Portal: Islamic Scriptures: Difference between revisions

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The idea of scripture is central to Islam; above all else, Islam's own scriptures tell of how Allah has periodically given his followers books throughout the ages, and refers to Islam's co-abrahamic religionists as People of the Book. The central scripture of Islam is above all the Qur'an, which orthodox Sunni and Shi'i Islam see as the literal word of Allah through his messenger Muhammad. The Qur'an, tho, leaves much to be desired when it comes to even the basics of the Islamic religion, let alone as a guide to all aspects of life. To fill in these gaps as it were, the hadith, narrations about the words and deeds of the prophet are also extant; on top of this very important source is the sira, the writings about the lift of the prophet, and the tafsir, learned commentary upon the Qur'an which leverages the other two extra-Quranic scriptures. Although the Qur'an itself is beyond reproach, the other three sources are subject to various degrees of trustworthiness, which have been defined throughout the ages by the Islamic scholarly community, The evaluation of hadith, sira, and tafsir for its trustworthiness constitutes a large part of the work done for the Islamic community by its scholars.

Qur'an

The Qur'an is the holiest scripture of Islam; some Muslims, known as Quranists, claim to follow it and it alone (these Muslims are considered heretics by orthodox Sunni Muslims, inter alia). According to orthodox Sunni doctrine, it is the full, complete, unaltered word of Allah directly to his apostle Muhammad (Shi'ites claim that though the portion we have is untouched, Sunnis have cut out many chapters and verse which they did not want in the final Qur'an). As such its study is of great importance to Muslim scholars, and Muslim believers study it in their own time for their own spiritual growth. As the direct and literal word of Allah, orthodox Sunni Islam submits that the Qur'an is flawless in every way, from its "clear" Arabic to its claims about history and science. In addition to articles about the Qur'an, its contents, its history, and its interpretation, this section contains our Asbab al-Nuzul (Revelational Circumstances of the Quran) articles, which are a resource which gathers the various "revelational circumstances" of different verses in the Qur'an, in English translation, arranged by the order of the verses and chapters as they appear in the Qur'an.

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Textual History of the Qur'an

The history of the Qur'an as a text comports in many way to the description we have of it in Islamic sources--although there are some discrepencies.

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Mary, Sister of Aaron

The author(s) of surat-Maryam, the surah of Mary, seems to be under the mistaken impression that Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, was also a siter of Aaran, the brother of Moses

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Scientific Errors in the Quran

Sunni orthodoxy claims that the Qur'an is infallible when it speaks of matters of science, but a close comparison to the scientific undestanding of the text of the Qur'an to modern science shows many revealing mistakes

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Sana'a Manuscript

The majority of the manuscripts of the Qur'an which are today extant seem to be descended from the recension that was ordered created by the caliph Uthman, and show a remarkable uniformity; a palimpset, or impression of an erased Qur'an, on a scroll which was found in the Yemeni city of San'a, however, reveals a manuscript with some remarkable differences from the accepted Uthmanic recension

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Naskh (Abrogation)

Many verses in the Qur'an disagree with eachother, sometimes on important points; the doctrine of Naskh explains which vesers take precedence in any given conflict, and how this is decided by the scholars.

Hadith

The modern period brought about a confrontation between modernity, and all of its attendant movements and ideas, and the scholars of Islam, whose background and basis is in the writings of men who lived in a civilization which was very sure of itself and unchallenged. As such, even the most reactionary Islamic scholars can be read as being in conversation with modernity, even if this conversation entails a wholesale rejection of the concept.