true_muslimah
11-04-2007, 04:04 PM
1. The Qur'an
The Qur'an is the primary source of every Muslim's faith and practice.
It is the 100% exact words of God to the letter and its purpose is to guide mankind to achieve eternal peace with their creator. It includes an immense amount of wisdom in small sentences guiding us to take account of ourselves and perfecting our character. It contains a very clear message of the purest Monotheism. It lays down the guidelines for all acts of worship. It is The Divine Constitution of guidance defining faith, law, and self-purification. There are two basic themes in this guidance. They are the relationship between God and Mankind and the relationship between people.
The Qur'an is miraculous in many ways. see The Miracle. One example is how it is preserved to the letter from the time it was revealed until now (more than 1400 years). The first factor in this miraculous preservation is how so many of the Prophet's companions memorized the Qur'an word for word. This is because they deeply loved the word of God and were in awe of it. Secondly, it is highly recommended if not obligatory for Muslims to pray in congregation for each of the 5 daily prayers unless they have a valid excuse, e.g. conditions of living in a non-Muslim environment where mosques and Muslims are scarce. In the dawn, sunset, and night prayers the Qur'an is to be recited out loud for everyone to hear.
Even more amazing than the hundreds of the Prophet's companions who memorized the Qur'an "word for word" is the fact that millions of people worldwide have since memorized the Qur'an. Astonished yet? No! Okay Well Today, over a million people from various nationalities have memorized the whole 600 pages of the Qur'an and thousands of them don't speak Arabic which is the language of the Qur'an!!!
Another factor leading to the preservation of the Qur'an is its written form. In the Prophet's life, since he was illiterate, he ordered several of his close companions to write the Qur'an down immediately after it was revealed. Some of the other companions also kept unofficial personal copies of the Qur'an as they recorded it. 12 years after the death of the Prophet (pbuh), all the major companions of the Prophet agreed to make a master copy to be kept with the Caliph (leader of the Islamic state) and there would be copies sent to the many governorates from which they will make copies for the people and it would be banned for anyone to write down the Qur'an except from these copies.
This is why no matter where you go in the world whether it be Arabia, the U.S., Russia, China, or Nigeria you will find that every Qur'an is word for word exactly the same. Of course it should be noted that the Qur'an (the word of God) is only in Arabic and that any translation is simply an attempt by a person to render the meanings of the Qur'an into another language. And since the one responsible for this translation is human then it is subject to error. See the Qur'an section.
It suffices to say what Almighty God said about His book:
Truly it is We who sent down the Qur'an and We indeed are its protector.
(Qur'an 15:9)
Verily it is a well-fortified book. Falsehood cannot come to it from any direction. It is a revelation from the All-Wise Who deserves all praise.(Qur'an 41:41-2)
2. Sunnah
The second source of Islamic faith and practice is the Sunnah, which is the example of the Prophet. The Prophet made many commands and prohibited many matters that the Qur'an didn't clarify. The Sunnah is also a revelation from God, yet in the words of the Prophet or the companion who saw it. We know this because of the few verses which were sent correcting the Prophet's (PBUH) course of action in certain circumstances. Thus those things which weren't corrected we infer that the All-Knowing, All-Aware Creator approved of them.
The divine guidance of the Sunnah was memorized by the Companions and later recorded in what is known as Hadiths (sayings, actions, and silent approvals of the Prophet). See Sunnah section- As previously mentioned, the Qur'an contains the basic guidelines for Islamic Law. For example the Qur'an tells us to pray, but how should we pray and at what times and how many times? What is the complete meaning of the phrase "Establish Prayers" often found in the Qur'an? For this reason God has made it clear that He sent the Prophet (pbuh) to teach us His book and it's wisdom.
"It is He who has sent among the illiterates a messenger from among themselves reciting to them His verses, purifying them, and teaching them the book and its wisdom. While before that they were in clear error." (Qur'an 62:2)
All orthodox Muslim scholars have always understood this "wisdom" to mean the Sunnah. This wisdom is mentioned as being sent in addition to the Qur'an in 5 places.
