The Necessity to Refer to the Qur'an and Sunnah

It is necessary to refer all matters of disagreement between Muslims to Allah

and His Messenger, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam. This is important for the

Muslim to know and implement because it indicates the complete submission to

Allah without which one would not be a Muslim.

Allah says, " If you differ in anything among yourselves, refer it to Allah

and His Messenger, if you believe in Allah and the Last Day. That is best and

most commendable in the end" [4:59] also, He says, "And whatever you disagree

upon, its decision is with Allah" [42:10]

Ibnul Qayyim said, "Based on these verses, scholars have agreed that

referring to Allah means referring to His Book, and referring to the

Messenger, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam, means referring to him in person when

alive, to his Sunnah after his death." The first verse of surah an-Nisaa

(surah 4), is also proof that the Shari'ah has been perfected and completed.

Ibnul Qayim commented on this verse, "It covers everything that the believers

may disagree upon concerning their religion, from the smallest to the

greatest, whether hidden or evident. And if there were not a clear solution

to their disagreement in Allah's Book and His Messenger's Sunnah, or if they

were not enough for that, then He would not have ordered us referral to them."

Shari'ah is the Judge and is not to be judged: This is its power and its

role. This means that the Shari'ah rules and judges whether people's sayings

and doings are correct or not. It judges between them when in conflict and

disagreement. It confirms the right and abolishes the falsehood. This fact

sometimes is violated through some wrong practices:

Fanaticism: The fanatics in the different Madha-hib, schools of thought,

judge the Qur'an and Sunnah by what their Imam say. For example, Abul Hassan

al-karkhy, a prominent Hanafi Imam, said, "Every verse 'in the Qur'an' that

differs with our Madh-hab's understanding is either wrongly interpreted or

abrogated, and the same applies to every hadeeth as well."

Democracy: Today, one of the ugly examples of people taking the Divine

Shari'ah into their own hands, is the one related to the so-called democracy

by taking people's opinion, directly or through their parliament, about

implementing the Islamic Laws. The essence of this is subjugating the

implementation of the Creator's Shari'ah to the will of His creatures or

rendering it to a mere choice like any human-set constitution or laws. This

is total and clear disbelief, Kufr.

The Amazing Qur'an

Calling the Qur'an amazing is not something done only by Muslims, who have an appreciation for the book and who are pleased with it; it has been labeled amazing by non-Muslims as well. In fact, even people who hate Islam very much have still called it amazing.

One thing which surprises non_muslims who are examining the book very closely is that the Qur'an does not appear to them to be what they expected. What they assume is that they have an old book which came fourteen centuries ago from the Arabian desert; and they expect that the book should look something like that - an old book from the desert. And then they find out that it does not resemble what they expected at all. Additionally, one of the first things that some people assume is that because it is an old book which comes from the desert, it should talk about the desert. Well the Qur'an does talk about the desert - some of its imagery describes the desert; but it also talks about the sea - what it's like to be in a storm on the sea.

Some years ago, the story came to us in Toronto about a man who was in the merchant marine and made his living on the sea. A Muslim gave him a translation of the Qur'an to read. The merchant marine knew nothing about the history of Islam but was interested in reading the Qur'an. When he finished reading it, he brought it back to the Muslim and asked, "This Muhammed, was he a sailor?" He was impressed at how accurately the Qur'an describes a storm on a sea. 

When he was told, "No as a matter of fact, Muhammed lived in the desert," that was enough for him. He embraced Islam on the spot. He was so impressed with the Qur'an's description because he had been in a storm on the sea, and he knew that whoever had written that description had also been in a storm on the sea. The description of "a wave, over it a wave, over it clouds" was not what someone imagining a storm on a sea to be like would have written; rather, it was written by someone who knew what a storm on the sea was like. This is one example of how the Qur'an is not tied to a certain place and time. Certainly, the scientific ideas expressed in it also do not seem to originate from the desert fourteen centuries ago.

Many centuries before the onset of Muhammed's Prophethood, there was a well-known theory of atomism advanced by the Greek philosopher, Democritus. He and the people who came after him assumed that matter consists of tiny, indestructible, indivisible particles called atoms. The Arabs too, used to deal in the same concept; in fact, the Arabic word dharrah commonly referred to the smallest particle known to man. Now, modern science has discovered that this smallest unit of matter (i.e., the atom, which has all of the same properties as its element) can be split into its component parts. This is a new idea, a development of the last century; yet, interestingly enough, this information had already been documented in the Qur'an which states:

" He [i.e., Allah] is aware of an atom's weight in the heavens and on the earth and even anything smaller than that..."

Undoubtedly, fourteen centuries ago that statement would have looked unusual, even to an Arab. For him, the dharrah was the smallest thing there was. Indeed, this is proof, that the Qur'an is not outdated.

How the Glorious Qur'aan Was Preserved

IN THE DAYS OF THE NOBLE PROPHET (sallallahu alayhi wasallam)

Since the Noble Qur'aan was not revealed all at once, on the contrary, different verses of it were being revealed as and when appropriate, therefore, it was not possible from the very beginning to write and preserve it in a book form. So, during the initial stage of Islaam, major emphasis was laid on memory as a means of preserving the Noble Qur'aan.

When wahee (revelation) used to come in the very beginning, the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) would tend to repeat its words instantly so that they would be memorized well enough. Thereupon, Allah Almighty directed him through the verses of Soorah Qiyaamah that he need not repeat words in a hurry immediately as revelation came. Allah Almighty would himself endow him with a memory that he will be unable to forget the words of the wahee once its descent has been completed. So it was that the moment the Qur'aanic verses would come to him, they would be committed to his memory the next moment. Thus, the blessed chest of the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wasallam), was the most protected vault of the Noble Qur'aan, in which there was no chance of even some common mistake, editing or alteration.

Moreover, as a matter of additional precaution, he used to recite the Qur'aan before angel Jibra'eel alayhis salaam every year during the month of Ramadhaan; and the year he left this mortal world he completed a cumulative review of Qur'aanic recitation twice with Jibra'eel alayhis salaam.