A reply to the ones rejecting Sunnah

This entry was last edited on February 15, 2012

Someone advised to raise the issue of Hadith (Sunnah) followers into this blog, may Allah Help us in this task and Guide us to the right...

Many people reject the Sunnah on the basis that there are many weak and fabricated ahaadeeth and that the fabrications of many liars weaken the Sunnah and make it such that it cannot be trusted. They claim that all they need is to follow the Quran, and inside the Quran is all that they need. 


I think time has come indeed for us to stand firm and reject falsehood and raise our voices against innovators claiming that we are wrongly guided to follow the Sunnah of our Prophet (S)...The following entry would list a few of their comments regarding why they reject the Sunnah, and we shall then try to clear any misunderstanding and provide the evidence that any true Muslim MUST follow the Sunnah...


Some definitions :
Hadith (Source: Encyclopedia Britannica) Ḥadīth, also spelled Hadīt (Arabic: “news,” or “story”),  record of the traditions or sayings of the Prophet Muḥammad, revered and received as a major source of religious law and moral guidance, second only to the authority of the Qurʾān, or scripture of Islām. It might be defined as the biography of Muhammad perpetuated by the long memory of his community for their exemplification and obedience. The development of Ḥadīth is a vital element during the first three centuries of Islāmic history, and its study provides a broad index to the mind and ethos of Islām. 

Sunna [snə, súnnə] (source: Encarta Encyclopedia)

noun
Part of Islamic law: one of the basic sources of Islamic law, based on Muhammad's words and deeds as recorded in the Hadith.
The Sunna complements and often explains the Quran.

It seems that the ones rejecting the Sunnah seem to be mostly revert Muslims. Some people coming into Islam after being Christians in the past might be confused on the right way to Love our Prophet, Muhammad Peace be Upon Him,,,


Jesus (AS) was a Prophet, but not a God to be worshiped. Revert Muslims might fear that Loving our Prophet Muhammad (S) more than ourselves lead  us to put him at same level as Allah, which is completely wrong understanding...


Some arguments from the ones rejecting Sunnah:
There seems to be a repeating pattern in the ones rejecting the Sunnah. Their arguments seem to fall under one of these following main categories:

Let us study each of their 3 points above in more details, with what Allah Says in His Quran and what Prophet Muhammad (S) told us relevant to these points
:
1- Quran is a complete Book, why do we need any other book (like Hadith) for Guidance...
What we are facing here is called a Qur’aaniyyeen case, in which people believe in Quran only and not in Hadith..Quraniyyeen = People who only follow Quran and reject the Sunnah..


One of the very first reply to give when faced with such statement is that if Quran is to be taken alone without Sunnah help, then where in Quran does it say that we need to pray 5 times a day, or that Maghrib prayer is 3 rakaats, and Fejr is 2 rakaats etc...nowhere in Quran would one find that we have to bow and say this and this, while during rukuú we need to say that and that...If Prophet Muhammad (S) did not explain this to the Sahaba who in turn transmitted that to the next generations, the billions of Muslims today  would not be praying in one way,,,


To the rejectors of Sunnah, PLEASE show us where are the aayaat in Quran which tell us how to pray, or which tell us that the obligatory prayers are five times daily, or about the details of the rituals of Hajj, and other rulings which we can only know from the Sunnah?


How about the day to day Muslim life, where can you find how we should we pray on our dead, how should we bury our dead?


Proofs from Quran that we must follow Sunnah:

The rejectors of Sunnah claim that they only follow Quran. Then what do you do with these commands of Allah:

“O you who believe! Obey Allaah and obey the Messenger…” [al-Nisaa’ 4:59]

“O you who believe! Answer Allaah (by obeying Him) and (His) Messenger when he calls you to that which will give you life” [al-Anfaal 8:24]

“But no, by your Lord, they can have no Faith, until they make you (O Muhammad) judge in all disputes between them, and find in themselves no resistance against your decisions, and accept (them) with full submission.” [al-Nisa’ 4:65 – interpretation of the meaning]


“He who obeys the Messenger, has indeed obeyed Allaah, but he who turns away, then we have not sent you (O Muhammad) as a watcher over them.” [al-Nisa’ 4:80]

“O you who have believed, fear Allah and speak words that are correct/appropriate (70)

He will [then] amend for you your deeds and forgive you your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly attained a great attainment" [Surat Al-Ahzaab (The Combined Forces)[33], Ayah 70-71]


The Quran tells us, in almost one hundred aayahs, to obey the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him).
So Subhane Allah, how can we then disobey Allah? The Quraniyyeen are thus just contradicting themselves, because they say that they only follow Quran, but the same Quran orders us all to follow the Prophet Muhammad (S)..


