From the written word to action

This lesson asks you to explain how sacred writings and teachings shape a tradition's practice, to identify a key precept, and to describe what it shares with other traditions. The museum offers one month tied to the Qur'an and one precept from the hadith; your class adds the sacred stories and precepts of the other traditions. ¹

For each practice, ask which text the source points to, and whether the source says that the text commands it, names it, or is read during it. Keep to the wording of the source, and mark what you infer.

The Kuwaiti encyclopaedia of jurisprudence says that Ramadan is distinguished by the revelation of the Qur'an in it, by the obligation of its fast, agreed by the community, by the excellence of charity in it, by the night of power, and by the recommended taraweeh and i'tikaf in its last ten nights ^{2 3 4}. It adds that studying and reciting the Qur'an are especially recommended in it, and that the jurists differ on whether earning a living or devoting oneself to worship is better in it ^{4 5}. For the last ten nights it says the jurists agree it is recommended to redouble effort in them, in night prayer, alms, and reciting and studying the Quran, and that i'tikaf is emphatically recommended in them ⁶. So one source ties the month to the book in two ways: what was revealed in it, and what is recited and studied in it.

The jurists first. The Encyclopaedia of Islam gives a résumé of the law of fasting, sawm, in the Shafi'i school. It says the Qur'anic ordinances on the fast are the basis of the detailed regulation by the jurists, and that further details were taken from Tradition ⁷. Then al-Ghazali, as the article reports him: he distinguishes three steps in the fast. The first is that of the jurists; the second, which suffices for the pious, consists in keeping the senses and limbs free from sin; the third is that of the prophets, the truthful and those brought near to God. He says the subjection of the passions, not mere abstention, is the real object of the fast ⁸. The article judges that this ethical conception supplements the law of the jurists ⁸. The museum decides nothing between them.

The Kuwaiti encyclopaedia is a jurists' encyclopaedia: it names what distinguishes the month and gives rulings with their holders. The record of Ramadan says only that the jurists differ on earning a living or devoting oneself to worship; it does not give each side's view. The Encyclopaedia of Islam is a modern academic encyclopaedia, and its article on fasting follows the Mukhtasar of Abu Shuja al-Isfahani of the fifth Islamic century ⁷. The record of Muslim 45 says only that it is a report of Anas ibn Malik (may God be pleased with him) in the Book of Faith of Sahih Muslim, in a chapter on the evidence that among the qualities of faith is that one loves for his Muslim brother the good he loves for himself ⁹. It gives neither the report's wording nor a commentary. The lesson pairs the two records; no source does.

The sources link practice to text in different ways: a text recited during the month, a text said to be the basis of the jurists' rules, and a chapter heading that names a quality. Take one example from this lesson and say which link its source shows: that the text commands, names, or is read during the act. What would you need to see in the source to be sure?

• Ramadan: what the Kuwaiti encyclopaedia says distinguishes the month.
• Fasting in Ramadan: the Shafi'i law of fasting, and al-Ghazali's three steps.
• Muslim 45: the report as the museum records it, with its book and chapter.

Read Ramadan and Muslim 45. Write one sentence for each saying how a text is linked to something people do or hold, and one question for a classmate who studies another tradition.