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History of non-Christian Religions — Topic 14

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History of non-Christian Religions — Topic 14

14.1 The Religious Landscape of Arabia at the Time of the Emergence of

Islam.

Islam arose in Arabia at the beginning of the seventh century. At that time the religious composition of the Arabs was far from uniform.

The first group consisted of the Arab pagans, the direct rivals and targets of Muhammad’s criticism. Arab paganism typologically resembled the pagan beliefs found in Asia Minor and the Near East. They venerated a supreme God, but alongside Him they also venerated many lesser gods. In his preaching Muhammad repeatedly addresses the Arabs on the assumption that they already know Allah and venerate Him, but that their sin lies in associating partners with Him and worshipping other deities.

The second group was the Jewish diaspora, which professed classical Judaism.

The third group consisted of the Christians. Even today, however, there is no consensus regarding which confession, or confessions, were present in Mecca. It is clear that there were Nestorians in Arabia, but various Gnostic Christian movements were also present. Muhammad makes an intriguing remark in the Quran: God, as it were, turns to Jesus with the words, “Didst thou say unto men, take me and my mother as two gods?” From this address it is evident that the Trinity is understood in this context as the Father, the Son, and the Virgin Mary. For some time it was held that Muhammad simply erred owing to his lack of education. It is known, however, that in Gnostic texts there was a tendency to associate the Mother of God closely with the Holy Spirit, and so it remains possible that Muhammad was acquainted with a Gnostic form of Christianity. This view has gained currency in recent scholarship.

The fourth group comprised Hanifs, the spontaneous monotheists: groups of Arabs who had listened to Christians and Jews and absorbed biblical religious ideas, but who accepted neither Judaism nor Christianity. These groups are conventionally called Hanifs. The Hanifs professed monotheism, preached asceticism, and observed ritual purity. They did not accept Christianity or Judaism in their entirety; they called for the abolition of tribal idols and sought to establish a relatively simple and accessible religious system suited to Arabia. The inchoate monotheism of the Hanifs exerted a significant influence on early Islam.

Muhammad was a Hanif. Abraham (Ibrahim) is likewise called a Hanif in the Quran. This is an important feature, because Muhammad claimed to be reviving the faith of Abraham, and held that Abraham professed true monotheism — which is, in essence, Islam:

They say, “Be Jews,” or “Be Christians, and you will find the straight path!” Say: “No! We follow the religion of Abraham, the monotheist; he was not among the polytheists” (Quran 2:135).

“Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but was a monotheist, a Muslim” (Quran 3:67).

The Hanif milieu was thus the starting point for the formation of Islam.

14.2 The Life of Muhammad before the Beginning of His Preaching.

Muhammad ibn Abdullah was born in Mecca around 570. The exact year of his birth is unknown, and alongside 570 one also encounters 571 and 573; 570, however, is generally accepted. While Amina bint Wahb, Muhammad’s mother, was pregnant with him, his father, Abdullah ibn Abd al-Muttalib, died on the road to Syria. Around 577 Muhammad’s mother set out with her son for Yathrib in order to visit relatives and her husband’s grave, but on the return journey she fell ill and died.

The boy was taken into the care of his grandfather, Abd al-Muttalib, the head of the Hashim clan. Two years later the grandfather also died, and the boy passed into the care of his uncle Abu Talib. From early childhood Muhammad grew up as a caravan driver, accompanying his uncle on trading journeys. On one such journey, the Christian monk Bahira recognized in the boy the future prophet and warned Abu Talib to protect Muhammad from the Jews. This story is recounted in detail in [Ibn Hisham, The Biography of the Prophet Muhammad, Moscow, 2003, p. 66].

Muhammad’s appearance was not extraordinary, and his contemporaries noted in him only a light gait and an extraordinary oratorical gift — when they heard his speech, people forgot that they were hungry. Ibn Jarir al-Tabari describes him thus: “He was of medium height, neither tall nor short. His face was rosy- white, his eyes dark, his hair thick, shining, and very beautiful. His face was framed by a beard. Long hair fell upon his shoulders, black in colour… His gait was so lively that with every step he seemed to tear himself away from the earth, and yet his movements were so light it was as though he did not touch it. There was, however, none of the pride characteristic of the mighty of this world in his bearing. There was so much kindness in his face that one could not look away. The hungry needed only to look at him and they at once forgot about food. In his presence the suffering forgot their woes, charmed by the gentleness of his features and his speech.”