God also says:
"He who obeys the messenger has indeed obeyed God" (Qur'an 4:80)
God swears:
"And No! By your lord, they will never have Faith until they make you judge in all of their matters, and then find no resistance in themselves against your decisions, and they accept them with full submission." (Qur'an 4:65)
The Qur'an never mentions obeying God without mentioning obedience to the Prophet separately. This means that God has sent two separate revelations; the Qur'an and the Sunnah. A few examples from the Sunnah are as follows:
"God will show no mercy on one who has no mercy for others."
"None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself."
"Pray as you have seen me pray."
"He who eats his fill while his neighbor goes without food is not a believer."
"God does not judge you according to your bodies and appearances, rather He looks into your hearts and observes your deeds."
"A man walking along a path felt very thirsty. Reaching a well he descended into it, drank his fill and came up. Then he saw a dog with its tongue hanging out, trying to lick up mud to quench its thirst. The man saw that the dog was feeling the same thirst as he had felt, so he went down into the well again and filled his shoe with water and gave the dog a drink. God forgave his sins for this action. The Prophet was asked: 'Messenger of God, are we rewarded for kindness towards animals?' He said, 'There is a reward for kindness to every living being."
"O People, listen to me in earnest, worship God, perform your five daily prayers (Salah), fast during the month of Ramadan, and give your wealth in Zakah. Perform Hajj if you can afford to. Know that every Muslim is the brother of another Muslim. You are all equal. Nobody has superiority over others except by piety and righteousness."(From The Prophet's Last Sermon).
3. Consensus of the Scholars and Muslims in general (Ijma')
This is when all known Muslim scholars (mostly among the companions of teh Prophet) are in agreement about a certain ruling in Islam. This is based on the verse-
"And whosoever opposes the Messenger after the right path has been made clear to him, and then follows a way other than that of the believers, We shall open his path to the Hellfire, what an evil destination" (Qur'an 4:115)
When he says "and follows a way other than that of the of the believers" it means goes against their consensus which is from God's guidance. Now this verse says believers and that doesn't refer to anyone who calls his or herself a Muslim. This refers to the strong believers of Knowledge and Piety which the heavy majority of the Companions of the Prophet (pbuh) were. So you may talk to 10,000 Muslims and they all tell you the same thing about a given ruling, but that doesn't fall under this verse because you may go to five scholars and they tell you something different about that same subject because of their knowledge. Another proof of the Consensus or (Ijma') is in the well known Authentic Hadith-
"My nation will never agree upon misguidance".
So if the scholars agree, then it is a Divine proof of authority in Islamic Law.
4. Reasoning or Analogy from Established rulings (Qiyas)
Qiyas means reasoning or analogy from authentic texts by a competent Islamic scholar on a particular issue. This is a very important source of Islamic Law as it allows competent scholars to solve particular questions on Islam which are new by means of analogical reasoning based on sound Islamic texts. Basically, a scholar has to look into a specific text and identify a point of cause for a certain ruling in common with the new subject which has no direct text in relation to it. Then he takes the cause for the ruling from the text and applies that ruling to the new situation which has the same cause.
A person who applies Qiyas must also have thorough knowledge of the sciences of Qur'an and Hadith, the principles of Jurisprudence according to all the major scholars, the consensus (ijma') and differences on a particular issue, the Arabic language, and finally the ruling should not contradict common sense. The knowledge of analogy is probably the most important function of being a modern Muslim scholar because any scholar throughout history was well-aquainted with Qur'an and Sunnah and the laws found therein. If God were to send us guidance which would directly deal with everything until the Day of Judgment then He would have sent a few thousand books which no one scholar could master. Instead the All-Wise creator sent the guidelines and principles which we may use to apply rulings to everything that we may face until the Last Day. This is why Analogy is one of the primary sources of Islamic Law.
