Sacred texts

The Primary Collection — the divine words uttered by the first five Gurus, together with some writings of Hindu bhagats and Muslim Pirs.

Guru Gobind Singh added the divine words uttered by Guru Tegh Bahadur, then installed the resulting book as his successor, ending the line of human Gurus.

The divinely revealed words of God, uttered by the ten human Gurus who were chosen by God for that purpose.

Because the authority lay in the words rather than in the men who spoke them — so the book that holds the words holds the authority.

"Life evidences" — four books of stories about the life of Guru Nanak. Revered and widely told, but not part of the Guru Granth Sahib.

The Collection of the Tenth Guru, associated with Guru Gobind Singh. Some compositions are used in daily prayer and in the amrit ceremony, and its authorship and standing are debated among Sikhs.

The Guru Granth Sahib is always read from the Gurmukhi text in the gurdwara, and translations are available in several languages — sometimes a translation is read after the Gurmukhi passage.

Because Sikhism is not exclusivist: it holds that God may be found in other faiths, and the Adi Granth includes Hindu bhagats and Muslim Pirs.

A random opening of the Guru Granth Sahib to obtain God's guidance — one of the ways Guru Gobind Singh told Sikhs to consult it.

Muslims hold the Qur'an to be the literal speech of God in Arabic, so a translation is only a translation. Sikh practice reads from Gurmukhi in the gurdwara and also translates the passage.