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Faith Fundamentals

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The Articles of faith
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Seeking nearness to God
Sunni-Shia Division
Quran and Hadith
Sources of Guidance
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Schools of Thought
Obligatory and Optional
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Purification
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Sources of moral guidance

What are the sources of moral guidance for Muslims? This can be summarized from the discourse between Prophet Muhammad and his companion, Muadh ibn Jabal, while sending the latter as a Judge to Yemen:

Prophet: How will you decide a matter?

Muadh ibn Jabal: According to the Quran

Prophet: If it is not in it?

Muadh ibn Jabal: According to the Sunnah (life model of Prophet Muhammad)

Prophet: If it is not in that either?

Muadh ibn Jabal: Then I will use my own reasoning.

Hence Islam, rather than being a inflexible rigid system of rules, allows rooms for adaptability and rational choice based on independent judgment (ijtihad), consultation (shura), and consensus (ijma).

Independent reasoning also becomes essential when there are differences in interpretations over matters in Quran and Hadith.

However Islam claims to be complete in all the fundamentals of morals and ritual aspects and the question of reasoning is relevant only for their interpretation and application for the emerging situations. For example there are myriad problems emerging today which could not have not been directly dealt with in the old days - such as ethics of of cloning, the myriad new financial instruments and other similar issues.

Prophet Muhammad said:
"There is nothing that Allah ordered you with except that I have ordered you with it, and there is nothing that Allah forbade you from except that I have forbidden you from it" [Bayhaqee]

A remarkable vindication of this stance can be found in determining the timings for prayer and fasting at polar regions. Such a question had never arised during the early periods of Islam, and it was probably even unknown to Arabs regarding the anomalous day and night durations in polar regions. So the problem arises as how should one determine the prayer timings or duration of fasting there, which is normally to be done based on the phases of day in equatorial regions. However there is actually a hadith which gives guidance on this.

In this Hadith prophet Muhammad prophesies about the advent of Dajjal (False Messiah), who will torment the believers, as a sign of the Last Day (yaum-al-Qiyaamah). He said that the first day on which Dajjal would appear would appear like one year for the believers. Then one companion asked, “On that day would merely five salah be sufficient (this day being as long as an year).” Prophet Muhammad replied, “No, one should estimate through time.” (Bukhaari, Muslim).

Actually the apparant and real meaning of what Prophet Muhammad said is that during that period the believers would be subjected to such great hardships that one day would appear for them like one year. But when the innocent companion takes him literally and asks him how to determine prayer timings on that "year-long" day, prophet Muhammad uses this opportunity to give guidance for his would-be followers in polar regions in future. This is indeed a stunning prophecy.

The life model of Prophet Muhammad is complemented by that of his companions, particularly the first four "rightly guided" caliphs and six others, forming the ten who have been promised paradise during their lifetime. Prophet Muhammad said: "My companions are even as the stars: whichsoever of them you follow, you shall be rightly guided."

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