The complex relationship between women and Islam is defined by Islamic texts, th e history and culture of the Muslim

world. The Qur'an states that both men and w omen are equal, but also, as in 4:34, that "Men are the protectors and maintaine rs of women because God has given the one more (strength) than the other and bec ause they support them from their means. Therefore the righteous women are devou tly obedient and guard in (the husband's) absence what God would have them guard ." Sharia (Islamic law) provides for complementarianism, differences between women' s and men's roles, rights, and obligations. However neither the Quran nor Hadith mention women have to be housewives. Majority Muslim countries give women varyi ng degrees of rights with regards to marriage, divorce, civil rights, legal stat us, dress code, and education based on different interpretations. Scholars and o ther commentators vary as to whether they are just and whether they are a correc t interpretation of religious imperatives. The Quran expresses two main views on the role of women. Men and women before Go d are equal in terms of their religious duties (i.e. belief in God and his messe nger, praying, fasting, paying zakat , and performing the hajj) and places them in the care of men but It states that women are not equal to men in terms of inh eritance, the same way that step children are not equal in terms of inheritance either, and relatives from different degrees. The Quran states that men and wome n are created from a single soul.[Quran 4:1] One person does not come before the other, one is not superior to the other, and one is not the derivative of the o ther. A woman is not created for the purpose of a man. Rather, they are both cre ated for the mutual benefit of each other. Islamic doctrine is the product of Qur'anic guidelines, as understood by Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), as well as of the interpretations derived from hadith, th at were agreed upon by majority of Sunni Muslim scholars as authentic beyond dou bt based on the science of hadith. Female education in the Islamic world was inspired by Muhammad's wives: Khadijah , a successful businesswoman, and Aisha, a renowned hadith scholar and military leader. The education allowed was often restricted to religious instruction. Acc ording to a hadith attributed to Muhammad, he praised the women of Medina becaus e of their desire for religious knowledge: "How splendid were the women of the ansar; shame did not prevent them from b ecoming learned in the faith." While it was not common for women to enroll as students in formal classes, it wa s common for women to attend informal lectures and study sessions at mosques, ma drassas and other public places. Sharia law The cumulative doctrines contained within the Qur'an, hadith and fiqh are codifi ed by sharia law, which attempts to set down rules for collective conduct, even including behaviour and attitudes of individuals within society. In some Muslim countries, sharia has become the sole legal prescription on which judges base th eir rulings. In Saudi Arabia, for example, practices such as severing the hand o f a thief or the tongue of a liar persist as they are set in sharia law. Similar ly, the death penalty is codified for offences such as murder, rape, apostasy, d rug trafficking, and homosexuality. In some theocratic states, it is in practise impossible for legal officials to question the articles of the sharia. In ortho dox countries such as Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Iran, Afghanistan under the Taliban r egime, and Pakistan, perceived moral weakness by individuals is punished as aggr essively as desecrating a tomb or a mosque. This legal framework has resulted in human rights and women's rights groups worl

dwide condemning and protesting convictions and sentences of women under sharia law, as in the case of Amina Lawal. Lawal is a Nigerian woman who was sentenced to be stoned to death in 2002 for bearing a child outside of marriage. Her sente nce was based on a fetwa, issued by an imam, a recognized religious authority, c iting ancient rules, a right promulgated in the name of sharia. The status of women's testimony in Islam is disputed. Some Islamic jurists have held that certain types of testimony by women may not be accepted. In other case s, the testimony of two women can equal that of one man (although the Qur'an say s two women and two male are needed but if a male cannot find another male he ma y carry this testimony out himself). The reasons put forward for such attitudes include: women's temperament, women's lack of interest in legal matters, and als o the need to spare women from the "burden of testifying". In other areas, women 's testimony may be accepted on an equal basis with men's. The verse itself howe ver relates to finances only. Controversial tribal customs such as diyyat or blood money remain an integral pa rt of Islamic jurisprudence. By implementation this also discriminate against wo men. Diyya existed in Arabia since pre-Islamic times. While the practice of diyy a was affirmed by Muhammed, Islam does not prescribe any specific amount for diy yat nor does it require discrimination between men and women. The Qur'an has lef t open to debate, its quantity, nature, and other related affairs to be defined by social custom and tradition. However in practice, the killing of a woman will generally invoke a lesser diyyat than the killing of a man. Commentators on the status of women in Islam have often focused on disparities in diyyat, the fines paid by killers to victims' next of kin after either intentional or unintention al homicide, between men and women. Women's rights in the Qur'an are based around the marriage contract. A woman, ac cording to Islamic tradition, does not have to give her pre-marriage possessions to her husband and receives a mahr (dowry) which she is allowed to keep. Furthe rmore, any earnings that a woman receives through employment or business is hers to keep and need not be contributed towards family expenses. This is because th e financial responsibility for reasonable housing, food and other household expe nses for the family, including the spouse, falls entirely on the husband. In tra ditional Islamic law, a woman is also not responsible for the upkeep of the home and may demand payment for any work she does in the domestic sphere. In Islam, women are entitled to the right of inheritance, Qur'an 4:7. In general , Islam allows females half the inheritance share available to males who have th e same degree of relation to the deceased. Qur'an 4:11. This difference derives from men's obligations to financially support their families. The Qur'an contains specific and detailed guidance regarding the division of inh erited wealth, such as Surah Baqarah, chapter 2 verse 180, chapter 2 verse 240; Surah Nisa, chapter 4 verse 7-9, chapter 4 verse 19, chapter 4 verse 33; and Sur ah Maidah, chapter 5 verse 106-108. Three verses in the Qur'an describe the shar e of close relatives, Surah Nisah chapter 4 verses 11, 12 and 176. However, many Islamic majority countries have allowed inherently unfair (towards women) inher itance laws and/or customs to dominate. In Islam, there is no difference between men and women's relationship to God; th ey receive identical rewards and punishments for their conduct. According to a s aying attributed to Muhammad, women are allowed to go to mosques. However, as Is lam spread, it became unusual for women to worship in mosques because of fears o f unchastity caused by interaction between sexes; this condition persisted until the late 1960s. Since then, women have become increasingly involved in the mosq ue, though men and women generally worship separately. (Muslims explain this by citing the need to avoid distraction during prayer prostrations that raise the b uttocks while the forehead touches the ground.) Separation between sexes ranges from men and women on opposite sides of an aisle, to men in front of women (as w

as the case in the time of Muhammad), to women in second-floor balconies or sepa rate rooms accessible by a door for women only. In Islam's earlier history, female religious scholars were relatively common. Mo hammad Akram Nadwi, a Sunni religious scholar, has compiled biographies of 8,000 female jurists, and orientalist Ignaz Goldziher earlier estimated that 15 perce nt of medieval hadith scholars were women. After the 16th century, however, fema le scholars became fewer, and today while female activists and writers are relat ively common there has not been a significant female jurist in over 200 years. O pportunities for women's religious education exist, but cultural barriers often keep women from pursuing such a vocation. Women's right to become imams, however, is disputed by many. A fundamental role of an imam (religious leader) in a mosque is to lead the salah (congregational p rayers). Generally, women are not allowed to lead mixed prayers, because certain positions of the prayer would likely prove distracting for her and those prayin g behind her. However, some argue that Muhammad gave permission to Ume Warqa to lead a mixed prayer at the mosque of Dar. Hui women are self aware of their relative freedom as Chinese women in contrast to the status of Arab women in countries like Saudi Arabia where Arab women are restricted and forced to wear encompassing clothing. Hui women point out these r estrictions as "low status", and feel better to be Chinese than to be Arab, clai ming that it is Chinese women's advanced knowledge of the Qur'an which enables t hem to have equality between men and women. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Muhammad adopted the practice of meditating alone for several weeks every year i n a cave on Mount Hira near Mecca. Islamic tradition holds that during one of hi s visits to Mount Hira, the angel Gabriel appeared to him in the year 610 and co mmanded Muhammad to recite the following verses: Proclaim! (or read!) in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who createdCreated man, out of a (mere) clot of congealed blood: Proclaim! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful,He Who taught (the use of) the pen,Taught man that which he knew not. Quran, sura 96 (Al-Alaq), ayat 1-5 After returning home, Muhammad was consoled and reassured by Khadijah and her Ch ristian cousin, Waraqah ibn Nawfal. Upon receiving his first revelations, he was deeply distressed and resolved to commit suicide. He also feared that others wo uld dismiss his claims as being possessed. Shi'a tradition maintains that Muhamm ad was neither surprised nor frightened at the appearance of Gabriel but rather welcomed him as if he had been expecting him. The initial revelation was followe d by a pause of three years during which Muhammad further gave himself to prayer s and spiritual practices. When the revelations resumed he was reassured and com manded to begin preaching: "Thy Guardian-Lord hath not forsaken thee, nor is He displeased." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Farewell Sermon (Arabic: Khubatu l-Wad), also known as Muhammad's Final Sermon or The Last Sermon, was delivered by Muhammad on the 9th of Dhu al-Hijjah, 10 A H (9th March 632) in the Uranah valley of Mount Arafat. The Farewell Sermon is mentioned in almost all books of Hadith. Sahih Al-Bukhari refers to the sermon and quotes part of it. Ahmad ibn Hanbal gave the longest v ersion of this sermon in his Musnad.