When Muhammad was about twenty-five, he was taken into the service of a wealthy Meccan widow named Khadija. He had been recommended to her as an honest caravan driver, and she needed someone who could sell her goods in Syria and purchase what was required. The journey was a success, and the profit was high. Yet Khadija’s servant Maysara, who had been sent along with Muhammad, told his mistress of several remarkable incidents during the journey:

“The Messenger of Allah stopped in the shade of a tree near the cell of a certain monk. The monk looked attentively at Maysara and asked him, ‘Who is this man who has stopped beneath the shade of this tree?’ Maysara answered, ‘This man is of the tribe of Quraysh, an inhabitant of Mecca.’ The monk said to him, ‘No one has ever stopped beneath this tree except a Prophet.’ The Messenger of Allah then sold the merchandise he had brought and bought what he wished. He then set out with the caravan for Mecca together with Maysara. It is reported that during the midday heat, when the sun was at its fiercest, Maysara saw two angels who shielded Muhammad, riding upon his camel, from the sun” [Ibn Hisham, The Biography of the Prophet Muhammad, Moscow, 2003, p. 69].

Having heard the servant’s account, Khadija unexpectedly proposed marriage to Muhammad, and Muhammad accepted. This unusual moment is important in the early history of Muhammad. According to Ibn Hisham, Khadija resolved to marry Muhammad precisely when she heard him described as a prophet, and so she believed in him as a prophet long before the beginning of his preaching. It was Khadija who would support Muhammad from the very beginning, when he was only just beginning to hear the Quran, until her death. Although she was fifteen years his senior, Khadija bore him six children, and for as long as she lived he took no other wives.

14.3 The Revelation of the Quran and the Beginning of Muhammad’s Preaching.

Muhammad loved solitude and pious reflection, and he often withdrew to the mountains near Mecca. During one such retreat on Mount Hira in 610, he received his first vision. The angel Jibril (the biblical Gabriel) appeared to him and said, “Recite!” Muhammad replied that he did not know how to read. The angel then seized him and pressed his chest with all his strength, again commanding him to recite. Muhammad again replied that he could not read. The exchange was repeated. Muhammad answered a third time that he could not read. The angel then pressed him a third time and pronounced the first ayas of the Quran:

“Recite! In the name of thy Lord, who created —

created the human being from a clot.

Recite! And thy Lord is the Most Generous,

who taught by the pen,

taught the human being that which he did not know” (Quran 96:1–5).

Muhammad raised his eyes and saw an angel in human form standing on the horizon. He tried to turn away, but wherever he turned, the angel stood before him. Terrified, Muhammad returned home to Khadija. “Cover me, cover me!” he said; they covered him, and in that state he fell asleep. Muhammad did not at first understand who had spoken with him; he supposed it had been a jinn or an evil spirit. Khadija, however, convinced him that it had been an angel, and on the whole she was the first person to believe that Muhammad was a prophet.

It was then, in 610, that Muhammad began to preach — at first among his close relatives, but gradually his message reached more and more people. The early suras of the Quran are simple. He spoke of the most basic things: that God is one and that He alone is to be worshipped, that other gods must be renounced, for He is omnipotent and the Creator of heaven and earth. He preached that one cannot live in sin and that all will be called to account for everything, because there will be a Judgment and God is omniscient. The idea of the Last Judgment and the end of the world, when God will separate the righteous from sinners, rewarding the former and punishing the latter, is an important part of Muhammad’s early ethical preaching. In other words, these were classical prophetic exhortations of a denunciatory character.

The character of Muhammad’s preaching changed throughout his stay in Mecca. He constantly emphasizes that what he speaks is what God speaks, and that he is merely the transmitter. He claims to be like the prophets of old — Noah, Abraham, Moses — but sent to his own people.

Muhammad’s preaching greatly irritated the Meccans, as his biographies relate many times. Conspiracies were arranged against him; people tried to beat him, and even to kill him. They said that he was possessed by jinn and spirits, and accused him of sorcery and divination. These accusations are partly reflected in the Quran:

And your companion is not possessed: he has seen Him on the clear horizon. Nor is this the speech of an outcast Satan (Quran 81:22–25).

