Qur’Anic And Non-Qur’Anic Islam

Author: BRIGADIER R N

Number of Pages: 228

This is a study of twenty Islamic themes of contemporary importance. Each theme bears two versions: Qur’anic and non-Qur’anic. The latter is familiar because it has dominated Islamic perceptions, thought and practices for the past thirteen hundred years.

It draws its sanction from a variety of sources such as pre-Islamic Arab customs and traditions, Sunnah — as it is codified in books of Ahadith, called ‘The Correct Six’, jurisprudence (fiqh), myth and whim. The source for the Qur’anic version is exclusively the Qur’an. In some ways, this is a unique book. Based on the Qur’an, its message is interpreted entirely from the Qur’anic text itself. Superimposition of non-Qur’anic views has been scrupulously avoided. Credentials of Sunnah as a source of Islam have been examined in some detail.

The two versions of Islam use the same idiom but are markedly different and often contradictory, on fundamentals, in the general thrust, in spirit and substance. Qur’anic Islam seeks to establish an egalitarian, humane, just and equitable social order. It gives the individual full responsibility and scope to express himself constructively.