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| God and the Islamic Scripture |
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| God: There is only one God and can only be one God. God is called "Allah" which means "The one who is God" God is all powerful God created all things God is merciful and compassionate God has always existed and will always exist, and is not affected by time God is present with Muslims all the time Muhammad (pbuh) is the messenger of God God has 99 names The Qur'an The Qur'an is the actual word of God, and contains the fundamental beliefs of Islam. According to tradition, the Qur'an was dictated to Muhammad (pbuh). Because of its divine origin, the Qur'an has not been altered in any way since it was first compiled. Copies of the Qur'an are always treated with the greatest respect. The only authoritative text of the Qur'an is the original Arabic. Muslims regard "translations" of the Qur'an into other languages as paraphrases or versions of the original. The Qur'an consists of 114 chapters (called "surahs"), which have names as well as numbers. The Qur'an is best heard, rather than read silently off the page. There are a number of sites on the web where you can hear the Qur'an being chanted. These are listed below: Islam.com and Al-Islam Other key literature: The Hadiths are stories of the words and actions of Muhammad (pbuh) and his Companions. These stories provide a living commentary on the meaning and application of the Qur'an, and Muslims will refer to them if the Qur'an doesn't seem to provide an answer to a question they may have. |