Quran 4:80 – The unreliable Hadith

Hadith are anecdotes about Muhammad which most Muslims use as a source of law second only in importance to the Quran. Muslims have collected hadith because the Quran says Muhammad is a good example and should be obeyed, [Quran 33:2] [Quran 4:80] and Allah requires Muhammad to explain the Quran. [Quran 16:44] Approximately two hundred years after the death of Muhammad hundreds of thousands of forged hadith were in circulation most of them forgeries. Then the scholars Bukhari and Muslim used various criteria to select only authentic hadith for their collections. Confusion still remains because some hadith conflict with the Quran, some conflict with other hadith, and some have doubtful authenticity. Hadith contain the most controversial issues that confront Islam, such as death penalties for adultery, apostasy (leaving Islam), blasphemy (insulting Allah or Muhammad), and homosexuality. Fundamentalist Muslims revere the authentic hadith collections, but Modernist Muslims are shocked by what they see in the hadith and claim they are too unreliable to use and vindicate their position with these verses from the Quran: Muhammad is only a messenger; [Quran 5:99] the Quran is complete, [Quran 6:38] and; Allah will do the explaining. [Quran 75:16-19]

History of hadith

The earliest collections of anecdotes about Muhammad were lost:

After the death of Muhammad, his sayings were preserved in both written and memorized form. Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second caliph, began to collect all the hadiths together into one unified volume. He, however, chose to give up the endeavor in order to have the Muslim nation concentrate its efforts more on the Quran.

The Umayyad caliph, Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz also started an effort to collect all the hadiths. Teaching and collecting hadiths was part of a plan of his to renew the moral fiber of the Muslim community. He supported teachers of fiqh, sent educators to ignorant Bedouin tribes, ordered weekly hadith lectures in the Hejaz, and sent out scholars of hadith to Egypt and North Africa.

Umar {ibn Abd al-Aziz} also ordered the great scholar of Madinah, Abu Bakr ibn Hazm to write down all the hadiths of Muhammad and Umar ibn al-Khattab, particularly those narrated by Aisha. He had these hadiths collected in books which were circulated around the Umayyad Empire. Although these books are lost today, commentaries on them by Ibn al-Nadim reveals that they are organized like books of fiqh, such as the Muwatta of Imam Malik, the first large compilation of hadiths. Imam Malik himself probably followed the general plan of the early books of hadith ordered by Umar.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith_studies (2017/06/01)]

Also:

Traditions of the life of Muhammad and the early history of Islam were passed down mostly orally for more than a hundred years after Muhammad’s death in AD 632. Muslim historians say that Caliph Uthman ibn Affan (the third khalifa (caliph) of the Rashidun Empire, or third successor of Muhammad, who had formerly been Muhammad’s secretary), is generally believed to urge Muslims to record the hadith just as Muhammad suggested to some of his followers to write down his words and actions.

Uthman’s labours were cut short by his assassination, at the hands of aggrieved soldiers, in 656. No sources survive directly from this period so we are dependent on what later writers tell us about this period.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith (2017/06/01)]

After the Muslims lost all the first efforts at recording the anecdotes about Muhammad they had to start again, but to make them believable they had to use more rigour in sorting out the good ones from the many counterfeit ones:

The classification of Hadith into sahih, sound or authentic; hasan, good; and da’if, weak, was utilized early in hadith scholarship by Ali ibn al-Madini (161–234 AH) {783-856 CE}. Later, al-Madini’s student Muhammad al-Bukhari (810–870) authored a collection, now known as Sahih Bukhari, commonly accepted by Sunni scholars to be the most authentic collection of hadith, followed by that of his student Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj. Al-Bukhari’s methods of testing hadiths and isnads are seen as exemplary of the developing methodology of hadith scholarship.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith_studies (2017/06/01)]

Hadith, that have been collected in this shambolic way, are used to kill people who have committed the victimless “crimes” of blasphemy, homosexuality, and apostasy, and to kill people for the fantasy sin of adultery.

Definition of an hadith

Hadith are also known as ‘traditions’. A definition of an hadith is:

In Islamic terminology, the term hadith refers to reports of statements or actions of Muhammad, or of his tacit approval or criticism of something said or done in his presence.

 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith]

An hadith consists of the anecdote:

The two major aspects of a hadith are the text of the report (the matn), which contains the actual narrative,…

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith]

And the list of people who passed it on:

…and the chain of narrators (the isnad), which documents the route by which the report has been transmitted. The sanad, literally ‘support’, is so named due to the reliance of the hadith specialists upon it in determining the authenticity or weakness of a hadith. The isnad consists of a chronological list of the narrators, each mentioning the one from whom they heard the hadith, until mentioning the originator of the matn along with the matn itself.  

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith]

The first people to hear hadith were the companions who preserved it and then conveyed it to those after them.  