The Sermon Various versions of the Sermon have been published, including several English tr anslations. The Sermon consists of a series of general exhorations for Muslims t o follow the teachings that Muhammad had set forth in the Quran and Sunnah. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------(plural: hadith, hadiths, or adth) is a saying or an act or tacit approval or criti cism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Hadith are regarded by traditional Islamic schools of jurisprudence as important tools for understanding the Quran and in matters of jurisprudence. Hadith were evaluated and gathered into large collections during the 8th and 9th centuries. These works are referred to in matters of Islamic law and history to this day. T he two largest denominations of Islam, Shiism and Sunnism, have different sets of hadith collections. In Islamic terminology, the term hadith refers to reports of statements or actio ns of Muhammad, or of his tacit approval or criticism of something said or done in his presence. Classical hadith specialist Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani says that the intended meaning of hadith in religious tradition is something attributed to Mu hammad, as opposed to the Quran. Other associated words possess similar meanings including: khabar (news, information) often refers to reports about Muhammad, b ut sometimes refers to traditions about his companions and their successors from the following generation; conversely, athar (trace, vestige) usually refers to traditions about the companions and successors, though sometimes connotes tradit ions about Muhammad. The word sunnah (custom) is also used in reference to a nor mative custom of Muhammad or the early Muslim community. Hadith Qudsi Hadith Qudsi (or Sacred Hadith) is a sub-category of hadith which are sayings of Muhammad. Muslims regard the Hadith Qudsi as the words of God (Arabic: Allah), repeated by Muhammad and recorded on the condition of an isnad. According to asSayyid ash-Sharif al-Jurjani, the Hadith Qudsi differ from the Quran in that the former were revealed in a dream or through revelation and are "expressed in Muh ammad's words", whereas the latter are the "direct words of God". An example of a Hadith Qudsi is the hadith of Abu Hurairah who said that Muhamma d said: When God decreed the Creation He pledged Himself by writing in His book whic h is laid down with Him: My mercy prevails over My wrath. Components The two major aspects of a hadith are the text of the report (the matn), which c ontains the actual narrative, and the chain of narrators (the isnad), which docu ments the route by which the report has been transmitted. The sanad, literally ' support', is so named due to the reliance of the hadith specialists upon it in d etermining the authenticity or weakness of a hadith. The isnad consists of a chr onological list of the narrators, each mentioning the one from whom they heard t he hadith, until mentioning the originator of the matn along with the matn itsel f. The first people to hear hadith were the companions who preserved it and then co nveyed it to those after them. Then the generation following them received it, t hus conveying it to those after them and so on. So a companion would say, "I hea rd the Prophet say such and such." The Follower would then say, "I heard a compa nion say, 'I heard the Prophet.'" The one after him would then say, "I heard som eone say, 'I heard a Companion say, 'I heard the Prophet..." and so on.

Usage The overwhelming majority of Muslims consider hadith to be essential supplements to and clarifications of the Quran, Islam's holy book, as well as in clarifying issues pertaining to Islamic jurisprudence. Ibn al-Salah, a hadith specialist, described the relationship between hadith and other aspect of the religion by sa ying: "It is the science most pervasive in respect to the other sciences in thei r various branches, in particular to jurisprudence being the most important of t hem." "The intended meaning of 'other sciences' here are those pertaining to rel igion," explains Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, "Quranic exegesis, hadith, and jurisprud ence. The science of hadith became the most pervasive due to the need displayed by each of these three sciences. The need hadith has of its science is apparent. As for Quranic exegesis, then the preferred manner of explaining the speech of God is by means of what has been accepted as a statement of Muhammad. The one lo oking to this is in need of distinguishing the acceptable from the unacceptable. Regarding jurisprudence, then the jurist is in need of citing as an evidence th e acceptable to the exception of the later, something only possible utilizing th e science of hadith." Sunni and Shia hadith collections differ because scholars from the two tradition s differ as to the reliability of the narrators and transmitters. Narrators who took the side of Abu Bakr and Umar rather than Ali, in the disputes over leaders hip that followed the death of Muhammad, are seen as unreliable by the Shia; nar rations sourced to Ali and the family of Muhammad, and to their supporters, are preferred. Sunni scholars put trust in narrators, such as Aisha, whom Shia rejec t. Differences in hadith collections have contributed to differences in worship practices and shari'a law and have hardened the dividing line between the two tr aditions. Extent and nature of the textual corpus in the Sunni tradition In the Sunni tradition, the number of such texts is ten thousand plus or minus a few thousand. But if, say, ten Companions record a text reporting a single inci dent in the life of Prophet, hadith scholars can count this as ten hadiths. So M usnad Ahmad, for example, has over 30,000 hadithsbut this count includes texts th at are repeated in order to record slight variations within the text or within t he chains of narrations. Identifying the narrators of the various texts, compari ng their narrations of the same texts to identify both the soundest reporting of a text and the reporters who are most sound in their reporting occupied experts of hadith throughout the 2nd century. In the 3rd century of Islam (from 225/840 to about 275/889), six hadith experts composed brief works recording a selectio n of about two- to five-thousand such texts which they felt to have been most so undly documented or most widely referred to in the Muslim scholarly community. T he 4th and 5th century saw these six works being commented on quite widely. This auxiliary literature has contributed to making their study the place of departu re for any serious study of hadith. In addition, Bukhari and Muslim in particula r, claimed that they were collecting only the soundest of sound hadiths. These l ater scholars tested their claims and agreed to them, so that today, they are co nsidered the most reliable collections of hadith. Extent and nature of the textual corpus in the Shia tradition In Shia hadith one often finds sermons attributed to Ali in The Four Books or in the Nahj al-Balagha. Shi'a Muslims do not use the six major hadith collections followed by the Sunni. Instead, their primary hadith collections are written by three authors who are known as the 'Three Muhammads'. They are: Kitab al-Kafi by Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni al-Razi (329 AH), Man la yahduruhu al-Faqih by M uhammad ibn Babuya and Al-Tahdhib and Al-Istibsar both by Shaykh Muhammad Tusi. Unlike Akhbari Twelver Shi'a, Usuli Twelver Shi'a scholars do not believe that e verything in the four major books is authentic. Studies

Hadith studies are a number of methods of evaluation developed by early Muslim s cholars in determining the veracity of reports attributed to Muhammad. This is a chieved by analyzing the text of the report, the scale of the report's transmiss ion, the routes through which the report was transmitted, and the individual nar rators involved in its transmission. On the basis of these criteria, various cla ssifications were devised for hadith. The earliest comprehensive work in hadith studies was Abu Muhammad al-Ramahurmuzi's al-Muhaddith al-Fasil, while another s ignificant work was al-Hakim al-Naysaburi's Marifat ulum al-hadith. Ibn al-Salah's Ulum al-hadith is considered the standard classical reference on hadith studies.

Terminology By means of hadith terminology, hadith are categorized as a (sound, authentic), af (we k), or maw (fabricated). Other classifications used also include: asan (good), which refers to an otherwise a report suffering from minor deficiency, or a weak report s trengthened due to numerous other corroborating reports; and munkar (denounced) which is a report that is rejected due to the presence of an unreliable transmit ter contradicting another more reliable narrator. Both sahh and hasan reports are considered acceptable for usage in Islamic legal discourse. Classifications of hadith may also be based upon the scale of transmission. Reports that pass throu gh many reliable transmitters at each point in the isnad up until their collecti on and transcription are known as mutawtir. These reports are considered the most authoritative as they pass through so many different routes that collusion betw een all of the transmitters becomes an impossibility. Reports not meeting this s tandard are known as aahad, and are of several different types. Biographical evaluation Another area of focus in the study of hadith is biographical analysis (ilm al-rijl , lit. "science of people"), in which details about the transmitter are scrutini zed. This includes analyzing their date and place of birth; familial connections ; teachers and students; religiosity; moral behaviour; literary output; their tr avels; as well as their date of death. Based upon these criteria, the reliabilit y (thiqt) of the transmitter is assessed. Also determined is whether the individu al was actually able to transmit the report, which is deduced from their contemp oraneity and geographical proximity with the other transmitters in the chain. Ex amples of biographical dictionaries include: Abd al-Ghani al-Maqdisi's Al-Kamal fi Asma' al-Rijal, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani's Tahdhb al-Tahdhb and al-Dhahabi's Tadhk irat al-huffaz. Quranists or Qur'an alone Muslims view of hadith Qur'an alone Muslims, also known as Quranists, are Muslims who follow the Qur'an and consider it to be the only sacred text in Islam. They reject the religious authority of hadith and Sunnah.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Caliph (Arabic: alfah/khalfah) is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the tit le for the ruler of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'a Khalfah (helpinfo) h. It is a transcribed version of the Arabic word About this sound which means "successor" or "representative". Following Muhammad's death in 632 , the early leaders of the Muslim nation were called "Khalifat Rasul Allah", the political successors to the messenger of God (referring to Muhammad). Some acad emics prefer to transliterate the term as Khalfah. In his book The Early Islamic Conquests (1981), Fred Donner argues that the standard Arabian practice at the t ime was for the prominent men of a kinship group, or tribe, to gather after a le ader's death and elect a leader from amongst themselves. There was no specified procedure for this shura or consultation. Candidates were usually, but not neces sarily, from the same lineage as the deceased leader. Capable men who would lead well were preferred over an ineffectual heir. Sunni Muslims believe and confirm that Muhammad's father-in-law Abu Bakr was cho

