The Sources of Islamic Doctrine: What Every Christian Needs To Understand from Islam

(This is an old essay from October 2020 from the Defender Times quarterly)

    The best way to approach any religion, whether it be for edification or refutation, is to study the sources of which the religion gets its doctrine from. If you wanted to learn about Christianity, you would learn from the Bible. If you wanted to learn more about certain terms or doctrines found in these sources in much more detail, you’d consult a scholar of that particular religion at least. However, the best option is to refer to the original sources themselves. Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, one of Islam’s imams who influenced the Hanbali school of Islam and even has been called by some as “shaykh al-islam” (meaning this person is the shaykh of Islam), is reported to have said the following based on various website reports of the quote: “Do not imitate me, Malik, al-Shafi’i or al-Thawri but learn from the source from which they learned.”

    In order to learn much from these, we need to begin by picking up these books and beginning our research into these. The first to start with is the Quran, the supposed divinely inspired revelation from Allah to Muhammad. The stories go that Muhammad went to a cave where he would eventually receive the revelation of the Quran through the angel Gabriel. After receiving this, he would go about teaching it and sharing it with others through oral tradition until ultimately, the book was written down in book format during the reign of the caliph (Islamic ruler) Abu Bakr AFTER Muhammad died. Ibn Hujar in Fathul Bari says that “The Prophet was taken (from this life) whilst the Quran had not yet been gathered into a book.” It was after the death of Muhammad that we see issues arise as originally, the only written forms were on memory aids for specific verses and not a whole book.

    Sahih Bukhari #4986 says the following: “Abu Bakr As-Siddiq sent for me when the people of Yamama had been killed (i.e., a number of the Prophet's Companions who fought against Musailima). (I went to him) and found `Umar bin Al- Khattab sitting with him. Abu Bakr then said (to me), "`Umar has come to me and said: "Casualties were heavy among the Qurra' of the Qur'an (i.e. those who knew the Qur'an by heart) on the day of the Battle of Yamama, and I am afraid that more heavy casualties may take place among the Qurra' on other battlefields, whereby a large part of the Qur'an may be lost. Therefore I suggest, you (Abu Bakr) order that the Qur'an be collected." I said to `Umar, "How can you do something which Allah's Apostle did not do?" `Umar said, "By Allah, that is a good project." `Umar kept on urging me to accept his proposal till Allah opened my chest for it and I began to realize the good in the idea which `Umar had realized." Then Abu Bakr said (to me). 'You are a wise young man and we do not have any suspicion about you, and you used to write the Divine Inspiration for Allah's Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم(. So you should search for (the fragmentary scripts of) the Qur'an and collect it in one book." By Allah If they had ordered me to shift one of the mountains, it would not have been heavier for me than this ordering me to collect the Qur'an. Then I said to Abu Bakr, "How will you do something which Allah's Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم (did not do?" Abu Bakr replied, "By Allah, it is a good project." Abu Bakr kept on urging me to accept his idea until Allah opened my chest for what He had opened the chests of Abu Bakr and `Umar. So I started looking for the Qur'an and collecting it from (what was written on) palm stalks, thin white stones and also from the men who knew it by heart, till I found the last Verse of Surat at-Tauba (Repentance) with Abi Khuzaima Al-Ansari, and I did not find it with anybody other than him. The Verse is: 'Verily there has come unto you an Apostle (Muhammad) from amongst yourselves. It grieves him that you should receive any injury or difficulty.. (till the end of Surat-Baraa' (at-Tauba) (9.128- 129). Then the complete manuscripts (copy) of the Qur'an remained with Abu Bakr till he died, then with `Umar till the end of his life, and then with Hafsa, the daughter of `Umar.”

    So while this time period gives us the Quran in book format, there were still issues as we will examine in the next numbered hadith of Sahih Bukhari. “Hudhaifa bin Al-Yaman came to `Uthman at the time when the people of Sham and the people of Iraq were waging war to conquer Arminya and Adharbijan. Hudhaifa was afraid of their (the people of Sham and Iraq) differences in the recitation of the Qur'an, so he said to `Uthman, "O chief of the Believers! Save this nation before they differ about the Book (Qur'an) as Jews and the Christians did before."” It was at this point that the caliph Uthman would offer a solution to the Islamic community. “So `Uthman sent a message to Hafsa saying, "Send us the manuscripts of the Qur'an so that we may compile the Qur'anic materials in perfect copies and return the manuscripts to you." Hafsa sent it to `Uthman. `Uthman then ordered Zaid bin Thabit, `Abdullah bin AzZubair, Sa`id bin Al-As and `AbdurRahman bin Harith bin Hisham to rewrite the manuscripts in perfect copies. `Uthman said to the three Quraishi men, "In case you disagree with Zaid bin Thabit on any point in the Qur'an, then write it in the dialect of Quraish, the Qur'an was revealed in their tongue." They did so, and when they had written many copies, `Uthman returned the original manuscripts to Hafsa. `Uthman sent to every Muslim province one copy of what they had copied, and ordered that all the other Qur'anic materials, whether written in fragmentary manuscripts or whole copies, be burnt.”