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith]

Traditions regarding the life of Muhammad and the early history of Islam were passed down both orally and written for more than a hundred years after the death of Muhammad in 632.  

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_hadith]

The reasons why hadith were collected

There are several reasons why Muslims collected hadith about Muhammad.

God asked Muslims to obey Muhammad:

So obey Allah, and obey His Messenger: but if ye turn back, the duty of Our Messenger is but to proclaim (the Message) clearly and openly.

[Quran 64:12]

And whatsoever the messenger giveth you, take it. And whatsoever he forbiddeth, abstain (from it). And keep your duty to Allah. Lo! Allah is stern in reprisal.  

[Quran 59:7]

Whoever obeys the Messenger, he indeed obeys Allah,

[Quran 4:80]

Say, (O Muhammad, to mankind): If ye love Allah, follow me; Allah will love you and forgive you your sins. Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. Say: Obey Allah and the messenger. But if they turn away, lo! Allah loveth not the disbelievers (in His guidance).

[Quran 3:31-32]

God required Muhammad to explain the verses of the Quran:

(We sent them) with Clear Signs and Books of dark prophecies; and We have sent down unto thee (also) the Message; that thou mayest explain clearly to men what is sent for them, and that they may give thought.  

[Quran 16:44]

And, Allah said Muhammad is a good example to follow:

Verily in the messenger of Allah ye have a good example for him who looketh unto Allah and the Last Day, and remembereth Allah much.

 [Quran 33:21]

If the Muslims around Muhammad had not written down what Muhammad had done, and said, etc, then the Muslims following them would not be able to obey Muhammad, and to benefit from his explanations of the Quran, and follow his example.

The Hadith became corrupted

Criticism of Hadith refers to critique directed towards canonised reports {approved sacred texts} concerning the deeds and sayings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, known as the Hadith. Criticism revolves primarily around the question of the authenticity of hadith reports and whether they are attributable to Muhammad.  

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Hadith]

Muhammad had died in the 7th century, and:

By the 9th century the number of hadiths had grown exponentially. Islamic scholars of the Abbasid period were faced with a huge corpus of miscellaneous traditions, some of them flatly contradicting each other. Many of these traditions supported differing views on a variety of controversial matters. Scholars had to decide which hadith were to be trusted as authentic and which had been invented for political or theological purposes. To do this, they used a number of techniques which Muslims now call the science of hadith.  

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith]

The reason why there were so many forged hadith is that they were easy to produce. All the forger had to do was:

  1. Create an anecdote about Muhammad
  2. Add a line of isnads taken from a “reliable” hadith
  3. Concoct a story of how it was found

If someone tried to create a hadith like this today then it would be unlikely to be believed, but there was a period of time probably starting during Muhammad’s life and up to a couple of centuries after his death, when hundreds of thousands of forged hadith were produced.

Hadith studies

Hadith studies, sometimes called the science of hadith (Takhrij), was developed by Muslim scholars to filter out the forged and unreliable hadith:

A common historical method in Islam, hadith studies consist of a careful examination of the isnad, or chain of transmission accompanying each hadith. The isnad is carefully scrutinized to see if the chain is possible (for example, making sure that all transmitters and transmittees were known to be alive and living in the same area at the time of transmission) and if the transmitters are reliable. The scholars reject as unreliable people reported to have lied (at any point), as well as people reputed to be heedless (and thus likely to misunderstand the saying).  

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith_studies (2012/07/20)]

The classification of Hadith into sahih, sound or authentic; hasan, good; and da’if, weak, was utilized early in hadith scholarship by Ali ibn al-Madini (161–234 AH). Later, al-Madini’s student Muhammad al-Bukhari (810–870) authored a collection, now known as Sahih Bukhari, commonly accepted by Sunni scholars to be the most  authentic collection of hadith, followed by that of his student Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj. Al-Bukhari’s methods of testing hadiths and isnads are seen as exemplary of the developing methodology of hadith scholarship.  

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith_studies (2012/07/20)]

The two most reliable collections of hadith

…Bukhari and Muslim in particular, claimed that they were collecting only the soundest of sound hadiths. These later scholars tested their claims and agreed to them, so that today, they are considered the most reliable collections of hadith.  

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith]

Regarding Al-Bukhari:

Al-Bukhari traveled widely throughout the Abbasid empire from the age of 16, collecting those traditions he thought trustworthy. It is said that al-Bukhari collected over 300,000 hadith and included only 2,602 traditions in his Sahih. At the time when Bukhari saw [the earlier] works and conveyed them, he found them, in their presentation, combining between what would be considered sahih {authentic} and hasan {good} and that many of them included da’if {weak} hadith. This aroused his interest in compiling hadith whose authenticity was beyond doubt.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahih_al-Bukhari]

Regarding Muslim:

Imam Muslim (Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj) was born in 202 AH (817/18 CE) … and died in 261 AH (874/75 CE)…
Out of 300,000 hadith which he evaluated, approximately 4,000 were extracted for inclusion into his collection based on stringent acceptance criteria. Each report in his collection was checked and the veracity of the chain of reporters was painstakingly established. Sunni Muslims consider it the second most authentic hadith collection, after Sahih Bukhari.  

