It is explained that in Islam...

It is explained that in Islam, everything is to be understood in terms of its relation with God, and the Islamic understanding of God Himself is to be found between the two poles of negative and positive theology, tanzih and tashbih, compared to the yang and yin elements of Taoist thought, respectively.

Likewise, the attributes of God, the so-called ninety-nine names of God, are often divided by Muslim authors into the attributes of majesty (jalal) and the attributes of beauty (jamal), which Murata refers to as the yang Names and the yin Names. Various symbols of the Qur'an, such as the Tablet and the Pen, may also be interpreted in terms of feminine/masculine duality.

Part one consists of a single chapter called "The Three Realities", in which the author shows that what she calls the Tao of Islam is made up of three great realities, God, the cosmos, and the human…