Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians - Electric Scotland
Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians - Electric Scotland
Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians - Electric Scotland
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162 t CHAPTER SEVEN<br />
first instance from its source. Scripture was primary in this matter:<br />
though there were traditions be<strong>for</strong>e Scripture, at least in Judaism<br />
<strong>and</strong> Christianity, once the Book was established as the revealed<br />
Word of God <strong>and</strong> its contents canonized, it enjoyed what appeared<br />
to be an absolute authority <strong>for</strong> believers. It was what the Quran<br />
calls “The Guidance.” Tradition, which, as remarked, antedated<br />
Scripture <strong>and</strong> may in fact have eventually produced it, had in the<br />
end to carve out its own place in the face of this apparently unique<br />
claim of Scripture. In Judaism, <strong>and</strong> later in <strong>Islam</strong> as well, tradition<br />
is thought to have arisen at the side of Scripture <strong>and</strong> to have been<br />
transmitted through the same type of prophetic channel.<br />
God’s Way<br />
Implicit in all that Muhammad did <strong>and</strong> preached was the notion<br />
that there is an <strong>Islam</strong>ic “way” (sharia), which resembled the Jewish<br />
<strong>and</strong> the Christian way in that it came from God, <strong>and</strong> which<br />
stood in sharp opposition to both the religious paganism <strong>and</strong> degenerate<br />
tribal custom of the contemporary Arabs. But the <strong>Islam</strong>ic<br />
way was no more explicit <strong>and</strong> <strong>for</strong>mal than the r<strong>and</strong>om precepts of<br />
the Quran that defined it, <strong>and</strong> at Muhammad’s death in 632, God’s<br />
revelation was ended <strong>and</strong> the Quran had become <strong>for</strong>ever a closed<br />
Book. At that very moment, however, the Muslim community,<br />
which was endowed with only the most rudimentary religious <strong>and</strong><br />
secular institutions, was poised at the beginning of an immense<br />
military <strong>and</strong> political expansion that would carry it within a short<br />
space of time from Spain to the Indus.<br />
The <strong>Islam</strong>ic law or sharia is the prescribed pattern of Muslim<br />
behavior, <strong>and</strong> it originates in only one ground, God’s will, which<br />
was made available to its intended beneficiaries either through his<br />
<strong>for</strong>mal revelation in the Quran or, as it turned out, through the<br />
instruction or example of his chosen Prophet, Muhammad. But<br />
neither the Quran nor Muhammad’s example are themselves<br />
sharia; the divine comm<strong>and</strong>s <strong>and</strong> prohibitions must be lifted or<br />
extracted from either or both. Law that is simply lifted from either<br />
of those two venues is constituted of the precepts lying, without