Hadith: A Reevaluation. Kassim Ahmed
The Following is an excerpt from the Malay Scholar Kassim Ahmed published in 1986. This excerpt serves as Ahmed’s refutation against the ahl al-hadith or the ‘traditionists’, referring to those who follow the hadith literature.
REFUTATION OF THE TRADITIONISTS' THEORY
• Do not accept anything that you yourself cannot ascertain. You are given the
hearing, the sight and the mind in order to examine and verify.
(Quran, 17:36)
Modern Europe has succeeded in pioneering various fields of modern
knowledge and becomes a leader in these fields — especially science and technology
— because it holds firmly to the Kantian motto of the European Age of
Enlightenment: Dare to know. The Islamic world, in the early stages of its second
renaissance, must do likewise. Since in Islam knowledge is based on revelation, the
motto of the new Islamic Renaissance must read: Dare to know under the
guidance of the Quran.
Any study of the hadith and sunna must, of necessity, be based on the Quran.
Everything said about the hadith must be subjected to the critical scrutiny of the
Quran and science. Only what passes this test is acceptable.
The word hadith means `news,' `story' or `message', while the word sunna
means `law,' `system,' `custom' or `behavior.' In the hadith literature, the word
hadith carries the meaning of a report of an alleged saying or action of Prophet
Muhammad. Therefore, although sunna originally refers to the customary behavior
of the Prophet, in the hadith literature both the terms sunna and hadith carry a
similar meaning.
The Four Arguments of Traditionists
The Ahl'ul Hadith or the Traditionists did not distinctly emerge in Muslim
society until the second Islamic century, more than a hundred years after the
Prophet's death. There is a big gap between the Prophet and the first legal digest
that contains some traditions, i.e. the Muwatta' of Imam Malik (d. 179 AH). It is
historically known that the `four guided caliphs' — close companions of the Prophet
— not only did not leave us any collection of traditions, they did not make use or
made very little use of traditions.
Nevertheless, against all odds, the Traditionists prevailed in insisting the
hadith/sunna was binding on the Muslims from the beginning. They claim to derive
this authority for the hadith from the Quran itself, as we shall presently show. They
cannot do otherwise than make this claim, for without the authority of the Quran as
the basis of its legitimacy, the hadith is automatically rejected. It will be seen that
this claim is false.
They put forward four principal arguments. Firstly, the hadith is also Divine
revelation. Secondly, God's command to the believers to obey the messenger means
that they must uphold the hadith. Thirdly, the Prophet is the interpreter of the
Quran and the hadith is necessary in order to understand and carry out Quranic
injunctions. Fourthly and lastly, the Prophet is an example for the believers to
follow, and his sunna is binding on the believers.
We shall discuss these four principal arguments of the Traditionists in detail
and show that they are false.
Argument One: `Sunna is Revelation'
Their claim that hadith/sunna also constitutes revelation is based on the
following Quranic verses:
• Our Lord, and raise among them a messenger who would recite for them Your
revelations and teach them the scripture and wisdom and sanctify them. (5)
Your friend is neither astray, nor a liar. He does not speak on his own. This
is a divine inspiration. (6)
The famous classical jurist, Imam Shafi`i, basically the creator of the theory of
classical jurisprudence, interpreted the Arabic word hikmah in above verse and in
similar verses as meaning `sunna' or `hadith.' In his major work, al-‐Risala, he stated:
• “So, God mentions His scripture, that is the Quran, and wisdom, and I have heard
from those who are knowledgeable in the Quran — those whom I agree with — say that
wisdom is the traditions of the Prophet. This is the same as the Word [of God Himself]; but God knows better! Because the Quran is mentioned, followed by Wisdom; then God mentions His blessing to mankind by teaching the Quran and wisdom. So, it is not possible that wisdom means other things than the traditions of the Prophet ... (Emphasis added).”
