If you are new, begin with these.
A short orientation to the methodology — and five articles that explain, between them, almost everything else on the site.
Before you read anything else.
This site uses a few words in their Qur'anic sense rather than their popular sense. If you remember nothing else from this page, please remember the four below — they will save you a great deal of confusion.
Qur'an-only.
It does not mean rejecting the Prophet — it means honoring him exactly as Allah honored him: as the Messenger of the revelation. To follow him is to follow what was revealed to him.
Sunnat Allah.
The unchanging Way of Allah — the moral and historical pattern Allah Himself names five times in the Qur'an. Distinct from the post-Qur'anic constructions sometimes attributed to the Prophet.
Tadabbur.
Slow, attentive, reflective reading. The verb the Qur'an itself uses for how it should be approached. The opposite of recitation without comprehension.
Hadith (in the Qur'an's own usage).
Throughout the Qur'an, the word hadith means "speech" or "narration" — and most often refers to the Qur'an itself. The later technical meaning is a separate matter we treat carefully.
The five we suggest first.
i. The Six Attributes of the Qur'an. Before any verse-by-verse reading, the Qur'an names six things about itself: Word of God, free of contradiction, clear, straight, complete, fully detailed. Every reading on the site rests on these. Read the article →
ii. Sunnat Allah — The Unchanging Way. The Qur'an mentions Sunnat Allah eight times in five verses. It mentions "Sunnat al-Nabi" zero times. Reading what is in the Book — and noticing what is not — opens the methodology. Read the article →
iii. Reclaiming Salah — Connection, Not Choreography. The verses on prayer ask us to establish something, not to perform it. What is being established? This article walks through every Qur'anic occurrence of the word. Read the article →
iv. The Myth of Intercession. "To Allah belongs all intercession." (39:44) A clear statement of the Qur'an, quietly displaced in popular practice. This article restores it to the center. Read the article →
v. Muslim, Mu'min, Muttaqin. How a word becomes clear when traced through every place it occurs — three Qur'anic words that are not three synonyms. Read the article →
After these five, the rest of the site will read very differently. Many topics that seem complicated when approached through inherited tradition become simpler — or in some cases, harder in ways that matter — when read directly through the verses.