What about people who deny the Hadiths?
Mu'
meneen Brothers and Sisters,
As
Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. (May Allah's Peace, Mercy
and Blessings be upon all of you)
One of our brothers/sisters has asked this
question:
the internet has its positive
sides as well as its negative sites. Its sad when people claiming to be muslims
create webpages that show their perspective about Islam, which eventually
deviates people of weaker faith or knowledge. Brother, what would you tell a
person who does not believe in hadith, or rather how would you tell a
person who doesn’t believe in hadith that they are mistaken. Awaiting
regards
(There may be some grammatical and spelling
errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from
questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in
confidentiality.)
What about people who deny
the Hadiths?
In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask
for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and who-ever He
allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there
is no one (no idol, no person, no grave, no prophet, no imam, no dai, nobody!)
worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is
His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.
Your Statement: the
internet has its positive sides as well as its negative sites. Its sad when
people claiming to be muslims create webpages that show their perspective about
Islam, which eventually deviates people of weaker faith or knowledge.
We absolutely
agree with you that the internet has its positive and negative sites, and it is
indeed unfortunate when people start propagating their sects and their visions
in presence to the guidance of the Holy Quran. That is why a believer should always try to gain sufficient
knowledge from the Book of Guidance:
The Al Quran.
Then whatever
anyone says or propagates must be referred to the guidance of the Holy
Quran. If the guidance is from the
Holy Quran, then accept it. If the
guidance is not from the Quran, then obviously it is not the Truth and must be
rejected.
Your Statement: Brother, what would you tell a person who
does not believe in hadith, or rather how would you tell a person who
doesn’t believe in hadith that they are mistaken.
The ‘hadiths’
are nothing but the various collections of the scholars over time about the
life and traditions of the Prophet (saws).
What is important is that a believer, who sincerely believes in Allah and
the Last Day, must follow the guidance of the Holy Quran and the Sunnah of the
Messenger of Allah (saws).
Thus if someone
claims that he does not want to follow the Sunnah of the Prophet (saws), then
he is definitely astray. And the people
who generally claim that they do not follow any of the hadiths, are in real
terms, the people who have denied to obey and follow the Sunnah of the
Messenger of Allah (saws).
We must also
understand that there a lot of hadiths which might have been written by unscrupulous
people over the years for their own political and material gains. Thus if a person, who has knowledge from
the Quran and Sunnah, has a doubt on the authenticity of a hadith and is able
to provide evidence from the Holy Quran or other established and accepted
hadiths to prove his doubt, that is fair.
And that is why
eminent scholars and collectors of hadith have done extensive research during
their times to check the authenticity of the various hadiths. Among the most respected collectors were
Bukhari and Muslim, who collected in excess of 300,000 hadiths each, but only
about 7,000 of these hadiths met their austere criteria of authenticity, which
were named in their collections as Sahih or authentic.
Thus there is a
clear difference between the ones who refuse to accept Prophet Mohamed (saws)
as their guide and thus deny the whole Sunnah of the Messenger (saws); and the
ones who doubt the authenticity of a particular hadith, which according to
their knowledge of the Quran and Sunnah, may be weak or fabricated.
Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to
Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only
Source of Strength.
Your brother and well wisher in Islam,
Burhan