Here is an article by Khalid Baig on Hadith Rejection:
A Look at Hadith Rejectors’ Claims
by Khalid Baig
Taken from his book, “First Things First“
“Anyone who disobey Allah and His Messenger has wandered off into manifest error.” Suratul Ahzaab 33:36
“He who disobeys Allah and His Messenger has already acheived a splendid triumph.” Suratul Ahzaab 33:71
For the past fourteen centuries Quran and Sunnah have been the twin undisputed sources of Guidance for Muslims. In every generation, Muslims devoted the best of their minds and talents to their study. They learnt both the words and meanings of the Quran through the Prophet s.a.s and made an unprecedented effort in preserving them for the next generation. The result: the development of the marvellous – and unparalleled – science of Hadith, one of the brightest aspects of Muslim history.
What does it mean to believe in a Prophet except to pledge to follow him? And so the teachings of the Prophet s.a.s have always guided this Ummah. Nobody, in his right mind, could or did question this practice. Then something happened. During the colonial period, when most of the Muslim world came under the subjugation of the West, some “scholars” arose in places like Egypt (Taha Hussein), India (Abdullah Chakralwi and Ghulam Ahmed Pervaiz) and Turkey (Zia Gokalp), who began questioning the authenticity and relevance of Hadith. It was not that some genius had found flaws in the Hadith study that had eluded the entire Ummah for thirteen centuries. It was simply that the pressures from the dominant Western civilization to conform were to strong for them to withstand. They buckled. Prophetic teachings and life examples – Hadith – was the obstacle in this process and so it became the target.
Another factor helped them. Today most Muslims, including the vast majority of the Western educated Muslims, have meager knowledge of Hadith, having spent no time in studying even the fundamentals of this vast subject. How many know the difference between sahih and hassan, or between maudu and daif? The certification process used in hadith transmission? Names of any hadith book produced in the first century Hijrah, or the number of such books? A majority would probably not be able to name even the six principle Hadith books (Sihah Sittah) or know anything about the history of their compilation. Obviously such atmosphere provides a fertile ground for sowing suspicions and doubts.
They sometimes call themselves Ahle Quran or Quranists. This is misleading. For their distinction is not in affirming the Quran, but in rejecting the Hadith. The ideas of munkareen-e-hadith evolve into three mutually contradictory strains. The first holds that the job of the Prophet s.a.s was only to deliver the Quran. We are to follow only the Quran and nothing else, as were the companions. Further, Hadith is not needed to understand the Quran, which is sufficient for providing guidance. The second group holds that the Companions were required to follow the Prophet s.a.s but we are not. The third holds that, in theory, we also have to follow Hadith but we did not receive Hadith through authentic sources and therefore we have to reject all Hadith collections!
Internal contrdictions are a hallmark of fals ideologies.
How can anyone hold the first position yet profess belief in the Quran while it says:
“And We have sent down unto You the Message so that you may explain clearly to mankind what was sent down to them, and so that they may give thought.” Suratan Nahl 16:44
And this:
“Allah did confer a great favour on the Believers when He sent among them a Messenger from among themselves, who rehearses unto them the Signs of Allah, purifies them, instructs them in Scripture, and teaches them Wisdom, whereas previously they had been in plain error.” Surah Al-e-Imran 3:164
How can anyone hold the second position (limiting the Prophethood to 23 years) yet profess belief in the Quran, while it says:
“We did not send you except as Mercy for everybody in the universe.” Suratul Anbiya 21:107
And,
“And We have not sent you (O Mohammad) except as a giver of glad tidings and a warner to all mankind.” Suratus Saba 34:28
The third position seems to have avoided obvious pitfalls, yet in reality it is no different. It agrees that we need Hadith, but then goes on to claim that Allah did not provide what we need for our guidance.
The following are some of the statements normally made by Hadith rejectors.
The Reliability of Sources
“We accept Allah’s Word that He has protected the Quran from corruption, but why should we accept the words of the Hadith collectors? Are they as infallible as Allah s.w.t?”
This makes you wonder whether the Hadith rejectors realize how we received the Quran. For we have received both the Quran and the Hadith through exactly the same channels. The same people transmitted this as the Word of Allah s.w.t and that as the word of the Prophet s.a.s. Even the verse claiming that the Quran will be protected came to us through the same people. Through what logic can anyone declare that the channels are reliable for the Quran and unreliable for Hadith? On the contrary the Quranic promise of protection must apply to Hadith as well for there is no point in protecting the words but not the meanings of the Quran.
Were Ahadith Written Down For The First Time In The Third Century Of The Hijra?
