Islam - Texts

Holy Texts and Sacred Tales

The Quran

The Quran (a.k.a. Koran) is the only Sacred Text (i.e., Scripture) in Islam. Moslems believe that Mohammed received the Quran from Allah in a series of visions that took place regularly during his later adult life. This happened either by Allah putting the words directly into Mohammed's mind or by Allah sending the Angel Gabriel to teach it to Mohammed. Mohammed memorized the words and dictated them to his followers and Companions. After his death, the Moslems worked to establish the correct written text of the Quran, with the process being completed under the Caliph Uthman.

Since the Quran contains the actual words of Allah, in the language in which he communicated them, the Quran's holiness functions in several ways. First, the message the words convey is holy; it is sacred, true doctrine that establishes the basis of Islam. Second, the words themselves are holy, even if they are not understood. Since Allah spoke them, it becomes an act of worship for Muslims to speak them as well. This has given rise to the importance of memorizing and reciting Quran passages. It is an act of worship to memorize, to recite the memorized passage, and to listen to the recitation. Memorization and recitation has become so popular Islam, that there are now local, regional and international Quran Reciting Contests. Of course, to help the quality of memorization, there are even guidelines and helps. To read one set of such guidelines, click here.

The Quran is divided into parts called suras. All moslems have the first sura (called The Fatihah) memorized because it is part of the daily prayers. It provides a simple guide to the most basic desire of moslems, namely, to follow Allah's will. The following link provides an English version of the Fatihah. Note its presentation; it is placed on an ornamented background. This shows the respect and honor due to the Quran's holy nature. For a discussion of the Quran as seen by Islam, click here.

For [The Fatihah,] click here.

Here are some further examples of the Quran. {more to come}

The Hadith

The term hadith refers to the stories and sayings of Mohammed, his actions, his interactions with his followers and others. "Hadith" is used to indicate a single story and to indicate a collection of stories--even all the stories. It is thus both singular and plural.

Shortly after Mohammed's death, a movement was begun to remember the stories accurately and to retell them, making them known to all Moslems. Ultimately they were edited into collections in the ninth and tenth centuries C.E. These stories of Mohammed became a standard and an example of behavior for moslems. They provided the basis for the [Sunnah].

Below you will find some examples of hadith. First, note that each one begins with a list of names. These are the people who remembered the story and passed it down. These people give the story its authority and accuracy. This opening formula appears in all hadith. Second, note that the story involves named individuals.

Examples: The hadith of Malik's Muwatta.
The hadith of Sunan Abu-Dawud.
The hadith of Sahih Muslim.

The Shariah

The Shariah is usually identified as "Islamic religious law." But it is much more than what is usually implied by that short phrase. A better way to think of it would be, "rules for good Islamic behavior." In the West, we have moral and ethical rules, rules for polite behavior, guidelines for proper interactions with our fellow human beings, rituals for worship and other religious activities, as well as laws governing legal aspects of human activities. In Islam, these are all included under the umbrella of shariah. Thus, sharaih should be seen as a code of behavior for the community of Islam (the [ummah]).

The Shariah is based primarily on the Quran and the hadith. For those areas that are not covered by these sources, there are groups of judges who carefully evaluate the situation and apply Islamic principles to it to arrive at a judgement. (For a more complete discussion of Shariah, click here.)

examples??