World History - AP

Mr. Baierlein World History – AP (WHAP)

Sources of Islamic Law

Voice of Allah, Voice of Law

Instructions: As you read through primary sources on pages 444-453, consider and answer the following questions.

The Quran

1. How does the Quran’s understanding of Allah resemble Jewish and Christian ideas about God, and how
does it differ?

2. What specific prescriptions for social life do these selections contain? Notice in particular those directed
toward the weakest members of society. How would you describe the Quran’s view of an ideal society?

3. What attitudes toward non-Muslims do these passages suggest?

4. What circumstances surrounding the birth of Islam might help to explain the references to fighting and
warfare?

5. The sacred texts of all religious traditions provide ample room for conflicting understandings and
interpretations. What debates or controversies might arise from these passages?

The Hadith

1. What portrait of Muhammad emerges from the record of his sayings and actions?

2. How do these Hadiths reflect or build on the teachings of the Quran in Document 9.1?
 3. What religious and social values do these hadiths highlight?

4. In what ways do these hadiths reflect common themes in many of the world’s “wisdom traditions,” and in
what respects are they distinctly Islamic?

The Sharia

1. What do you find most striking about the legal prescriptions of these passages?

2. In what way do these selections draw on and apply the teachings of the Quran and the hadiths?

3. How does the role of law in early Islamic civilization differ from that of modern Western society?

4. Why do you think the role of law was so central, so highly detailed, and so comprehensive in Islamic
civilization?

5. What do this document and Document 9.2 suggest about the problems that the early Islamic community
confronted?