Sacred Citation & SourceAllah says: "O you who believe, obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you. If you dispute over anything, refer it to Allah and the Messenger" (4:59). The first source is the Qur'an. The second is the Sunnah, which explains, details and sometimes adds rulings: "We sent down the Reminder to you so that you may make clear to people what was sent down to them" (16:44). And: "Whatever the Messenger gives you, take it, and whatever he forbids you, leave it" (59:7). For example, the Qur'an commands prayer and zakat in general terms, and the Sunnah shows how the prayer is performed and how zakat is calculated. Scholars also look at how certain a text is, in its transmission and in its meaning: the Qur'an is transmitted with certainty, while for hadiths they study the chain of narrators and the text to judge authenticity.