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahih_Muslim]

This means that only 1.4% of the hadith that Muslim collected were “authentic”, and only 0.9% of the hadith that Bukhari collected were “authentic”. Muhammad died in 632, so Bukhari and Muslim compiled their collections of hadith about TWO HUNDRED YEARS after the death of Muhammad. This raises the obvious question: Are these “authentic” hadith mearly the best forgeries?

Fundamentalist Muslims revere hadith

Fundamentalist Muslims only use the Quran and authentic hadith to make Sharia (Allah’s law):

Ahl al-Hadith (“The people of hadith”) first emerged in the 2nd/3rd Islamic centuries as a movement of hadith scholars who considered the Quran and authentic hadith to be the only authority in matters of law and creed. Its adherents are also known as traditionalists and traditionists (from “tradition” as a translation of the word hadith).

In jurisprudence Ahl al-Hadith opposed contemporary jurists who based their legal reasoning on informed opinion (ra’y) or living local practice, referred to as Ahl ar-Ra’y. In matters of faith, they were pitted against the Mu’tazilites and other theological currents, condemning many points of their doctrines as well as the rationalistic methods they used in defending them. The most prominent leader of the movement was Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Subsequently, all Sunni legal schools gradually came to accept the reliance on the Quran and hadith advocated by the Ahl al-Hadith movement, while al-Ash’ari (874-936) used rationalistic argumentation favored by Mu’tazilites to defend most tenets of the Ahl al-Hadith doctrine. In the following centuries the term ahl al-hadith came to refer to the scholars, mostly of the Hanbali madhhab, who rejected rationalistic theology (kalam) and held on to the early Sunni creed. This theological school, which is also known as traditionalist theology, has been championed in recent times by the Salafi movement. The term ahl al-hadith is sometimes used in a more general sense to denote a particularly enthusiastic commitment to hadith and to the views and way of life of the Salaf (exemplary early Muslims).

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahl_al-Hadith (2017/04/23)]

Wahhabis / salafis are Fundamentalist Muslims. Salafi Muslims will try to imitate Muhammad in every way, and they take Muhammad’s companions and the two generations following them as exemplary models.

The Salafist doctrine can be summed up as taking “a fundamentalist approach to Islam, emulating Muhammad and his earliest followers – al-salaf al-salih, the ‘pious forefathers’.” “They reject religious innovation or bid’ah, and support the implementation of sharia (Islamic law).” The movement is often divided into three categories: the largest group are the purists (or quietists), who avoid politics; the second largest group are the activists, who get involved in politics; and the smallest group are jihadists, who form a small minority.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salafi_movement (2017/04/23)]

The salafi follow the first three generations because of this hadith:

Narrated ‘Abdullah: The Prophet was asked, “Who are the best people?” He replied: The people of my generation, and then those who will follow (come after) them, and then those who will come after the later; after that there will come some people whose witness will precede their oaths and their oaths will go ahead of their witness.” Ibrahim (a sub-narrator) said, “When we were young, our elder friends used to prohibit us from taking oaths by saying, ‘I bear witness swearing by Allah, or by Allah’s Covenant.”‘

[Sahih Bukhari 8:78:652]

The salafis can only emulate these generations if they use the hadith that have been collected about them.

Many Fundamentalist Muslims observe hadith that are not of the highest standard. Look at all the Fundamentalist Muslim women who only show their face and hands in public. They are following this hadith which contains a note that effectively says that it is defective:

 Narrated Aisha, Ummul Mu’minin:

Asma, daughter of AbuBakr, entered upon the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) wearing thin clothes. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) turned his attention from her. He said: O Asma’, when a woman reaches the age of menstruation, it does not suit her that she displays her parts of body except this and this, and he pointed to his face and hands.

Abu Dawud said: This is a mursal tradition (i.e. the narrator who transmitted it from ‘Aishah is missing) Khalid b. Duraik did not see ‘Aishah.

[Sunan Abu-Dawud, Book 32, Number 4092]

Controversial hadith

All the nasty laws in Sharia that require death for adultery, apostasy (leaving Islam), blasphemy (insulting Allah or Muhammad), and homosexuality, come from the Hadith, as does allowing child wives and female genital mutilation (FGM). It is the Fundamentalist Muslims, who revere the hadith, who want to apply all these laws.

The Quran does not have a stoning verse but there are hadith that say that Muhammad stoned married adulterers, and one hadith says, Muhammad stoned married adulterers up until his death.

