Sunnah

“ Also what thy spiritual path and what thy highway?” Whereto she replied, “Allah is my Lord, and Mohammed (whom Allah save and assain!) my prophet, and the Koran is my guide and the Ka’abah my fronting; and the True-believers are my brethren. The practice of good is my path and the Sunnah my highway.” The Caliph again marvelled at her words so eloquently spoken by one so young; and the doctor pursued, “O damsel, with what do we know Almighty Allah?” ”

“ All existing laws shall be brought in conformity with the Injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Holy Quran and Sunnah, in this part referred to as the Injunctions of Islam, and no law shall be enacted which is repugnant to such Injunctions. ”

“ In the long run, however, the contest of the conservatives against specially objectionable features of the dogmatists' discussions forced them to borrow arms from the dogmatic arsenal. Hence a method with a peculiar terminology came in vogue, to which even the boldest imagination could not ascribe any connection with the Sunnah of Mohammed. Yet some traditions ventured to put prophetic warnings on Mohammed's lips against dogmatic innovations that were sure to arise, and to make him pronounce the names of a couple of future sects. ”

“ Accordingly the Mohammedans pay as great a regard to many traditions of the sayings and actions of Mohammed, as to the Koran itself. [7] And as the Jews have several books in which their oral law is recited and explained, so the Mohammedans have their Sunnah, or tradition; in which the sayings and doings of Mohammed, in any way referring either to religion or law, are narrated in the manner set down p. ”

“ Nazmy Bey was quite against the rules of the Sunnah, and did not approve of it at all. There is not the least doubt that the sugges- tion is harmful, and no man will allow himself to support it after hearing the fatwa of the Grand Mufti. . . . Dr. Nazmy Bey's idea is not unlike the proposal made, about twenty years ago, by Dr. ”

“ Quoth he, “Speak, O damsel;” and she said, “What are the branches or superstructure of Al-Islam?” But he was silent awhile and made no reply: so she cried, “Doff thy clothes and I will expound them to thee.” Quoth the Caliph “Expound them, and I will make him put off his clothes for thee.” She said, “There are two-and-twenty branches; (1) holding fast to the Book of Allah the Most Highest; (2) taking example by His Apostle (whom Allah bless and preserve!) ; (3) abstaining from evil doing; (4) eating what is lawful and (5) avoiding what is unlawful; (6) restitution of things wrongfully taken ”

“ By Allah except Whom none has the right to be worshipped, you people know for certain, that I am Apostle of Allah and that I have come to you with the Truth, so embrace Islam." The Jews replied, "We do not know this." So they said this to the Prophet and he repeated it thrice. Then he said, "What sort of a man is 'Abdullah bin Salam amongst you?" They said, "He is our chief and the son of our chief and the most learned man, and the son of the most learned amongst us." He said, "What would you think if he should embrace Islam?" They said, "Allah forbid! He can not embrace Islam." ”

“ Mirza Shah was absent from his home—gone on a full week's journey, engaged in the settling of some dispute on the confines of his territory. To me there came one afternoon the sultana, attended by one of her women—the most trusted one, I knew, for both were from the same country, near to Amritsar, where the famous rugs are woven. So much I had learned, and this further I also knew, that by birth the sultana was a Hindu, although on being wed to her lord as a little girl, she had of course embraced the true faith of Islam, in so far as it matters for a woman to have any religion at all. ”

“ The light and profane use of the Divine name is universal. The dervishes curse, but every one uses the name Allah wherever they can bring it in. The Ya Allah, as an expression of fatigue, or discontent, or interest, or nothing, is heard all day, and the boy who drives a cow, or a team, or a mule in a caravan, cries Ya Allah incessantly as an equivalent of "go along," and the gardener pushing his spade into the ground, the chopper with every blow of the axe, the labourer throwing up bricks, ejaculates the same. ”

“ You are a young and sensible man, and I do not suspect you of forgetfulness, negligence, or perfidy ; and, verily, you used to write for the Prophet his instructions from above ; then look for the Quran in. every place and collect it." I said, " I swear by God, that if people had ordered me to carry a mountain about from one place to another, it would not be heavier upon me than the order which Abu- Bakr has given for collecting the Quran." I said to Abu-Bakr, " How do you do a thing which the Prophet of God did not ? " He said, " By God, this collecting of the Quran is a good act." ”