The Qur'an is the primary source of every Muslim's faith and practice.
It is the 100% exact words of God to the letter and its purpose is to guide mankind to achieve eternal peace with their creator. It includes an immense amount of wisdom in small sentences guiding us to take account of ourselves and perfecting our character. It contains a very clear message of the purest Monotheism. It lays down the guidelines for all acts of worship. It is The Divine Constitution of guidance defining faith, law, and self-purification. There are two basic themes in this guidance. They are the relationship between God and Mankind and the relationship between people.
The Qur'an is miraculous in many ways. see The Miracle. One example is how it is preserved to the letter from the time it was revealed until now (more than 1400 years). The first factor in this miraculous preservation is how so many of the Prophet's companions memorized the Qur'an word for word. This is because they deeply loved the word of God and were in awe of it. Secondly, it is highly recommended if not obligatory for Muslims to pray in congregation for each of the 5 daily prayers unless they have a valid excuse, e.g. conditions of living in a non-Muslim environment where mosques and Muslims are scarce. In the dawn, sunset, and night prayers the Qur'an is to be recited out loud for everyone to hear.
Even more amazing than the hundreds of the Prophet's companions who memorized the Qur'an "word for word" is the fact that millions of people worldwide have since memorized the Qur'an. Astonished yet? No! Okay Well Today, over a million people from various nationalities have memorized the whole 600 pages of the Qur'an and thousands of them don't speak Arabic which is the language of the Qur'an!!!
Another factor leading to the preservation of the Qur'an is its written form. In the Prophet's life, since he was illiterate, he ordered several of his close companions to write the Qur'an down immediately after it was revealed. Some of the other companions also kept unofficial personal copies of the Qur'an as they recorded it. 12 years after the death of the Prophet (pbuh), all the major companions of the Prophet agreed to make a master copy to be kept with the Caliph (leader of the Islamic state) and there would be copies sent to the many governorates from which they will make copies for the people and it would be banned for anyone to write down the Qur'an except from these copies.
This is why no matter where you go in the world whether it be Arabia, the U.S., Russia, China, or Nigeria you will find that every Qur'an is word for word exactly the same. Of course it should be noted that the Qur'an (the word of God) is only in Arabic and that any translation is simply an attempt by a person to render the meanings of the Qur'an into another language. And since the one responsible for this translation is human then it is subject to error. See the Qur'an section.
It suffices to say what Almighty God said about His book:
Truly it is We who sent down the Qur'an and We indeed are its protector.
(Qur'an 15:9)
Verily it is a well-fortified book. Falsehood cannot come to it from any direction. It is a revelation from the All-Wise Who deserves all praise.(Qur'an 41:41-2)
2. Sunnah
The second source of Islamic faith and practice is the Sunnah, which is the example of the Prophet. The Prophet made many commands and prohibited many matters that the Qur'an didn't clarify. The Sunnah is also a revelation from God, yet in the words of the Prophet or the companion who saw it. We know this because of the few verses which were sent correcting the Prophet's (PBUH) course of action in certain circumstances. Thus those things which weren't corrected we infer that the All-Knowing, All-Aware Creator approved of them.
The divine guidance of the Sunnah was memorized by the Companions and later recorded in what is known as Hadiths (sayings, actions, and silent approvals of the Prophet). See Sunnah section- As previously mentioned, the Qur'an contains the basic guidelines for Islamic Law. For example the Qur'an tells us to pray, but how should we pray and at what times and how many times? What is the complete meaning of the phrase "Establish Prayers" often found in the Qur'an? For this reason God has made it clear that He sent the Prophet (pbuh) to teach us His book and it's wisdom.
"It is He who has sent among the illiterates a messenger from among themselves reciting to them His verses, purifying them, and teaching them the book and its wisdom. While before that they were in clear error." (Qur'an 62:2)
All orthodox Muslim scholars have always understood this "wisdom" to mean the Sunnah. This wisdom is mentioned as being sent in addition to the Qur'an in 5 places.
