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