Shafi`i's interpretation of the word hikmah as meaning the Prophet's tradition
cannot but give rise to grave doubts. Was he justified in doing so? He did not
produce any support from the Quran for such an interpretation. He merely reported
the view of "experts" whom he concurred with. Who these "experts" were and what
their reasons for advancing such a view Shafi`i did not say. According to the laws of
logic, we can question any view put forward by anybody, but we cannot question
certainty. In the quotation above, we notice that Shafi`i jumped from a statement of
the status of probability to a statement of the status of certainty without giving
proper proofs to enable the probable view to achieve the status of certainty. This is
unacceptable in any scientific discourse.
God Himself states in the Quran that it is He Who explains the Quran. This
means that the Quran explains itself. Taking this cue and examining the use of the
word hikmah, occurring twenty times in the Quran, it is obvious that it refers to the
teachings of the Quran, or to general wisdom that all prophet-‐messengers or moral
teachers were endowed with. The following Quranic usage will illustrate :
• This is part of the wisdom that your Lord reveals to you.
where the word `wisdom' refers to some thirteen ethical teachings enumerated
in verses 17: 22 to 17: 38. These teachings are the worship of God alone and the prohibition
of idolatry, doing honor and kindness to parents, giving charity to relatives, the poor
and needy and the alien, to be moderate in spending, prohibition against child-‐
killing for fear of poverty, prohibition against adultery, prohibition against killing
any human being except in the course of justice, the safe-‐keeping of an orphan's
property until he or she becomes of age, honesty in trading, prohibition against the
acceptance of unverified news or views, censure against arrogant behavior and
general censure against evil.
Again the word `wisdom' in the following verse:
• God has made a covenant with the prophets that He will give them the
scripture and wisdom.
refers to the contents of all divine scriptures. Similarly in the following verse:
We have endowed Luqman with wisdom, for he was appreciative of God.
where the wisdom in question refers to general wisdom of spiritual teachers.
Muhammad Ali in his translation of the Quran mentions al Hikmah as one of the
names of the Quran based on the verse 17:39 that we have quoted above.
Further evidence that the words hikmah or hakeem with the meaning `wisdom'
can be seen from the following:
These are the revelations and the message of wisdom that we recite to you.
Y.S. By the wise Quran! You are indeed one of the messengers.
It should also be note that the word hakeem in the Quran meaning `wise'
without exception refers to God, as for example:
Our Lord, and raise among them a messenger who would recite for them Your
revelations and teach them the scripture and wisdom and sanctify them. You are the
Almighty, the Wise.
Glorifying God is everything in the heavens and the earth; He is the Almighty, the
Wise.
Based on the above Quranic evidence we can make two conclusions. Firstly, the
word `wisdom' quoted by Shafi`i in verse 2:129 refers to the ethical teachings of the
Quran. Secondly, general wisdom has been endowed to all prophets. Can we,
therefore, infer that Prophet Muhammad taught wisdom to his community through
his leadership of the community? The answer is, of course, Yes. History proves that.
But that wise leadership is also consequent upon his acting strictly in accordance
with the ethical teachings of the Quran. All this wisdom is contained in the Quran,
although some hadith may also have preserved that wisdom. The case for upholding
the hadith apart from the Quran is, therefore, not proved by this argument.
Further examination of the use of the words `sunna' and `hadith' in the Quran
gives interesting information. The word `sunna' is used in the Quran to refer to the
divine system or law and to the example of the fate suffered by ancient
communities. None refers to the behavior of the Prophet. The two usages are
illustrated in the following verses:
• This is God's system that has always prevailed. God's system never changes.
Tell those who disbelieve that if they repent, their past transgression will
be forgiven. But if they revert, then the examples of the past should be
remembered.
The word `hadith' is used in the Quran to mean `news', `story', `message' or
`thing'. Out of the 36 times it is used in various grammatical forms, none refers to
what is known as the Prophetic hadith as another source of law beside the Quran.