Therefore remind! For thou, by the grace of thy Lord, art neither a soothsayer nor possessed (Quran 52:29).

Truly, these are the words of a noble messenger! They are not the words of a poet — little is it that you believe! Nor the words of a soothsayer — little is it that you remember! (Quran 69:40–42).

14.4 The Year of Sorrow and the Hijra.

The year 620 has come to be called the Year of Sorrow in the Islamic tradition. Up to that point, Muhammad had been preaching successfully for ten years. His followers were not numerous, but the news of his preaching had spread far beyond the borders of Mecca. Although the Meccans tried to resist Islam by means of traps and intrigues, the most difficult period nonetheless began in 620, when both his wife and his uncle died — his uncle being the head of the Banu Hashim clan whose tribal protection had shielded him from assassination. His uncle’s patronage had saved Muhammad on many occasions, and in 620 he simultaneously lost the support of his family and the protection of the head of the Hashim clan.

Further preaching in Mecca had in fact become impossible. Without altogether leaving his native city, he began to preach in other towns and settlements of the Hijaz, arousing the displeasure of many of their inhabitants.

Finally, in 622, he resolved with a number of his followers to relocate to another city where it was significantly safer — Yathrib. Yathrib was inhabited by two tribes, the Aws and the Khazraj, who were at odds with one another and unable to reach an accommodation. According to local custom, in such a case it was possible to invite an outside arbiter — someone whom both sides respected. The choice fell upon Muhammad. The inhabitants of the city recognized him as a messenger of God and as a kind of arbitrating judge.

On 24 September 622, after a long journey and persecution by the embittered Meccans, Muhammad and his followers — his cousin Ali, Abu Bakr, and others — arrived in Yathrib. In the Islamic tradition the year of the Hijra (migration) is of exceptional importance. From this year the Islamic calendar is reckoned by the lunar year. Shortly after the Hijra the city was renamed Madinat al- Nabi (the City of the Prophet); later it came to be called simply Medina (Arabic for “city”).

The migration to Medina entirely transformed the way of life of the new community and of Muhammad himself. His preaching became calmer, more expansive, and more deliberate. The Medinan suras of the Quran are the longest; in them one senses that Muhammad is no longer being driven out from anywhere. It is precisely in these suras that Muhammad sets forth a full legal vision of Islam, articulating and elaborating many aspects of Islamic life, engaging in polemic with Christianity and Judaism, and laying down the rules of war. In other words, in the Medinan suras Islam crystallizes in legal form and becomes the Islam that we know.

Within a year, the Prophet’s Mosque would be built in Medina, and the number of Muslims would multiply several times over. During this period Muhammad would raise an army, begin a war against the neighbouring pagans who had refused to accept Islam, and by 630 nearly all of Arabia would rally to his banner, uniting in a new state. Mecca would resist, but in the end it too would surrender.

The eminent scholar of Islam Alexei Zhuravsky sums up these events as follows:

“In 622 Muhammad left Mecca for Yathrib with no more than 150 followers. Only eight years later he marched from Medina toward Mecca at the head of a Muslim army ten thousand strong. Pagan Mecca laid down its arms without a fight. The majority of the Meccans accepted Islam that same year. Muhammad cleansed the pagan sanctuary of the Ka’ba of its idols, leaving only the Black Stone, which henceforth came to symbolize the omnipotence of the one God, and performed the rite of worship. From that time the Ka’ba became the principal sanctuary of the Muslims. The Sacred Mosque was subsequently erected around it. Muhammad returned to Medina and continued to live there, performing only one further pilgrimage to Mecca, in 632, which came to be known as the Farewell Pilgrimage. By that time most of the Arabian tribes had accepted Islam. Muhammad was already drawing up plans to extend the power of Islam beyond the boundaries of Arabia, planning military expeditions into Syria up to the borders of Byzantium” [Zhuravsky, A., Islam, Moscow, 2004, pp. 45–46].

