Assalamu alaykum,
Really when I read such threads it makes me so sad. It's like Subhan'Allah what is the state of our Ummah! It makes me think how can one be Muslim without Hadith? As it is an impossibilty to take one and leave the other!
Originally I was going to dissect this with each issue, but due to time I can not do that. So my only desire here is to convey what is correct, and I hope that those who read will bear in mind with an open mind.
Bismillah....
First thing we must realize is that the Prophet
never spoke of his own desires. Just as the Qur'aan was wahey from Allah, so were the Hadith a type of inspiration except that they were from the wording of the Prophet
, but in all affairs he was guided by Allah.
In the Qur'aan after "Allah the Most High informed us about the Messenger of Allah
, after swearing by the setting of the stars and the revelation of the Qur'aan and the manner of its revelation, that he
does not speak of his own desire, saying:
وَمَا يَنطِقُ عَنِ ٱلۡهَوَىٰٓ
"Nor does he speak of (his own) desire." (surah najm: 3)
- Thus declaring him innocent of following whims"
[taken from
Virtues of the Prophet Revealed in the Qur'an]
Therefore, that first barrier is down that he
would say anything not in accordance to the Qur'aan because Allah Himself has garunteed it!
Secondly, it does not come to me how people can claim the Qur'aan is correct if they deny ahadith. They came from the same same mouth, were narrated by the same companions, and were both verified to many degrees. If there does occur a mistake then it has been proven, and the scholars have gone to many lengths in this. And futhermore, to question, if they believe that the Qur'aan is the word of Allah - it came from the Prophet
... but Allah chose the Prophet as a person who was so ignorant of Islaam that he would say something contradictory?! Astagfirullah - what kind of Messenger would that be?
In common place, think would you send a physics book to a first grader and tell them - tell this to the people! No? Why? Because the child is ignorant of the topic, so how would they convey it? They dont understand it, they dont understand the implications, they dont understand what energy, force, mass etc mean, much rather tell people how they work even when conveying. This is clear ignorance to do such a thing. A person would give the book to convey to someone who understood it and could give it correctly.
And if this is a humane trait then what of the Most High? What of Allah subhanawa 'tala, do we expect He would do any less and send a messenger ignorant of his message? Who could not guide the people by a practical example?
What is Sunnah?
The dictionary meaning can mean "way" or "path" whether good or bad, and in Islaamic Law, Sunnah means "The way of Allah's Messenger
"
If you look under this you'll see that the Messenger of Allah
said,
"Whoever turns away from my Sunnah does not belong to me" [Bukhari]
If we do not belong to the Prophet sallahu 'alayhi wa sallam and what he brought, what do we belong to?
Ibn Abbass radiallahu anhu was in a funeral prayer and he recited the opening of the Qur'aan in the prayer and said, "I have recited this chapter for you to know this was the Sunnah" [Bukhari]
This shows us that the Sahabah knew the importance of the Hadith/Sunnah as well, and of course they would, if they had not then large large chunks of the religion would be missing. Not everything is completely defined in the Qur'aan, and we need the Hadith to understand them.
Say where do you learn to perform the prayer as you should? The Qur'aan says to establish the prayer and is undetailed as to how. Without a Messenger how would you do this? How would you derive Fiqh rulings as how the Sunnah of fajr can be prayed after the fard... or would one not perform Sunnah at all and lose much of that reward?
And the Qur'aan even mandates the following of Sunnah! So not following it is not following the Qur'aan in reality.
From the book Ittebaa' as-Sunnah (I really should post this here it seems, subhan'Allah)
Chapter 3
Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ
in the Light of the Holy Qur'an
Precept 8: Obedience of the commands of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is obligatory in the matter of Deen
O you who have believed! Obey Allah and His Messenger and do not turn from him while you hear [his order] [8: 20]
And establish prayer and give zakah and obey the Messenger that you may receive mercy. [24: 56]
He who obeys the Messenger has obeyed Allah; but those who turn away-We have not sent you over them as a guardian. [4:80]
And We did not send any messenger except to be obeyed by permission of Allah. [4:64]
Obey Allah and the Messenger that you may obtain mercy. [3:132]
O you, who have believed, obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you. And if you disagree over anything, refer it to Allah and the Messenger, if you should believe in Allah and the
Last Day. That is the best [way] and the best in result. [4:59]
But no, by your Lord, they can have no (real) faith, until they make you [O Muhammad], judge in all disputes between them, and find in their souls no resistance against your decisions, but accept them with
the fullest conviction [4: 65]
O you who have believed, obey Allah and obey the Messenger and do not invalidate your deeds. [47:33]
…and whatsoever the messenger gives you, take it, and whatsoever he forbids you, abstain (from it), and fear Allâh. Verily, Allâh is severe in punishment.[59: 7]
Precept 9: Obedience of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and following him ensures success
And whosoever obeys Allâh and his Messenger (ﷺ), fears Allâh, and keeps his duty (to him), such are the successful ones. [24: 52]
The only statement of the [true] believers when they are called to Allah and His Messenger to judge between them is that they say, “We hear and we obey.” And those arethe Successful. [24: 51]
And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly attained a great attainment. [33:71]
Those who obey Allah and His Messenger will be admitted to Gardens with rivers flowing beneath, to abide therein (for ever) and that will be the Supreme achievement.[4:13]
Precept 10: Deeds performed according to the commands of Allah and His messenger ﷺ will receive full reward.