sen by the community and that this was the proper procedure. Sunnis further argu e that a caliph should ideally be chosen by election or community consensus. Shi'a Muslims believe that Ali, the son-in-law and cousin of Muhammad, should ha ve replaced Muhammad as Caliph and that Caliphs were to assume authority through appointment by God rather than being chosen by the people. A third branch of Islam, the Ibadi Kharijites, believes that the caliphate right ly belongs to the greatest spiritual leader among Muslims, regardless of his lin eage. They are currently an extremely small sect, found mainly in Oman. Word Usage Caliph is translated from the Arabic word khalifa (alfah/khalfah) meaning "successo r", "substitute", or "lieutenant". It is used in the Qur'an to establish Adam's role as representative of Allah on earth. Kalifa is also used to describe the be lief that man's role, in his real nature, is as khalifa or viceroy to Allah. The word is also most commonly used for the Islamic leader of the Ummah; starting w ith Muhammad and his line of successors. The precise meaning of Khalifa is "representative". The first four Caliphs: Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, Umar ibn al-Khattab, Uthman ibn Affan and Ali ibn Abi Talib are commonly known by Sunnis, mainly, as the Khulafur-Rshideen ("rightly guided success ors") Caliphs. Each Caliph was a close companion of Muhammad during his propheth ood. History Succession and Recognition Sunni and Shi'a Muslims differ on the ashideen, the first four Caliphs. The while the Shi'ites recognize only the f his son Hasan. This schism occurred

legitimacy of the reigns of the Khulfa-e-R Sunnis follow the Caliphates of all four, Caliphate of Ali and the short Caliphate o following the death of Muhammad.

According to Sunni beliefs, Muhammad gave no specific directions as to the choos ing of his successor when he died. At this time there were two customary means o f selecting a leader: having a hereditary leader for general purposes, and choos ing someone with good qualities in times of crisis or opportunities for action. While Sunni and Shia Islam differ sharply on the conduct of a caliph and the rig ht relations between a leader and a community, they do not differ on the underly ing theory of stewardship. Both abhor waste of natural resources in particular t o show off or demonstrate power. In the initial stages the latter way of choosing leadership prevailed among the leading companions of Muhammad. Abu Bakr was elected as the first caliph or succ essor to Muhammad, with the other companions of Muhammad giving an oath of alleg iance to him. Those opposing this method thought that Ali, Muhammad's nearest re lative, should have succeeded him. However the appointment of the next two calip hs varied from the election of Abu Bakr. On his deathbed, Abu Bakr appointed Uma r as his successor without an election by the community of Believers. The oath, approving the appointment of Umar, was taken only by the Companions present in M edina at the time. This led to certain groups disputing the authority of Umar. U mar also altered the way his successor would be found. Before he was assassinate d, Umar decided that his successor would come from a group of six. This group in cluded Ali and Uthman another companion of Muhammad. These six would have to est ablish from among themselves Umar's successor. Ultimately Uthman was chosen as U mar successor, becoming the third Caliph. After the assassination of Uthman, Ali was elected as the fourth Caliph. Ali's Caliphate and the Rise of the Ummayyad Dynasty Ali's reign as Caliph was plagued by great turmoil and internal strife. Ali was

faced with multiple rebellions and insurrections. The primary one coming from Mu 'awiyah a relative of Uthman and Governor of Damascus. Mu'awiyah attacked Ali at the Battle of Siffin. The battle lasted several months resulting in a stalemate . In order to avoid further bloodshed, Ali agreed to negotiate with Mu'waiyah. T his caused a faction of some 4,000 strict traditionalists, known as Kharijites ( "Seceders"), to abandon the fight. After defeating the Kharijites at the Battle of Nahrawan, Ali would later be assassinated by the Kharijite Ibn Muljam. Ali's son Hasan was elected as the fifth Caliph only to concede his title to Mu'awiyah a few months later. Mu'awiyah became the sixth Caliph, establishing the Ummayya d Dynasty. Single Caliph for the Muslim World It has been recorded that Muhammad has said: "The children of Israel have been governed by Prophets; whenever a Prophet died another Prophet succeeded him; but there will be no prophet after me. There will be caliphs and they will number many (in one time); they asked: What then do yo u order us? He said: Fulfil bayah to them, only the first of them, the first of them, and give them their dues; for verily Allah will ask them about what he ent rusted them with" "When the oath of allegiance has been taken for two Caliphs, kill the latter of them". Abu-Bakr Muhammad's primary disciple is reported to have said: "It is forbidden for Muslims to have two Amirs for this would cause differences in their affairs and concepts, their unity would be divided and disputes would b reak out amongst them. The Sunnah would then be abandoned, the bida'a (innovatio ns) would spread and Fitna would grow, and that is in no one's interests". Umar bin Al-Khattab another disciple of Muhammad is reported to have said: "Ther e is no way for two (leaders) together at any one time" Ibn Khaldun the famous 14th century Muslim scholar, economist and historian said : "It is not possible to appoint two men to the position (of caliph) at the same time. Religious scholars generally are of this opinion, on the basis of certain hadith(recorded statements) of Muhammad. Those hadith are found in the book ent itled, "On Leadership (imarah)," in Sahih Muslim. They expressly indicate that t his is so." The 10th century Sunni scholar Imam of al-Haramayn (i.e. Makkah and Medinah) alJuwayni wrote: "Our (scholarly) associates agree on precluding the investing of two different i ndividuals with the imamate at either end of the world. But, they add: If it sho uld happen that two different persons were invested with the imamate, that would be analogous to the situation of two guardians contracting a marriage for the s ame woman to two different suitors without either being aware of the other's con tract. The decision in the matter rests on the application of jurisprudence. My opinion on this issue is that investiture of two individuals with the imamate in a single locality within relatively restricted boundaries and limited provinces is not permitted and the investiture should be in accord with a consensus. But, when the distances are great and the two Imams quite remote from each other, th ere is room to allow it, although this cannot be established conclusively." The 11th century Sunni jurist Al-Mawardi wrote: "The investment of two rulers in two different cities is invalid in both cases, for the ummah may not have two rulers simultaneously, even though there are some dissenting voices who would make that permissible. Jurists are disagreed regard ing which one of the two should be sovereign. One party take him to be the one e lected in the city where the previous leader died, because its residents are mor

e entitled gating the ive up the for one or

to make the choice, the rest of the Community in other districts dele task to them... Others have suggested that each one of the two must g office in favour of his opponent, thus allowing the elections to opt the other.."

Imam Al-Nawawi a 12th century authority of the Sunni Shafi'i madhhab said: "It i s forbidden to give an oath to two caliphs or more, even in different parts of t he world and even if they are far apart" Imam Al-Juzairi, a more modern expert on the Fiqh of the four Sunni madhhabs sai d regarding the opinion of the four Imams, "...It is forbidden for Muslims to ha ve two Imams in the world whether in agreement or discord." Notable Caliphs Abu Bakr: First rightly guided caliph. Subdued rebel tribes in the Ridda War s. Umar ibn al-Khattab: Second rightly guided caliph. During his reign, the Isl amic empire expanded to include Egypt, Jerusalem, and Persia. Uthman ibn Affan: Third rightly guided caliph. The Qur'an was compiled under his direction. Killed by rebels. Ali ibn Abu Talib: Fourth and last rightly guided caliph, and considered the first imam by Shi'a Muslims. His reign was fraught with internal conflict. Muawiya I: First caliph of the Umayyad Dynasty. Muawiya instituted dynastic rule by appointing his son Yazid as his successor, a trend that would continue t hrough subsequent caliphates. Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan - Fifth caliph of Ummayad Dynasty, translated import ant records into Arabic, established an Islamic currency system, led additional wars against the Byzantines and ordered construction of the Dome of the Rock. Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz: Umayyad caliph considered by some (mainly Sunnis) to b e a fifth rightly guided caliph. Harun al-Rashid: Abbasid caliph during whose reign Baghdad became the world' s preeminent center of trade, learning, and culture. Harun is the subject of man y stories in the famous work 1001 Arabian Nights. Al-Mustansir Billah: Fatimid Caliph who led the Shi'a Caliphate to its zenit h; Cairo was a center of trade and intellectual activity during his reign. Selim I the Brave: First Caliph of the Ottoman Empire with the conquest of E gypt and the Holy Cities. Defeated the powerful Shia Safavid Empire. Suleiman the Magnificent: Early Ottoman Sultan during whose reign the Ottoma n Empire reached its zenith. Abdul Mejid II: Last Caliph of the Ottoman Dynasty, the 101st Caliph in line from Caliph Abu Bakr. On August 23, 1944, Abdul Mejid II died at his house in t he Boulevard Suchet, Paris XVIe, France. He was buried at Medina, Saudi Arabia. Several Arabic surnames found throughout the Middle East are derived from the wo rd khalifa. These include: Khalif, Khalifa, Khillif, Kalif, Kalaf, Khalaf, and K aylif. The usage of this title as a surname is comparable to the existence of su rnames such as King, Duke, and Noble in the English language. Dynasties The more important dynasties include: The Umayyad dynasty in Damascus (661750), followed by: The Abbasid dynasty in Baghdad (7501258), and later in Cairo (under Mameluk c ontrol) (12601517). The Shi'ite Fatimid dynasty in North Africa and Egypt (9091171). Not universa lly accepted and not currently included in the list here. The Rahmanids, a surviving branch of the Damascus Umayyads, established "in exile" as emirs of Crdoba, Spain, declared themselves Caliphs (known as the Calip hs of Cordoba; not universally accepted; 9291031). The Almohad dynasty in North Africa and Spain (not universally accepted; 114 51269). Traced their descent not from Muhammad, but from a puritanic reformer in

