims at understanding this religiosity in its moment of action and expression, of growth and consummation, was never aimed at. Not only have the historian of religions not been interested in such a pursuit, but their discipline has as yet not developed the methodological tools requisite to the undertaking".[179]