The very existence of a huge library of Hadith, the only one of its kind among the religous of the world, assures us that our expectation that Hadith – the embodiment of Prophetic explanation of the Quran – must have been protectedis not in vain. To dismiss all that as later day fabrication requires lots of guts – and equal parts ignorance.
Were ahadith written down for the first time in the third century of Hijra? Not at all. Actually hadith recording and collection started at the time of the Prophet s.a.s.
Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al ‘As r.a sought and was given the permission to write everything he heard from the Prophet s.a.s:
Sayyidina Abdullah ibn Amr s.a.s reports: “I used to write everything I heard from the Messenger s.a.s as I wanted to preserve it. The Quraish forbade me, saying: ‘Do you write everything that you hear [from him] and the Messenger is a human being who sometimes speaks in anger and joy?’ [i.e. he may say something under the influence of emotions that may not be worth writing.] So I stopped. Then I mentioned this to the Messenger s.a.s. He pointed with his fingers to his mouth and said: “Write! By the One in Whose Hands is my life! Nothing proceeds from here except the truth.” – Abu Dawood, 3161
He produced Sahifa Sadiqa, which contained more than six thousand ahadith. Anas ibn Malik r.a, who pent ten years in Prophet’s household, not only recorded the ahadith but also presented them to the Prophet s.a.s and got corrections. Abu Hurairah r.a. had many volumes of his collections and even produced smaller compilations for his students. Prominent Hadith scholar Dr. Mustafa Azami has shown in his doctoral thesis that in the first century of Hijra many hundred booklets of hadith were in circulation. By the end of the second century, “by the most conservative estimates there were many thousands.”
Off course most of these books do not exist today. They were simply absorbed into the encyclopaedic collections that emerged in the third century. One manuscript from the first century was discovered in this century and published by Dr. Hamidullah. It is Sahifa Hammam ibn Munabbah, who was a disciple of Abu Hurairah r.a. It contains 138 ahadith. Muhaditheen knew that the ahadith of this Sahifa had been absorbed into Musnad Ahmed and Muslim collections., which have been published continuousaly since their third century debut. After the discovery of the original manuscript it was naturally compared with the ahadith in Muslim and Musnad Ahmed that were thought to have come from that Sahifa. And what did they find? There was not an iota of difference between the two. Similarly Mussanaf of Abd Al Razzaq is extant and has been published. As has been Mu’ammar ibn Rashid’s al-Jami. The recent appearance of these original manuscripts should bring the most skeptical into the fold of believers.
Salat And Hadith Rejectors
“The Messenger s.a.s may have elaborated on items like mode of salat. Such hadith is probably from the Messenger s.a.s and should be obeyed. But we cannot believe the rest of the ahadith.”
The Hadith rejecters have a partcularly difficult time explaining how to offer salat if we are to throw away the Hadith.. So they offer concessions like the one quoted above. But we don’t need a favor for Hadith about salat (coming from the same books and the same narrators who are declared as unreliable). We need an answer to this question.: If the Quran is the only authentic source of Guidance, why did it never explain how to offer salat, although it repeatdly talks about its importance, associating it with eternal success and failure? What would we think of a communication that repeatedly emphasizes a certain act but never explains how to perform it? There are only two possibilities. Either it is a terrible omission (and in that case it cannot be from God) or another source for the how-to information is provided and it is a terrible mistake for any recipient to ignore that.
Some Hadith rejectors have realized the difficulty of their position on Salat. But they have made a claim that is even more ludicrous, namely that the Quran gives details on how to offer salat. “A Careful reading of the Quran reveals that we are to get our salat from the Masjid al Haram [the continuous practice at Makkah since the time of Abraham],” says one proponent, “specifically the place of Abraham (Muqam-e-Ibrahim).” Let us leave aside all those practical questions about such a fluid answer. Whose salat? When? Are we to follow anyone and everyone we find praying at Maqam-e-Ibrahim. How are those offering salat there to determine the proper way of offering it? How do you resolve their differences? In his enthusiasm in proposing this innovative solution, this proponent even forgot that the Quran says the following about the salat of mushrikeen (polytheists) at the Masjid al Haram:
“Their prayer at the House of Allah is nothing but whistling and clapping. (its only answer can be) “Taste chastisement because you blasphemed.” Suratul Anfal 8:35
The Sahih And The Gospels
“Hadith is the same as the Gospels of Christianity. Indeed the time span between the death of the Messenger and the compilation of the Sahihs was almost the same as that between the departure of Jesus a.s and the compilation of the Bible. How can Muslims accept one and reject the other?”
