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There is nothing mentioned about how religious leaders are rightfully meant to be chosen, nor how religious laws are meant to be administered. With no direct instructions for a successor, or how to chose one (or them) in the Quran, there was a civil war almost immediately after Muhammad's death - which according to traditional accounts lead to the Sunni-Shia split. A quick summary of this can be read in this history.com [https://www.history.com/news/sunni-shia-divide-islam-muslim article]. | There is nothing mentioned about how religious leaders are rightfully meant to be chosen, nor how religious laws are meant to be administered. With no direct instructions for a successor, or how to chose one (or them) in the Quran, there was a civil war almost immediately after Muhammad's death - which according to traditional accounts lead to the Sunni-Shia split. A quick summary of this can be read in this history.com [https://www.history.com/news/sunni-shia-divide-islam-muslim article]. | ||
== Other issues == | |||
=== '''Characters in the Quran''' === | |||
There are also characters supposedly contemporary to Muhammad such as [[Abu Lahab]] ({{Quran|111|1}} (and his wife {{Quran|111|4}})) and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zayd_ibn_Haritha_al-Kalbi Zayd] ({{Quran|33|37}}), who have no equivalents in biblical literature to refer to, that are named but not introduced formally - so the meaning of the verses and who they are is highly obscure (if not impossible to understand fully) without secondary literature. | There are also characters supposedly contemporary to Muhammad such as [[Abu Lahab]] ({{Quran|111|1}} (and his wife {{Quran|111|4}})) and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zayd_ibn_Haritha_al-Kalbi Zayd] ({{Quran|33|37}}), who have no equivalents in biblical literature to refer to, that are named but not introduced formally - so the meaning of the verses and who they are is highly obscure (if not impossible to understand fully) without secondary literature. | ||
=== Versus that have no meaning === | |||
Many versus lack any clear meaning without further context, a few (of many) are given below. For example it is impossible to know what the following versus are talking about by themselves (tafsirs generally link them to angels, though the third verse is sometimes also linked to humans reciting the Quran).<ref>''[https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Jalal/37.1 Tafsir Jalalayn on verse 31:1].'' Al Jalalayn / Jalal ad-Din al-Maḥalli and Jalal ad-Din as-Suyuti. Published in 1505.</ref><ref>''[https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Kathir/37.1 Tafsir Ibn Kathir on Verse 37:1-5]''. Ibn Kathir d 1373.</ref> | |||
{{Quote|{{Quran|37|1-4}}|“By those ranged in ranks. Then those who drive away with reproof. And those who recite a reminder. Lo! Your Lord is surely One.”}} | |||
Similarly the versus below are often given fanciful/mythological explanations by commentators, far beyond would ever be possible to gather from the Quran itself:<ref>[https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Kathir/52.1 ''Tafsir Ibn Kathir on Verse 52:1-16''.] Ibn Kathir d. 1373.</ref> <ref>''[https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Jalal/52.4 Tafsir Jalalayn on verse 52:4.]'' Al Jalalayn / Jalal ad-Din al-Maḥalli and Jalal ad-Din as-Suyuti. Published in 1505.</ref> | |||
{{Quote|{{Quran|52|1-4}}|By the mountain, And a book inscribed, In parchment spread open, And the frequented house}} | |||
And again: | |||
{{Quote|{{Quran|79|1-5}}|By those who extract violently, And those who draw out gently, by those that swim serenely, and those that outstrip suddenly, And those who glide swimming, And those who race each other (in) a race, by those that direct an affair!}} | |||
There is no explanation of what the ten nights are: | |||
{{Quote|{{Quran|89|1-3}}|“By the break of dawn, And ten nights, And the even and the odd,}} | |||
Even the whole of Surah 105 (Surah of the Elephant) is left unexplained, which we have to look to traditions and commentaries for the meaning and what it is referring to.<ref>E.g. ''[https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Jalal/105.1 Tafsir Jalalayn on verse 105:1.]'' (Al Jalalayn / Jalal ad-Din al-Maḥalli and Jalal ad-Din as-Suyuti. Published in 1505.) summarises the general story.</ref> | |||
{{Quote|{{Quran|105|1-5}}|Have you not regarded how your Lord dealt with the army of the elephants? Did He not put their scheme into ruin? and send against them flocks of birds. Which hit them with stones of baked clay, thus making them like chewed-up straw?}} | |||
==Criticism of hadiths== | ==Criticism of hadiths== |
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