Morocco who claimed to be the Mahdi (a puritanic reformer in Morocco, bringing d own the "decadent" Almoravid emirate) whose son established a sultanate and clai med to be a caliph. The Ottomans (15171924; main title Padishah, also known as Great Sultan etc.) , assumed the title after defeating the Mamluk Sultanate and used it sporadicall y between the 16th and early 20th centuries. Note on the overlap of Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates: After the massacre of the Umayyad clan by the Abbassids, one lone prince escaped and fled to North Africa , which remained loyal to the Umayyads. This was Abd-ar-rahman I. From there, he proceeded to Spain, where he overthrew and united the provinces conquered by pr evious Umayyad Caliphs (in 712 and 712). From 756 to 929, this Umayyad domain in Spain was an independent emirate, until Abd-ar-rahman III reclaimed the title o f Caliph for his dynasty. The Umayyad Emirs of Spain are not listed in the summa ry below because they did not claim the caliphate until 929. For a full listing of all the Umayyad rulers in Spain see the Umayyad article. Claims to the caliphate Many local rulers in Islamic countries have claimed to be caliphs. Most claims w ere ignored outside their limited domains. In many cases, these claims were made by rebels against established authorities and ended when the rebellion was crus hed. Notable claimants include: Abd-Allah ibn al-Zubayr, who held the Hijaz against the Ummayads. Certain sc holars considered him a legitimate Caliph, being a close companion of Muhammad. His rebellion, centered in Makkah, was crushed by the Umayyad general Hajjaj. Ha jjaj's attack caused some damage in Makkah, and necessitated the rebuilding of t he Kaaba. Caliph of the Sudan, a Songhai king of the Sahel. The Zaydi Imams of Yemen used the title for centuries and continued to use t he title till 1962. Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, proclaimed himself Caliph on 3 March 1924, two days after the office was abolished by the Grand National Assembly of Turke y. (see Sharifian Caliphate) Hussein's claim was not accepted, and in 1925 he wa s driven from the Hijaz by the forces of Ibn Saud. He continued to use the title of Caliph during his remaining life in exile, until his death in 1931. Tafsr (Arabic: tafsr, f the Qur'an. Ta'wl is ing, often derived from An author of tafsir is "interpretation") is the Arabic word for exegesis, usually o a subset of tafsir and refers to assigning a specific mean inspiration or dreams, to some of the allegorical ayaat. a mufassir (Arabic: mufassir, plural: Arabic: mufassirn).

Muhammad The first examples of tafsir can be traced back to the Islamic prophet Muhammad. During his prophethood, as the Qur'an was revealed to him, he recited the verse s to his companions, usually explaining their meanings to teach them. It must be noted that this is one of Muhammad's responsibilities. Elements of Muhammad's e xplanations are; Clarifying verses whose intents are not understood Indication of names, places, times etc. which have not been mentioned in the verse Restriction of meanings which have been given as absolute Reconciling expressions which seem contradictory Although scholars including ibn Taymiyyah claim that Muhammad has commented on t he whole of the Qur'an, others including Ghazali cite the limited amount of narr atives, thus indicating that he has commented only on a portion of the Qur'an. T hese interpretations have not been collected independently in a book, rather, th

ey have been recorded in hadith books, under the topic of tafsir, along with oth er narrations of Muhammad. Sahabah (companions of Muhammad) After the death of Muhammad, his companions, the Sahabah, undertook the task of interpretation, thus starting a new age in tafsir. Most of the Sahabah, includin g Abu Bakr, refrained from commenting with their personal views, and only narrat ed comments by Muhammad. Others including ibn Abbas used their own knowledge fro m the Arabic language to interpret the Qur'an. At this stage, the Qur'an was sti ll not fully interpreted, and commentaries were not separated from the hadith co llection nor written separately, mainly due to other occupations such as the col lection of the Qur'an. Successors (tabi'in and beyond) By the time of the next generations ensuing the Sahabah, the tabi'in scholars st arted using a wide range of sources for tafsir. The whole of the Qur'an is inter preted, and narrations are separated from tafsir into separate books and literat ure. Grammatical explanations and historical data are preserved within these boo ks; personal opinions are recorded, whether accepted or rejected. Methodology The mufasireen (exegetes) listed 15 fields that must be mastered before one can authoritatively interpret the Quran Classical Arabic: Is how one learns the meaning of each word. Mujahid (rah) said, It is not permissible for one who holds faith in Allah and the Day of Judgm ent to speak on the Quran without learning classical Arabic. In this respect, it should be known that classical Arabic must be mastered in its entirety because o ne word may have various meanings; a person may only know two or three of them w hereas the meaning of that word in the Quran may be altogether different. Arabic Philology: Is important because any change in the diacritical marks a ffects the meaning, and understanding the diacritical marks depends on the scien ce of Arabic philology. Arabic morphology: is important because changes in the configuration of verb and noun forms change the meaning. Ibn Faris said, A person who misses out on Ar abic morphology has missed out on a lot. Al-Ishtiqaaq: should be learned because sometimes one word derives from two root words, the meaning of each root word being different. This is the science o f etymology which explains the reciprocal relation and radical composition betwe en the root and derived word. For example, masih derives from the root word masa h which means to feel something and to touch something with a wet hand, but also d erives from the root word masaahat which means to measure. Ilm-ul-Maani: is the science by which one figures the syntax through the mean ing of a sentence. Ilm-ul-Bayaan: is the science by which one learns the similes, metaphors, me tonymies, zuhoor (evident meanings) and khafa (hidden meanings) of the Arabic la nguage. Ilm-ul-Badi: The science by which one learns to interpret sentences which rev eal the beauty and eloquence of the spoken and written word. The above mentioned three sciences are categorized as Ilm-ul-Balagha (science of rhetoric). It is o ne of the most important sciences to a mufassir because he is able to reveal the miraculous nature of the Quran through these three sciences. Ilm-ul-Qirat: Dialecticisms of the different readings of the Quran. This scie nce is important because one qirat (reading) of the Quran may differ in meaning from another, and one learns to favor one reading over another based on the diff erence in the meanings. Ilm-ul-Aqaaid: is important because we cannot attribute the literal meaning o f some ayaat to Allah. In this case, one will be required to interpret the ayah as in the hand of Allah is over their hand. Usul-ul-Fiqh: are the principles of Islamic Jurisprudence. It is important t

o master this field so one understands the methodology of legal derivation and i nterpretation. Asbaab-ul-Nuzul: is the field by which one learns the circumstances in which an ayah is revealed. It is important because the meaning of the ayah is more cl early understood once the circumstances in which it was revealed are known. Some times, the meaning of an ayah is wholly dependent on its historical background. Ilm-ul-Naskh: is knowledge of the abrogated ayaat. This field is important b ecause abrogated rulings must be separated from the applied rulings. Fiqh: Jurisprudence. This field is important because one cannot gain an over view of any issue until he has understood its particulars. Ilm-ul-Hadith: is knowledge of the ahadith which explain mujmal (general) ay aat. Ilm Laduuni: Last but not least is the endowed knowledge which Allah grants to his closest servants. They are the servants indicated in the hadith: Allah Y w ill grant one who acts upon whatever he knows from a knowledge he never knew. Riwaya There are two main methods and one prohibited method of commenting on the Qur'an : It is the act of commenting on the Qur'an using traditional sources. This classi cal tafsir method is agreed upon by all scholars, and is the most used method th roughout history, partly because other methods have been criticized; The Qur'an states that it is made easy to understand so no one is allowed to divert its literal meaning. The Prophet has condemned those who interpret the Qur'an from their own poin t of view. Most companions of the Prophet have refrained from presenting their own idea s. Some important examples are Jami al-bayan by al-Tabari and Tafsir al-Qur'an al-A zim by ibn Kathir. The sources used for riwaya tafsir are: Qur'an Interpretation of the Qur'an with the Qur'an is very common because of the close interrelatedness of the verses of the Qur'an with one another. The Qur'anic ver ses explain and interpret one another, and therefore constitute the highest leve l of authenticity. Many verses or words in the Qur'an are explained or further c larified in other verses of the Qur'an. One example of this kind is Tafsir al-Mi zan Hadith Using narratives of the prophet to interpret the Qur'an. In this approach the mo st important external aids used are the collected oral traditions upon which Mus lim scholars based Islamic history and law. The Qur'an states that the Prophet i s responsible for explanation and guidance. While some narratives are of revelat ion origin, others can be the result of reasonings made by the Prophet. One impo rtant aspect of these narratives is their origin. Narratives used for tafsir, an d in general, must be of authentic origin. Narratives of such origin are conside red requisite for tafsir. Sahaba and Tabiiun The abah, or companions of Muhammad, also interpreted and taught the Qur'an. If not hing is found in the Qur'an or the Hadth, the commentator has recourse to what th e abah reported about various verses. These are generally considered above personal opinion, because these people grew up with everyday interaction with Muhammad, and had often asked about the meanings of verses or circumstances of their revel ation; and they were very knowledgeable in both Arabic literature and Islamic th ought.

