This presented a quandary. The Qur’an had been preserved unaltered since the death of the Prophet, the foundation of Muslim faith and practice.* But this foundation did not provide all the answers to theological questions or the necessary details for basic rituals and laws. These could be found in plenty in the teachings attributed to Muhammad, but the Hadiths inundating the garrison cities of the Near East were very often totally made up, frequently deserving of suspicion and at best transmitted from the Prophet by a fraction of that great plurality of Muslims who memorized the Qur’an by
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