This Religion Is a Science The chapter begins with the question, “Is the Quran created by God, or is it uncreated and coeternal with God” (Reza 142). The Caliph, al-Mu’tasim, at the time listened to the Ulama as they were dragged in shackles. If they said the Quran was created they were free to go but if they said the Quran was uncreated they where beaten and thrown in prison. The Caliph at the time was just upholding his brother’s techniques, but when al-Mu’tasim’s son takes over, he changes what his father had in place because he believed the Caliph shouldn’t have total power over religion. Islam is both orthopraxy and orthodoxy, but it is more orthopraxy. Orthopraxy and orthodoxy are bound together meaning that questions of theology …show more content…
The words of the Quran are said to possess a spiritual power known as Baraka. Baraka can be experienced in a number of ways, but is most commonly experienced through Calligraphy. Calligraphy is an art form, which shows a visual representation of the Quran. People of Islam originally tried to memorize the Quran but instead of memorizing it, the technique of Tajwid was created. Tajwid was a set of rules that told people how to go about reading the Quran. The Quran has 114 chapters, known as surahs, and each surah contains a different number of verses known as ayahs. The Quran is arranged from shortest to longest surah with the exception of the first chapter. The Quran can be interpreted two ways by Muslims. Tafsir is the literal meaning of the Quran and ta’wil is the hidden meaning or interpreted. The Quran is God’s indirect self-revelation to humanity. The Quran contains the moral framework for living a holy life as a Muslim. The Quran isn’t a legal code though, so scholars look at extra-quranic sources, like ijma (consensus), qiyas (analysis), istislah (the common good of people), and ijtihad (independent juristic reasoning). The Sunna is made up of many stories, known as Hadith, the recount Muhammad’s words and works. The Sunna is basically of book of laws from which Muslims follow. There’s more to this chapter than what I mentioned but what I did write about is what I believe to be the most