In comparison, if you had a lecturer telling you 100 times that you needed to follow such book to understand his topic and succeed in the exams, but you, in turn, would tell him back that no, you will only follow what he/she is lecturing you in the amphitheater, would that be a reasonable statement at all? 


2- Hadiths  were written hundreds of  years ago by men
The Quraniyyeen claim that because Hadiths were written hundreds years ago by men, they cannot be trusted.


We must know that the hadiths were reported through a chain of narrators or reporters. 


Let us see first what are the components of a hadith:

Let us take one hadith and see how the above applies to it (in a simple way, this is not the complete chain of narration):


Abdullah Ibn Umar (RA) reports that The Prophet (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said, “Convey from me even an Ayah of the Quran; relate traditions from Banu Israel, and there is no restriction on that; but he who deliberately forges a lie against me let him have his abode in Hell.” [Sahih Bukhari # 3461]


The blue part is the Sanad, the Chain of reporters, in this case Abdullah Ibn Umar
The green part, is the matan, the main text of the hadith
The taraf, the begining, is "convey from me even an Ayah of the Quran.."


All the Hadiths would come under the following structure:

The Sanad is one part where the Ulama would look to differentiate between the degrees of authenticity of the hadeeths. We are not going to go through the depth of this topic, as Hadith Science is by itself a vast Science, and the web is full of relevant sites for someone who would like to perfect into the Hadith Science, just google key words of "hadith science" for start...


Enough for us to know that the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). After the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) died, the Ulamas are the people with the most knowledge of this guidance. 
It was narrated that Abu’l-Darda’ (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: I heard the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) say: “The scholars are the heirs of the Prophets. The Prophets did not leave behind dinars or dirhams, rather they left behind a heritage of knowledge, and the one who acquires it acquires an abundant portion.” Narrated by Abu Dawood (3641) and others; classed as saheeh by al-Albaani. 


Some Scholars devoted their lives to study the Sunnah and Hadith, among them are Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslims. These Ulamas made a great job compiling authentic Hadiths in a precise and clear manner..


What about the fabricated and false Hadiths?
From Islamqa.com #10521:

We say: it is true that there were fabricators and liars who made up words and attributed them to the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), but the matter is not quite so simple as imagined by those doubters who also spread doubts among others. They are unaware of the facts about how the Muslims took care of the Sunnah. Alongside the fabricators, there were great numbers of narrators who were trustworthy and highly skilled, and a large number of scholars who surrounded the hadeeths of the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) with a strong barrier which was difficult for the liars to penetrate. By means of their vast knowledge and deep insight, these muhaddithoon (scholars of hadeeth) were able to spot the liars and understand their intentions and motives, and they were able to detect everything that was falsely attributed to the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). These fabricators were not given free rein to do as they wished with the ahaadeeth of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), and they were given no room to penetrate the ranks of trustworthy narrators of ahaadeeth without being detected.

Who else exposed the lies of these kaafirs, heretics and extreme innovators?:

Who were the ones who gave us the definition of what is fabricated, the reasons for fabrication, different types of fabrications and the signs by which a fabricated report may be recognized?  Who wrote so many books on this issue?

They are the guardians of Islam, the vicegerents and troops of Allaah on His earth. They are the brilliant scholars of whom Haaroon al-Rasheed spoke when he arrested a heretic and ordered that he be executed. The heretic said, “Why are you executing me?” Haaroon al-Rasheed said, “To rid the people of you.” The heretic said: “O Ameer al-Mu’mineen, what will you do about the thousand ahaadeeth – according to one report, four thousand ahaadeeth – which I have fabricated and spread among you, in which I made what is halaal haraam and what is haraam halaal, of which the Prophet uttered not one letter?” Haaroon al-Rasheed said to him: “What will you do, O enemy of Allaah, about Abu Ishaaq al-Fazaari and ‘Abd-Allaah ibn al-Mubaarak? They will go through them and sift them letter by letter.” (Tadhkirat al-Huffaaz by al-Dhahabi, 1/273; Taareekh al-Khulafaa’ by al-Suyooti, p. 174).

