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124 CHAPTER 5 The Prophetic Record The Sunna While Muhammad was alive, he was the obvious authority to whom his followers would turn for guidance and interpretation of the revelations that he recited. He was the Prophet, and his authority was paramount. The Qur’an commands the people to refer disputes to Muhammad, who is placed almost on a par with God in a verse treating mediation and adjudication: “O you Believers! Obey God and obey the messenger and those with authority among you. If you dispute anything, refer it to God and the messenger if you believe in God and the Last Day. That is the best and most excellent explanation ” (Q.4:59). Already mentioned is how the behavior (sunna) of respected tribal elders was emulated in pre-Islamic Arabian culture. This cultural feature naturally continued as the religious culture of Islam began to dominate in the area of Mecca and Medina; however, in place of the tribal elder stood the religious leader who was naturally emulated by his followers. As the overall leader, Muhammad’s own sunna—his words and deeds—were scrutinized and remembered. Muhammad was the Prophet and the definitive leader, but some of his closest companions assisted him and gained a great amount of respect and, therefore, a certain level of emulation as well. Muhammad’s death marked the end of revelation. It also clearly marked the end of his powerful leadership and his role of interpreter of the revelations . This was a double blow to the community, because the Prophet and the revelation were so intimately bound together. The Qur’an itself taught 125 C H A P T E R F I F T E E N that Muhammad was an example to be followed: “You have an excellent example in the messenger of God for whoever looks forward to God and the Last Day and who frequently refers to God” (Q.33:2). In the earliest period after his death, Muslims emulated the sunna of both Muhammad and his closest companions, but soon the sense of sunna was narrowed only to that of the Prophet and became known as the Prophetic Sunna (al-sunna al-nabawiyya). It filled out broad areas of life that were not treated directly in the Qur’an, and it became an important instruction about how to live a pious and just life as a member of the community of Muslims. The sunna was fluid in the early period because it was based on the memory of Muhammad’s deeds and conversations among his companions and followers. The memories remained in oral form and were retained in the minds and hearts of his companions and followers who told and retold portions of what they remembered as best they could recall them. Those who never knew Muhammad heard and learned the tales from those who did or from others who heard the sunna from companions who personally witnessed the behaviors of the Prophet. The Hadīth Sunna is an abstract reference to behavior in general. The Prophet had a sunna. But that sunna was conveyed by recounting brief, concrete descriptions of his behavior or short reports that portrayed what he said or did in a very specific context. Each paragraph of information about Muhammad’s sunna is called a h . adīth (written in lower case here), which in Arabic means both a short conversation or statement, and a report of something that has occurred. A hadith is a segment of information about the Prophet and is sometimes referred to in English as a tradition. When uncertainty or a disagreement would arise over any aspect of how to conduct one’s life in the early community, people would ask what Muhammad did or would have done in relation to it. Naturally, people remembered things somewhat differently and sometimes two or more conflicting hadiths would surface that answered questions in substantially different ways. As a result, there developed differences of opinion as to which hadiths were more accurate. After a while it had become clear that people had begun inventing hadiths in order to authenticate their own opinion of proper behaviors or even personal innovation. In this way, a great deal of fascinating information began entering Islam that clearly could not have come directly from Muhammad, such as aphorisms from Greek philosophy, verses or paraphrases from Jewish, Christian, and Zoroastrian scriptures, 126 A N I N T R O D U C T I O N T O I...

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