…’Umar sat on the pulpit and when the callmakers for the prayer had finished their call, ‘Umar stood up, and having glorified and praised Allah as He deserved, he said, “Now then, I am going to tell you something which (Allah) has written for me to say. I do not know; perhaps it portends my death, so whoever understands and remembers it, must narrate it to the others wherever his mount takes him, but if somebody is afraid that he does not understand it, then it is unlawful for him to tell lies about me. Allah sent Muhammad with the Truth and revealed the Holy Book to him, and among what Allah revealed, was the Verse of the Rajam (the stoning of married person (male & female) who commits illegal sexual intercourse, and we did recite this Verse and understood and memorized it. Allah’s Apostle did carry out the punishment of stoning and so did we after him.

I am afraid that after a long time has passed, somebody will say, ‘By Allah, we do not find the Verse of the Rajam in Allah’s Book,’ and thus they will go astray by leaving an obligation which Allah has revealed. And the punishment of the Rajam is to be inflicted to any married person (male & female), who commits illegal sexual intercourse, if the required evidence is available or there is conception or confession.

[Sahih Bukhari 8:82:817]

Apostates are killed because of hadith like this:

Narrated ‘Abdullah: Allah’s Apostle said, “The blood of a Muslim who confesses that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that I am His Apostle, cannot be shed except in three cases: In Qisas for murder, a married person who commits illegal sexual intercourse and the one who reverts from Islam (apostate) and leaves the Muslims.”

[Sahih Bukhari 9:83:17]

Blasphemers are killed because of hadith like this:

Allah’s Apostle said, “Who is willing to kill Ka’b bin Al-Ashraf who has hurt Allah and His Apostle?” Thereupon Muhammad bin Maslama got up saying, “O Allah’s Apostle! Would you like that I kill him?” The Prophet said, “Yes,” … So they killed him and went to the Prophet and informed him. 

[Sahih Bukhari 5:59:369]

Homosexuals are killed because of hadith like this:

Narrated Abdullah ibn Abbas: The Prophet (ﷺ) said: If you find anyone doing as Lot’s people did, kill the one who does it, and the one to whom it is done.

[Abu Dawud 4462]

Child marriage is allowed because Muhammad had sex with a nine year old wife called Aisha as this example shows:

Narrated ‘Aisha: that the Prophet married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old, and then she remained with him for nine years (i.e., till his death).

[Sahih Bukhari 7:62:64]

Female genital mutilation is allowed because Muhammad approved it in this hadith:

A woman used to perform circumcision in Medina. The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said to her: Do not cut severely as that is better for a woman and more desirable for a husband.

[Sunan Abu Dawud 41:5251]

Modernist Muslims doubt many of the “authentic hadith”

Modernist Muslims are inspired by the Quran and the Hadith but do not blindly follow them, they apply reason to achieve their goal of modernising Islam:

Modernism differs from … Salafism or Islamism in that it embraces contemporary European institutions, social processes, and values.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Modernism (2017/04/30)]

Modernist Muslims doubt the authenticity of many of the controversial hadith:

Commencing in the late nineteenth century and impacting the twentieth-century, Muhammed Abduh … undertook a project to defend and modernize Islam to match Western institutions and social processes.

Abduh was skeptical towards Hadith (or “Traditions”), i.e. towards the body of reports of the teachings, doings, and sayings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Particularly towards those Traditions that are reported through few chains of transmission, even if they are deemed rigorously authenticated in any of the six canonical books of Hadith (known as the Kutub al-Sittah). Furthermore, he advocated a reassessment of traditional assumptions even in Hadith studies, though he did not devise a systematic methodology before his death.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Modernism (2017/04/30)]

Modernists believe the Quran allows them to re-examine the Quran and Hadith because Allah says:

Allah will not change the good condition of a people as long as they do not change their state of goodness themselves (by committing sins and by being ungrateful and disobedient to Allah).

[Quran 13:11]

One critic of Modernism says:

… {Maududi} disagreed with them { the Modernists} in their examination of the Quran and the Sunna using reason as the standard. Maududi, instead started from the proposition that `true reason is Islamic`, and accepted the Book and the Sunna, not reason, as the final authority. Modernists errored in examining rather than simply obeying the Quran and the Sunna.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Modernism (2017/05/01)]

Problems with hadith

Chronology confusion

As with the Quran, generally there is no chronological order to any hadith, although some hadith can be put before or after another because of internal evidence. For example this hadith says women should not be beaten:

I said: Apostle of Allah, how should we approach our wives and how should we leave them? He replied: Approach your tilth when or how you will, give her (your wife) food when you take food, clothe when you clothe yourself, do not revile her face, and do not beat her.  

