In designing undergraduate courses on Arabic culture or Arabic literature in English translation, one faces challenges not only in terms of which texts, periods and regions to focus on, but also how to frame the texts under study when it comes to its Arab-Islamic cultural content. In this paper, I explore strategies I’ve used in selecting relevant primary materials with an eye towards not only creating a coherent overall variety of primary and secondary sources, but also keeping firmly in mind the prospective audience: undergraduates at a large public university who are taking an overview class within a liberal arts framework. Most of the undergraduate students in the class have not had prior familiarity with Islam and its culture. Among the many challenges students face, some arise from the text itself, through the decisions of authors, translators and editors who make choices about which key terms or concepts to leave in the original language, which to translate or gloss, and how to arrange any translations within the published text. Drawing on several specific texts, and with insight from the process of teaching them, my presentation focuses not only on translated words and phrases, but more specifically, on the use of terms with specific socio-religious content and import. I then, based on my experiences, suggest what in which classroom engagement with such texts could be optimally improved and enhanced. The goal is to interrogate how to introduce aspects of Islam as a background for the content presented within the framework of the ‘secular’ space of the public university classroom.