RELS 131 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Sunnah, Direct Revelation

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Religious Studies
• Course: RELS 131
• Professor: John H.Young

Document Summary

Divided into 114 surahs (chapters) and then sub-divided into ayahs (verses) In length it is about one-half the size of the tanakh or about the same size as the new. In 610 c. e. , the prophet muhammad encounters an angel, jibril (gabriel) who tells him to. He is given direct revelations from god, via the angel. These revelations continue until muhammad"s death in 632 c. e: muhammad cannot read and doubts that an angel could come to him. Eventually persuaded by family members that this angelic encounter indicates that he is a prophet, he opens himself to receive these revelations. He memorizes what the angel tells him and then shares that with his followers. In 622, muhammad leads his followers from mecca to medina; a pivotal point in islamic history. Revelations from 622 onward longer, more instructional or oriented to teaching his followers; since there is now a muslim community, these later revelations also deal with community questions and issues.