Portal: Early Islamic History
The first centuries of the Islamic Hijri calendar, starting in the CE year 622, were the formative years of the religion. Between the first and third Islamic centuries the Qur'an was written down and codified, the prophet lived and died, the great hadith collections were gathered, the sira of the prophet was committed to writing, the great schools of Sunni jurisprudence came to be, and the theology of Islam attained its familiar form. The end of the Abassid period saw the "crystallization" of the Islamic tradition around the Sunnah of the prophet and the Qur'an placed in creation before all time and space after the defeat of the Mu'atazilite heresy. These years thus can be said to cover the formation of the religion of Islam as we know it today.
Career of the Prophet
The career of the prophet forms the basis of his Sunnah, as such his doings are of utmost importance to the latter generations of believers. Muhammad also shows up in the non-Islamic history of the region, though surprisingly not where we might expect him to be from the Islamic narrative.
The battle of Badr was the prophet's first battle and one of his most successful; Muhammad's success here gave faith, both to himself and the movement, and the tradition sees proof of divine aide both in the Qur'an and the sira account of the battle.
The massacre of the Jewsih tribe of Banu Qurayzah remains one of the most controversial events of the sira to this day; a great victory for Muhammad and the Muslims, the mercilessness with which he dealt with his Jewish enemies leaves many questions about the character of the prophet.
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
Muhammad ordered many people who oppossed him or the Muslim movement to be killed.
The original title of the works of the sira were the maghaazi مغازي or raids; the career of the prophet from the earliest times was defined by his military adventures.
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Hadith
Orthodox Sunni and Shi'i Islam see the prophet as Uswa Hasana, the perfect, "complete" man for all times and all cultures. As such the record of the prophet's words and deeds, the hadith, constitute the fundamental building block for Islamic fiqh in addition to the Qur'an. The hadith literature is truly vastly, including dozens of volumes by many different muhaddiths or hadith scholars.
Sahih Bukhari is the most esteemed collection of hadith, held second only to the Qur'an itself in the Sunni tradition in terms of authority. Put together by a central Asian scholar over 200 years after the death of the prophet, Sahih Bukhari contains only hadith which receive the highest level of approval from Sunni scholars.
Sahih صحيح or "correct" is the highest level of trustworthiness that the Sunni tradition can assign to a particular hadith.
Like the Qur'an, orthodox Sunni tradition holds that the words of the prophet were unerring on matters of science. Even many "sahih" hadith, though, betray a pre-modern understanding of natural world which clearly falls in line with ancient belief rather than the findings modern science.
Tawaatur is a designation given to hadith which are attested to by multiple chains of transmission, called isnaads (asaanid أسانيد in Arabic).
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The Compilation of the Qur'an
The sira, or life of the prophet, makes up the third cornerstone of Islamic scripture. The sira literature begins with the sirat rasul Allah, or Life of the Apostle of Allah by ibn Ishaq, which has not survived to the current day but which was retained by his student ibn Hisham and also partially in the history of the Islamic polymath Tabari, and continued by other Islamic writers.
The sirat of ibn Ishaq is the earliest Islamic document now extant detailing the life of the prophet Muhammad in chronological order.
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Tafsir
The tafsir تفسير literally "explanation" is a genre of Islamic literature which explains the Qur'an, drawing on multiple traditions such as the stories of the Israelis (Israeliyyaat), the hadith and the sira.
ِThe tafsir literature is essential to the orthodox Sunni understanding of the Qur'an, and forms a fourth source of scripture for orthodox Sunni Muslims.