Islamic Justice: girl lashed for being raped; rapist pardoned

[Commoner]

yep thats right, so i can follow one or two or a few Hadith because i agree with the content and i dont have to be a muslim.

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not, but I didn't really say that.

My point is that calling it "following a hadith" is incorrect, since it implies that you agree with the content of it on the authority of a prophet. (similarly as "following a commandment" would imply you accept it for what it is - a commandment from god).

I agree that one should not murder, for example, but I do not follow any commandment stating I should not kill. It's not a commandment to me. And it's not a Hadith to a non-Muslim, i.e. to someone who does not take it on the authority of the prophet.

 

[kai]

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not, but I didn't really say that.
No I said it
My point is that calling it "following a hadith" is incorrect, since it implies that you agree with the content of it on the authority of a prophet. (similarly as "following a commandment" would imply you accept it for what it is - a commandment from god).

I agree that one should not murder, for example, but I do not follow any commandment stating I should not kill. It's not a commandment to me. And it's not a Hadith to a non-Muslim, i.e. to someone who does not take it on the authority of the prophet.

you could just use the word Hadith for reference purposes and not even recognise anything divine in it at all. you could say i follow the principle of "turning the other cheek" and even reference it to Christianity but you still dont have to be a christian unless you want to be. its all in the individuals perspective isnt it? i think you can take what you want from scripture and do with it as you please ,dont most people do that anyway?

 

[Commoner]

you could just use the word Hadith for reference purposes and not even recognise anything divine in it at all. you could say i follow the principle of "turning the other cheek" and even reference it to Christianity but you still dont have to be a christian unless you want to be. its all in the individuals perspective isnt it? i think you can take what you want from scripture and do with it as you please ,dont most people do that anyway?

But what would be the meaning of such a reference? It's not like there is a "hadith no.5" which has a widely known message. The things they have in common, the things that make them the hadith, are the things you could not agree with.

I don't care what someone wants to call themselves, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have consequences. I can call myself an atheist and still believe in god, it's just that calling myself "atheist" has not added any value, it's not correct and it's pretty dishonest.

I fell the same way about the hadith. Unless you clarify what you mean, describing yourself as "following a hadith" as opposed to simply explaining your belief/principle/whatever is confusing and redundant. Would you describe yourself as following commandments from the Bible? I certainly wouldn't - not only do I not think they are commandments, I also disagree with quite a few.

I get your point about picking and choosing and of course that's natural and completely rational. But that's also exactly the reason why I would object to the phrase "following the...". There is a difference between a Christian picking and choosing from the Bible and me picking and choosing from the Bible. The difference is the reason, the basis upon which we are doing so. I pick and choose the ones I agree with and mark the other ones as immoral/inappropriate. An honest, liberal Christian will pick and choose on the basis of which he thinks are from god. The Christian follows the commandments, but I don't. I follow the underlying principles. We do it from different reasons and with different justifications. It's about as important as the difference between killing and murdering is. The conclusion might be the same, but the "premise" is completely different and so it's not irrelevant which description you use for it. That's my objection to it.