On the contrary, in ten instances of very powerful statements the word refers to the
Quran and categorically rejects any hadith besides the Quran. Here we give two of
them:
• God sent down the best hadith, a scripture consistent, repeating.
Some people uphold vain hadith in order to divert others from the path of
God without knowledge, and to create a mockery of it.
The other verses, 53:3-‐4, that the Traditionists quote as proof that the sunna is
also divine revelation have been given. Commenting on these verses, Fazlul Karim
said:
• The Holy Quran exhorts the people to believe the Hadith of the Prophet as nothing
short of revelation ... The only difference between the Quran and the Hadith is that whereas the former was revealed directly through Gabriel with the very letters that are embodied from Allah, the latter was revealed without letters and words...
This interpretation of the hadith as revelation is patently false and has its origin
in earlier Jewish practice, as we shall show. Let us look closer at the verses in
question.
• By the falling star. Your friend is neither astray, nor a liar. He does not speak
on his own. This is a divine inspiration. A teaching from a mighty one. The possessor of
omnipotence, who assumed (all authority). From the highest horizon. He came closer
by moving downwards. Until He became as close as possible. He then revealed to His
servant what He revealed.
The above verses clearly describe the process of revelation to Muhammad. They
refer to a specially inspired state, not to the ordinary state of Muhammad's human
existence. Apart from the fact that the verses themselves make this clear, this is the
interpretation given by all authorities. Thus, the later extremely subjective meaning
given to these verses to conform to the Traditionists' theory, as exemplified by
Fazlul Karim, must be rejected.
What should alert Muslims is the very close resemblance of this theory to the
much earlier Jewish theory of written and oral revelations. The Jewish Talmud,
consisting of the Mishnah and Gemara, the equivalent of Muslim Hadith and Sunna,
is a body of oral teachings of Jewish rabbis and jurists based on their interpretations
and expositions of the scripture over a long period. In the words of the Jewish
scholar Judah Goldin,
"...[It was believed that] along with the revelation of the Written Torah was a revelation of an Oral Torah, that is, that interpretations of and deductions from the Scriptures must have accompanied the Scriptures themselves has at least this to recommend it: no written text, particularly if it is meant as a guide for conduct, can in and of itself be complete; it must have some form of oral commentary associated with it. This much however is clear : from the fifth century BC onward there was a conscious effort on the part teachers to expound the canonical books of the Torah, to make clear its meaning and its applicability. `To make clear the Torah of the Lord and put it into practice, and to teach in Israel statutes and ordinances' (Ezra 7:10) was not only the programme of Ezra but of the colleagues whom he attracted to himself, the Soferim ... It was the Soferim who made what was implicit in the Book of the Torah of God explicit and intelligible ..., and under their tutelage too, as times required, enactments and decrees were issued. Such teaching and legislation as the Soferim conducted through their schools and councils were carried on orally, in order to carefully distinguish between what was the Written Torah, Scripture, and the body of exegesis, interpretation by [word of] mouth, Oral Torah."
This historical testimony is self-‐explanatory. The theory of two revelations that
the Traditionists had propagated is Jewish in origin and had its beginning in the teaching of scholar-‐priest Ezra, idolized by the Jews as the son of God, and his followers.
We should note that this theory, built with such elaborateness, is demolished by
the Quran in just two words with its declaration that the Prophet believes in God's
words:
• Therefore, you shall believe in God and His messenger, the gentile prophet, who
believes in God and His words, and follow him that you may be guided.
Argument Two: `Obey the Messenger' Means
`Uphold the Hadith'
The second principal argument advanced by the Traditionists relates to God's
commandment to the believers to obey the messenger, which they have interpreted
to mean belief in the hadith/sunna. Shafi`i used this argument as his principal
argument and tirelessly repeated it in his book, al-‐Risala. He said,
• But whatever is decided by him in the sunna God has decreed that we should obey,
and He considers [our] obedience to him as obedience to Him, and [our] refusal to obey him as our denial of Him, which will not be forgiven ...
