Coran, hadith, et savants - les sources de l’islam: Difference between revisions

According to the traditional Sunni reckoning, Allah revealed his message to his final messenger, the Prophet [[Muhammad]]. This final revelation, the [[Qur'an]], consists of the literal words of Allah, uttered by him before the existence of all time and space. As such the Qur'an is the unassailable, perfect guide on all matters upon which it speaks, from religion to marriage to the afterlife and everything in between. The Qur'an, though, does not touch upon many matters of religion and life about which Allah cares very much. In addition, much of the Qur'an is (despite its claim to be "clear" and "evident") actually very obscure and inscrutable. In order to explain the Qur'an and to fill in the gaps of what Allah wills for man, the scholars or [[Ulemaa'|Ulama]] rely upon the [[Sunnah]] or tradition of the prophet himself, who was according to their thought [[Uswa Hasana]], the "perfect man" whose conduct in all things is an example for mankind. The traditions of his words and deeds, passed down from his closest companions and family members (the [[Sahabah]]), and eventually put to writing in the 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries, form a corpus of individual recollections called the [[hadith]]. In addition, historians working in the 8th, 9th, and 10th centuries collected historical narratives of the prophets life, which provide both prophetic examples of conduct and explanations of verses in the Qur'an. These histories are called the [[sira]] of the prophet. Together this material is taken to be the prophet's [[Sunnah]] or tradition, and along with the Qur'an it is considered by the authorities of the Sunni Islam to be the perfect, unerring guide to mankind in all matters.