[Abu-Dawud 11:2138]

This hadith is contradicted by the following hadith which says Muhammad gave permission to beat women:

Iyas ibn Abdullah ibn AbuDhubab reported the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) as saying: Do not beat Allah’s handmaidens, but when Umar came to the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) and said: Women have become emboldened towards their husbands, he (the Prophet) gave permission to beat them. Then many women came round the family of the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) complaining against their husbands. So the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) said: Many women have gone round Muhammad’s family complaining against their husbands. They are not the best among you.

 [Abu-Dawud 11:2141]

However, this hadith includes some internal evidence that says Muhammad previously used to say don’t beat women. This hadith is then obviously later than the first one shown and so it abrogates the “Do not beat them” part of the previous hadith.

Sometimes this internal evidence is not present, and the lack of chronology can cause problems when using abrogation between one hadith and another hadith, and when using hadith to abrogate the Quran.

Some hadith contradict other hadith

If all hadith were reliable then why is it sometimes possible that people with opposing opinions can use the hadith to support their views. As is being observed here:

Goldziher writes, in his Mohammedan Studies: “… it is not surprising that, among the hotly debated controversial issues of Islam, whether political or doctrinal, there is not one in which the champions of the various views are unable to cite a number of traditions, all equipped with imposing isnads”  

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith (2013/01/14)]

For example: The following hadith says Muhammad struck Aisha ( Aisha was one of Muhammad’s wives) and is from one of the “soundest of the sound” hadith collections:

When it was my turn for Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) to spend the night with me, he turned his side, put on his mantle and took off his shoes and placed them near his feet, and spread the corner of his shawl on his bed and then lay down till he thought that I had gone to sleep. He took hold of his mantle slowly and put on the shoes slowly, and opened the door and went out and then closed it lightly. I covered my head, put on my veil and tightened my waist wrapper, and then went out following his steps till he reached Baqi’. He stood there and he stood for a long time. He then lifted his hands three times, and then returned and I also returned. He hastened his steps and I also hastened my steps. He ran and I too ran. He came (to the house) and I also came (to the house). I, however, preceded him and I entered (the house), and as I lay down in the bed, he (the Holy Prophet) entered the (house), and said: Why is it, O ‘A’isha, that you are out of breath? I said: There is nothing. He said: Tell me or the Subtle and the Aware would inform me. I said: Messenger of Allah, may my father and mother be ransom for you, and then I told him (the whole story). He said: Was it the darkness (of your shadow) that I saw in front of me? I said: Yes. He struck me on the chest which caused me pain, and then said: Did you think that Allah and His Apostle would deal unjustly with you?  

[Sahih Muslim, Book 4, Number 2127]

The above hadith is countered with the following hadith that says Muhammad never beat a woman (and is from a hadith collection that is NOT claimed to be one of the “soundest of the sound”):

Aaishah (Radhiallahu ‘Anha) said: “Allaah’s Messenger (Sallallahu ‘Alaihi Wa Sallam) never hit anything with his hand ever, except when fighting in the path of Allaah. Nor did he ever hit a servant or a woman.”  [Recorded by Ibn Maajah. Al-Albaanee graded it Saheeh.]

Some hadith contradict the Quran

For instance:

The Quran requires (unmarried) fornicators and (married) adulterers to be flogged:

The woman and the man guilty of adultery or fornication,- flog each of them with a hundred stripes: Let not compassion move you in their case, in a matter prescribed by Allah, if ye believe in Allah and the Last Day: and let a party of the Believers witness their punishment.

 [Quran 24:2]

However, the following hadith shows that unmarried fornicators should be flogged and married adulterers should be stoned to death:

A bedouin came to the Prophet while he (the Prophet) was sitting, and said, “O Allah’s Apostle! Give your verdict according to Allah’s Laws (in our case).” Then his opponent got up and said, “He has told the truth, O Allah’s Apostle! Decide his case according to Allah’s Laws. My son was a laborer working for this person, and he committed illegal sexual intercourse with his wife, and the people told me that my son should be stoned to death, but I offered one-hundred sheep and a slave girl as a ransom for him. Then I asked the religious learned people, and they told me that my son should be flogged with one-hundred stripes and be exiled for one year.” The Prophet said, “By Him in Whose Hand my soul is, I will judge you according to Allah’s Laws. The sheep and the slave girl will be returned to you and your son will be flogged one-hundred stripes and be exiled for one year. And you, O Unais! Go to the wife of this man (and if she confesses), stone her to death.” So Unais went in the morning and stoned her to death (after she had confessed).  

 [Sahih Bukhari, Volume 8, Book 82, Number 821]

The Quran says:

Let there be no compulsion in religion  

[Quran 2:256]

However, this hadith requires apostates to be killed:

Narrated ‘Abdullah: Allah’s Apostle said, “The blood of a Muslim who confesses that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that I am His Apostle, cannot be shed except in three cases: In Qisas for murder, a married person who commits illegal sexual intercourse and the one who reverts from Islam (apostate) and leaves the Muslims.”  

