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Islamic Ideology ( 14 Jan 2015, NewAgeIslam.Com)

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Hadith Is Not a Divine Scripture of Islam – a la Qur’an

 

 

By Muhammad Yunus, New Age Islam

14 January, 2015

(Muhammad Yunus, co-author (Jointly with Ashfaque Ullah Syed), Essential Message of Islam, Amana Publications, USA, 2009)

This condensed article aims at corroborating the above claim made in Sultan Shahin Sahab’s article now under debate, ref:

Muslims Must Confront Islamist Terror Ideologically: An Islamic Reformation Required

Since the commentaries are not debating the issue as raised in the article in a focused way and instead going around it and debating an irresolvable issue, whether the Qur’an is created or uncreated, the need is felt for this focused article.

It consists of some simple questions and quotations from some of the most eminent scholars of Islam. The Ahadith quoted are all from the most reputed of Hadith compilations – that of Imam Bukhari.

Question 1. Will it be correct to claim the following today? 

        The sun goes down every day under the Throne (of God) and takes permission to rise again [Vol.4/ Acc.421].

        Fever is from the heat of hell [Vol.7/ Acc. 619, 620, 621, 622/Volume 7],

        Cupping operations or branding (cauterization) offer best for healing of wounds [Vol.7/ Acc. 584, 585 and 587, 605],

        One should run away from the leper as one runs away from the lion. [Vol.7/ Acc.608/],

        No contagious disease is conveyed to others without Allah's permission

        The majority of the dwellers of hell-fire will be women [Acc.28, 301/Vol.1, Acc. 541/Vol.2].

        A woman (`that is sterile or discontented or impudent') can be a bad omen [Vo.7/ Acc.649, 666.]

Q.2 Can anyone claim infallibility of the following Ahadith which are self-contradictory

        Hajj is redemption of all past sins [Vol.2, Acc. 596]. The reward for hajj is commensurate to the hardship undertaken for it [Vol.3, Acc. 15].

        The dog is a clean animal as dogs used to roam about the Prophet’s mosque and even urinate there [Vol.1, Acc. 174]. The dog is an unclean animal, and so if a dog eats from a container, it is to be washed seven times to purify it before human use [Vol.1, Acc. 173].

        The dog is a blessed creature as a man was promised Paradise by God because he brought water from a well to quench the thirst of a dog [Vol.1, Acc. 174]. The dog is an accursed creature as its sale is forbidden [Vol.3, Acc. 439, 440].

        The Prophet forbade the killing of women and children [Vol.4, Acc. 257, 258]. The Prophet tacitly approved the killing of pagans at night when women were also exposed (and could be killed during attack) [Vol.4, Acc. 256].

3. Can anyone claim eternal validity of the following Ahadith that were specific to the era?

Muslims must not carry the Qur’an to a hostile land [Vol.4, Acc. 233],

They must not keep agricultural implements at homes [Vol.3, Acc. 514], take the price of a dog [Vol.3, Acc. 439, 440], or sell fruits until they are ripe and red [Vol.1, Acc. 565]

4. Can anyone claim that the Hadith that project the Prophet as a sadist and sexually obsesses person as quoted in my last article [2] divinely revealed? 

The answer to the above four simple questions is “No”

5. Did the Prophet show any of the various miracles as great many Ahadith claim? 

The answer in ‘No’ because the Qur’an which is the infallible word of God repeatedly refutes such notion (6:37, 11:12, 13:7, 17:90-93, 21:5, 25:7/8, 29:50), though it claims its own miraculous character [1].

Now let us quote some of the most eminent scholars of Islam including the compilers of the Hadith:

1.       Imam al-Bukhari: “Why do people impose conditions which are not in Allah’s book (Kitab il Lah)? Whoever imposes such conditions as are not in Allah’s Laws (Kitab il Lah), then that condition is invalid even if he imposes one hundred such conditions, for Allah’s conditions (as stated in the Qur’an) are truth and more valid.”[Acc. 364, 735/Vol.3].

2.       Imam Muslim: "If we discuss about all those accounts which are held authentic (Sahih) before the learned, and suspect by a critical scholar (who demands a proof of personal meeting between the narrators and transmitters of Hadith in each generation), - we would simply be tired (because they are so large in number)." …‘This argument is novel in its approach, and it is wrong that early scholars did not believe in this. Neither is its denial by those who came later, any ground for its repudiation... and God is there to help repudiate what is wrong in the religion of the learned and I trust in Him” – Imam Muslim [Concluding pages of Muqaddimah of his compilation]

3.       Shibli Noumani: “Caliph Umar is reported to have remarked: Fanan Shaqaluhum Jar’rethul Qur’ana (Do not mix things with the Qur’an), and Wa Qil’lur Rawa’ayata Un Rasul’illahe” (Quote sparingly from the Prophet). [Shibli Noumani, al Faruq, 1898, Karachi reprint 1991]

4.       Yusuf Guraya records, on the strength of al-Tabari:4  

“The seven jurists of Madinah were primarily Fuqaha as their epithet suggests, and it was only secondarily that they related to Ahadith. They were Sa'id b. al-Musayyib (d. 93 A.H.)... These were the people who laid down the foundations of Madinese Fiqh. They were not strictly traditionalist, and the majority of them preoccupied themselves with juridical opinions and Fiqh, rather than Hadith.” [Yusuf Guraya, Origins of Islamic Jurisprudence, Delhi 1992, p. 29/30]

Conclusion: The above illustrations are more than enough to establish that the Hadith could not be divinely revealed – parallel or complementary or even remotely synergetic to the Qur’an as the article claims. Any further elaboration, which can no doubt be added, will, however, be like killing the scarecrow and tax the readers. Indeed we need the Hadith to know the ways the Prophet performed the Islamic rituals like prayer, fasting and hajj but we cannot consider it divine or even indirect revelation (Wah’i) because then we will make a gross error by elevating what is fallible and historically derived, era specific to the level of divinity – an open shirk.

The evolution of Hadith sciences is a highly technical subject and those interest may read the following articles posted on this website sometimes back:

Related Articles:

Evolution of Hadith Sciences and Need for Major Paradigm Shift in Role of Hadith Corpus and Scope of Madrasa Education

https://newageislam.com/islamic-sharia-laws/evolution-hadith-sciences-need-major/d/6581

Defending the Hadith and Its Compilers – The Great Imams Who Are Sometimes Misunderstood and Even Reviled

https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-sharia-laws/defending-hadith-its-compilers-d/8011

Muslims Must Confront Islamist Terror Ideologically: An Islamic Reformation Required

https://www.newageislam.com/islamterrorism-jihad/muslims-confront-islamist-terror-ideologically/d/100918

Notes

1.       The Qur’an challenges its audience successively “to produce a discourse (hadith) like this, if they are truthful” (52:34); “to forging ten or producing a single chapter like it (11:13, 2:23)” and warned them that they can never do it (2:24). It further claims that it is of such a literary grandeur that only God Almighty could be its Author (10:37).

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Muhammad Yunus, a Chemical Engineering graduate from Indian Institute of Technology, and a retired corporate executive has been engaged in an in-depth study of the Qur’an since early 90’s, focusing on its core message. He has co-authored the referred exegetic work, which received the approval of al-Azhar al-Sharif, Cairo in 2002, and following restructuring and refinement was endorsed and authenticated by Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl of UCLA, and published by Amana Publications, Maryland, USA, 2009.


URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-ideology/hadith-divine-scripture-quran/d/100996

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