Hadiths are not all authentic
Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,
As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. (May Allah's
Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)
One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:
Dear Brother Burhan,
assalamualaikum,
In today's modern world where sex is
still a taboo in most of the societies of the world, do you really believe that
1400 years ago, a woman of a stature of "mother of all
believers" would talk about sexual matters with a man who is not
her husband?
Masruq ibn al-Ajda' asked 'Aishah,
"What is off limits to me sexually during my wife's
menstruation?" She said,
"Nothing, except the vagina."
Related by Bukhari.
Dear brother, as today, in some of the
"muslim" communities (I am one of them), the followers take the word
of their leader to be final and follow it blindly without using their
intelligence (I am not one of them), the same is the case with you as
far as accepting of hadiths is concerned.
Dear brother, just think, if the above
hadith attributed to Aishah is not true (though it may be right in
essence), and that this kind of conversation did not take place,
are you not incurring the wrath of Allah Subhanah?
You may plead in the court of Allah
Subhanah that you were only referring to a certain source, but than that is how
you were trying to make your point.
I know you will site many references
from Quran stating that "Allah says in Quran, you believe in the Book and
follow the messenger", true, but my dear brother the above hadith does not
refer to our beloved rasool (saw).
Even if it was referred to our beloved
rasool (saw) who would vouch for it?
Followers of Islam can only believe in
Sunnah of Rasool (saw) if he was alive, because if in doubt one can always confirm
it from rasoolallah (saw).
If Quran says follow the messenger, it
must surely mean that whenever the messenger delivered any verses/suras to the
gathering, Allah Subhanah wanted the believers to accept it, and also whatever
the messenger did or say in normal course of living day to
day life to seek the pleasure of Allah, the Almighty wanted the believers
to emulate him.
You will agree that all the hadiths are
hearsay, it may have iota of falsehood. When dealing with religious faith one
should not recourse to sources with fallible substance.
Allah says believe in Quran, it is the
final book, it has all the guidance that humanity will ever need, and
that He will preserve it infinitely.
So where is the need for hadiths, or
who has guaranteed its purity and security?
In one of your answers to a question
(387-2540: How to convince translations are correct?) you yourself have
put the following questions.
Is the Quran authentic and verbatim and preserved in the way it
was revealed to Prophet Mohamed (saws)?
Is there any book other than the Quran, which the Lord All
Mighty revealed for the guidance
of mankind?
If this is the only
Book of Guidance from our Lord and Creator, then are we
taking any guidance from it? How?
6:114. Say: "Shall I
seek for judge other than Allah? - when He it is Who hath sent unto you the
Book, explained
in detail." They know full well, to whom We have given
the Book, that it hath been sent down from thy Lord in truth. Never be then of
those who doubt.
Yusuf Ali's Quran Translation
6.114:
C943. The righteous man seeks no other standard of judgement but God's Will.
How can he, when god in His grace has explained His Will in the Quran, with
details which men of every capacity can understand? The humblest can learn
lessons of right conduct in daily life, and the most advanced can find the
highest wisdom in its spiritual teaching, enreched as it is
with all kinds of beautiful illustrations from nature and the story of man.
Yusuf Ali's Commentary from QuranTrans
Brother Burhan, please refrain from
citing the hadiths, it may just be, that what you believe from the hadiths to
be true may not be right.
If Quran is silent on certain subjects
which are not relevant as far as to the belief in Oneness of God or
the basic tenets of Islam, say so.
Quran also speaks about 'righteous
deeds' in many places, and if certain questions baffle us, it would
be more appropriate to implore God for guidance to the right path.
For if your intentions are good and you sincerely want to do the right thing,
God is most merciful and forgiving.
Dear brother I am not an alim, in fact
I am a no-body, do not even know Arabic-whatever I have quoted above is from
your site or other. My opinions may be wrong, for which I ask Allah
Subhanah's forgiveness.
May Allah Subhanah lead you, me and all
the believers to the right path.
Yours,
In search of truth,
Muslim
(There
may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum
does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from
our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)
Answer:
Hadiths
are not all authentic
In the
name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness.
Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray,
none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no
person, no grave, no prophet, no imam,
no dai, nobody!) worthy of
worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad(saws) is His
slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.
In the
name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness.
Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray,
none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no
person, no grave, no prophet, no imam,
no dai, nobody!) worthy of
worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad(saws) is His
slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.
Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 33 Surah Ahzab verse 21: There
is indeed the best example for you to follow,
in the Messenger of Allah, for every such person looks forward to Allah
and the Last Day, and remembers Allah much.
Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter
4 Surah Nisa verse 79-80: We have sent you (O Mohamed) as a Messenger to
mankind, and Allah’s witness suffices
for this. Whoever obeys the Messenger,
in fact obeys Allah, and whoever turns
away from him, he will be accountable for his deeds. Anyhow,
we have not sent you (O Mohamed) to be a guardian over them.
Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 3 Surah Ale Imran verse 31-32: O
Prophet, tell the people, “If you
sincerely love Allah, follow me. Then Allah will love you and forgive you
your sins, for He is All Forgiving, All Merciful.” Also say to them, “Obey Allah and His
Messenger.” And if, in spite of this, they do not accept your invitation, warn them that Allah does not love
those, who refuse to obey Him and His
Messenger.
It is
indeed unfortunate that some people have gone to the two extremes when dealing
with the ‘ahaadiths’ of the Messenger of Allah (saws). One extreme declares belief in each and every
hadith of the Prophet (saws), without confirming whether the hadith is
authentic or not! The other extreme
declares their complete opposition and rejection of any and all ahaadiths,
regardless of whether they are fabricated or not!
The true
muslims must take a balanced view or the ‘middle way’ when dealing with
anything. Just because someone calls a
statement or a deed a hadith, we are not to completely submit to it, nor
completely reject it; but the right and correct mode of conduct would be to do
a thorough investigation to determine whether the Messenger of Allah (saws)
indeed did do or say the thing claimed by the ‘raavi’ or narrator.
The great
and eminent scholars like Bukhari and Muslim have done an exhaustive research
and investigation in each of the hadiths to determine their authenticity, and
only when they were completely satisfied, they recorded these hadiths in their
‘Sahih’ or Book of Authentic Hadiths.
They investigated each aspect of the saying or deed whether it was in
conformity with the Quran or not, for it is inconceivable for a believer to
assume that the Messenger of Allah (saws) would have done or said anything
against the dictates of the Quran. Then
they thoroughly checked and investigated the chain of narrators to see whether
they were truthful people or not, or whether one who claimed to have heard it
from the other was alive at the same time or not, and if alive, did they ever
meet each other or not! If there was
even a slight doubt in any event or chain of events, these eminent scholars
refused to accept the hadith as authentic.
Even
after all their exhaustive efforts and thorough investigations, it is
impossible to claim, nor does anyone ever claim, that each and every hadith in
their collection of ‘sahih’ is absolutely authentic; for after all, this is a
work of man, and man is prone to shortcomings and error. For the believers, the only guaranteed
authentic Book of Guidance has to be the Glorious Quran, whose authenticity is
guaranteed until the end of time by none other than Allah Subhanah. For every aspect of guidance, ‘emaan, belief,
faith, ‘aqeedah’, ‘tawheed’, ‘shirk’, etc., one need not look beyond the Quran. The hadiths, once they have been declared
authentic by the scholars, will only be
used when one finds the Quran silent on a particular subject.
Whatever
the Prophet (saws) said, and whatever he
did are known as his Sunnah, which means
The Prophet’s (saws) way. Hadith is the
name given to the record of writing down
the Prophet’s (saws) Sunnah by somebody.
What
concerns us first and foremost is the guidance and the teachings in the Holy
Quran. There is absolutely no doubt in
the mind of any believer that these are the very words of Allah Subhanah. The Sunnah of the Prophet (saws) is the way
he followed the commandments of the Holy Quran in a practical way and showed
his companions and believers to act accordingly. To follow the way and example of the Prophet
(saws) is a commandment of the Holy Quran Chapter 33
Surah Al Ahzaab verse 21: There is indeed the best example or model for you (to
follow) in the Messenger of Allah, for
every such person who looks forward to Allah and the Last Day, and remembers Allah much.
For
example: The Quran says ‘establish
Prayer’, but does not give other details
of the number of rakah, etc. This the
Prophet (saws) showed us practically by praying
five times a day for a number of years in front of thousands of
believers. He prayed two rakahs for
fajr, three for ‘magrib’, and four for ‘zuhr’, ‘asr’ and ‘isha’. This is how the Prophet (saws) established
the Prayer commandment of the Holy Quran practically. And that is known as His Sunnah. Another example is that the Prophet (saws)
kept a beard, and instructed the
believers to grow a beard. Thus keeping
a beard is regarded as Prophet Mohamed (saws) Sunnah. In other words, Sunnah is the way of the
Prophet Mohamed (saws).