In 632, having completed his last pilgrimage, Muhammad died. Shortly before his death Muhammad fell ill; he suffered a severe headache. His condition worsened; he ceased to speak, communicating with those around him by gestures. In one of the hadiths, Aisha, one of Muhammad’s wives, recounted:

“I saw that his face had reddened and that he was sweating. He asked to be helped to sit up. I held him and kissed his head. He lay down on the mat, and I covered him with clothing. I had not seen anyone at the point of death before, but now I saw him dying [it is transmitted that no one was present except Aisha and the Angels when the Prophet Muhammad was dying]. Umar came together with Mughira ibn Shu’ba. I covered my face and let them enter. Umar asked, ‘Aisha, what has happened to the Prophet?’ I replied, ‘An hour ago he lost consciousness.’ Umar uncovered his face and exclaimed, ‘O woe!‘“

14.5 Sunnis and Shi’ites.

After Muhammad’s death the community faced the question of who would succeed him. This is an important point distinguishing Islam from Judaism and Christianity. Christianity was divided along doctrinal lines, and Judaism along lines of adherence to the Halakhah. Islam, however, came to be divided over the question of the transmission of authority.

The title of the successor was Khalifat Rasul Allah, the Deputy of the Messenger of God. The successors chosen after the Prophet’s death were the closest companions and relatives of Muhammad. Thus began the era of the Rightly Guided Caliphate, which lasted from 632 to 661. The first four caliphs were Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali.

The question of succession, however, began to provoke disputes within the community. After the violent death of the caliph Uthman, the title was claimed by Ali, Muhammad’s cousin, who was also his son-in-law — that is, the husband of Muhammad’s only surviving daughter, Fatima. In June 656, Muslims dissatisfied with Uthman’s policies besieged his house, and forty days later they broke in and killed the caliph. Three days after Uthman’s murder, Ali was chosen as the new caliph. Mu’awiya of the Umayyad family, however — the governor of Syria and a third cousin of Uthman — refused to swear allegiance to the new caliph.

In the course of the bitter struggle for power that unfolded in the caliphate at the beginning of the second half of the seventh century between Ali and his opponents in the person of the Umayyads, a religio-political faction (al- shi’a) was formed of supporters of the rights of Ali and his descendants. Ali’s children are direct descendants of Muhammad, and his supporters held that the right to rule the community belonged precisely to this branch — that is, to the direct descendants of Muhammad.

When Ali was killed, his supporters organized themselves into a party of vengeance for Ali’s blood; from these groups the Shi’ites ultimately emerged, holding that authority in the community must be transmitted only through Ali’s line. The Sunnis (Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jama’ah) eventually emerged as the mainstream orthodox majority. They held that the caliphate did not require direct descent from the Prophet, but rather relied on the consensus (ijma) of the community and adherence to the Prophet’s precedent (Sunna). The Sunnis were the supporters of the Umayyads, who held that the Umayyads’ rule was lawful and that authority in the caliphate need not necessarily be transmitted through the direct line of Muhammad’s descendants.

The largest branch of Shi’ism today is Twelver Shi’ism (Ithna’ashari), which recognizes twelve divinely appointed Imams from the lineage of Ali. The twelfth Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, is believed to have gone into occultation (Ghaybah) in the 9th century and will return at the end of time to establish global justice.

Ali ibn Abi Talib (d. 661) — cousin, son-in-law, and Companion of the Prophet Muhammad, husband of his daughter Fatima.

Hasan ibn Ali (d. 669) — eldest son of Ali and Fatima.

Husayn ibn Ali (d. 680) — younger son of Ali and Fatima, who suffered a martyr’s death at the Battle of Karbala against the army of Caliph Yazid I.

Zayn al-Abidin (d. 713)

Muhammad al-Baqir (d. 733)

Ja’far al-Sadiq (d. 765).

Musa al-Kazim (d. 799)

Ali al-Rida (or Imam Reza) (d. 818)

Muhammad al-Taqi (d. 835)

Ali al-Naqi (d. 865)

al-Hasan al-Askari (d. 873)

Muhammad al-Mahdi

The last of the twelve Imams bears the name Mahdi. In Islam the Mahdi is the counterpart of the Messiah. The Shi’ites believe that at the age of five he went into occultation and became the “Hidden Imam.” God granted him life until the end of times and concealed him. The community speaks in his name, and originally, during the period of the Lesser Occultation, there were special intermediaries who possessed, as it were, the ability to communicate with him. This was later lost, and the Greater Occultation began, which according to the conviction of the Imami Shi’ites continues to this day.

