Preface

In this work, I have outlined the reasons, which lead to the conclusion that the true sunnah (or "way") of the messenger of Islam is to follow the book, known as al-Quran ("The Recitation/Proclamation"). Part of this book is designed to respond to the main arguments posed by some Muslims for following other books in addition to the Quran for religious guidance.

The main reason the majority of Muslims today insist on following other books is the age old human sickness of leaving the revealed book of Allah “behind their backs”, and blindly following the teachings of their ancestors. When a human being has spent so much time learning and following one methodology, he finds it difficult and against his ego to accept that what his parents taught him, and what he has believed to be the truth might be faulty. This is not the case with Muslims alone; every religious community occasionally faces this question – “Can our forefathers and our scholars be wrong?” Indeed, this particular hurdle has been identified within the Quran as the main reason for the people’s rejection of the message of Allah whenever He sent a messenger to any community.

Today the Muslim world is in the depth of darkness and ignorance. The people who were supposed to be the torchbearers of learning and knowledge are themselves devoid of any enlightenment. They do recognize this, and it only increases their sense of inferiority. To “heal” this inferiority complex, the scholars and leaders point fingers at others for their own shortcomings. They blame the West and the “non-believers” for the present state of the Muslims. When oppression and lack of tolerance in the Muslim world is pointed out to them, they immediately point either to their glorious past or to the oppression in the Western world, forgetting the fact that the Western world is not our teacher and that pointing out other people’s faults does not rectify one’s own shortcomings.

Muslim scholars in particular, and the Muslim masses in general, are very reluctant to review and revise their own understandings of the Message of Islam. The first step in an individual’s intellectual and spiritual growth is to look at himself critically and be ready to change his “accepted facts” in the face of evidence presented. The willingness to do this has been absent from the Muslim psyche, which is why most Muslims refuse even to consider the possibility that perhaps what their forefathers or their scholars told them might not be correct.

It is assumed that the people reading this work do believe in the Quran as the revealed word of Allah. In what follows, I have tried to show that the Quran should be accepted as the ultimate authority on all religious matters. It is through this revelation alone that Allah taught the prophet, who then recited it to the people. So to follow the “Sunnah” of the messenger himself, one must rely on the Quran alone.

It is my belief that on the day the Muslims realize that the sunnah of the messenger is to follow the Quran in every religious matter; on the day when the Muslim world breaks the shackles of tradition and formulas and starts to view the book of Allah as the guidance-giving light for all times and ages, on that day will begin the Muslim renaissance. It is only through the Quran that the Muslims will be able to come out of the endless pit of darkness and ignorance, which many of them currently inhabit.