Straight jacket or freedom (Are the restraints chafing?)

[pilgrim]

I was trying to respond to another thread elsewhere on this forum that was questioning the the sunni/shia's love of hadith and the Qurannic injunction "obey the messenger" being their sanction for the validity of following hadith.

As someone who is very close to embracing Islam, I hope you all will not mind me putting my oar in so to speak, as the 2 responses I attempted to post on the earlier thread, both disapeared when i pressed submit. Anyway pressing on!

If the sunni/shia both see the hadith as a sort of appendix to the Quran, where did the Messenger recieve all the minutiea regarding muslim daily life, if not from Allah?
Did he gather it from previous messages from God?
Did he find it inferred in the religious behaviour of those who had recieved the previous messages?
If it was indeed revealed to him directly by God, why did God not consider it important enough to include the main body of his word the Quran?

Could it be that Muhammad was well aware of the neccessity of creating a more formal religious/ritual foundation on which to stabilize an increasingly problematic community. A community struggling to find unity in the face of tribal loyalties and mistrust.

Might there be something to say for the theory that the Quran which Allah sent to humanity through Muhammad was never meant to completely restrain humanity through dictatorial decree. What if God's Quran was deliberately vague in places in order to allow its guidance to be interpreted according to the mental, spiritual and societal advances throughout the ages?

It appears to me that Mohammad was a strong resourceful and intelligent man, truly one of a kind, an inspiration. But as regards the hadith, I see him being in very real touch with his times, interpreting the qurannic message in a way which was certainly correct for the community and times in which he was living.
I believe that if Mohammad had felt any different to this himself, he would have written his own appendicies to the Quran, but he knew there was no need, as the quran speaks clearly to each generation who like the Prophet, take the the time to pray, seek God,s guidance and interpret the Qurans message for their time.

As I have said previously, my islamic knowledge is very limited and if I have said any thing here which has offended anyone, I ask your apology as no offence was intended.

I am but a poor cabin boy aboard this great human ship of fools.

ICEBERG AHEAD CAPTAIN! shock

DAMN!!!!!!!!! roll