…..And if you obey Allah and His Messenger, He will not belittle aught of your deeds: for Allah is Oft- forgiving, Most Merciful." [49:14]
Precept 11: Forgiveness of sins is conditional to obedience of the Messenger of Allah and following him
Say, [O Muhammad], “If you love Allah, then follow me, [so] Allah will love you and forgive you your sins. And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.” [3:31]
Precept 12: Obedience of Allah and His messenger will elevate one to share the ranks of those whom Allah (s.w.t.) favoured.
And whoever obeys Allah and the Messenger-those will be with the ones upon whom Allah has bestowed favor, of the Prophets, the steadfast affirmers of truth, the martyrs and the righteous. And excellent are those as companions. [4:69]
Precept 13: Active disobedience of Allah & His Messenger invalidates the verbal claim of Imaan.
But they [i.e. the hypocrites] say, “We have believed in Allah and in the Messenger, and we obey; then a party of them turns away after that. And those are not believers. And when they are called to [the words of ] Allah and His Messenger to judge between them, at once a party of them turns aside [in refusal] [24:47-48]
And when it is said to them, “Come to what Allah has revealed and to the Messenger,” you see the hypocrites turning away from you in aversion. [4:61]
Say, “Obey Allah and the Messenger.” But if they turn away - then indeed, Allah does not like the disbelievers. [3:32]
Precept 14: The results of not obeying Allah (s.w.t.) and His Messenger are confusion, disputes and enmity
And obey Allah and His Messenger, and do not dispute and [thus] lose courage and [then] your strength would depart; and be patient. Indeed, Allah is with the patient. [8:46]
Precept 15: When Allah and His Messenger have decided a matter, the believers have no other choice but to obey
Precept 16: Disobedience of Allah (s.w.t.) and His Messenger means going astray
“It is not for a believing man or a believing woman, when Allah and His Messenger have decided a matter, that they should [thereafter] have any choice about their affair. And whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly strayed into clear error” [33:36]
Precept 17: The Messenger’s duty was only to proclaim/ convey the message clearly and openly
And Obey Allah, and obey the Messenger, and beware (of evil): And if you do turn back, know you that it is Our Messenger’s duty to proclaim (the message) In the clearest manner. [5:92]
And obey Allah, and obey the Messenger. but if you turn away, the duty of Our Messenger is only to convey the message) clearly. [64:12]
Say, “Obey Allah and obey the Messenger; but if you turn away-then upon him is only that [duty] with which he is charged and upon you is that with which you have been charged. And if you obey him, you will be [rightly] guided. And there is not upon the Messenger except to convey the message in a clear way [24: 54]
Precept 18: Obedience of Allah [S.W.T] and His Messenger leads to Jannah, while the disobedience of Allah and His Messenger leads to a disgraceful punishment.
…And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger-He will admit him to gardens beneath which rivers flow;but whoever turns away-He will punish him with a painful punishment.[48:17]
Precept 19: Avoidance of the commands of Allah and His Messenger under some pretext is liable to grievous penalty.
“Do not make [your] calling of the Messenger among yourselves as the call of one of you to another. Already Allah knows those of you who slip away, concealed by others. So let those beware who dissent from his [i.e the Prophet’s] order, lest fitnah strike them or a painful punishment.”[24:63]
_______________________________
We see in each of these ayat how the Prophet sallahu 'alayhi wa sallam is so closely linked with Allah! In the verses "Obey Allah and Obey the Prophet" ... why so much importance? Why so much emphasis? Because without the Sunnah one could not impliment Islaam as it was meant to, without the Prophet
guidance, and his ahadeeth, we could not be Muslims today. A person doesnt learn how to drive just from reading a manual, a person cant be a cook by just reading a cookbook, so why do we assume that Allah would just send down a book and not give a guide? A practical example?
Why do we disregard all these ayat in which it's clear that we are ordered to obey? We are ordered to cling to the Qur'aan and Sunnah, this is our salvation, this is how we can gain paradise, as the Prophet
said, "Whoever obeyed me [shall] enter Paradise and whoever disobeyed me has surely denied me" [Bukhari]
One may say that there is enough Qur'aan to last forever - but how will you understand the Qur'aan? You know, the Qur'aan is only in Arabic, translations are just translations, so will we go to the scholars? And no righteous scholar will judge the Qur'aan except by hadith, because otherwise it is a sheer impossibility. The Messenger of Allah
said, "Honesty decended down from the Heavens and entered the hearts of people (it is the nature of iman), and the Qur'an has also been revealed from the Heavens and the people have read it and understood it by means of teh Sunnah." [bukhari]
And this is evident in many places, as the famous example goes when the ayah in the Qur'aan came that those who believe and dont mix thier beliefs with thulm/injustice (Surah al-an'am : 82) and the Muslims were distressed and went to the Messenger of Allah
and asked him "Oh Messenger of Allah
, who is there among us who has not commited any sin?" which then lead to him
clarifying that it was referred to here as not sin, but Shirk. [Tirmidhi (not exact words)]
This also occured with fiqh rulings in which the Qur'aan said one thing and the ahadeeth specified it.