[Sahih Bukhari, Volume 9, Book 83, Number 17]

The Quran only mentions praying three times a day, but some hadith require five prayers a day:

… the Qur’an refers to three daily prayers (suras 11:114; 17:78–79; 30:17–18 and possibly 24:58), while the five daily prayers stipulated by the later Ahadith have been adopted by Muslims.  

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salah (2012/11/30)]

The Quran says that if anyone is killed, except in two cases, then it would be like killing the whole of mankind:

On that account: We ordained for the Children of Israel that if any one slew a person – unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land – it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people. Then although there came to them Our messengers with clear signs, yet, even after that, many of them continued to commit excesses in the land.

[Quran 5:32]

This verse from the Quran is often quoted by Modernist Muslims to support their belief that apostates, blasphemers, adulterers, and homosexuals should not be punished with death. However, it causes a bit of confusion because it appears to only apply to Jews (the Children of Israel). It has been shown above that Fundamentalist Muslims believe that apostates, blasphemers, adulterers, and homosexuals can be punished with death because of the hadith that require this.

Western historian’s view of the Hadith

Here is the opinion of one Western historian:

John Esposito notes that “Modern Western scholarship has seriously questioned the historicity and authenticity of the hadith”, maintaining that “the bulk of traditions attributed to the Prophet Muhammad were actually written much later.” He mentions Joseph Schacht as one scholar who argues this, claiming that Schacht “found no evidence of legal traditions before 722,” from which Schacht concluded that “the Sunna of the Prophet is not the words and deeds of the Prophet, but apocryphal {of doubtful authenticity} material” dating from later.

 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith (2013/01/14)]

It is possible that hadith were invented to make sense of the Quran.

Western historians use the Historical Method which relies on primary sources:

Historical method comprises the techniques and guidelines by which historians use primary sources and other evidence to research and then to write histories in the form of accounts of the past.

 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_method (2012/09/07)]

Primary sources are original materials. Information for which the writer has no personal knowledge is not primary, although it may be used by historians in the absence of a primary source. In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called original source or evidence) is an artifact, a document, a recording, or other source of information that was created at the time under study. It serves as an original source of information about the topic. Similar definitions are used in library science, and other areas of scholarship. In journalism, a primary source can be a person with direct knowledge of a situation, or a document created by such a person.  

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_source (2012/09/07)]

The most important part of an hadith is its chain of narrators (isnads). This is the list of people who had passed the hadith down through the generations. All hadith have them, but their very existence disqualifies hadith from being primary sources, and from being used by Western historians who rigorously apply the historical method.

For some unknown reason Wikipedia has decided that hadith are primary sources:

The Quran and the Hadith are considered to be primary sources, as defined in WP:PRIMARY.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Islam-related_articles (2013/04/02)]

Examples of important hadith where their authenticity is disputed

After Bukhari and Muslim had applied the “science of hadith” to find the most reliable hadith, Muslims are probably disappointed to find that there are still problems of authenticity with some of their most important hadith.

If it is possible to prove that one of the “soundest of the sound” hadith is unreliable, then this has profound consequences, because hadith are one of the foundations of Sharia (Allah’s law).

The following list are some of the hadith that are disputed, even by Muslims themselves:

  • The hadith that say Muhammad had sex with Aisha when she was nine. (Google: Aisha and Muhammad)
  • The hadith that require adulterers to be stoned
  • The hadith that say Muhammad visited the al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem on the Night Journey
  • The hadith that prescribe death for apostasy
  • The hadith that say women are not suitable for leadership
  • The hadith that claim Muhammad did miracles

A small minority of Muslims reject all the hadith

Some Muslims are so horrified by what they read in the “authentic” hadith that they reject all hadith. These Muslims are often called Quranists:

Quranism… is a denomination of Islam that holds the Qur’an to be the only canonical text in Islam. Quranists reject the religious authority of Hadith, libraries compiled by later scholars who cataloged narratives of what the Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said and done. This is in contrast to mainstream Muslims, Shias and Sunnis, who consider hadith essential for the Islamic faith.

 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quranism (2012/10/05)]

The Quranists make their anti-hadith case by using verses from the Quran.

There is no need for hadith because God says the Quran is complete and explains everything:

…We have sent down to thee the Book explaining all things, a Guide, a Mercy, and Glad Tidings to Muslims.

[Quran 16:89]

Nothing have we omitted from the Book,  

[Quran 6:38]

God says Muhammad’s task is only to deliver God’s message, and so implicitly Muhammad is not required to be a role model:

…only the delivery of the message is (incumbent) on you,

 [Quran 13:40]

And again:

Thy duty is but to convey (the Message).

