Islam’s scriptures were once oral but were set down in writing in time. The faith’s scriptural foundation is made up of two parts. Its core is the Qur’an, which Muslims believe to be the unchanging record of God’s revealed words, a small volume that can be gripped and memorized word for word. Around it are the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, amorphous and contested. A saying of the Prophet or a description of his actions is known as a Hadith, and it is primarily over the Hadiths and their contents that Islam’s sects and schools of thought have diverged.
