• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

A question for Qur'an only Muslims

Peace be upon everyone :) I have a question that could be quite controversial so I apologise in advance

I was wondering what the position of Qur'an only Muslims is to mutawatir hadith that are classed by others as very authetnic. Could they be used to supplement the Qur'an or even be held as something that was probably said/done by Muhammad, albeit not verbatim and subject to human error?

Forgive my ignorance and I suspect there is a spectrum within this sect of Islam regarding the authenticity of hadith although not viewed as revelation
 

paarsurrey

Veteran Member
Peace be upon everyone :) I have a question that could be quite controversial so I apologise in advance
I was wondering what the position of Qur'an only Muslims is to mutawatir hadith that are classed by others as very authetnic. Could they be used to supplement the Qur'an or even be held as something that was probably said/done by Muhammad, albeit not verbatim and subject to human error?
Forgive my ignorance and I suspect there is a spectrum within this sect of Islam regarding the authenticity of hadith although not viewed as revelation
I am an Ahmadi peaceful Muslim.

The Muslims have three sources for establishing themselves on Islamic guidance.
First, the Holy Quran which is the Book of God than which we have no more conclusive and certain statement. It is the Word of God and is free from all doubt and speculation.

Secondly, the practice of the Holy Prophet, which is called Sunnah. We do not regard hadeeth and sunnah as one. They are distinct, hadeeth is one thing and sunnah is another. By sunnah we mean the practice of the Holy Prophet, to which he adhered and which appeared along with the Holy Quran and will accompany it. In other words, the Holy Quran is the Word of God Almighty and the sunnah is the action of the Holy Prophet, peace be on him.

It has ever been the way of God that the Prophets bring the Word of God for the guidance of people and illustrate it in practice with their conduct so that no doubt should remain in the minds of people with regard to the Divine Word. They act upon it and urge others to do the same.

The third source of guidance is hadeeth, by which we mean those traditions which were compiled from the statements of diverse narrators a century and a half after the Holy Prophet. The distinction between sunnah and hadeeth is that sunnah is a continuous practice which was started by the Holy Prophet. It is only next to the Holy Quran in its certainty.

As the Holy Prophet was commissioned for the propagation of the Quran, he was also commissioned for establishing the sunnah. As the Holy Quran is certain so is the continuous sunnah. Both these tasks were performed by the Holy Prophet as his duty. For instance, when the Prayer services were made obligatory, the Holy Prophet illustrated by his action how many rakaas were to be performed in each Prayer service. In the same way, he illustrated the performance of the pilgrimage. He thus established thousands of his companions on his practice.

The practical illustration which has been continuous among the Muslims is the sunnah. On the other hand, the Holy Prophet did not have the hadeeth recorded in his presence nor did he make any arrangement for its compilation. Hazrat Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, had collected some ahadeeth and then had them burnt out of greater caution as he himself had not heard them from the Holy Prophet and did not know their reality.

When the time of the companions of the Holy Prophet had passed some of their successors thought of compiling the ahadeeth and they were compiled. There is no doubt that most of the compilers of hadeeth were very pious and righteous. They tested the accuracy of ahadeeth as far as it was possible and tried to steer clear of such of them as in their opinion were manufactured, and they rejected every hadeeth any narrator of which was of doubtful veracity. As all this activity was ex post factum, it was no more than conjecture; yet it would be most unfair to say that all ahadeeth are vain and useless and false. So much care was taken in compiling the ahadeeth, and such research and criticism were employed in the task, that they cannot be matched in any other religion.

The Jews also had compilations of hadeeth and Jesus was opposed by that sect of the Jews who followed the ahadeeth, but it is not proved that the Jewish compilers of hadeeth had exercised that care in compiling their collections as the Muslim compilers of hadeeth did.

Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to imagine that till the ahadeeth were compiled, the Muslims were unaware of the details of Prayer services or did not know the proper way of performing the pilgrimage. The practical illustrations of the sunnah had taught them all the limits and obligations laid down by Islam. It is true, therefore, that even if the ahadeeth, which were collected after a long time, had not been compiled this would not have affected the real teaching of Islam for the Holy Quran and practice had fulfilled this need.