 [Quran 42:48]

And again:

The Messenger’s duty is but to proclaim (the message).

 [Quran 5:99]

These Quranic verses appear to contradict verses 64:12, 59:7, and 4:80 (shown above).

The Quran says that God composes the verses of the Quran, Muhammad only has to follow them, and it is God’s responsibility to explain the Quran:

Stir not thy tongue herewith to hasten it. Lo! upon Us (resteth) the putting together thereof and the reading thereof. And when We read it, follow thou the reading; Then lo! upon Us (resteth) the explanation thereof.  

[Quran 75:16-19]

These contradictions between the verses in the Quran appear to reinforce the idea that the Quran is confused.  [Read more]

This verse appears to say, if you don’t believe Allah and the Quran then what will they believe:

These are the Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, revelations, etc.) of Allah, which We recite to you (O Muhammad) with truth. Then in which speech after {rejecting} Allah and His Ayat {verses from the Quran} will they believe?

[Quran 45:6]

It does not mention anything about believing in hadith. Perhaps this is because Allah has noticed that Muhammad is fallible and an unreliable role-model, so learning from him could mean you are learning errors. Here are some verses where Allah is correcting Muhammad:

It is not for a Prophet that he should have prisoners of war (and free them with ransom) until he had made a great slaughter (among his enemies) in the land. You desire the good of this world (i.e. the money of ransom for freeing the captives), but Allah desires (for you) the Hereafter. And Allah is All-Mighty, All-Wise.

[Quran 8:67]

May Allah forgive you (O Muhammad). Why did you grant them leave (for remaining behind, you should have persisted as regards your order to them to proceed on Jihad), until those who told the truth were seen by you in a clear light, and you had known the liars?

[Quran 9:43]

O Prophet! Why do you ban (for yourself) that which Allah has made lawful to you, seeking to please your wives? And Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.

[Quran 66:1]

It is interesting that nowhere in the Quran does Allah correct Muhammad for condoning rape in this hadith:

“Abu Sirma said to Abu Sa’id al Khadri (Allah he pleased with him): 0 Abu Sa’id, did you hear Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) mentioning al-‘azl? He said: Yes, and added: We went out with Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) on the expedition to the Bi’l-Mustaliq and took captive some excellent Arab women; and we desired them, for we were suffering from the absence of our wives, (but at the same time) we also desired ransom for them. So we decided to have sexual intercourse with them but by observing ‘azl (Interruptus Coitus – Withdrawing the male sexual organ before emission of semen to avoid-conception). But we said: We are doing an act whereas Allah’s Messenger is amongst us; why not ask him? So we asked Allah’s Mes- senger (may peace be upon him), and he said: It does not matter if you do not do it, for every soul that is to be born up to the Day of Resurrection will be born.”

[Sahih Muslim 8:3371]

Do these verses contradict the verses that promote hadith collection, or have the verses that promote hadith collection just been misunderstood? For example, when Allah says:

So obey Allah, and obey His Messenger 

[Quran 64:12]

Perhaps what Allah meant was, because Allah did not speak to all those present individually, only to Muhammad, then this verse is confirming for Muhammad’s audience that they need to obey Muhammad to obey Allah. As the Quran says:

Whoever obeys the Messenger, he indeed obeys Allah,

[Quran 4:80]

All Muslims used to be Quranists:

Wahid Al-Qur’an, or “The Qur’an Alone” (a.k.a. Quranism …) is the school of tafsir first used by Muslims during the first two centuries of Islamic history. As such, in that it predates the Sunni and Shi’a Hadiths and therefore Sunni and Shia interpretations by approximately 200 years, Wahid Al-Qur’an survives as the oldest school of tafsir.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tafsir (2015/12/09)]

Maybe hadith are innovations, and Muslims who use hadith are deviating from the original religion. Allah does not mention in the Quran that there is a collection of hadith guarded from error with Allah, like there is a Quran guarded from error with Allah. [Quran 15:10]

The opinion of the Rushidun caliphs

The Rashidun Caliphs (Rightly Guided Caliphs), often simply called, collectively, “the Rashidun”, is a term used in Sunni Islam to refer to the 30-year reign of the first four caliphs (successors) following the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, namely: Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan, and ‘Ali of the Rashidun Caliphate, the first caliphate, at least. The concept of “Rightly Guided Caliphs” originated with the later Abbasid Caliphate based in Baghdad. It is a reference to the Sunni imperative “Hold firmly to my example (sunnah) and that of the Rightly Guided Caliphs” (Ibn Majah, Abu Dawood).

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashidun (2017/04/19)]

Some claim that during Umar’s reign as Caliph, hadith were being recorded. However…

…some sources dispute this account, and claim that it was Umar himself who was the first person to ban hadith collection – a view also upheld by Shias. Certainly during his rule Umar strictly followed the policy of banning the hadith and he prohibited reporting and transmission of hadith altogether. Whenever he sent a group to a city, he would prohibit them from narrating hadith.