Arabic literature The classical Arabic poetry and the text of the Qur'an are two resources which c an be used as foundational reference in ascertaining the meaning and significati on of the remaining literal and figurative diction of the Qur'an and its style o f expression. Using Arabic poetry for defining words is a long used practice, in fact there are nearly no scholars who havent used this source. Isra'iliyat Isra'iliyat is the body of narratives originating from Judeo-Christian tradition s, rather than from other well-accepted sources. The Isra'iliyat are mostly nonbiblical explanatory stories and traditions (Hebrew: midrashim) giving extra inf ormation or interpretation about events or individuals recorded in the Hebrew sc riptures. Scholars starting with the Sahabah have studied narrative accounts of other Abrahamic religions to further explain and clarify verses, especially para bles, in the Qur'an. While some may be accurate, these narratives are not subjec t to hadith authenticity criteria, and are generally not favored for use. It is considered a major weakness in tafsir, as theses narratives are not compatible w ith Islamic thought. Diraya The use of reason and mind (ijtihad) to form an opinion-oriented tafsir. This me thod is not interpretation by mere opinion, which is prohibited, but rather opin ions must be based on the main sources. Its most distinctive feature is the incl usion of the opinions of the commentator, thus forming an objective view on Qur' anic verses. Some important examples include Anwar al-Tanzil by al-Baiawi and Irs had al-Aql as-Salim by Abu Sa'ud al-anafi. Some parameters used by these scholars are: Linguistic resources Literary elements of the Arabic language, including morphology, eloquence, synta x are an integral part of tafsir, as they constitute the basis of understanding and interpretation. Arabic has a systematic way of shaping words) so one can kno w the meaning by knowing the root and the form the word was coined from. If any word can be given a meaning that is compatible with the rules of grammar, Qur'an ic text can be interpreted that way. Prohibited tafsir Muslims believe that it is prohibited to perform Qur'anic interpretation using s olely one's own opinion. This, they base on an authenticated hadith of Muhammad which states that it is prohibited; "He who says (something) concerning the Qur'n without knowledge, he has taken his seat of fire"'. Schools of tafsir Theologists are divided into myriad of sects; each commenting the Qur'an with th eir own point of view. Some of these sects and their famous examples are; Classic Sunni The oldest and widest school of tafsir, they are generally classified as riwaya tafsirs, made by Sunni scholars. Major examples are; Tafsir al-Tabari; written by Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari Ma'alim al-Tanzil by al-Baghawi Al-Muarrar al-wajiz by ibn Atiyyah Tafsir ibn Kathir by ibn Kathir Zad al-Masir by ibn al-Jawzi Khazain al-Irfan by Syed Naeem al deen Murad Abadi Zia' ul-Qur'n by Allamah Pr Muhammad Karam Shh al-Azhar Mutazilah

Mutazilah have a very rational way of tafsir, making them an important part of di raya tafsir. Most famous example are: Al-Kashshaaf written by al-Zamakhshari Cami al-Tawil; written by al-Isfahani Shia Interpretation of the Qur'an according to Shia point of view. Examples include: Tafsir al-Kummi a work by Ali ibn Ibrahim Kummi Al-Tibyan by Abu Cafer Tusi Tafsir al-Mizan by Allamah Tabatabai Tafsir il Imam al-Askari attributed to Imam Hasan al-Askari al-Borhan Fi Tafsir al_quran by Hashem Ibn Soleiman al-Bahrani Sufistic approach It is an interpretation of the Qur'an which includes attribution of esoteric or mystic meanings to the text by the interpreter. In this respect, its method is d ifferent from the conventional exegesis. Esoteric interpretations do not usually contradict the conventional (in this context called exoteric) interpretations; instead, they discuss the inner levels of meaning of the Qur'an. A hadith from M uhammad which states that the Qur'an has an inner meaning, and that this inner m eaning conceals a yet deeper inner meaning, and so on (up to seven levels of mea ning), has sometimes been used in support of this view. Islamic opinion imposes strict limitations on esoteric interpretations specially when interior meaning i s against exterior one. Esoteric interpretations are found mainly in Sufism and in the sayings (hadiths) of Shi'a Imams and the teachings of the Isma'ili sect. But the Prophet and the imams gave importance to its exterior as much as to its interior; they were as much concerned with its revelation as they were with its interpretation. These are generally not independently written, however they are found in the books of Sufis. Some examples are; Hakaik al-tafsir by Sulemi The Five Pillars of Islam (arkn-al-Islm also arkn ad-dn "pillars of the religion") a re five basic acts in Sunni Islam, considered obligatory] by believers. These ar e summarized in the famous Hadith of Gabriel. The the (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Qur'an presents them as a framework for worship and a sign of commitment to faith. They are the shahada (Islamic creed), daily prayers (salah), almsgiving (zakt), fasting during Ramadan (sawm), and the pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) at least once in a lifetime.

The minority Shi'i and majority Sunni both agree on the essential details for th e performance of these acts, but the Shi'a do not refer to them by the same name . The five pillars of Islam Shahadah Shahadah is the professing of monotheism and accepting of Muhammad as God's mess enger. The shahadah is a set statement normally recited in Arabic: ahadu an l ilha ill l-Lhu (wa ashhadu 'anna) Muammadan raslu l-Lhi "I testify that there is no god ex cept God and (I testify that) Muhammad is the messenger of God." Reciting this s tatement is a key part in a person's conversion to Islam. Salat: Prayer Salat is the Islamic prayer. Salat consists of five daily prayers according to t

he Quran: Fajr, Zuhr,Asir,Maghrib, and Isha'a. Fajr is performed before the ligh t of dawn, Zhur is performed in the mid day when the sun is at its highest above you, Isha'a is the evening prayer. All of these prayers are recited while facin g the Ka'bah in Mecca. Muslims must wash themselves before prayer, this washing is called Wudu. The prayer is accompanied by a series of set positions including ; bowing with hands on knees, standing, prostrating and sitting in a special pos ition (not on the heels, nor on the buttocks). Salat is the second of the five p illars of Islam. Zakat: Alms Zakat or alms-giving is the practice of charitable giving by Muslims based on ac cumulated wealth, and is obligatory for all who are able to do so. It is conside red to be a personal responsibility for Muslims to ease economic hardship for ot hers and eliminate inequality. Zakat consists of spending 2.5% of one's wealth f or the benefit of the poor or needy, including slaves, debtors and travelers. A Muslim may also donate more as an act of voluntary charity (sadaqah), rather tha n to achieve additional divine reward. There are two main types of Zakat. First, there is the kajj, which is a fixed amount There are five principles that shoul d be followed when giving the Zakat: The giver must declare to God his intention to give the Zakat. The Zakat must be paid on the day that it is due. After the Offering, the payer must not exaggerate on spending his money more than usual means. Payment must be in kind. This means if one is wealthy then he or she needs t o pay 2.5% of their income. If a person does not have much money, then they shou ld compensate for it in different ways, such as good deeds and good behavior tow ard others. The Zakat must be distributed in the community from which it was taken. Sawm of Ramadan: Fasting Three types of fasting (Sawm) are recognized by the Qur'an: Ritual fasting, fast ing as compensation for repentance (both from sura Al-Baqara), and ascetic fasti ng (from Al-Ahzab). Ritual fasting is an obligatory act during the month of Ramadan. Muslims must ab stain from food and drink from dawn to dusk during this month, and are to be esp ecially mindful of other sins. Fasting is necessary for every Muslim that has re ached puberty (unless he/she suffers from a medical condition which prevents him /her from doing so.) The fast is meant to allow Muslims to seek nearness to God, to express their gra titude to and dependence on him, atone for their past sins, and to remind them o f the needy. During Ramadan, Muslims are also expected to put more effort into f ollowing the teachings of Islam by refraining from violence, anger, envy, greed, lust, profane language, gossip and to try to get along with fellow Muslims bett er. In addition, all obscene and irreligious sights and sounds are to be avoided . Fasting during Ramadan is obligatory, but is forbidden for several groups for wh om it would be very dangerous and excessively problematic. These include pre-pub escent children, those with a medical condition such as diabetes, elderly people , and pregnant or breastfeeding women. Observing fasts is not permitted for mens truating women. Other individuals for whom it is considered acceptable not to fa st are those who are ill or traveling. Missing fasts usually must be made up for soon afterward, although the exact requirements vary according to circumstance. Hajj: Pilgrimage to Mecca The Hajj is a pilgrimage that occurs during the Islamic month of Dhu al-Hijjah t o the holy city of Mecca. Every able-bodied Muslim is obliged to make the pilgri