Professor Muhammad Asad said: “The existence of fabricated ahaadeeth cannot be taken to prove that the entire system of hadeeth is not to be trusted, because these fabricated ahaadeeth never deceived the muhadditheen as some European critics claimed, oversimplifying the matter, and as was echoed by some who claim to be Muslims.” (al-Islam ‘ala Muftaraq al-Tareeq, p. 96)


So the Hadiths are far from being a mere he said/she said matter...the people rejecting the Hadiths have certainly not studied the way these were compiled, else they would not have come close to such statement at all...

3- The Sunnis seem to only follow the Prophet Muhammad (S) and ignore the other Prophets:
This comment from revert Muslims might be there because the Bible mentions details stories of different Prophets...I do not have knowledge of other books except Quran, and the Quran is more than enough to find all that is required for us to know. Allah Orders us to believe in all His Prophets and to not differentiate between any one of them, and this is what is for us to apply. Allah also Tells us in His Quran:

"Indeed in the Messenger of Allah you have a good example to follow for him who hopes in Allah and the Last Day, and remembers Allah much." [Al Ahzaab 33:21]


So, if Allah Tells us to follow our Prophet Muhammad (S), why should we be blamed for doing so?
Why would we not obey Allah, and Allah in about 100 verses Tell us to follow the Prophet Muhammad (S)?
The above Ayah should be more than enough to push us to learn about the Prophet Muhammad (S)...we should Love him for all that he did, but we should not worship him at all...


Did the Prophet (S) anticipate the emergence of sects and divisions?
The Messenger of Allaah said: "I counsel you to have Taqwaa of Allaah and to hear and obey, even if an Abyssinian slave were to command you. For, verily, whoever amongst you lives (to grown old), he will see many differences. So stick to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the rightly guided khaleefahs. Cling tightly onto it and hold onto it with your molar teeth. And beware of newly invented matters. For, indeed, every newly invented matter is an innovation, and every innovation is a thing that leads astray, and everything that leads astray is in the Hellfire." an authentic hadeeth reported by Abu Dawood and others.


The Prophet (S) warned us indeed long ago that there will be sects and people taking the wrong approach..

Bukhari, Muslim and other Traditionists relate from Abu Sa‘id al-Khudri that Allah’s Messenger warned: Do not curse my Companions! Do not curse my Companions! I swear by Him in Whose hand my life is that, even if one among you had as much gold as Mount Uhud and spent it in the way of Allah, this would not be equal in reward to a few handfuls of them or even to half of that.

So, only believers would love the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad (S), and the hypocrites would hate them..

We should be thankful to the Sahabah and we should teach our children to respect them and to take them as model...


Dr. Jonathan Brown, western hadith scholar

Below is the link for a lecture given by Dr. Jonathan Brown, a young, eloquent western hadith scholar from University of Washington where he works as an Assistant Professor. In this lecture, he briefly discusses the history of hadith collection, its criticism and the evolution of western hadith scholarship from Goldziher, Schacht, Juynboll to Motzki.
Some excerpts from this lecture are:

“I have never been more impressed with anybody in history in my life than with Muslim ḥadīth scholars. I mean, when I first started studying ḥadīth I was very skeptical, I though it was all made-up and bogus but the more you study it the more you just appreciate the intense brain power of these people. I mean they memorized thousands and thousands of books and then they were able to recall all the different versions of ḥadīth from these books, and then they were able to analyze them and put them all together and figure-out where they all connect and make judgments about the authenticity of these ḥadīth. I mean even nowadays with electronic databases, and computers and word processing, I have hard time following even their discussions of the ḥadīth - let alone their original mastering that they were drawing on. It's almost unbelievable... It's almost unbelievable, and if you didn't have the books in front of you that they wrote, I wouldn't believe it personally....”

http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Hadith/brown.html

Conclusion:
Hadith Science is a very large Science that could certainly not be summarized in a few lines. Quran and Sunnah cannot be separated. We must follow the Quran and to understand Quran, we must follow the Sunnah. There are no contradiction between authentic Hadiths and the Quran...The Prophet Muhammad (S) was a example to follow for all of us, and our Prophet (S) commanded the Muslims to hold tightly onto the two, by his saying: "I left upon you two things of which you will never go astray after them: The Book of Allaah and my Sunnah. They will never be separated until they return to me at the Haud (the Pond)." Al-Albaanee has authenticated this hadeeth in Saheeh Al-Jaami'.
For people to reject Hadith and Sunnah without solid evidence is certainly going against the Commands of Allah in the Quran and against the teachings of our Prophet (S).