The Traditionists use the famous verse 4:59 as well as two other verses as their
props for this argument. Let us look at the verses carefully:
O you who believe, you shall obey God, and you shall obey the messenger and those
in charge among you. If you dispute in any matter, you shall refer it to God and the
messenger, if you truly believe in God and the Last Day. This is better for you and
provides you with the best solution.
Any gained spoils that the messenger gives you, you shall accept, and whatever he
forbids you, you shall desist from.
Never, by your Lord, will they be considered believers, unless they ask you to judge
between them, then find no hesitation whatsoever in their hearts regarding your
judgement, and unless they submit completely.
The Traditionists desire to convey two ideas by these quotations. Firstly, the
messenger is an independent power to be obeyed apart from God. Secondly,
obedience to the messenger means upholding the hadith/sunna. Are they right in
these?
It seems obvious that obedience to the messenger in the above verse and in
other similar verses means obedience to God, since the messenger is not an
independent agency. As messenger, he was the agency that delivered the message,
and obedience to him was equivalent to obedience to God. As stated in the Quran
several times, "The sole function of the messenger is to deliver the message." It should
be noted that the Quran uses the word `messenger' and not `Muhammad'. The
obedience is, therefore, to the messenger, that is, to the message that he brought
from God. In short, God and messenger in this context constitute one concept which
should not be separated.
We have said earlier that the Quran explains itself. Such verses where obedience
to God is coupled with obedience to the messenger is explained by other verses
where obedience is made due only to God. The following are examples:
• Say, "I exhort you to do only one thing: that you totally submit to God in pairs
or as individuals, then reflect. Your friend is not crazy; he only alerts you to evade
terrible retribution."
You shall be obedient to your Lord and totally submit to Him before the
retribution comes to you.
The second idea that obedience to the messenger means upholding the hadith is
therefore categorically rejected by the Quran.
A question may still be asked: Did Muhammad the messenger not pronounce
and act outside the Quran? It is only too obvious that he did and must have done so.
He did so as leader of the then Muslim community and as an ordinary human being.
Under such circumstances, the Quranic directive regarding leadership and
obedience in verse 4:59 applies: that the people are duty-‐bound to obey their
rightful leader or leaders in so far as he or they do not trespass the bounds of God.
We may assume that Muhammad, the leader and the man, would not have said or
done anything contrary to the divine message he brought, after he knew the
message. Therefore, the truly genuine hadith can only be the ones that do not
contradict the Quran.
Certain decisions he made as leader of the community that history has recorded
must necessarily be circumscribed by the conditions of the time. The Madinah
Charter is a good example. Although the principles of religious freedom, inter-‐
communal equality and unity, local autonomy and just government underlying the
charter conform to the teachings of the Quran, the forms they took were conditioned
by the circumstances then prevailing. In the same manner, his decisions on other
matters concerning methods that the Quran, for obvious reasons, does not stipulate
were determined by historical circumstances and do not bind the Muslims after him.
History records that this was precisely the attitude of the four righteous caliphs,
although they did consider those decisions as precedents. That past decisions are
precedents is normal legal procedure.
Argument Three: `Hadith Interprets the Quran'
The Traditionists claim that Prophet Muhammad is the interpreter of the Quran,
and that this interpretation is obtainable through the hadith. Without the hadith,
they assert, we cannot understand and carry out the commands of God in the Quran.
A typical statement of the Traditionists is as follow:
• If the explanations of the Prophet (pbuh) regarding general matters were not
preserved and guaranteed from foreign interference, it is certain that Quranic commands
cannot be implemented. In this way, a great part of Quranic directives which are binding on
us will lapse. In this way, we shall be unable to know the true purpose of God.
The Traditionists quote the following verses to support their contention:
• We reveal to you this Reminder so that you may explain to the people what is
revealed to them and to let them reflect.
