The present study was designed to investigate the structures, figures and functions of religious authority in contemporary Islamic ethics. The most obvious finding to emerge from this book is that, whether in the Sunni or Shīʿī worlds, in Europe or in the Muslim world, authority is community-based; the religious figures of authority (theologians-jurists, imams, preachers, Sufi masters, etc.) are mostly dependent and centred around their immediate and local communities. Their aim, ultimately, is to arrange hierarchies of values and social ranks in order to make law and order ethically justifiable for the community members and, thus, minimise the risks of subversion; they think of themselves as symbolic guardians of law and order and do not push for change unless it is necessary. Islamic figures of authority owe their legitimacy and charisma to transmission of authoritative religious texts and ability to make them relevant for a given audience. Moreover, these figures of authority are expected to invest time and effort in the community’s life. That is to say, authority is synergetic with the moral economy of the community; the Sunni ʿālim or imam, the Shīʿī marjaʿ or the Sufi master can establish efficacy and authoritativeness if their religious discourses or actions are conjoined with involvement in the economic affairs, the social networks and the religious institutions that form the community. As a result, the main task of an Islamic figure of authority is generating community charisma out of his individual charisma by re-playing, re-articulating and re-hearsing the Prophetic experience as the re-birth of a religious community.