Sacred Texts and Writings of Islam

Chrissy, Claudia, Tayce, Kristina.

Islamic textsNearly every religion have a book where they go to for answers on life, to getan understanding about situations, and to read about their religion bringingthem closer to their God, and develop better understandings about aspectsof their religion beliefs. For Catholics and Lutherans it’s the Bible, for Islamicpeople it’s the Qur’an.

Qur'anThe Qur'an is the primary text of Islam, revealed to the ProphetMuhammad beginning in the year 610 C.E. It was created between 644 and656. The Qur'an is required reading for anyone who wants to understandIslam. Qur'an means "The Recital" in Arabic; according to the story, theangel Gabriel commanded Muhammad to "Recite!". The Qur'an is thusbelieved to be the direct Word of God and must be obeyed withoutquestion.

Qur’an cont.For Muslims, the Qur'an comes directly and literally from God. It wasn'tsimply written down by inspired human authors, as is the case with theletters of Paul. No, the material in the Qur'an consists of the direct words ofGod. In a sense, the Qur'an is like an incarnation of God and is in some waysmore akin to Jesus than the Bible.

Qur’an cont.Most Muslims today use printed editions of the Qur’an. There are manyeditions, large and small, elaborate or plain, expensive or inexpensive.Bilingual forms with the Arabic on one side and a gloss into a more familiarlanguage on the other are very popular.Qur’ans are produced in many different sizes. Most are of a reasonable booksize, but there exist extremely large Qur’ans (usually for display purposes)and very small Qur’ans (sometimes given as gifts).

Qur’an cont.Qur’ans were first printed from carved wooden blocks, oneblock per page. There are existing specimen of pages andblocks dating from the 10th century CE. Mass-produced lessexpensive versions of the Qur’an were later produced bylithography, a technique for printing illustrations. Qur’ans soprinted could reproduce the fine calligraphy of hand-madeversions.

The oldest surviving Qur’an for which movable type was used wasprinted in Venice in 1537/1538. It seems to have been prepared forsale in the Ottoman empire, Catherine the Great of Russia sponsoreda printing of the Qur’an in 1787. This was followed by editions fromKazan (1828), Persia (1833) and Istanbul (1877).

HadithThe Hadith, second only to the Qur'an in importance and authority, arecollections of Islamic traditions and laws (Sunna). This includes traditionalsayings of Muhammad and later Islamic sages. By the ninth century over600,000 Hadith had been recorded; these were later edited down to about25,000.

Hadith cont.

Hadith literally means "tradition," and it constitutes for most Muslims thesecond set of religious scriptures - almost, but not quite as important as theQur'an. Collected into authoritative books, these represent reports aboutthe sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad and his immediatefollowers while he was alive.

Sufi TextsSufism is a mystical Islamic beliefsystem. It is renowned for itscontributionsto world literature: beautiful symbolicpoetry and devotional story-telling,much of which was translated in the 19th

century by European scholars andtravellers.

This is a Mosque•The end