mage to Mecca at least once in their lifetime . When the pilgrim is around 10 km (6.2 mi) from Mecca, he must dress in Ihram clothing, which consists of two whi te sheets. Both men and women are required to make the pilgrimage to Mecca. Afte r a Muslim makes the trip to Mecca, he/she is known as a hajj/hajja (one who mad e the pilgrimage to Mecca). The main rituals of the Hajj include walking seven t imes around the Kaaba, touching the Black Stone, traveling seven times between M ount Safa and Mount Marwah, and symbolically stoning the Devil in Mina. The pilgrim, or the haji, is honoured in the Muslim community. Islamic teachers say that the Hajj should be an expression of devotion to God, not a means to gai n social standing. The believer should be self-aware and examine their intention s in performing the pilgrimage. This should lead to constant striving for self-i mprovement. A pilgrimage made at any time other than the Hajj season is called a n Umrah, and while not mandatory is strongly recommended. Also, they make a pilg rimage to the holy city of Jerusalem in their alms giving feast. Pillars of Shia Islam Twelvers In Twelver Shia Islam, there are ten practices that Shia Muslims must perform, c alled the Ancillaries of the Faith (fur al-dn). Salat Sawm of Ramadan Zakat, similar to Sunni Islam, but only applies to cattle, silver, gold, dat es, raisins, wheat, and barley. Khums: an annual taxation of one-fifth of all gain. Khums is paid to the Ima ms or to poor sayyids (descendants of Ahl al-bayt). Hajj Jihad Commanding what is just and Forbidding what is evil. Based on the Quranic concept commanding right and f orbidding wrong. Tawalla: expressing love towards Muhammad's family, Ahl al-Bayt. Tabarra: disassociation with those who oppose God and those who caused harm to Muhammad or his family. Ismailis have their own pillars which are as follows: Walayah (lit. "Guardianship") denotes love and devotion to God, the prophets , the imm and the dut ("missionaries"). Tawhid, "Oneness of God". Salat: Unlike Sunni and Twelver Muslims, Nizari Ismliyya reason that it is up t o the current imm to designate the style and form of prayer. Zakat: with the exception of the Druze, all Isml madhhib have practices resemblin g that of Sunni and Twelver Muslims with the addition of the characteristic Sha kh ums. Sawm: Nizari and Mustal believe in both a metaphorical and literal meaning of fasting. Hajj: For Ismls, this means visiting the imm or his representative and that this is the greatest and most spiritual of all pilgrimages. The Mustaali maintain als o the practice of going to Mecca. The Druze interpret this completely metaphoric allly as "fasting from devils and oppressors" and rarely go to Mecca. Jihad or "Struggle": "the Greater Struggle" and the "The Lesser Struggle". The Treaty of Hudaybiyyah was an important event that took place during the form ation of Islam. It was a pivotal treaty between Muhammad, representing the state of Medina, and the Quraish tribe of Mecca in March 628CE (corresponding to Dhu al-Qi'dah, 6 AH). It helped to decrease tension between the two cities, affirmed a 10-year peace, and authorized Muhammad's followers to return the following ye ar in a peaceful pilgrimage, The First Pilgrimage.

Attempted pilgrimage In 628 AD, Muhammad and a group of 1,400 Muslims marched peacefully towards Mecc a, in an attempt to perform the Umrah (pilgrimage). They were dressed as pilgrim s, and brought sacrificial animals, hoping that the Quraish would honor the Arab ian custom of allowing converts to enter the city. The Muslims had left Medina i n a state of ihram, a premeditated spiritual and physical state which restricted their freedom of action and prohibited fighting. This, along with the paucity o f arms carried, indicated that the pilgrimage was always intended to be peaceful . Muhammad's people camped outside of Mecca, and Muhammad met with a Meccan emissa ry. He said: (Bukhari B3V50H891) We have not come to fight anyone, but to perform the 'Umra. No doubt, the wa r has weakened Quraish and they have suffered great losses, so if they wish, I w ill conclude a truce with them, during which they should refrain from interferin g between me and the people, and if I have victory over those infidels, Quraish will have the option to embrace Islam as the other people do, if they wish; they will at least get strong enough to fight. But if they do not accept the truce, by Allah in Whose Hands my life is, I will fight with them defending my Cause ti ll I get killed, but (I am sure) Allah will definitely make His Cause victorious . The two parties decided to resolve the matter through diplomacy rather than warf are, and a treaty was drawn up. Treaty The outline of the treaty was as follows: In the name of almighty Allah. These are the conditions of Peace between Muh ammad, son of Abdullah and Suhayl ibn Amr the envoy of Mecca. There will be no f ighting for ten years. Anyone who wishes to join Muhammad and to enter into any agreement with him is free to do so. Anyone who wishes to join the Quraish and t o enter into any agreement with them is free to do so. A young man, or one whose father is alive, if he goes to Muhammad (saw) without permission from his fathe r or guardian, will be returned to his father or guardian. But if anyone goes to the Quraish, he will not be returned. This year the muslims will go back withou t entering Mecca. But next year Muhammed (saw) and his followers can enter Mecca , spend three days, perform the tawaaf. During these three days the Quraish will withdraw to the surrounding hills. When Muhammad (saw) and his followers enter into Mecca, they will be unarmed except for sheathed swords. Controversy The treaty was quite controversial for many reasons. Originally, the treaty refe rred to Muhammad as the Messenger of God, but this was unacceptable to the Qurai sh ambassador Suhayl ibn Amr. Muhammad compromised, and told his cousin Ali to s trike out the wording. Ali refused, after which Muhammad himself rubbed out the words. (Sahih al-Bukhari, 3:49:62, Sahih Muslim, 19:4404). Another point of contention, was that the Muslims objected over a clause of the treaty that said that any citizen from Mecca entering Medina was eligible to be returned to Mecca (if they wanted), while the reverse was not true, and any Musl im from Medina entering Mecca was not eligible to be returned to the Muslims, ev en if Muhammad himself requested. (Sahih al-Bukhari, 3:50:874) A condition was also placed that the Muslims could not enter for their pilgrimag e at that time, but could return the following year. The treaty also assured a 1 0-year peace. After the signing of the treaty, there was still great fury among the Muslims be cause they did not like its stipulations. Muhammad, binding onto the Islamic eth ic "fulfill every promise" ordered that Muslims do exactly as the treaty says. M

any Muslims thereafter objected, when Muhammad told them (thrice) to perform the ir rites there and then. (Sahih al-Bukhari, 3:50:891) Muhammad insisted that Muslims had been victorious and was supported in this by new revelation: "Verily we have granted thee a manifest victory" (Qur'an 48:1). He promised much spoils in the near future: "...and He sent down peace of reassu rance on them, and hath rewarded them with a near victory, and much booty that t hey will capture". (Qur'an 48:18-19) The treaty's stipulations on the movement of persons gave rise to later controve rsy, when the Quraysh woman Um Cultum went to Medina and joined the Muslims, and her brothers demanded her return from Muhammad, as they interpreted the treaty to mean. Muslim commentator Abdullah Yusuf Ali considers that the treaty had alr eady been violated, probably by an attack by the Quraysh-allied tribe of Banu Ba kr upon the Muslim tribe of Banu Khuza'a. Thus he believed that divine instructi on was needed on what was to be done with migrants from Mecca.[5] Other Muslim s ources state that the treaty's restrictions only applied to free men, and not to slaves or women.[6] Ultimately, Muhammad refused on the basis of revelation fro m God: "When there come to you believing women refugees, examine and test them.. . if ye ascertain they are believers, send them not to the unbelievers" (Qur'an 60:10). If the woman married a Muslim, the Muslims would pay the Meccan refugee' s ex-husband a sum equal to the dower he had paid upon marriage to her". (Qur'an 6:10) Aftermath In 629 AD, the Muslims returned as promised in the treaty, and made The first pi lgrimage. The next year, the clan of the Banu Bakr, allied with the Quraish, att acked the Bedouin Khuza'a, Muhammad's allies. Muhammed considered the Banu Bakr attack a breach of the treaty, citing one of the clauses of the treaty: "an atta ck on an ally of the party, will be considered an attack on the party itself", a nd offered the Quraish three alternatives: Dissolve their alliance with the Banu Bakr Compensate by paying money Dissolve the treaty The Quraish chose the third alternative, to dissolve the treaty, and Muhammad de cided to march on to Mecca with an army of 10,000, leading to the Conquest of Me cca. Hijra to Medina A delegation from Medina, consisting of the representatives of the twelve import ant clans of Medina, invited Muhammad as a neutral outsider to serve as the chie f arbitrator for the entire community. There was fighting in Yathrib (Medina) ma inly involving its Arab and Jewish inhabitants for around a hundred years before 620. The recurring slaughters and disagreements over the resulting claims, espe cially after the battle of Bu'ath in which all the clans were involved, made it obvious to them that the tribal conceptions of blood-feud and an eye for an eye were no longer workable unless there was one man with authority to adjudicate in disputed cases. The delegation from Medina pledged themselves and their fellowcitizens to accept Muhammad into their community and physically protect him as o ne of themselves. Muhammad instructed his followers to emigrate to Medina until virtually all of h is followers had left Mecca. Being alarmed at the departure of Muslims, accordin g to the tradition, the Meccans plotted to assassinate him. With the help of Ali , however, he fooled the Meccans who were watching him, and secretly slipped awa y from the town. By 622, Muhammad had emigrated to Medina, then known as Yathrib , a large agricultural oasis. Following the emigration, the Meccans seized the p roperties of the Muslim emigrants in Mecca.