“ The Apostle of God said, "If I remain till next year, I will certainly keep the ninth day."'—Muslim.
It is related from Abú Qatádah that, 'A man came to the Prophet and said, "How dost thou keep the fast, O Apostle of God?" Then the Apostle of God became angry at his words. And when ʿOmar saw his anger, he said, "We are satisfied with Alláh as our Lord, with Islam as our religion, and with Muḥammad as our Prophet. We take refuge with God from the anger of God and the anger of His Apostle." ”

“ A learned Arab, by name Shayk͟h ʻAbd Allāh, having come to Queda, visited the Raja and inquired what was the religion of the country. “My religion,” replied the Raja, “and that of all my subjects is that which has been handed down to us by the people of old. We all worship idols.” “Then has your highness never heard of Islam, and of the Qurʼān which descended from God to Muḥammad, and has superseded all other religions, leaving them in the possession of the devil?” ”

“ In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
Praise be to God, the King, the Holy, the Great, the Knower. He has opened our hearts through the blessing of Islám. He has made Friday the best of days. We testify that there is no God but God, the One, without partner. This confession saves those who make it from danger and from darkness. We testify that our Lord Muhammad is His servant and His Apostle sent to all mankind. May the mercy and peace of God be on him, his descendants and on his Companions. ”

“ These summed up in the well-known "Kelemat" or act of faith, "There is no God but God, and Mohammed is the apostle of God," form a common doctrinal basis for every sect of Islam—and also common to all are the four religious acts, prayer, fasting, almsgiving and pilgrimage, ordained by the Koran itself. On other points, however, both of belief and practice, they differ widely; so widely that the sects must be considered as not only distinct from, but hostile to, each other. ”

“ The Seal of the Prophets, the Master of the Chosen Ones hath likened the religion of the Koran to Heaven because of its exaltation, loftiness and greatness, and because it embraces all Religions. As in the phenomenal heaven two great and mighty pillars are fixed which are the luminaries called sun and moon, so likewise two orbs are ordained in the Heaven of Religion, which are fasting and prayer. "Islam is Heaven; fasting is its sun and prayer is its moon." ”

“ One after another the Arabian spokesmen told him of the Prophet who had wrought a mighty change in their land, and they explained to him the nature of Islam, its blessings and its obligations. ‘Embrace the Faith,’ they said, ‘and thou shalt be even as one of us; or, if thou wilt, pay tribute, and come under our protection; which things if thou shalt refuse, the days of thy kingdom are numbered.’ The king replied contemptuously: ‘Ye are naught, ye are naught! hungry adventurers from a naked land ”

“ Yāsīn the fit person, bold enough to undertake so difficult a mission, pious and austere in his life, and learned in theology, law and other sciences. So far back as the ninth century the preachers of Islam had made their way among the Berbers of the Sahara and established among them the religion of the Prophet, but this faith had found very little acceptance there, and ʻAbd Allāh b. Yāsīn found even the professed Muslims to be very lax in their religious observances and given up to all kinds of vicious practices. ”

“ Dunyazad said to her, "Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching of this our latter night!" She replied, "With love and good will!" It hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding, lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming and worthy celebrating, that the youth, when entering to the Sultan's daughter, exclaimed "Bismillah—in the name of Allah—I place my trust upon Allah, and I have committed mine affair unto Allah!" ”

“ But in spite of the rich development, in every sense of the term, of the teachings of the Prophet, the Qurʼān has invariably kept its place as the fundamental starting-point, and the dogma of the unity of God has always been proclaimed therein with a grandeur, a majesty, an invariable purity and with a note of sure conviction, which it is hard to find surpassed outside the pale of Islam. ”