The
Sunnah is something that the believers followed immediately after the Prophet
(saws) did or said something himself. They did not wait for 120 years for the
hadith to be recorded and then started doing it, but rather as soon the Prophet (saws) did
it, they started following it as his way
or Sunnah. The Sunnah of the Prophet
(saws) was followed by the believers from the first day of the Prophet’s
mission.
The
Hadith is only a record of the acts or words of
the Prophet (saws), written down
by some muslims 120 years after the Prophet’s (saws) death, for
reference to future generations.
The reason we pray the five prayers or the 3 rakahs of magrib prayers
today, is not because they are recorded
in the hadiths of Bukhari or
Muslim, but because hundreds of thousands
of the believers saw the way or Sunnah of the Prophet (saws) and followed
it. And this Sunnah or way of the
Prophet (saws) was being followed by all the believers, who narrated to their
next generation, and they to the
next. The Sunnah was followed when the Prophet (saws) was alive, and will be followed, Insha Allah,
until the end of time.
The
original laws and commandments are all in the Holy Quran for the guidance of
mankind. The Sunnah or way of the
Prophet (saws) is exactly according to the teachings of the Holy Quran. And the Hadiths are just a record of these
ways written by man some 120 years after the death of the Prophet (saws) as
reference for future generations.
Because
the hadiths were recorded by man, they are prone to error. Not every hadith recorded is genuine. In fact a lot of them are fabrications and
may have been recorded by people with political or material bias.
Some
might say the Prophet (saws) said or did this act, which,
he (saws) might never have done or said! But a lot of the hadiths are genuine, and the Prophet (saws) did say and do these
things, and these are the ones we have
to follow. It is said that Bukhari
collected in excess of 300,000
hadiths, but only 7500 were considered
authentic by him and recorded in his volumes of Sahih Bukhari. So,
how can we gauge which hadiths are genuine and which ones are
fabrications?
There are
a few rules, if followed, one can easily realize if the hadith is
genuine or not.
If any
hadith is directly against any commandment or statement of the Holy Quran, it will be immediately rejected. Simply because, it is inconceivable that the Prophet (saws)
did or said anything against the Holy Quran.
His whole life was a practical example of following the Quran, and Allah
Himself certifies in the Holy Quran that the Prophet (saws) is a good example
to follow for anyone who believes in Allah and the Last Day.
If any
hadith is directly against any established
Sunnah of the Prophet (saws), it
will be rejected. For example, if one hadith says the Prophet (saws) prayed
four rakahs for ‘magrib’ prayers, it
will not be accepted.
If any
hadith goes against the foundation of
Islam, it will not be accepted. For example,
if one hadith says that the Prophet (saws) went to an idol or grave and
invoked it, it is against the basic
foundation of Tauheed or worship and invocation of one-God, and will thus be rejected. It would just be inconceivable for the
Prophet (saws) to do such an act!
If any
hadith is against basic common-sense, it
will not be accepted. For example if
one hadith says that a man talked to a tree and the tree started walking! These sort of things are absolutely against
basic common sense, and will be
rejected.
A lot of un-scrupulous
people wrote a lot of slander and false statements and said the Prophet (saws)
said or did this. These people might
have had any number of agendas, be it
political, or material, or otherwise. If one wrote that the Prophet (saws) said
this or that, it does not mean by any
means that the Prophet (saws) actually said or did those things. If the saying or act goes against any of the
four principles or laws laid above,
chances are that the hadith is a fabrication and should be
rejected.
Thus in
conclusion, the genuine hadiths are a
record of the Sunnah of the Prophet (saws),
and the false hadiths are the work of un-scrupulous people in pursuit of
their own agendas.
If one
trusts, obeys, and follows the guidance and commands of
Allah and His Messenger (saws), he can be assured of never ever being
misled; but if one believes, obeys and follows any other guidance, other than that of Allah and His Messenger
(saws), he can be assured of being led
astray.
Whatever
written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance,
and whatever of error is of me. Allah
Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.
Your Brother in Islam,
Burhan