Religion: Sacred Texts

This chapter explains the origin, format, purpose and presentation of the scriptures of Islam. The Qur'an is the Holy Book of Islam.

Sharia is the religious law of Islam. As Islam makes no distinction between religion and life, Islamic law covers not only ritual but many aspects of life.

Muslim code of practice; a body of traditional law based on the sayings, actions, and guidance of the prophet Muhammad, as detailed in the Hadith and the Sirah (a biography of the prophet's life).

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
A tradition or the collection of the traditions of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, including his sayings and deeds, and his tacit approval of what was said or done in his presence.

[Gr.,=the books], term used since the 4th cent. to denote the Christian Scriptures.

Two letters of the New Testament written to the church at Corinth by Paul, whose stay in Corinth is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles.

Ancient leather and papyrus scrolls first discovered in 1947 in caves on the NW shore of the Dead Sea. Most of the documents were written or copied between the 1st cent. b.c. and the first half of the 1st cent. a.d.

In the New Testament generally, the message of Christian salvation; in particular the four written accounts of the life of Jesus in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Christian name for the Hebrew Bible, which serves as the first division of the Christian Bible (see New Testament).

The second part of the Bible , recognized by the Christian church from the 4th century as sacred doctrine.

The most ancient extant version of the whole Christian Bible. Its name derives from a 13th-century reference to it as the "editio vulgata."

In Christianity, the union of three persons – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit/Holy Ghost – in one Godhead.

Christian name for the Hebrew Bible, which serves as the first division of the Christian Bible (see New Testament).

In Judaism, the first five books of the Tenakh, or Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament).

In Judaism, codified collection of Oral Law—legal interpretations of portions of the biblical books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy and other legal material.

The Talmud is a vast compilation of the Oral Law with rabbinical elucidations, elaborations, and commentaries, in contradistinction to the Scriptures or Written Laws, and is the accepted authority for Orthodox Jews everywhere.

Hebrew was the language of the Jewish people in biblical times, and most of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew.

Conforming to religious law with regard to the preparation and consumption of food; in Judaism, conforming to the food laws (kashrut) of the Torah (as laid down in Deuteronomy and Leviticus) and the Mishnah.

[Skt.,=song of the Lord], Sanskrit poem incorporated into the Mahabharata, one of the greatest religious classics of Hinduism.

Classical Sanskrit epic of India, probably composed between 200 B.C. and A.D. 200.

classical Sanskrit epic of India: "The Story of Rama"

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
The oldest scriptures of Hinduism and the most ancient religious texts in an Indo-European language.

In The Columbia Encyclopedia
The sacred literature of Buddhism. The texts in the Pali canon are the earliest Buddhist sources, and for Theravada Buddhists, who claim to conserve the original teachings of the Buddha, they are still the most authoritative sacred texts.

In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism
In Sanskrit, “great vehicle”; a term, originally of self-appellation, which is used historically to refer to a movement that began some four centuries after the Buddha’s death, marked by the composition of texts that purported to be his words.

In Milestone Documents of World Religions
Bardo Thodol (“Liberation through Hearing”), often known in the West as the Tibetan Book of the Dead, is a funerary text, a guide for the dead and dying, and a source of inspiration and support to many interested people around the world.