    Some Muslims are uncomfortable with this narrative, but most who are well educated on the topic of the history of the Quran are very familiar with how the Quran came to them today. However, there are issues regarding the Quran that we unfortunately do not have the time in this essay to get into.  For indeed, a faithful yet critical treatment of the Quran is to be done with exhaustive details.

    Then you have how the Quran is divided up, which can be confusing for some. The Quran is divided into surahs (chapters). So whenever I refer to a part of the Quran, I would say Surah 1:1 or something along the lines. There are people who have other ways of citing the Quran, but for our sake, we will just use the reference I gave. The surahs are usually understood to be divided into two different categories: Meccan Surahs & Medinan Surahs. The Medinan Surahs are the chapters of the Quran that are said to be revealed after the move to the city of that name. Meccan surahs are typically shorter than Medinan surahs that are likewise named such because of the city that Muhammad moved to and they mostly come near the end of the Qur'an. The one thing to notice is that these Quranic Surahs are not in order as they will move from one type of surah to another and then back to the other. In “The Quran: A Historical-Critical Introduction”, Nicolai Sinai comments on this in page 26 by saying “the order of the surahs appears to be partly determined by decreasing length, a principle that perhaps underlies the arrangement of the Pauline epistles in the New Testament as well.” So while indeed the chapters can be confusing, it’s best to at least consult a website or book that at least helps explain when the chapters were revealed to get a better understanding of chronology and background of the supposed Surah.

    Now we move to the second source of authority in the Muslim world: the hadith. The website, Sunnah.com, gives a good definition and explanation of what the hadith are: “Hadith are the transmitted narrations concerning the speech, actions, appearance, and approvals of the Messenger of Allah, the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). Hundreds of thousands of these narrations have been carefully preserved, studied, and passed down through the centuries, with many of them having undergone a strict procedure to verify an authentic chain of transmission up to the Prophet (pbuh). Hadith form the textual core of the Sunnah, an important source for the derivation of Islamic jurisprudence second only to the Qur'an. Hadith specialists have compiled hadith in various collections with differing criteria for inclusion, and not all hadith in all collections are necessarily authentic.”

    If you noticed the numbers I gave earlier from Bukhari, then you will see that is one of the examples of the hadith being cited. There are different ways of citing hadith depending on who is the publisher of the collection you are reading. There are normally 6 referenced hadiths which are as follows: Sahih al- Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Sunan an-Nasai, Sunan Abi Dawud, Jami al-Tirmidhi and Sunan Ibn Majah. There are other hadith collection books like Muwatta Malik, Musnad Ahmad and the 40 Hadith of Nawawi. However, we will not go into too much details about those since the first six are usually what is quote or cited the most. Whenever we engage with studying Islam, we need to realize that this is where the doctrines of Islam can be completed. Examples include the five daily prayers that Muslims do. This is not found in the Quran, but the hadith. The conversion formula for the shahada, “I bear witness that there is no deity but God, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of God”, is only found in the hadith and not the Quran.

    The hadith play a significant role in understanding the history of the Islamic world as they provide insights into how their faith was carried out and how they understood it. Sometimes you will even find the companions of Muhammad, or even Muhammad himself, commenting on what exactly a verse of the Quran means. The main reason why this history is important is because the Quran says in Surah 4:65 that “But no! By your Lord, they will never be ˹true˺ believers until they accept you ˹O Prophet˺ as the judge in their disputes, and find no resistance within themselves against your decision and submit wholeheartedly” (Clear Quran Translation). So the Muslims are to not resist against the decisions of Muhammad, but to “submit wholeheartedly” to them. Elsewhere, Surah 33:21 says “Indeed, in the Messenger of Allah you have an excellent example for whoever has hope in Allah and the Last Day, and remembers Allah often” (Clear Quran Translation). Muhammad is viewed as an “example for whoever has hope in Allah and the Last Day.” Therefore, they are to adhere to not just his words, but his actions and teachings. The Quran only contains the supposed words of Allah and barely mention Muhammad as much regarding the history of his actions. However, it is the hadith which explain the most exhaustive of this that it would be like a biography of the early Muslims.

