The purpose of this ethnographic and ethnonursing study was to describe and analyze the meanings and experiences of care for Lebanese Muslims as influenced by cultural context in selected natural and health care settings. Leininger's theory of cultural care diversity and universality served as the conceptualizing framework for the study. It was predicted that care meanings and experiences for Lebanese Muslims are largely influenced by and derived from cultural context through shared cultural values, beliefs and practices. It was further assumed that clients, such as Lebanese Muslims, bring with them cultural beliefs, attitudes, language expressions and communication patterns which are meaningful to them when they enter a health care setting. Research questions focused on discovering the meanings and experiences of care for Lebanese Muslims in their natural community context and in the context of a hospital and clinic. Ethnography and ethnonursing research methods were used with key and general informants in each setting of an urban U.S. community. Universal themes of care that were similar in the three contexts reflected care as a religious obligation in Islam, care as equal but different gender role responsibilities, and care as individual and collective meanings of honor. Major diversities in the hospital context reflected areas of cultural incongruence between Lebanese Muslim clients and health personnel with respect to gender role differences and certain American models of care practices, therapies and ethical codes which did not fit the Lebanese Muslim cultural lifeways, values and beliefs. Diversity in the clinic context reflected incongruence regarding expectations of responsible prenatal care. Other findings of the study related to professional and folk beliefs and practices, semantic descriptors of care in the Arabic language, and gender differences in perceptions of a caring and non-caring nurse. The concept of cultural decontextualization was abstracted from the findings and defined. Nursing implications utilizing Leininger's three modes of nursing interventions were identified.