Principles of Islamic banking and finance/PIBF201/Islamic jurisprudence/Quran and Sunnah

"Muslims believe that the Qur'an consists of the word of God revealed in Arabic by God to the Prophet Muhammad over a twenty-two year period. He received the first revelation in the year 610 CE while engaging in a contemplative retreat in the Cave of Hira located on the Mountain of Light (Jabal al-nur)(also known as Mt. Hira), which is in the outskirts of Mecca. The Qur'an is distinct from hadith, which are the sayings of Muhammad. It is agreed that Muhammad clearly distinguished between his own utterances (hadith) and God's words, the Qur'an. Muslims and most Western scholars believe that the Arabic Qur'an that exists today contains the same Arabic that was transmitted by Muhammad. Hence anyone who knows Arabic can rest assured that they are reading the exact words of revelation received by Muhammad. Those who do not know Arabic can nevertheless benefit from hearing the evocative quality of the original Arabic."

Qur'an
'Qur’an' literally means 'reading' or 'recitation'. It may be defined as 'the book containing the speech of God revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (570-632 AD) in Arabic and transmitted to us by continuous testimony. It is the most authoritative guide for Muslims, and the first source of the Islamic law. The Islamic scholars are unanimous on this, and some even say that it is the only source and that all other sources are explanatory to the Qur’an. The revelation of the Qur’an began with the words 'Read in the name of your Lord' and ending with the verse 'Today I have perfected your religion for you and completed my favor toward you, and chosen Islam as your religion'. Learning and religious guidance, being the first and the last themes of the Qur’anic revelation, are thus the favor of God upon mankind. Qur’an was revealed piecemeal over a period of twenty-three years in relation to particular events. It has been retained both in memory and in written record throughout the generations (Kamali,1998; Chapter 2 )



In the sense that legal material occupies only a small portion of the bulk of its text, the Qur’an is not a legal or a constitutional document. The Qur’an calls itself huda, or guidance, not a code of law. Out of over 6,200 verses, less than one-tenth relate to law and jurisprudence, while the remainder are largely concerned with matters of belief and morality, the five pillars of the faith and a variety of other themes. Its ideas of economic and social justice, including its legal contents, are on the whole subsidiary to its religious call. The legal or practical contents of the Qur’an constitute the basis of the juris corpus of the Qur’an. There are close to 350 legal verses in the Qur’an. Rules concerning commercial transactions such as sale, lease, loan and mortgage, constitute the subject of seventy verses.

By far the larger part of the Qur’anic legislation consists of an enunciation of general principles, although in certain areas, the Qur'an also provides specific details. Being the principal source, the Qur'an lays down general guidelines on almost every major topic of Islamic law. Every single chapter of Islamic jurisprudence finds its origin in the Qur'an, which is then explained and elaborated by the Sunnah; sayings and deeds of Prophet Muhammad. The often-quoted declaration in the Qur'an that 'We have neglected nothing in the Book' (chapter 6:verse 38) is held to mean that the general principles of law and religion, are exhaustively treated in the Qur’an. That the Qur’an is mainly concerned with general principles is borne out by the fact that its contents require a great deal of elaboration, which is often provided, although not exhaustively, by the Sunnah.

The Qur’anic legislation on civil, economic, constitutional and international affairs is, on the whole, confined to an exposition of the general principles and objectives of the law. On business transactions, for example, the verses of the Qur’an are all concerned with general principles on the fulfillment of contracts, the legality of sale, the prohibition of usury, respect for the property of others, the documentation of loans and other forms of deferred payments. Thus in the area of contracts, the Qur’anic legislation is confined to the bare minimum of detail. The detailed varieties of lawful trade, the forms of unlawful interference with the property of others, and the varieties of usurious transactions, are matters which the Qur’an has not elaborated. Some of these have been explained and elaborated by the Sunnah. As for the rest, it is for the scholars of every age to specify them in the light of the general principles and the needs and interests of the people.

Religious scholars have deduced the rules of Islamic law not only from the explicit words of the Qur’an, but also from the implicit meanings of the text through inference and logical construction, or the implied meaning. This has resulted in some differences in opinions and one of the causes of different schools of thought in Islam.

Sunnah
While Qur'an contains, according to Muslim belief, the words of God revealed to the Prophet, Sunnah refers to sayings and deeds of Prophet Muhammad narrated by his companions and further transmitted by those who came after them. These narrations (or Ahadith in Arabic, plural of Hadith) were collected and compiled after his death. The Prophet had advised against writing or compiling his own words during his life time while Qur'an was still revealed, to avoid any mingling of the two.



Early Islamic scholars made an admirable efforts in sifting through thousands of these narrations, setting very strict criteria and ranked them in regard to their authenticity; whether a narration came from a single source or multiple source, the chain of narrators, the truthfulness and of the narrators, etc. Whereas Islamic scholars have differed in their understanding / interpretation of the text of the Qur'an, there is no problem concerning the authenticity of the contents of the Qur'an. Disagreement over the Sunnah extends not only to questions of interpretation but also to authenticity and proof.

As Sunnah is the second source of Islamic law next to the Qur'an, an Islamic scholar who tries to deduce laws for later generations, is supposed to observe an order of priority between the Qur'an and Sunnah. Hence, in his search for a solution to a particular problem, the jurist must resort to the Sunnah only when he fails to find any guidance in the Qur'an. Should there be a clear text in the Qur'an, it must be followed and be given priority over any ruling of the Sunnah, which may happen to be in conflict with the Qur'an.

As mentioned earlier, the priority of the Qur'an over the Sunnah is a result of the fact that the Qur'an consists wholly of manifest revelation whereas the Sunnah mainly consists of internal revelation and is largely transmitted in the words of the narrators themselves. The other reason for this order of priority relates to the question of authenticity. The authenticity of the Qur'an is not open to doubt, it is, in other words, decisive, in respect of authenticity and must therefore take priority over the Sunnah, or at least that part of Sunnah which is speculative in respect of authenticity. The third point in favor of establishing an order of priority between the Qur'an and the Sunnah is that the latter is explanatory to the former. Explanation or commentary should naturally occupy a secondary place in relationship to the source.