14.6 The Quran.

The word Quran is a verbal noun derived from the verb qara’a, “to read”; accordingly, al-Quran may be translated as “reading,” more precisely “recitation.” Quran is a word that most likely goes back to the Syriac qeryana — the reading of a sacred text, edification — used in the worship of the Syrian Christians.

On the one hand, the Quran is the sacred scripture of Islam, the chief source of Muslim doctrine. On the other hand, in Islam the Quran is the direct revelation of God — in fact, the very speech of the Almighty, transmitted through the angel Gabriel to Muhammad. Muhammad is in principle described as illiterate; he is not the author of the Quran. According to Islam, the author of the Quran is God Himself. Moreover, in Islam there is a developed discussion of the uncreated nature of the Quran and its relation to the divine attribute of al-Kalam (Speech).

In Islam, Muhammad is only the transmitter of the Quran, having added not a single mark of his own. To read or to hear the Quran in Arabic means, for a Muslim, to attend to the speech of God Himself. The Almighty chose the Arabic language for His speech, and therefore the Quran cannot be translated into other languages. If one looks carefully at the editions of the Quran approved by the umma, one will notice that the words “Quran: a Translation of the Meanings” are always added. Not a translation of the Quran — it is untranslatable — but a translation of its meanings.

Alexei Zhuravsky characterizes the difference between the Christian and Islamic approaches to the concept of Scripture as follows: “In Christianity, God became flesh; in Islam, God became a book. In Christianity, man becomes subject to the law of Christ (see 1 Cor. 9:21), the incarnate Word of God; in Islam, man becomes subject to the law of the Quran, the Word of God sent down. For Muslims, the Quran is not a book inspired by God, nor authorized revelation, as the Bible is for Christians. The Bible is the fruit of a joint labour; in it, alongside the word of God, the word of man also sounds — that is, a man inspired by God through the Holy Spirit, whose capacities are limited by his historical era and socio-cultural environment, interprets what God instils in him. Consequently, revelation by its very nature is simultaneously human, since it is the word of the prophet, and divine, the Word of God, since it is inspired by the Holy Spirit. For Muslims, the Quran is the direct speech of God (the Speaker), addressed to humankind” [Zhuravsky, A., Islam, Moscow, 2004, p. 22].

14.7 The Codification and Structure of the Quran.

The Quran was not committed to writing immediately after Muhammad’s death. More precisely, individual records were made, but during Muhammad’s lifetime they were not assembled into a book. After Muhammad’s death his place was taken by the caliphs. The very word caliph means deputy (of the Messenger of God). The caliph was the head of the new Muslim state formed after Muhammad’s death — the Arab Caliphate. The present recension of the Quran is regarded as a compilation of records gathered and ordered by a special commission headed by Zayd ibn Thabit at the command of the two righteous caliphs Abu Bakr and Umar, and established as the sole canonical version under the third caliph Uthman.

The systematization and structuring of the Quran was completed under Uthman, and this version of the Quran is known as the Uthmanic Quran. It was copied and distributed, and the other codices of the Quran were destroyed.

The Quran is not structured historically or chronologically. In other words, the Quran does not present a single narrative, as the Bible does, from the creation of the world to the Apocalypse. Nor is the chronology of the Quran’s revelation reflected in its structure. The first sura was not in fact the first revealed, nor the second the second. The sura that Muhammad heard first stands in the Quran in the ninety-sixth place. One might rather speak of a reverse sequence: the most recently revealed suras are placed at the beginning of the Quran, while the earliest stand at the end.

The Quran is divided into 114 suras (literally “rows”), each of which is divided into ayas (verses). The suras of the Quran are not of equal length. The shortest consist of three ayas, the longest of 286 (the second sura, “The Cow”). The ayas themselves are likewise of unequal length: the shortest contain a single word, the longest sixty-eight. In all there are 77,934 words and 323,621 letters in the Quran.

Each sura has its own name. For example, the largest, the second sura of the Quran, is called “The Cow”; the twenty-fourth sura, “Light”; the thirty-fifth, “The Angels.” The names of the Quran’s suras are, however, only loosely connected with their contents. The fact that a sura is called “The Cow” or “The Sun” does not mean that it is about cows or the sun, or that these images occupy a significant place in the sura. The names derive from the most striking ayas in the canonical recitation of the Quran; as a result, prominent-sounding words became the titles of the chapters. Twenty-nine suras are prefixed with enigmatic, disjointed letters known as the Huroof Muqatta’at (e.g., Alif-Lam-Mim), the exact meaning of which remains a closely guarded divine mystery in Islamic tradition. They cannot be translated, but they are part of the text. Discussion of their origin continues to this day, and among Muslim theologians there is no consensus on this mystery of the Quran.

