In the name of Allah, Most Beneficent, Most Merciful

by Harun Yahya

The Qur'an is the last divine book, which was revealed from Allah as a declaration and guidance to mankind. It provides an explanation for everything and is a means for man to be rightly guided. In many verses of the Qur'an, Allah commands man to obey the Prophet of Allah. This is quite an important point since having a full understanding of the Qur'an can only be possible with following the Sunnah of the prophet.

The Sunnah is the explanation of the Qur'an. It is the creed of ahl-i Sunnah, which is based upon the collection of authentic hadiths of the Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam), and the interpretation of these hadiths by great scholars in succeeding periods.

One point deserves a special mention here: The Sunnah is not a concept that can be dealt with separately from the Qur'an. In the Qur'an, many attributes of the Messenger Muhammad are recited; he relieves people of their heavy loads and the chains which were around them, makes rules, teaches the ummah (society) the open and hidden meanings of the Qur'an. Indeed, when we look at the practices of Sunnah, we see that the prophet of Allah provided His companions with a lot of information about numerous subjects. These, in return, were interpreted by scholars of the time and incorporated into daily practise, and extended well into our time passing from one generation to another.

Allah has informed in the Surat al- Imran that the Prophet had the attribute of teaching the Qur'an and purifying mankind:

As underlined in the verse above, the statement "teach them the Book and Wisdom" is important in the sense that without following the Sunnah of the Messenger Muhammad, it is unlikely to have a full grasp of the Qur'an and accordingly practise the Qur'anic commandments.

Only the coexistence of the Qur'an with the Sunnah make our religion intact. During the early times the Qur'an was revealed, Messenger Muhammad set an example with his conduct for the people surrounding him in acquiring knowledge of Allah's guidance and practising the religion of Allah with due care. Indeed, the life of the Messenger, abounding with examples in practising the commandments of Islam, provided an important guidance for having an accurate comprehension of the Qur'an.

We can give "salat" (ritual prayers) as a clear example to understanding the commands of the religion. As well known, in Islam, performing salat 5 times a day is an obligation and there are verses giving general information about how to perform salat and perform ablution (wash). However, we can understand how exactly we should perform prayers only by looking at Sunnah. Because there is no detailed information in the verses about the method of praying, what has to be said during the prayers, the way a man and woman should perform their prayers, the importance and reward attached to each prayer, the details of ablution, what nullifies ablution etc. We can learn such details only by looking at Sunnah of the prophet.

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