This ban continued through the caliphate of the khulafa’ rashidun into the Umayyad period and did not cease until the period of Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz, who ruled from 717 to 720 CE.

Here are the opinions of some experts.

Sunni view

Muhammad Husayn Haykal {writes:}

Umar ibn al-Khattab once tried to deal with the problem of committing the Hadith to writing. The companions of the Prophet whom he consulted, encouraged him, but he was not quite sure whether he should proceed. One day, moved by God’s inspiration, he made up his mind and announced: “I wanted to have the traditions of the Prophet written down, but I fear that the Book of God might be encroached upon. Hence I shall not permit this to happen.” He, therefore, changed his mind and instructed the Muslims throughout the provinces: “Whoever has a document bearing a prophetic tradition, shall destroy it.” The Hadith, therefore, continued to be transmitted orally and was not collected and written down until the period of al-Mamun.

Dr. Mohammad Hamidullah {writes:}

Abu-Dhahabi reports: The Caliph Abu-Bakr compiled a work, in which there were 500 traditions of the Prophet, and handed it over to his daughter ‘Aishah. The next morning, he took it back from her and destroyed it, saying: “I wrote what I understood; it is possible however that there should be certain things in it which did not correspond textually with what the Prophet had uttered.”

As to Umar, we learn on the authority of Ma’mar ibn Rashid, that during his caliphate, Umar once consulted the companions of the Prophet on the subject of codifying the Hadith. Everybody seconded the idea. Yet Umar continued to hesitate and pray to God for a whole month for guidance and enlightenment. Ultimately, he decided not to undertake the task, and said: “Former peoples neglected the Divine Books and concentrated only on the conduct of the prophets; I do not want to set up the possibility of confusion between the Divine Qur’an and the Prophet’s Hadith.”

Shia view

Ali Asgher Razwy, a 20th century Shi’a Islamic scholar writes:

Muhammad, the Apostle of God, had expressed the wish, on his deathbed, to write his will, and as noted before, Umar had thwarted him by shouting that the Book of God was sufficient for the Muslim umma, and that it did not need any other writing from him.

Umar, it appears, actually believed in what he said, viz., a will or any other writing of the Prophet was redundant since Qur’an had the ultimate answers to all the questions. And if any doubts still lingered in anyone’s mind on this point, he removed them when he became khalifa.

Muhammad lived in the hearts of his companions and friends. After his death, they wished to preserve all their recollections of his life. These recollections were of two kinds – his words and his deeds. The two together formed his Sunnah (the trodden path). Anything he said, and was quoted by a companion, is called a hadith or ‘tradition.’

But Umar did not want the companions to preserve any recollection of the words and the deeds of the Prophet. He, apparently, had many reservations regarding the usefulness, to the Muslim umma, of these recollections. He, therefore, forbade the companions to quote the sayings of the Prophet in speech or in writing. In other words, he placed the Hadith of the Prophet under a proscription.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith_of_Umar’s_ban_on_hadith (2017/04/19)]

The hadith that shows Muhammad was not guided by Allah

Muhammad preached about Allah, Angels, Genies, etc., which no one can check if they are true or not. Here is one of Muhammad’s medical opinions:

The Prophet said “If a house fly falls in the drink of anyone of you, he should dip it (in the drink), for one of its wings has a disease and the other has the cure for the disease.” 

[Sahih Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 54, Number 537]

Since Muhammad’s death there has been a revolution in science and no respected western doctor would recommend this. This hadith shows us that he was a normal man who managed to convince the Muslims that he was a prophet without showing any evidence other than his excellent poetry, his total belief in himself, his bravery and determination. This hadith shows us that Muhammad was definitely not guided by Allah and protected from error.

Next article >>

Rajm: Islam’s confusion about stoning adulterers [Read more]

See also

Waraqah’s influence on Muhammad – Waraqah ibn Nawfal was an Ebionite priest who lived in Mecca at the same time as Muhammad. Waraqah was related to Muhammad by blood and marriage, and he prayed at the Kaaba where Muhammad also meditated before his first revelation. Ebionites are Jewish Christians who follow the laws in the Torah, and believe Jesus is the promised Messiah. Muslims also follow the laws in the Torah and also believe Jesus is the promised Messiah. These similarities between Islam and the Ebionites (and many others) are probably because Muhammad had learnt about the Torah and Christianity from Waraqah before his first ‘revelation’. Note that Waraqah was preaching Monotheism in Mecca before Muhammad and was not being persecuted for it, this is important because many Muslims believe that one of the reasons why Muhammad was persecuted in Mecca was because he preached Monotheism. [Read more]

(#CounteringIslamism. This web page’s short link is: wp.me/P6xEIk-U)