The Quran is customarily divided into Meccan suras (eighty-six according to the Egyptian edition) and Medinan suras (twenty-eight according to the Egyptian edition). European scholars of the Quran often divide the text into ninety Meccan and twenty-four Medinan suras, and subdivide the Meccan suras into three groups in turn.

The first period (ca. 610–615, 48 suras) is conventionally called the poetic period. In these suras Muhammad speaks much of the Last Judgment, the afterlife, and the fate of the pagans. The suras are short and reflect the early period of his preaching, when he expressed himself vividly, poetically, and concisely, without systematizing his material.

The suras of the second Meccan period (615–619, 21 suras) are conventionally called the Rahman suras, since in them God is most often called al-Rahman (Arabic: “the Merciful”). These suras, like those of the first period, are highly vivid and poetic, but thematically Muhammad speaks more of God and His attributes.

The suras of the third Meccan period (619–622, 21 suras) are called prophetic. In them Muhammad speaks much of the prophets of antiquity, whom God sent before him, and of their fates.

The suras of the Medinan period differ markedly from the Meccan suras, even in size. In them Muhammad gives instruction to the community, clarifies the details of religious ritual and doctrine, offers apologetics, and elaborates legal norms. On the whole, it is in these suras that Islam unfolds no longer as the preaching of a persecuted prophet, but as a fully developed, systematic religion situating itself in relation to others.

14.8 The Quranic Sciences.

The understanding of the Quranic text is bound up with the Quranic sciences of interpretation, tafsir and ta’wil. To characterize these two modes of interpretation briefly, tafsir is historical-contextual, legal, and literal commentary, while ta’wil is allegorical interpretation of the Quran.

The development of tafsir is closely tied to the development of the Sunna of the Prophet. In the process of selecting authentic and inauthentic hadiths, one of the most important criteria of authenticity was that a hadith must not contradict the Quran — and for this an established understanding of the Quran was required. Furthermore, according to Islamic doctrine, full knowledge of the Quran was possessed only by the Prophet Muhammad, who explained the meaning of the Scripture to his Companions. In the second half of the eighth century there appeared collections of hadiths concerned with interpretation of the Quranic text, embodying the principle “the Sunna explains the Quran.”

After the Prophet’s death the task of interpreting the Quran was taken up by his Companions. Some of the Companions (Abu Bakr, Ibn Umar) interpreted the Quran solely on the basis of Muhammad’s words. Others (for example, Umar and Ibn Abbas) also applied alternative methods of interpretation, such as the linguistic.

Tafsir originally existed primarily in oral form. The imams of mosques often commented on individual ayas and suras after the Friday sermon. The most reliable method of tafsir is regarded as the interpretation of certain ayas of the Quran by means of others. In this way the Quran is, as it were, self- interpreting. Next in reliability comes interpretation by means of the Sunna. Then comes interpretation on the basis of the sayings of the Companions. The fourth method in order of reliability is the isra’iliyat, interpretation by comparison with other scriptures (the Torah and the New Testament); and the least reliable is interpretation on the basis of one’s own opinion.

Ta’wil, the allegorical method of interpretation, which became most widespread among the Shi’ites and the Sufis, has always been regarded in Islam with great suspicion. In the Quran the term ta’wil denotes the “interpretation of a dream.” Closely connected with ta’wil is the concept of batin, the hidden meaning of the Quran. Yet despite all the suspicion surrounding it, ta’wil is, even among Sunnis, a Quranic science — though strictly limited by the principle that it must not contradict the commentaries of the Prophet Muhammad and his Companions on the ayas under discussion.

In mystical Islam the meanings of the Quran are divided into:

the literal (zahir) — the recitation of the aya;

the hidden (batin) — its inner apprehension;

the limiting (hadd) — that which the aya permits and forbids in the realm of the Shari’a;

the ascending (matla’) — the true meaning of the aya intended by Allah Himself.

