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By: Dawud Shafi
This is an argument used often by sectarians for the justification of them following guidance other than from God.
One thing all sectarians do agree on is the Quran is divine and guidance from their Creator. Where their differences lie in is the ‘teachings of the Prophet’.
Before one gets to this stage; one must look at The Quran to see what the Quran supports and what The Quran forbids you from doing.
The Quran itself claims to be clear and fully detailed 6:114 so therefore any commandment or direction must be clear instruction.
What is hadith?
Hadith is story or narration. It’s important to know that the Quran calls itself the best hadith:
God has brought down the Best Hadith: a Book containing similarities and pairs. 39:23
Why would guidance from The Creator not be the best?
Now that we know what hadith is, let’s have a look at what hadiths sectarians follow as guidance and under what authority they follow it.
There are many sects that have branched off from the name of Islam but the biggest two are sunni’s and shia’s.
Both sects follow the teachings of the Prophet, by means of the way he spoke, ate, sat, slept, etc basically there is a hadith for everything and anything imaginable. Shia’s believe Prophet Mohammed had a caliphate, Ali so the Shia’s worship and idolise Ali whereas the Sunni’s idolise and worship Prophet Mohammed. The irony here is that the so called ‘Muslim’ world mocks the Christians and the trinity but they have seem to have adopted a trinity of their own. Where Christians have God-Jesus-St Paul the ‘Muslims’ have God-Mohammed-Bukhari!
It is a fact that the hadith’s that these sectarians use as guidance today were compiled at least 150-200 years after the death of the Prophet by people he never even met! Now I don’t know about you but in anytime or place in the world that would be known as Chinese whispers and unreliable information as it cannot be verified by the person himself.
Think about you; you have been summoned to court and the judge has asked you to present your evidence and you respond with well my witness is dead but I have so and so who heard him tell so and so who heard him tell so and so...etc your case would be thrown out as hearsay is not admissible court. The same principle applies here; would you take hearsay as reliable information or would you want to go straight to the source of the information?
What authority is there to follow man-made hadiths?
Absolutely none!
God knows about the future and so he intentionally used the word hadith in many places of the Qur’an stating that the Qur’an itself is a hadith.
God has brought down the Best Hadith: a Book containing similarities and pairs. 39:23
These are God's revelations that We recite to you with truth, so in which hadith other than God and His revelations do they believe? 45:6
Woe on that Day to the deniers. So in which hadith after it do they believe? 77:49-50
This is not a fabricated hadith, but an authentication of what came before it, a detailed account of all things, and guidance and mercy for people who believe. 12:111
Among the people is he who trades in baseless hadith to mislead from the path of God without knowledge, and he makes a mockery of it. Those will have a humiliating punishment. 31:6
So let them produce a hadith like it, if they are truthful. 52:34
In summary, The Quran is a book of guidance for the whole of mankind. It is clear, easy, and fully detailed. There is no authority from The Creator for us to follow anything else besides Quran so the argument, if a hadith does goes against the Quran, reject it is a flawed argument before even starting the argument.
The problem is people will blindly follow their forefathers for social acceptance and in the process turn away from The Almighty whilst believing they are serving God. It is human nature to feel accepted so people follow the crowd without doing any study. Seeking this acceptance leads people astray:
If you were to obey the majority of those on earth, they will mislead you away from the path of God. They follow nothing but conjecture; they only guess. 6:116
The majority of people, no matter how eager you may be, are not believers. 12:103
The majority of those who believe in God do not do so without committing shirk (idolatry/polytheism/associating partners). 12:106
Most of them follow nothing but conjecture. The conjecture is of no avail whatsoever against the truth. Indeed, God is Knowledgeable of what they do. 10:36
And say, "The truth is from your Lord; So whoever wills then let him believe, and whoever wills then let him disbelieve." 18:29
This is the truth whether you like it or not.
Say, "The truth has come. Falsehood can neither initiate nor regenerate." 34:49
We have indeed brought you with the truth, but most of you hate the truth 43:78
By: Dawud Shafi
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