The ahadeeth only added to that light and Islam became light upon light and the ahadeeth became testimonies for the Quran and sunnah. Of the many sects that subsequently appeared in Islam, the true one derived great benefit from the true ahadeeth. The correct way, therefore, is neither to treat the ahadeeth as having greater authority than the Quran, as do the Ahl-i-hadeeth of this age, and not to prefer the statements in the ahadeeth which are contradictory of the Quran to the Quran itself; nor to regard the ahadeeth as vain and false as is the belief of Maulvi Abdullah Chakralvi.

The Quran and sunnah should judge the ahadeeth and those that are not opposed to them should by all means be accepted. This is the straight path and blessed are those who follow it. Most unfortunate and foolish is the person who rejects the ahadeeth altogether without regard to the test that we have proposed. It should be the duty of the members of our community that a hadeeth which is not opposed to the Quran and sunnah, should be accepted and followed, however weak might be its authority, and it should be preferred to the rules framed by jurists Review on the Debate Between Batalwi and Chakrhalvi ((Qadian, 1902) Now printed in Ruhani Khazain, Vol.19 page 3-5).

http://www.alislam.org/books/essence/chap3/chap3.html

Does it help?
Regards
 
It was a very helpful overview of how Ahmadi Muslims view hadith, thank you :)

So briefly your opinion is that it is foolish to reject completely, all hadith? (Completley meaning they are unreliable and therefore can't be said to be a saying or action of Muhammad, nor can they supplement the Qur'an).
And this is what Qur'an only Muslims believe?
 

OurCreed

There is no God but Allah
Salam

I will present to you my understanding. I consider myself a Qur'an-only Muslim, but I see that there are a lot of misconceptions.

Firstly, the Qur'an is the only source for religious law in Islam. All the practices, teachings, and beliefs, all come from the Qur'an. I am going to have to disagree with my Ahmadi brother here that the prophet Muhammad was supposed to establish his sunnah. As a matter of fact, sunnah (which means methodologies), has been given to us in the Qur'an itself. If the sunnah was something outside of the Qur'an which was supposed to be established, then we are faced with two problems. Firstly, there is no preservation of this sunnah, we have Muslims all over the world who are practicing differently, praying differently, and they all claim this was the sunnah of the prophet. So we have no objective basis to understand what the correct sunnah is. Second problem is that there is no evidence from the Qur'an to suggest the prophet Muhammad was supposed to give us anything other than the Qur'an.

The Qur'an makes it clear that the ONLY duty of the messenger was to deliver the message to us clearly, and this message was the Qur'an.

All of the practices, beliefs, and teachings are laid out in the Qur'an and are easy to understand.

Second, regarding ahadith. The Qur'an rejects ahadith to be used as a source of law, or to be mixed in with the religion. Here are 12 evidences from the Qur'an proving why ahadith cannot be followed in relation with religion: http://www.quran-islam.org/articles/a_dozen_reasons_(P1153).html

Everything you need to be a true Muslim and a true believer is in the Qur'an. God has not left anything outside of the book for our necessary guidance. Many Muslims around the world believe the Qur'an contains only the details of our religion, the headlines, or the basics, and the ahadith/sunnah go more in depth. Such a view is completely wrong and goes against what the Qur'an teaches.

Using ahadith however for other purposes, like history or anything else, is not prohibited. Just note that not all Qur'anists hold this view, many reject ahadith altogether. I believe that ahadith can be used for secular reasons.

Wasalam
Peace.
 

W3bcrowf3r

Active Member
Peace be upon everyone :) I have a question that could be quite controversial so I apologise in advance

I was wondering what the position of Qur'an only Muslims is to mutawatir hadith that are classed by others as very authetnic. Could they be used to supplement the Qur'an or even be held as something that was probably said/done by Muhammad, albeit not verbatim and subject to human error?

Forgive my ignorance and I suspect there is a spectrum within this sect of Islam regarding the authenticity of hadith although not viewed as revelation

The most authentic ahadith book is the one of Bukhari and its full with fabrication.

Stop following the forefathers. Start following God alone.
 
Top