We did not send this scripture down to you except that you may explain to them
over what they dispute, and to provide guidance and mercy for those who believe.
Commenting on these verses, one writer said that the Prophet detailed general
or universal matters in the Quran, such as the times and number of prostrations of
prayer and the rate of zakat or obligatory charity; the Prophet clarified matters that
were not mentioned in the Quran, such as the time of imsak (early morning just
before dawn when fasting begins in Ramadan); the Prophet specified general
commands in the Quran, such as division of family property where, it was claimed,
that the hadith forbid any share for children who killed their parents; and the
Prophet defined the limits of Quranic orders, such as determining the methods of
carrying out the punishment for cutting off the hand.
It is clear from the above that what is meant by the Traditionists is the role of
the Prophet as leader, contained in the Quranic concept ulil amr (those in authority)
that has already been explained.
As regards explaining and interpreting the Quran, Quranic statements and
historical evidence have shown that it is not given to Prophet Muhammad or to any
subsequent teachers to do so fully and all at once. The Quran, being from the
omniscient knowledge of God, cannot all be understood fully, except through a
prolonged process of rational understanding and scientific studies. The long history
of Quranic exegeses prove this. The Quran itself attests to this when it declares
about the allegorical verses:
No one knows their correct interpretations, except God and those well grounded
in knowledge.
While this verse refers only to the understanding of allegorical verses, God
clearly states that it is He who teaches and explains the Quran. This means, on the
one hand, that the Quran explains itself and, on the other, that God will, at the
proper time, give man the necessary knowledge to understand it. The various
discoveries and findings of modern science within the last four hundred years have
thrown light on the meanings and corroborated the statements made in the Quran
fourteen centuries ago when modern science was not yet born.
Mode of Prayer
The Traditionists invariably asks: If we do not have the hadith, how do we pray?
This shows that they have not studied the Quran nor Arab history prior to
Muhammad carefully. The Quran clearly states that the obligatory prayers and all
other religious observances of Islam were originally taught to Abraham. All the
prophets and their true followers since Abraham practiced them, but, as the Quran
also informs us, later generations, including the Arabs at the advent of Muhammad,
had lost these prayers. The prayers of the Arabs at the Shrine at the time were
described by the Quran as "no more than deceit and alienation."
It should also be noted that the very early revelations, such as the chapter 73
entitled al-‐Muzzammil which was the third in order of revelation, already
mentioned salat and zakat, indicating that these religious observances were well-‐
known and were being practiced. This is confirmed by early historical sources, such
as Ibn Ishaq's biography of the Prophet. All these conclusively prove that our salat
prayers today were not originally given to Muhammad during the Night Journey, as
the Traditionists claim.
A moment's thought will also make us realize that we do not learn how to pray
from the hadith. We learn to do so from our parents and teachers who inherit the
practice through the generations from the first source, that is Prophet Abraham.
Although the Quran needs no longer teach us how to pray, since we have learnt
and practiced it from the time of Abraham, still it gives us the main features of salat
prayer, i.e. the normal ablution (5:6), the abnormal ablution (4:43), the proper dress
(7:31), standing and facing the qiblah (2:144), the times (11:114, 17:78, 24:58,
2:238, 30:17-‐18 and 20:130), the bowing and prostrating (2:43,125,3:42, 22:77,
48:29), using moderate voice when saying prayers (17:110), not calling anyone else
besides God in prayer (72:18) and modified mode of prayer at unusual times
(4:101,103). It is quite obvious that many important details regarding the mode of
prayer are given in the Quran.
It should be remembered that the Quran repeatedly teaches the people to be
concerned with doing good sincerely and not to be concerned with form. It is
obvious why this should be so. An obsession with form would defeat the purpose of
an action. The incidence of Saudi Prince Sultan Salman who accompanied the
American space mission, Discovery, in 1985 and who exposed the inability of the
traditional Saudi ulama to answer the question of how he should pray in the space
shuttle was a good modern illustration of the error of obsession with form.
