So, is the Qu’ran like the Catechism of the Catholic Church than? Because the Catechism is a systematic presentation of the teachings of the Church.
No offense meant. I’m just trying to understand.
No.
In Traditional Sunni Islam there are two main sources, as well as other secondary sources.
- Quran: The Word of God.
- Hadiths: Words of the Prophet.
- Athars: There are various types of Athars;
Code:
From the first three generations of Muslims:
a) Words of Companions of the Prophet.
b) Words of Tabi'een (the Students of the Companions.)
c) Words of the Tabi Tabi'een (Students of the Tabi'een)
Then you have works of the scholars who came afterwards. The systemazation took place as early as the second generations.
In
Islamic Law, you have four schools of thoughts, four different methods of systemazition.
Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi, and Hanbali.
In
Islamic Belief, you have two major schools of thought, although some might add there is a thrid.
Ashari, and Maturidi, the third is sometimes refered to as Athari (Tahawi and/or Hanbali)
In
Islamic Spirituality, you have many schools of thoughts,
Shadhili, Qadiri, Ba Alawi, Naqshabani etc.
Along with this you have other sciences which have been systematized as well along with scholars of these science.
Related to primary sources:
Quranic Sciences (Commentaries as well as principles exegesis)
Hadith sciences (Commentaries as well as methods of hadith
authentication)
Islamic Legal Theory (Methods for extracting Islamic Law)
Islamic Logic (Methods for extracting Islamic belief)
Arabic Language (Morphlogy, Grammar, Balagha (Eloquence))
And with each of these sciences, there are texts that have been written by scholars who systematized the religion.
This is a whole indepth system taught by Traditional Sunni Muslims. The sad thing about Sunni Islam today, and Protestant Sunni Islam is growing today, which has given birth to Wahabis, which like Christian Protestantism, who want to literally get rid of over 1200 years of Islamic traditional, and return to the Primary sources, like Protestant want to abandon the tradition of the church and return to bible.
It is protestant Sunni Muslims, such as the Wahabis (Salafis), Ikhwani, and many others who are given birth to the radical forms of Islam, the terrorist.
To me the
New Testament is equalvilent to the
Hadiths of the Muhammad.
Because Jesus did not really bring a revelation from God, in terms of bring a book. Our revelation from Jesus is actually the Holy Spirit. Because every Christian is in fact a prophet, who has access to the Holy Spirit, and can receive direct knowledge from God. But we (Christians) have to purify our hearts first before we can receive direct knowledge properly, “Blessed are those who are pure in heart for they shall see God.”
The revelation of the Muslim is a book, called the Quran. So they have secondary knowledge from God via Muhammad. Jesus came to teach us how to gain direct knowledge from God. To become one with God.
Just as you will find contradictions in the New Testaments, which the Church as deemed to be Authentic, you will find many contradictions in hadith which Traditional Sunni scholars have deemed Authentic.
Anyway those are my thoughts.