God also says:
"He who obeys the messenger has indeed obeyed God" (Qur'an 4:80)
God swears:
"And No! By your lord, they will never have Faith until they make you judge in all of their matters, and then find no resistance in themselves against your decisions, and they accept them with full submission." (Qur'an 4:65)
The Qur'an never mentions obeying God without mentioning obedience to the Prophet separately. This means that God has sent two separate revelations; the Qur'an and the Sunnah. A few examples from the Sunnah are as follows:
"God will show no mercy on one who has no mercy for others."
"None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself."
"Pray as you have seen me pray."
"He who eats his fill while his neighbor goes without food is not a believer."
"God does not judge you according to your bodies and appearances, rather He looks into your hearts and observes your deeds."
"A man walking along a path felt very thirsty. Reaching a well he descended into it, drank his fill and came up. Then he saw a dog with its tongue hanging out, trying to lick up mud to quench its thirst. The man saw that the dog was feeling the same thirst as he had felt, so he went down into the well again and filled his shoe with water and gave the dog a drink. God forgave his sins for this action. The Prophet was asked: 'Messenger of God, are we rewarded for kindness towards animals?' He said, 'There is a reward for kindness to every living being."
"O People, listen to me in earnest, worship God, perform your five daily prayers (Salah), fast during the month of Ramadan, and give your wealth in Zakah. Perform Hajj if you can afford to. Know that every Muslim is the brother of another Muslim. You are all equal. Nobody has superiority over others except by piety and righteousness."(From The Prophet's Last Sermon).
3. Consensus of the Scholars and Muslims in general (Ijma')
This is when all known Muslim scholars (mostly among the companions of teh Prophet) are in agreement about a certain ruling in Islam. This is based on the verse-
"And whosoever opposes the Messenger after the right path has been made clear to him, and then follows a way other than that of the believers, We shall open his path to the Hellfire, what an evil destination" (Qur'an 4:115)
When he says "and follows a way other than that of the of the believers" it means goes against their consensus which is from God's guidance. Now this verse says believers and that doesn't refer to anyone who calls his or herself a Muslim. This refers to the strong believers of Knowledge and Piety which the heavy majority of the Companions of the Prophet (pbuh) were. So you may talk to 10,000 Muslims and they all tell you the same thing about a given ruling, but that doesn't fall under this verse because you may go to five scholars and they tell you something different about that same subject because of their knowledge. Another proof of the Consensus or (Ijma') is in the well known Authentic Hadith-
"My nation will never agree upon misguidance".
So if the scholars agree, then it is a Divine proof of authority in Islamic Law.
4. Reasoning or Analogy from Established rulings (Qiyas)
Qiyas means reasoning or analogy from authentic texts by a competent Islamic scholar on a particular issue. This is a very important source of Islamic Law as it allows competent scholars to solve particular questions on Islam which are new by means of analogical reasoning based on sound Islamic texts. Basically, a scholar has to look into a specific text and identify a point of cause for a certain ruling in common with the new subject which has no direct text in relation to it. Then he takes the cause for the ruling from the text and applies that ruling to the new situation which has the same cause.
A person who applies Qiyas must also have thorough knowledge of the sciences of Qur'an and Hadith, the principles of Jurisprudence according to all the major scholars, the consensus (ijma') and differences on a particular issue, the Arabic language, and finally the ruling should not contradict common sense. The knowledge of analogy is probably the most important function of being a modern Muslim scholar because any scholar throughout history was well-aquainted with Qur'an and Sunnah and the laws found therein. If God were to send us guidance which would directly deal with everything until the Day of Judgment then He would have sent a few thousand books which no one scholar could master. Instead the All-Wise creator sent the guidelines and principles which we may use to apply rulings to everything that we may face until the Last Day. This is why Analogy is one of the primary sources of Islamic Law.