14.9 The Sunna.

With the spread of Islam beyond the borders of Arabia after Muhammad’s death, many questions and problems arose for which the Quran provided no answers. Immediately after Muhammad’s death his place was taken by the Deputy of the Prophet — the caliph, who headed the Arab Caliphate. Under the Rightly Guided Caliphs (Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali), who succeeded one another from 632 to 661, and under the caliphs of the Umayyad dynasty (661–750) who followed them, the Muslims conquered Mesopotamia, Syria and Palestine, Iran, Egypt, North Africa, the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula, Central Asia, and part of northwestern India, in effect reaching as far as China, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and part of Georgia.

In all these lands there were ancient cultures of their own with strong local traditions. The Quran had said nothing of them, and Islam had to relate to them somehow. Thus began the formation of the second source of Muslim law and, more broadly, of Muslim life — the Sunna of the Prophet.

To characterize briefly the doctrine of the Sunna and its differences from the Quran, the following may be noted: if the Quran is the direct speech of God, and the author of the Quran is Allah, then the Sunna is the speech of Muhammad, the account of episodes and events from his life and of his responses to circumstances; the source of the Sunna is Muhammad and those who transmitted these accounts about him.

The Sunna is made up of many hadiths. A hadith, in its original sense, is a report or account, and in the Islamic context a narrative of the words or deeds of the Prophet Muhammad. A hadith necessarily contains two parts:

the text (matn), the main part, which gives the words of Muhammad, or his action, or his response to an event — for example, he may have spoken or kept silent;

the chain (isnad), the part at the beginning of the hadith which lists the authoritative figures who transmitted the hadith over several generations (so- and-so said to so-and-so, who reported it to so-and-so).

The second part plays an enormous role. By the ninth century the number of hadiths in circulation had reached about a million. Among them were the most varied, including some that openly contradicted the Quran and one another. Islam faced the necessity of separating genuine, authentic hadiths from spurious ones that contradicted the tradition.

The criteria for selecting authentic hadiths were several:

Hadiths were accepted only if they had been transmitted by the first, second, or third generation of Muslims after Muhammad — that is, his Companions and the children and grandchildren of the Companions were recognized as reliable sources.

A given hadith had to be attested by several independent sources.

The reputation of the transmitters had to be high.

The hadith was not to contradict the Quran or other unambiguously authentic hadiths.

Not all hadiths are ideal from the standpoint of transmission. There are reliable, good, and weak hadiths. For example, if one of the transmitters was little known, the hadith is classed as “good”; if someone in the chain had a doubtful reputation, the hadith is “weak.” Eventually collections of the Sunna appeared. Traditionally there are six. The most authoritative among them are the collections of al-Bukhari and Muslim. It is held that al-Bukhari gathered 600,000 hadiths and selected as reliable only a little over seven thousand; Muslim gathered 300,000 and selected only 12,000. That is, only about four per cent of the sayings attributed to Muhammad were accepted as reliable hadiths.

It is worth noting that while the canonical Sunna is strictly regulated, in later folk, esoteric, and amulet traditions, the boundaries of religious lore were sometimes permeable. For instance, traces of Christian prayers, such as an altered, Islamicized version of the Lord’s Prayer, occasionally surfaced in medieval occult sciences and healing incantations, reflecting the complex, syncretic nature of popular piety and Isra’iliyyat in the broader Islamic world.

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Kamali, Mohammad Hashim. Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence. Islamic Texts Society, 2003.

Schacht, Joseph. An Introduction to Islamic Law. Oxford University Press, 1982.

Adamson, Peter. Philosophy in the Islamic World: A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps. Oxford University Press, 2016.

Fakhry, Majid. A History of Islamic Philosophy. Columbia University Press, 2004.

Jackson, Sherman A. On the Boundaries of Theological Tolerance in Islam: AbuChittick, William C. Sufism: A Guide for the Perplexed. Bloomsbury Academic, 2008.

Schimmel, Annemarie. Mystical Dimensions of Islam. University of North Carolina Press, 2011.

Halm, Heinz. Shi’ism. Translated by Janet Watson and Marian Hill, Edinburgh University Press, 2004.

Roy, Olivier. The Failure of Political Islam. Harvard University Press, 1994.

  • 14.1-14.3
  • 14.4-14.6
  • 14.7-14.9

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