We have seen in Chapter 1 where Islam comes from and how Muslims came to be in European prisons, and we have offered the reader a brief socio-demographic portrait of Muslims in prisons in England, Switzerland and France.

In this chapter, we will describe the basic sources, beliefs and practices of Islam to inform the prison professional and the general reader. We will explain how these basic elements of practice and belief inform and shape the lives of Muslim prisoners and also describe the experiences of those prisoners who are apathetic or non-committal about their faith.

The primary sources of Islam

There are two primary sources from which all Mainstream Islamic belief and practice are derived, both of which feature strongly in prison life:

• 1. The Qur’an (literally ‘The Recitation’);

• 2. The Sunna (the Customary or Everyday Behaviour of the Prophet Muhammad).

The Qur’an in prison

The Qur’an is believed by Muslims to be the inimitable word of God. Muslims believe that it was brought from God by the Angel Gabriel, in stages, to be delivered upon the tongue of the Prophet Muhammad over a period of 23 years from 610 CE to 632 CE.

Our Muslim prisoners understood that The Qur’an is a core primary source of their religion. The Qur’an formed a central feature in the religious Worldviews of the participants, as evidenced by the fact that The Qur’an was referenced by 86 of our 158 interviewees. We found that The Qur’an was seminal to the individual and institutional life of Muslims in prison, and participants engaged with The Qur’an for a variety of spiritual purposes.

THE QUR’AN (2:3) DESCRIBES ITSELF AS

‘guidance for those who are mindful of God’.

• ■ The Qur’an is made up of 114 chapters (surahs) and 6,236 verses (ayats).

• ■ Eighty-five chapters were mainly revealed while the Prophet Muhammad and the early Muslim community lived in Mecca from 610 to 622 CE.

• ■ Twenty-nine chapters were mainly revealed after the emigration (Hijra) of the Prophet Muhammad and the early Muslim community to Medina in 622– 632 CE.