    The other important factor to note about the hadith is the “grades” of hadith. These grades are mostly known as sahih (sound), hasan (fair) and daif (weak). There are various other reports and grades to this, but we will not go over all of those here. I will at least recommend a resource worth reading for the study of the hadith gradings. Ibn Salah’s “An Introduction to the Science of Hadith” is considered a well-respected old work on the subject and he goes into much extensive detail on the matter. A more modern work to help with the concise details is Dr. Jonathan Brown’s “Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World” which offers research into more than just the grading system when it comes to Hadith critical studies. Essentially, if a hadith is sound, then the hadith is good. If a hadith is hasan, then it simply means the hadith has some issues in transmission, but is still permissible. Dr. Jonathan Brown in page 102 of his “Hadith” book we cited earlier says “All Sunni scholars have accepted both sahih and hasan hadith as compelling proof in manners of law.” Then there is the daif or weak hadiths. These aren’t altogether to be seen as useless. While some will easily dismiss them, the only thing to note is that these just cannot be used for the purpose of legal rulings, but only issues of morality and behavior.

    An example of this weak hadith being used for that is from Sunan Ibn Majah in Vol. 1, Book 1, Hadith 224 which says "Seeking knowledge is a duty upon every Muslim, and he who imparts knowledge to those who do not deserve it, is like one who puts a necklace of jewels, pearls and gold around the neck of swines." Now while we have this saying here, it doesn’t seem too controversial. It is a good thing to seek knowledge and it should be a duty for everyone in general honestly. However, according to Darussalam on their grading scale, it is classified as a daif hadith. Does this mean just throw this out altogether? Not necessarily. There is even a reported grade of this from Al-Albani where he classifies it as sahih instead. We should also note that some scholars note if there are multiple reports of a particular weak hadith, then it can at least be upgraded to hasan, depending on how many reports or variants of the hadith can be found. Ultimately, knowing this should realize that while weak hadiths aren’t useless, they are not to be too heavily relied on in discussions with Muslims.

    To briefly go over one final important resource when it comes to the Quran and Hadith, we must then consider the issue of using what is known as the commentaries of the Quran. In Arabic, this would refer to the “tafsir” literature. Tafsir scholars usually dedicate their life to understanding and studying the Quran and what it means. Some classic commentaries to use when studying the Quran include Ibn Kathir’s tafsir, which is the only highly respected classical one that has been translated into English (the other would be al-Tabari’s translation which has not seen a fully English translation yet). The trademarks of the Ibn Kathir tafsir is that he goes into the commentary from not just mere observation, but the citation of the hadiths to show how a verse is understood in historical context and how the early Muslims interpreted the verse. One of the easier ones is al- Jalalayn which is a tafsir that sums up the verse with extra explainations. If al-Jalalayn could be compared with a christian commentator, he would essentially be viewed as an “Islamic expositor” of the scriptures. It is in this that we see for example, his tafsir of Surah 2:28. The verse says “How can you deny Allah? You were lifeless and He gave you life, then He will cause you to die and again bring you to life, and then to Him you will ˹all˺ be returned” (Clear Quran Translation). In the tafsir however, we read the following with the quranic part in bold letters: “How do you, people of Mecca, disbelieve in God, when you were dead, semen inside loins, and He gave you life, in the womb and in this world by breathing Spirit into you (the interrogative here is either intended to provoke amazement at their [persistent] unbelief despite the evidence established, or intended as a rebuke); then He shall make you dead, after your terms of life are completed, then He shall give you life, at the Resurrection, then to Him you shall be returned!, after resurrection, whereupon He shall requite you according to your deeds.” A more modern example is the Study Quran which can be purchased. It is essentially a commentary with a survey of how other scholars interpreted the verses and can be very useful when trying to understand how various different scholars and schools of Islam understood and apply a certain verse of the Quran to their theology.

    So these are the recommended sources to study when it comes to Islam at a basic level. There are more, but we will only rest here. Keep studying though as you research their theology books, their books about their creed, their books on tawhid (since tawhid is more complex than what we are just told), and many other books which can tell you what exactly are the beliefs of Muslims. But remember to stick with the source of Islamic theology: the Quran & the Hadith. It is because of this after all that they even have a claim or belief in Islam to begin with.

    However, some other suggestions to read are the following: “Kitab Al-Tawheed” by Muhammad bin Abdul-Wahhab since it helps explain the doctrine of Tawhid which is central to the belief of God in Islam. “An Introduction to the Sciences of the Quran” by Yasir Qadhi, who offers a believer’s perspective of the Quran yet with a good bit of intellectual insight into the narratives. “Usool Al-Hadeeth” by Bilal Phillips, who helps explain the study and topics of hadith sciences for the layman. Any book from the “Islamic Creed” Series by Umar S. al-Ashqar, who offers insight to essential Muslim beliefs regarding the six articles of faith in Islam. These are only just a few extra resources I will recommend for people to look at when studying Islam as a non-Muslim while doing their best to learn what the other believes and how to engage with them. Remember, you want to interact with the religion of Islam and the beliefs of the actual Muslims, not strawman arguments and ideas that the Muslims do not adhere to or even believe from the beginning. Remember, be faithful in your evangelism.