Imams should have extensive knowledge about the religion and often give guidance to those with questions. Not all problems in life have solutions in the Qu’ran therefore the Imam is a person you should go to for solutions and he can put the Qu’ranic teaching in context to give a solution to the problems.
An Imam in the most important sense should hold the role of a role model for his community. He is often a person who people look up to and is thought an orthodox Muslim following the righteous path in life. He is a practice of his religious faith with an active social and political role in community.
One of the most important sources of authority in a religion is the Holy Scriptures. In Islam the holy scriptures are the Qu‘ran. It was the direct revelation to the Prophet Muhammad by which it sets certain rules and condemnation for a Muslim to follow throughout their life to make certain they go to heaven. For Muslims, the Qu’ran is the word of God and there is no other interpretation of it. All Muslims are essentially fundamental in their attitude to their scriptures therefore the authority of the Qu’ran is quite high.
People believe the book has been authored by a supreme, Allah, who is omniscient of everything and he has made people to live on this earth. People are full of emotions and their heart can be a mixture of good or bad therefore the Qu’ran is the only thing you should follow in order you can get closer to Allah. This essentially what gives the Qur’an’s authority strength?
However, it can be weakened by the nature of the book. Some of it’s ‘rules’ maybe considered as wrong in today’s society- e.g.- all people should be Muslims. The Qu’ran as it seems may be metaphorical at time and some extreme Muslims have taken the Qu’ran literally. Therefore the role of authority may be more passive and this authority is claimed by the Imam who in today’s society can lead the community into not only interpreting the Qu’ran into being a good Muslim but also at the same time being a good an lawful citizen.
The Qu’ran strengthening authority figure has also come from the suggestion that everything you need in life is in the Qu’ran. The rules of life and religion are in that book and even though the society is changing in order to become an orthodox Muslim and to lead the righteous path in life you need to follow them.
Society is changing by the minute and as the generations of Muslims go by the authority of Qu’ran is getting weaker as the wide spread change occurs. The change is not spread just through western countries but worldwide and the use of technology and availability of it everywhere makes people more susceptible to the change e.g.-
Binge drinking, online dating, sex before marriage, clubbing, smoking, abortions and much more. All of these trends are condemned in the Qu’ran and the Imam are the people now who have to deal with change and try to interpret this book which is outdated for today’s culture and use it to try and bring the Muslim community together. Therefore the Imam has the authority over the religion instead of an emotionless book.
The instructive rules the Qu’ran for condemned acts are quite harsh in today’s reality. The punishment for a person who commits adultery is to be stoned to death by people who take this upon themselves. It will be committing murder, another condemned act, but it considered a favour to the guilty party to receive their punishment now rather than in the next life. People now take themselves like Imams to dismiss this punishment in today’s society not only because it isn’t considered not a crime of the law but cruel. There is an often child concerned in this situation it may be that the person has children or is having a child and it will have a knock-on affect on the children. Therefore the authority of the Qu’ran is weakened because the ruling in the book is dismissive in a lot of cases as the are too extreme.
Overall the authority of the Qur’an’s is questioned by a single question ‘Is everything in the revelation from the Prophet Muhammad therefore in the Qu’ran true?’ It is a necessity to ask that question in the case of authority as if it wasn’t true the Qu’ran would be completely dismissive and have no authority at all in Islam today. However the Muslim’s believe that the omniscient God has authored this book and therefore the authority the Qu’ran has over Islam is substantial.
In conclusion, I believe that the Qu’ran has the most important authority over Islam. I have concluded to this because the Qu’ran is the basic principles and teachings that the Imam uses to create their own authority. Therefore, the Imam’s authority is not submissive but the Qur’an’s authority is considerable more important.