Medina Charter Among the things Muhammad did in order to settle the longstanding grievances amo ng the tribes of Medina was drafting a document known as the Constitution of Med ina (date debated), "establishing a kind of alliance or federation" among the ei ght Medinan tribes and Muslim emigrants from Mecca, which specified the rights a nd duties of all citizens and the relationship of the different communities in M edina (including that of the Muslim community to other communities specifically the Jews and other "Peoples of the Book"). The community defined in the Constitu tion of Medina, umma, had a religious outlook but was also shaped by the practic al considerations and substantially preserved the legal forms of the old Arab tr ibes. Muhammad also adopted some features of the Jewish worship and customs such as fasting on the Yom Kippur day. According to Alford Welch, the Jewish practic e of having three daily prayer rituals appears to have been a factor in the intr oduction of the Islamic midday prayer (previously Muhammad was keeping the morni ng and evening prayers). Welch thinks that Muhammad's adoption of facing north t owards Jerusalem when performing the daily prayers (qibla) however need not to n ecessarily be a borrowing from the Jews as the reports about the direction of pr ayer before migration to Medina are contradictory and further this direction of prayer was also practiced among other groups in Arabia. The first group of pagan converts to Islam in Medina were the clans who had not produced great leaders for themselves but had suffered from warlike leaders from other clans. This was followed by the general acceptance of Islam by the pagan population of Medina, apart from some exceptions. This was, according to Ibn Ish aq, influenced by the conversion to Islam of Sa'd ibn Mua'dh, one of the promine nt leaders in Medina. Relationship with followers of Abrahamic religions In the course of Muhammad proselytizing in Mecca, he viewed Christians and Jews (both of whom he referred to as "People of the Book") as natural allies, part of the Abrahamic religions, sharing the core principles of his teachings, and anti cipated their acceptance and support. Muslims, like Jews, were at that time pray ing towards Jerusalem. In the Constitution of Medina, Muhammad demanded the Jews ' political loyalty in return for religious and cultural autonomy. The Jewish clans however kept aloof from Islam though in the course of time ther e were a few converts from them. After his migration to Medina, Muhammad's attit ude towards Christians and Jews changed. Norman Stillman states: During this fateful time, fraught with tension after the Hijra [migration to Medina], when Muhammad encountered contradiction, ridicule and rejection from t he Jewish scholars in Medina, he came to adopt a radically more negative view of the people of the Book who had received earlier scriptures. This attitude was a lready evolving in the third Meccan period as the Prophet became more aware of t he antipathy between Jews and Christians and the disagreements and strife amongs t members of the same religion. The Qur'an at this time states that it will "rel ate [correctly] to the Children of Israel most of that about which they differ" (XXVII, 76). Fiqh (Arabic: [fiqh]) is Islamic jurisprudence. Fiqh is an expansion of the code of conduct (Sharia) expounded in the Quran, often supplemented by tradition (Sun nah) and implemented by the rulings and interpretations of Islamic jurists. Fiqh deals with the observance of rituals, morals and social legislation in Isla m. There are four prominent schools (madh'hab) of fiqh within Sunni practice and two within Shi'a practice. A person trained in fiqh is known as a Faqih (plural Fuqaha). Islamic law (fiqh) covers two main areas:

rules in relation to actions, and, rules in relation to circumstances surrounding actions. Fiqh can also be grouped as: Worships (Ibadaat) Dealings & transactions (Mua'malaat) Rules in relation to actions ('amaliyya) comprise: Obligation (fardh) Recommendation (mustahabb) Permissibility (mubah) Disrecommendation (makrooh) Prohibition (haraam) Rules in relation to circumstances (wadia') comprise: Condition (shart) Cause (sabab) Preventor (mani) Permit/Enforced (rukhsah, azeemah) Valid/Corrupt/Invalid (sahih, faasid, batil) In time/Debt/Repeat (adaa, qadaa, i'ada) Fields of jurisprudence Islamic Islamic Islamic Islamic Islamic Islamic Islamic Islamic economical jurisprudence political jurisprudence marital jurisprudence criminal jurisprudence etiquettical jurisprudence theological jurisprudence hygienical jurisprudence military jurisprudence

Methodologies of jurisprudence usul al-fiqh The Modus operandi of the Muslim jurist is known as usul al-fiqh (principles of jurisprudence). There are different approaches to the methodology used in fiqh to derive sharia from the Islamic sources. The main methodologies are: The four classical Sunni schools are, in chronological order: the Hanafi sch ool, the Maliki school, the Shafi'i school and the Hanbali school. They represen t the generally accepted Sunni authority for Islamic jurisprudence. Jafari fiqh, or the Shi'a fiqh Other minor schools are the Zaidi, Zahiri, Sufian Al'thawree, Sufian bin O'yayna , Layth bin Sa'ad, Tabari and Qurtubi schools. The four schools of Sunnis The four schools (or Madh'hab) of Sunni Muslims are each named by students of th e classical jurist who taught them. The Sunni schools (and where they are common ly found) are Hanafi (The Levant, Iraq, Turkey, the Balkans, Central Asia, Indian subconti nent, Iran, Afghanistan, Jordan, China and Egypt)

Maliki (North Africa, the Muslim areas of West Africa, Kuwait, the United Ar ab Emirates and Bahrain) Shafi'i (Yemen, Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Southern Iran, Muslim Southeast Asia, Jordan, Egypt, Swahili Coast, Maldives and southern parts of Ind ia) Hanbali (Saudi Arabia and Qatar). These four schools share most of their rulings, but differ on the particular had iths they accept as authentic and the weight they give to analogy or reason (qiy as) in deciding difficulties. The Hanafi school was the earliest established under the jurist Imam Abu Hanifa, who was born and taught in Iraq. Imam Abu Hanifa (80A.H.150A.H.), whose real nam e was Nu'man ibn Thabit, was born in the city of Kufa (modern day Iraq) in the y ear 80 A.H (689 A.D). Born into a family of tradesmen, the Imam's family were of Persian origin. Under Imam Abu Hanifa, the witr prayer was considered to be com pulsory and the Hanafis also differed with other sects in relation to methods of taking ablution, prayers and payment of tithe or zakat. Imam Abu Hanifa also di ffered with the other three schools in many areas including the type of punishme nts meted out for various crimes in Islam. On the whole, the Hanafi school of ju risprudence could be said to have the most differences with other three schools. Students of Imam Malik established the Maliki school of which a majority now can be found in North Africa and some Persian gulf states . Imam Malik, whose real name was Abu Abdullah, Malik bin Anas, was born in Medina in the year 715 AD. Hi s ancestral home was in Yemen, but his grandfather settled in Medina after embra cing Islam. He received his education in Medina, which was the most important se at of Islamic learning, and where the immediate descendants of Muhammad's (SAW) followers lived. Imam Malik was attracted to the study of law, and devoted himse lf to the study of fiqh. His principal book, the Kitab al-Muwatta, is one of the earliest surviving books on hadith and fiqh. Differences under the Maliki schoo l included the fact that those following the Maliki school could state their pur pose (or niat) once only for compulsory fasting which is valid for the whole mon th of Ramadhan whilst for the Shafi'i.e. school, one would have to state his pur pose every day of the month of Ramadhan for his fast to be valid the next day. Ja'fari jurisprudence The Ja'fari school (Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Pakis tan, India and Saudi Arabia) is associated with Imam Jafar-as-Sadiq. The fatwas, or time and space bound rulings of early jurists, are taken rather more serious ly in this school, due to the more hierarchical structure of Shia Islam, which i s ruled by the Imams. But they are also more flexible, in that every jurist has considerable power to alter a decision according to his opinion. The Jafari school uses 'aql "intellect" instead of qiyas in the Sunni schools, w hen establishing Islamic laws. Ismaili Fatimid jurisprudence Daim al-Islam is a book on the rulings of Islam followed by Ismaili Muslims who adhere to the Shi'a Ismaili Fatimid fiqh. It describes manners and etiquette, in cluding Ibadat in the light of guidance provided by the Ismaili Imams. The book emphasizes what importance Islam has given to manners and etiquette along with t he worship of God, citing the traditions of the first four Imams of the Shi'a Is maili Fatimid school of thought. Arguments for and against reform Each school reflects a unique al-urf or culture (a cultural practice that was in fluenced by traditions), that the classical jurists themselves lived in, when ru lings were made. Some suggest that the discipline of isnad, which developed to v alidate hadith made it relatively easy to record and validate also the rulings o