Regarding the comparision of the Sahih with the Gospels, let’s listen to Dr. Hamidullah. “The compilation of the Gospels, their preservation and transmission from one generation to the other, has not taken place in the way which governed the books of hadith… We do not know who wrote them, who translated them, and who transmitted them. How were they transferred from the original Aramaic to Greek? Did the scribes make arrangements for a faihtful reproduction of the original? The four Gospels are mentioned, for the first time, three hundred years after Christ. Should we rely on such an unauthentic book in preference to that of Bukhari who prefaces every statement of two lines with three to nine references?”
“Allah s.w.t has protected only the Quran – not Islam – from correuption.”
To say that Allah s.w.t. promised to protect only the Quran but not Islam is being as ridiculous as one can get. Let’s ignore the obvious question regarding the point of this Heavenly act. The question is if Islam has been corrupted and its true teachings have been lost, how can anyone claim to be its follower? Moreover the quran says:
“Anyone who desires something other than Islam as a religion will never have it accepted from him, and in the Hereafter he will among the losers.” Surah al-eImran 3:85
How are we to follow the religion acceptable to Allah s.w.t if it was not to be protected?
[B] The Commnts Of Dr. Maurice Bucaille
“Dr. Maurice bucaille finds that Sahih bukhari is as unscientific as the bible”
Dr. Maurice Bucaille earned the admiration of many Muslims because of hisstudy of some scientific phenomena mentioned in the Quran and his testimony based on that study the Quran must be the book of Allah. However he is not a Hadith scholar and it is unfair to drag him into this discussion. His account of history of hadith compilation contains many errors, for example the claim that the first gathering of hadith was performed roughly forty years after Hijra or that no instructions were given regarding hadith collection. He questions about a dozen or so entries in Bukhari that he thinks deal with scientific matters. Even if that criticism were valid, would it be sufficient ground to throw away the 9082 toital entires (2602 unique ahadith) in Bukhari? He himself does not think so for he writes. “The truth of hadith from a religious point of view, is beyond question.”
The Hadith Regarding The Sun
But even his criticism is of questionable value. Consider the hadith about the sun: “At sunset the sun protrates itself underneath the Throne and takes permission to rise again, and it is permitted and then a time will come when it be about to prostrate itself…it will seek permission to go on its course… it will be ordered to return whence it has come and so it will rise in the West.” His criticism: This implies a notion of a course the sun runs in relation to the earth.” Bucaille fails to understand the real message of this hadith. It was not meant to teach astronomy. It’s clear message is that the sun is the slave of Allah, moving always through His Will. The Hadith brings out that message very powerfully so that even the most illiterate bedouin can understand it fully.
Even today astronomers, when calculating the time of sunrise and sunset, use a mathematical model in which the sun revolves around the earth. If that is acceptable for scientific work as it makes calculations easier, why is it questionable when it makes communication easier?
Also there are other ahadith which clearly demonstrate a scientific fact beyond the knowledge of the times but Bucaille has failed to take notice. For example the hadith about solar eclipse:
“The sun and moon are two signs from the Signs of Allah. They are not eclipsed on account of anyone’s death or on account of anyone’s birth, but Allah sends them to strike fear in hearts of His servants.” Bukhari 990
The eclipse had coincided with the death of the Prophet’s s.a.s son. A false prophet would have tried to exploit the occasion. A fabricated hadith would require scientific knowledge on part of the fabricator that did not exist then.
To reject the Hadith is to reject the Quran for all practical purposes. The idea was concocted as a means of undermining the Quran while on the surface affirming faith in it. It is time those who were misled by it out ignorance threw away this of our colonial past into the trash bin of history where it belongs.
Strengthening one’s willpower and avoiding spending time alone as recommended by the Prophet when he said “Do not spend the night alone” Ahmad 6919. 9) Following the Prophet’s aforementioned hadeeth and fast when possible, because fasting will temper one’s sexual desire and keep it under control. However, one should not overreact and swear by Allaah not to return to the act because if one does not honor one’s promise, one would be facing the consequences of not living up to one’s oath to Allaah. Also, note that medication to diminish one’s sexual desire is strictly prohibited because it might permanently affect one’s sexual ability. 10) Trying to follow the Prophet’s recommendation concerning the etiquette of getting ready for bed, such as reading well-known supplications, sleeping on the right side, and avoiding sleeping on the belly (the Prophet forbade sleeping on the belly). 11) Striving hard to be patient and chaste, because persistence will eventually, Allaah willing, lead to attaining those qualities as second nature, as the Prophet explains in the following hadeeth:
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