.... and also .... Where is the love then my brothers and sisters in Islaam? Do we know how much the Messenger of Allah sallahu 'alayhi wa sallam went through to bring us this Qur'aan which we take so easily? Do we realize the hardships he went through, do we LOVE him as we should! Wake up if you dont realize! Read a Seerah book! The Qur'aan which we have in front of us, didnt just come down in book form, it took 23 years in which the Prophet sallahu 'alayhi wa sallam was given it, during which he guided the people, aided the nation, recitified it's ills, gave knowledge to the ignorant, strength to the weak, equality to the races, a strong love that was undefeatable, and an Ummah one was proud of.
Where is that Ummah today? Today we seem so ignorant of our own issues, especially such as these which are the most dear and important. Where can we find characters like Abdullah ibn Umar Radiallahu 'anhu who followed the Prophet
so much, in religious aspects and simply out of his love?
We complain that our Ummah is weak, and it will continue to be as long as we dont strive to promote the Sunnah, when we dont feel bad when it is being put down, when we dont try to teach the correct and spread it.
The Sunnah is not just stories, the Sunnah is guidance. If one falls pray to the false accusations of the disbelievers, then I encourage one to read more on our prophet
to learn more of his life, and what his sunnah really is in a vibrant form, then such things should be dispelled insha'Allah. Because the enemies of Islaam will always say things, as when the Makkans said that the Qur'aan was just mixed up dreams, imaginations of the Messenger of Allah
, while another group said that he fabricated it, then yet another said he was a poet. These onslaughts will always be there, and our purpose is to look beyond that.
And also, logic... THAT has been the cause of countless deviations within the religion. People may think that we know much, but in reality we do not. The message was sent to the Messenger, whom Allah says in the Qur'aan that He picked; this messenger knew the way of the Qur'aan best, and compared to that, our logic is nothing. The Companions of the Prophet used to obey without even understanding the action, because they knew that the Messenger could not bring evil, as it would contradict the Qur'aan and they loved to follow him.
And I think logic is silly, and it leads oneself to think that one knows best, therefore obviously their logic would be most sound! Which is inncorrect in due fact. If one were to say things on Logic, one might have to deny much of Faith - because there's not much logic to a LOT of things!
And religion is not meant to be hard? Meaning a believer has ease in ALL he does?
Then why does Allah tell the believers to pray at night? This for sure is not ease...
"Perform the prayer from mid-day till the darkness of the night (i.e. the Zuhr, 'Asr, Maghrib, and 'Isha' prayers), and recite the Quran in the early dawn (i.e. the morning prayer). Verily, the recitation of the Quran in the early dawn is ever witnessed (attended by the angels in charge of humankind of the day and the night). And in some parts of the night (also) offer the prayer with it (i.e. recite the Quran in the prayer), as an additional (night) prayer for you (O Muhammad). It may be that your Lord will raise you to a station of praise and glory (in Paradise!)." [17:78-79]
Why does He say He will test the believers if religion is so easy?
"Do people think that they will be left alone because they say: "We believe," and will not be tested." [29:2]
Why will we lose things?
"And certainly, We shall test you with something of fear, hunger, loss of wealth, lives and fruits, but give glad tidings to As-Sabirin (the patient ones, etc.)." [2:155]
IF somethings aren't hard, if somethings dont require Jihaad on our part, then what is the point of having a belief and a conviction in our religion? Sacrifice is needed, hardships are expected. Think on the story of the
Prohet of Allah - Ayyub alayhis salaam - if we humans are not meant for hardship, why would have Allah put him through so much?
The religion is not hard for those who beleive true, but that does not mean it is also lax in its requirements. Islaam is a way of life.
And as for the comment of not trusting the men who observed the Qur'aan, and there being no mention to trust in them...
"O you who believe! Avoid much suspicions, indeed some suspicions are sins.'' (49:12)
Yet are we not told to avoid suspicions? And beware, those you suspect are the companions of the Prophet, and dishonoring them is against the religion.
Also the same men who observed the Sunnah, were also the ones who observed the Qur'aan, so what gives leverage? Blind faith may be wrong (in anyone but the Prophet
) ... but so is ignoring knowledge when it's there in front of you and you yourself dont know it!
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I spent a lot of time on this, time I really did need for other things, but alhamdulilah ala kulli haal, I felt i had to write, even though Allah knows best how much it made sense.
for reading, May Allah forgive us for all our mistakes and place the Qur'aan and Sunnah foremost in our hearts!
Please read:
Following/Believing the Hadith
Links from there:
Summary and Refutation of Hadith Rejectors claims
What Are the Quran And Sunnah? Why Do Muslims Have To Follow This?
Important: The Science of Hadith, What Are Hadith?
Former threads:
Question regarding Hadith
Following Hadith question
wasalam
We're one family after all.