f jurists. This, in turn, made them far easier to imitate (taqlid) than to chall enge in new contexts. The argument is, the schools have been more or less frozen for centuries, and reflect a culture that simply no longer exists. Traditional scholars hold that religion is there to regulate human behavior and nurture peop les moral side and since human nature has not fundamentally changed since the be ginning of Islam a call to modernize the religion is essentially one to relax al l laws and institutions. Early shariah had a much more flexible character, and some modern Muslim scholar s believe that it should be renewed, and that the classical jurists should lose special status. This would require formulating a new fiqh suitable for the moder n world, e.g. as proposed by advocates of the Islamization of knowledge, which w ould deal with the modern context. This modernization is opposed by most conserv ative ulema. Traditional scholars hold that the laws are contextual and consider circumstance such as time, place and culture, the principles they are based upo n are universal such as justice, equality and respect. Many Muslim scholars argu e that even though technology may have advanced, the fundamentals of human life have not and is in the scope of current laws. Early history The formative period of Islamic jurisprudence stretches back to the time of the early Muslim communities. In this period, jurists were more concerned with issue s of authority and teaching than with theory and methodology. Progress in theory and methodology happened with the coming of the early Muslim jurist Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafii (767820), who codified the basic principles of Islamic jurisprudence in his book ar-Rislah. The book details the four roots of law (Qur'an, Sunnah, ijma, and qiyas) while specifying that the primary Islam ic texts (the Qur'an and the hadith) be understood according to objective rules of interpretation derived from scientific study of the Arabic language. Secondary sources of law were developed and refined over the subsequent centurie s, consisting primarily of juristic preference (istihsan), laws of the previous prophets (shara man qablana), continuity (istihsab), extended analogy (maslaha m ursala), blocking the means (sadd al-dhari'ah), custome urf and saying of a comp anion (qawl al-sahabi). Articles of faith The core beliefs of Islam are that there is only one God unitary and beyond comp rehension and that Muhammad is the prophet of God, the last in a series of proph ets beginning with Adam. The Quran is upheld as the eternal, literal word of God, and revelations to earlier prophets, as seen in the Jewish Torah and Christian Gospels, are believed to have become distorted by human intervention. Muslims be lieve that the Quran was revealed to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel, and beli ef in angels as Gods servants is part of the Islamic tradition. Belief in the Day of Judgment, when all people will undergo bodily resurrection and be judged by God, is another core tenet. While Sunni and Shia Muslims adhere to these basic be liefs, Shia also believe in the Imamate, the line of infallible spiritual and pol itical leaders who succeeded Muhammad, beginning with his cousin and son-in-law, Ali. God Islam's most fundamental concept is a rigorous monotheism, called tawhd. God is d escribed in chapter 112 of the Qur'an as: "Say: He is God, the One and Only; God , the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him." (112:1-4) Muslims repudiate the Christian doctrine of the Trini ty and divinity of Jesus, comparing it to polytheism, but accept Jesus as a prop het. In Islam, God is beyond all comprehension and Muslims are not expected to v isualize God. God is described and referred to by certain names or attributes, t

he most common being Al-Rahmn, meaning "The Compassionate" and Al-Rahm, meaning "T he Merciful". Muslims believe that creation of everything in the universe is brought into bein g by Gods sheer command Be and so it is. and that the purpose of existence is to love and serve God. He is viewed as a personal God who responds whenever a person in need or distress calls Him. There are no intermediaries, such as clergy, to con tact God who states We are nearer to him than (his) jugular vein Allh is the term with no plural or gender used by Muslims and Arabic-speaking Chr istians and Jews meaning the one God, while ilh is the term used for a deity or a god in general. Other non-Arab Muslims might use different names as much as Alla h, for instance "Tanr" in Turkish or "Khod" in Persian. Angels Belief in angels is fundamental to the faith of Islam. The Arabic word for angel (Arabic: malak) means "messenger", like its counterparts in Hebrew (malakh) and Greek (angelos). According to the Qur'an, angels do not possess free will, and worship God in total obedience. Angels' duties include communicating revelations from God, glorifying God, recording every person's actions, and taking a person 's soul at the time of death. They are also thought to intercede on man's behalf . The Qur'an describes angels as "messengers with wingstwo, or three, or four (pa irs): He [God] adds to Creation as He pleases..." Revelations The Islamic holy books are the records which most Muslims believe were dictated by God to various prophets. Muslims believe that parts of the previously reveale d scriptures, the Tawrat (Torah) and the Injil (Gospels), had become distortedeit her in interpretation, in text, or both. The Qur'an (literally, Reading or Recitati on) is viewed by Muslims as the final revelation and literal Word of God and is w idely regarded as the finest piece of literature work in the Arabic language. Muslims believe that the verses of the Qur'an were revealed to Muhammad by God t hrough the archangel Gabriel (Jibrl) on many occasions between 610 CE until his d eath on June 8, 632 CE. While Muhammad was alive, all of these revelations were written down by his companions (sahabah), although the prime method of transmiss ion was orally through memorization. After the death of Muhammad, it was compile d in the time of Abu Bakr, the first caliph, and was standardized under the admi nistration of Uthman, the third caliph. The Qur'an is divided into 114 suras, or chapters, which combined, contain 6,236 yt, or verses. The chronologically earlier suras, revealed at Mecca, are primaril y concerned with ethical and spiritual topics. The later Medinan suras mostly di scuss social and moral issues relevant to the Muslim community. The Qur'an is mo re concerned with moral guidance than legal instruction, and is considered the " sourcebook of Islamic principles and values". Muslim jurists consult the hadith, or the written record of Prophet Muhammad's life, to both supplement the Qur'an and assist with its interpretation. The science of Qur'anic commentary and exeg esis is known as tafsir. When Muslims speak in the abstract about "the Qur'an", they usually mean the scr ipture as recited in Arabic rather than the printed work or any translation of i t. To Muslims, the Qur'an is perfect only as revealed in the original Arabic; tr anslations are necessarily deficient because of language differences, the fallib ility of translators, and the impossibility of preserving the original's inspire d style. Translations are therefore regarded only as commentaries on the Qur'an, or "interpretations of its meaning", not as the Qur'an itself. Prophets Hadith collections

Muslims identify the prophets of Islam (Arabic: nab ) as those humans chosen by G od to be his messengers. According to the Qur'an the descendants of Abraham and Imran were chosen by God to bring the "Will of God" to the peoples of the nation s. Muslims believe that prophets are human and not divine, though some are able to perform miracles to prove their claim. Islamic theology says that all of God' s messengers preached the message of Islamsubmission to the Will of God. The Qur' an mentions the names of numerous figures considered prophets in Islam, includin g Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus, among others. Muslims believe that God f inally sent Muhammad (Seal of the Prophets) to convey the divine message to the whole world (to sum up and to finalize the word of God). In Islam, the "normativ e" example of Muhammad's life is called the Sunnah (literally "trodden path"). T his example is preserved in traditions known as hadith ("reports"), which recoun t his words, his actions, and his personal characteristics. Hadith Qudsi is a su b-category of hadith, regarded as the words of God repeated by Muhammad differin g from the Quran in that they are "expressed in Muhammad's words", whereas the q uran are the "direct words of God". The classical Muslim jurist ash-Shafi'i (d. 820) emphasized the importance of the Sunnah in Islamic law, and Muslims are enc ouraged to emulate Muhammad's actions in their daily lives. The Sunnah is seen a s crucial to guiding interpretation of the Qur'an. Six of these collections, com piled in the 3rd century AH (9th century CE), came to be regarded as especially authoritative by the largest group in Islm, the Sunnites. Another large group, th e Shah, has its own adth contained in four canonical collections. Resurrection and judgment Belief in the "Day of Resurrection", Yawm al-Qiymah is also crucial for Muslims. They believe the time of Qiymah is preordained by God but unknown to man. The tri als and tribulations preceding and during the Qiymah are described in the Qur'an and the hadith, and also in the commentaries of scholars. The Qur'an emphasizes bodily resurrection, a break from the pre-Islamic Arabian understanding of death . On Yawm al-Qiymah, Muslims believe all mankind will be judged on their good and b ad deeds. The Qur'an lists several sins that can condemn a person to hell, such as disbelief (Arabic: Kufr), and dishonesty; however, the Qur'an makes it clear God will forgive the sins of those who repent if He so wills. Good deeds, such a s charity and prayer, will be rewarded with entry to heaven. Muslims view heaven as a place of joy and bliss, with Qur'anic references describing its features a nd the physical pleasures to come. Mystical traditions in Islam place these heav enly delights in the context of an ecstatic awareness of God. Yawm al-Qiymah is also identified in the Qur'an as Yawm ad-Dn, "Day of Religion"; as-sah, "the Last Hour"; and al-Qriah, "The Clatterer." Predestination In accordance with the Islamic belief in predestination, or divine preordainment (al-qad wa'l-qadar), God has full knowledge and control over all that occurs. Th is is explained in Qur'anic verses such as "Say: 'Nothing will happen to us exce pt what Allah has decreed for us: He is our protector'..." For Muslims, everythi ng in the world that occurs, good or evil, has been preordained and nothing can happen unless permitted by God. According to Muslim theologians, although events are pre-ordained, man possesses free will in that he has the faculty to choose between right and wrong, and is thus responsible for his actions. According to I slamic tradition, all that has been decreed by God is written in al-Lawh al-Mahfz , the "Preserved Tablet".