Argument Four: `The Example of the Prophet'
This is the fourth and last argument of the Traditionists: that the Prophet
constitutes a good example for the believers to follow, and following his examples
means following the sunna. They base this argument on the following verses of the
Quran:
• The messenger of God is a good example for you, for any of you who truly seek
God and the Hereafter and commemorate God frequently.
Referring to this verse and the following verse
• You are indeed endowed with a great character
one traditionalist writer remarked:
The messenger (pbuh) is a perfect man. He is the foremost example to be followed in all aspects
and fields, except in those that cannot be followed.
According to the hadith scholar, M.M. Azami,
If we consider the Prophet as the model for the community, the Muslims have to follow his
example in every way, especially as they have been specifically commanded to do so by Allah.
Even the late modern scholar Prof. Fazlur Rahman talks of the existence of the
exemplary conduct of the Prophet. However, if we look at the context of verse 33:21
quoted above, it is clear that it does not refer to every detail of the Prophet's
behavior, such as his eating, dress, sleeping and other personal habits. Actually, it
refers to the Prophet's faith in God's help and victory. The verse is put in the middle
of the account of the Battle of the Allies when the believers were really shaken and
thought that the cause of Islam was lost. Nevertheless, it would not be wrong if we
derive a general meaning for this verse that the Prophet provided a good example
for Muslims to follow. The Prophet's example is none other than his staunch faith in
God and strict adherence to the Quran.
That the phrase uswah hasanah, meaning `a good example' in this verse, refers
to one's conviction, stand and struggle, and not to one's personal behavior, can be
proved by its usage, twice, for Prophet Abraham who was a staunch monotheist.
Verse 4 of Surah 60 explains the meaning of the phrase:
A good example has been set for you by Abraham and those with him. They
said to their people, "We disown you and the idols you set up besides God. We
reject you, and you will see from us nothing but enmity and opposition until
you believe in God alone."
The above verse explains the meaning of uswah hasanah as referring to one's
religious conviction, ideological position and struggle. This is an instance of how the
Quran explains and interprets itself.
It is unreasonable and unthinkable that God would ask the Muslims to follow
the prophet's personal mode of behavior, because a person's mode of behavior is
determined by many different factors, such as customs, his education, personal
upbringing and personal inclinations. The prophet's mode of eating, of dress and
indeed of general behavior cannot be different from that of other Arabs, including
Jews and Christians, of that time, except regarding matters which Islam prohibited.
If the Prophet had been born a Malay, he would have dressed and eaten like a Malay.
This is a cultural and a personal trait which has nothing to do with one's religion.
So were the methods of the Prophet's wars and his administration of the
Medina city-‐state. The weapons he used, such as swords, spears, arrows and shields,
were in accordance with the prevailing technology. Today, with the development of
modern weapons, the Muslims obviously cannot fight with the medieval weapons
used by the Prophet, although they must emulate his staunch faith in God and
complete adherence to God's teachings.
In political administration, the same Islamic principles operate. Some examples:
sovereignty of the people under God's sovereignty, government based on just laws,
complete freedom of religious worship, obedience to God and due obedience to
leaders, leadership to be exercised by those who are competent and morally upright,
and government through consultation. However, methods and the institutions vary
according to time and circumstances. The methods and institutions used by the
Prophet are not universally and eternally binding.
Actually, the ways of the Prophet were in strict conformity with the teachings of
the Quran. He held firmly to the Quran and obeyed its injunctions. Therefore,
following the example of the Prophet means upholding the Quran. The claim of the
Traditionists that the Quran is general and requires the hadith to explain it and
make it specific is based on a false understanding of the Quran. This claim has been
partially dealt with here. It will be fully dealt with in Chapter V where we shall
discuss the comprehensiveness of the Quran as a guide.
