Hidden Danger of Attacking Sunnah and Doubting Prophetic Hadith
There is no
doubt that the Prophetic tradition is the second source of Islam after the
Quran, serving as a source of its beliefs, its laws, and its moral teachings.
The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, referred to this meaning when he
said:
“Beware! I have been given the
Quran and something like it, yet the time is coming when a man replete on his
couch will say: Keep to the Quran; what you find in it to be permissible treat
as permissible, and what you find in it to be prohibited treat as prohibited.
Behold, what God’s messenger has prohibited is like what God has prohibited.”
Gabriel, peace
be upon him, would descend upon the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be
upon him, with the Prophetic tradition just as he descended upon him with the
Quran, and he would teach it to him just as he taught him the Quran.
Imam Ash-Shafi'i
said: “The traditions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon
him, are of two kinds. The first is an explicit text from the Book, which the
Messenger of Allah followed exactly as Allah revealed it. The second consists
of general principles for which the Messenger of Allah explained, on behalf of
Allah, what was intended by them, clarifying how they were to be applied,
whether generally or specifically, and how Allah intended His servants to
observe them. In both cases, he followed the Book of Allah.”
The Messenger
of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, explained the Quran to people in
matters of belief, law, and morality in various ways, through different
approaches and by employing different methods. He explained it through his
conduct, his words, and his approval of the actions of others. He said: “I have not
left anything that Allah commanded you to do without commanding you to do it,
nor have I left anything that Allah prohibited you from doing without
prohibiting you from doing it.” (1)
The Prophet,
peace and blessings be upon him, taught people in three ways: through his
verbal instructions, which constitute his sayings; through his personal
conduct, which constitutes his actions; and through his silence, which
represented his deliberate approval of the actions of others.
Dr. Muhammad
Abdullah Draz said:
“The Prophetic
reports are connected to the Quran in Islam in the same way that the laws of a
state are connected to its constitution. The Quran commands us to refer
directly to the Prophetic reports for detailed instructions concerning two of
the most fundamental obligations: prayer and almsgiving, prayer being our duty
toward Allah and almsgiving being our duty toward society. The Quran affirms
the Prophetic tradition and grants it the authority to explain and clarify the
general obligations established in the Quran. Without the Prophetic tradition,
the Quranic texts would have remained without detailed explanation, and their
meanings would have remained general and unspecified.”
Dr. Abdul Halim
Mahmoud said:
“The Messenger
of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, explained what was presented in
general terms in the Book of Allah. The Quran established prayer, almsgiving,
and pilgrimage in general terms, and the Messenger of Allah explained them in
detail. He clarified the prescribed prayers, their times, their practices, and
their number of units. He also explained almsgiving, its prescribed times, and
the manner of performing the pilgrimage and minor pilgrimage.
He explained
how to perform prayer when he said, ‘Pray as you have seen me prayer.’
Regarding
pilgrimage, he said, ‘Take your rites of pilgrimage from me.’
Allah also
prescribed almsgiving without specifying its amounts or detailing which
agricultural produce, fruits, and forms of wealth were subject to it. The
Prophetic tradition clarified that a killer does not inherit, that a bequest
may not exceed one third, and that a debt takes precedence over a bequest.”
It is reported
that Imran ibn Husayn said to a man who wished to rely exclusively on the Quran
and abandon the Prophetic tradition:
“You are a
foolish man. Do you find in the Book of Allah that Adh-Dhur prayer consists of
four raka`at and is not recited aloud?”
He then went on
to mention prayer, almsgiving, and other matters.
The Quran also
points to the status of the Prophetic tradition and to the Messenger's role in
explaining what is presented in general terms in the Quran through a number of
verses:
{Nor
does he speak of his own whims. It is only a revelation sent down ˹to him˺.} [An-Najm 53:3-4]
{Whatever
the Messenger gives you, take it. And whatever he forbids you from, leave it.} [Al-Hashr 59:7]
{Obey
Allah and obey the Messenger and beware!} [Al-Ma’idah 5:92] [At-Taghabun 64:12]
{Whoever
obeys the Messenger has truly obeyed Allah.} [An-Nisa 4:80]
{Indeed,
in the Messenger of Allah you have an excellent example for whoever has hope in
Allah and the Last Day.} [Al-Ahzab 33:21]
{˹They are˺ the ones who follow the Messenger, the
unlettered Prophet, whose description they find in their Torah and the Gospel.
He commands them to do good and forbids them from evil, permits for them what
is lawful and forbids to them what is impure, and relieves them from their
burdens and the shackles that bound them.} [Al-A'raf 7:157]
Dr. Abdul Jalil
Shalabi said:
“The noble
verse, ‘And We revealed to you the message that you may make clear to the
people what was sent down to them,’ indicates that the function of the
Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, was to explain to people
the rulings that had been revealed to them in the Quran. The Messenger of Allah
had to carry out this task, for otherwise he would not have fully conveyed the
message from Allah. This explanation was given through both words and actions.
The Prophetic
tradition, therefore, is the complete reference for Islamic law and its
clarifying explanation. It is also an integral complement to the Quran and
comes from Allah, the Most Blessed and Exalted, just as the Quran comes from
Him.”
The leading
scholars have pointed out that virtually no position attributed to the major
jurists of the second and third centuries of Islam can be found without having
been preceded by a similar position among the Companions or their successors.
The position of
the Prophetic tradition and the Prophetic reports within Islamic law is
unmistakable, as is their influence on Islamic jurisprudence from the time of
the Prophet and his Companions through the subsequent centuries of scholarly
reasoning and the eventual establishment of the major schools of Islamic law.
Anyone who
studies the Quran and the Prophetic tradition will find that the latter played
a major role in expanding the scope and richness of Islamic legislation and in
contributing to its enduring character. This remarkable legal tradition, which
has impressed legal scholars around the world, is also what has led opponents
of Islam, both in the past and in the present, to attack the Prophetic
tradition and cast doubt upon its authenticity and upon the reliability of its
transmitters among the prominent Companions.
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