“ Next to the act of testifying to the unity of God, the Qurán is the great bond of Islám. No matter from what race the convert may have come, no matter what language he may speak, he must learn in Arabic, and repeat by rote portions of the Qurán in every act of public worship.
The next subject for consideration is that of the [66] Traditions, or the second branch of the science of 'Ilm-i-usúl. The Traditions contain the record of all that Muhammad did and said. It is the belief of every Muslim, to whatever sect he belongs, that the Prophet not only spake but also acted under a divine influence. ”

“ This method of reciting the Quran is learned outwardly by The Divine Favour and inwardly by the verification of heart, and is perfectly true. Such recitor accepts the truth, leaves falsehood and wrong innovations in the religion and remains cautious in Shariah. To initiate (Dawat, the Seeker should) recite Surah Muzammil and spiritually take himself in The Holy Assembly of Prophet Mohammad by the Tasawur of Ism-e-Zaat at (the level of) Divine Oneness where he should have repeated sessions of learning Quran in the Company of The Holy Prophet. ”

“ The Koran was the immediate consequence of his concentration and communion with Nature and Nature’s God: Islam the natural result. In other words, Islam is the devotion of Moslems to Mohammed and the Koran—his work, plus their patient resignation and entire submission to God, His will and His service! The man of fixed and unchanging purpose has a supreme contempt for obstacles. But when, as in Mohammed’s case, that purpose is the glorification of God, he has at hand a lever that can move the world. In this peculiar sense the great Prophet of Arabia was self-contained. ”

“ We teach that Islam is a wider idea than Faith (iman) , so that not every Islam is Faith. We believe that God turns the hearts upside down, and holds them between two of His fingers, that He lays the heavens upon a finger and the earth upon a finger, according to the tradition from the Prophet. We believe that God will not leave in Hell any of those who confess His Unity (muwahhid) and hold fast to the Faith, and that there is no Hell for him whom the Prophet has by his witness appointed to Paradise. ”

“ So far from the Qurán alone being the sole rule of faith and practice to Muslims, there is not one single sect amongst them whose faith and practice is based on it alone. No one among them disputes its authority or casts any doubt upon its genuineness. Its voice is supreme in all that it concerns, but its exegesis, the whole system of legal jurisprudence and of theological science, is largely founded on the Traditions. Amongst the orthodox Musalmáns, the foundations of the Faith are four in number, the Qurán, Sunnat, Ijmá' and Qíás. ”

“ Now I know not where to find witnesses or next friend or dowry; but, if thou canst make shift to bring us out of this place, I hope to win to the land of Islam, and I vow to thee that none other in Islam shall be wife to me than thou.’ ‘I will contrive this,’ answered she and calling her father and mother, said to them, ‘This Muslim’s heart is softened and he inclineth to enter our faith, so I will grant him that which he desireth of me ”

“ When the fire of repentance burns, it consumes everything. He made his ablutions, resumed his Moslem garb, and departed for Mecca, where he and his old disciples embraced with tears of joy.
In the meantime the young Christian saw the Prophet appearing to her in a dream, and saying, "Follow the Sheikh! Adopt his doctrine; be the dust under his feet. Thou who wert the cause of his apostasy, be pure as he is." When she awoke from her dream, a strong impulse urged her to seek for him. With a heart full of affection, though with a feeble body, she went to seek for the Sheikh and his disciples. ”

“ It is the universally accepted rule, that no authentic Tradition can be contrary to the Qurán. The importance attached to Tradition has been shown in the preceding chapter, an importance which has demanded the formation of an elaborate system of exegesis. To an orthodox Muslim the Book and the Sunnat, God's word direct and God's word through the mind of the Prophet, are the foundation and sum of Islám, a fact not always taken into account by modern panegyrists of the system. ”

“ He and his family are very patient. Their enemy [10] is the chief of sinners.
We have announced to thee a race of just men, men [11] who will not oppose our orders. My mercy and peace are on them living [12] or dead.
As to those who walk in their way, my mercy is on them; they will certainly gain the mansions of Paradise."
2. The Sunnat.—The second foundation of Islám is based on the Hadís (plural Ahádís) or Tradition. Commands from God given in the Qurán are called 'farz' and 'wájib.' A command given by the Prophet or an example set by him is called 'sunnat,' a word meaning a rule. ”