Since
the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, there has been considerable
controversy and criticism over his alleged oral traditions, the Hadith.
While
many early Muslims, ostensibly including Muhammad, forbade followers
from recording the "sayings" of the prophet, the caliph Umar II is
believed to have encouraged the collection and codification of the
sayings into formal collections of Hadith approximately 200 years
later.[1] However, some scholars have pointed out that of the six major
sets of Hadith, all were collected by Persians, rather than Arabs who
had direct lineage and knowledge of the prophet's life.[2]
It
has been suggested three major sources of corruption are political
conflicts, sectarian prejudice and the desire to translate the
underlying meaning, rather than the verbatim words, of the original
quotes.[3]
The criticism of Hadith refers to critique directed towards collections of the reports quoting what the prophet Muhammad said verbatim on any matter, that are known as Hadith. The criticism revolves primarily around the authenticity of hadith reports and whether they are attributable to Muhammad, as well as theological and philosophical grounds as to whether the hadith can provide rulings on legal and religious matters when the Quran has already declared itself "complete", "clear", "detailed" and "perfect".
Early
criticism of the Hadith came from a group referred to as Ahl al-Kalam,
who lived during the time of Al-Shafii, and mentioned in his Kitab Jima al-Ilm,
rejected the Hadith on theological grounds. Their basic argument was
that the Quran was an explanation of everything (16:89). They contended
that obedience to the Prophet was contained in obeying only the Qur'an
that God has sent down to him, and that when the Qur'an mentioned the
Book together with Wisdom, the Wisdom was the specific rulings of the
Book."[14] Daniel
Brown notes that one of the arguments of Ahl al-Kalam was that "the
corpus of Hadith is filled with contradictory, blasphemous, and absurd
traditions."[4]
At
the turn of the twentieth century, Muhammad Tawfiq Sidqi (d. 1920) of
Egypt wrote an article titled 'al-Islam huwa ul-Qur'an Wahdahu' ('Islam
is the Qur'an Alone) that appeared in the Egyptian journal al-Manar, which argues that the Quran is sufficient as guidance: "what is obligatory for man does not go beyond God's Book. ...
If anything other than the Qur'an had been necessary for religion,"
Sidqi notes, "the Prophet would have commanded its registration in
writing, and God would have guaranteed its preservation."[15] "Sidqi
held that nothing of the Hadith was recorded until after enough time
had elapsed to allow the infiltration of numerous absurd or corrupt
traditions."[16] Although Muhammad Iqbal never
rejected the hadith wholesale, he proposed limitations on its usage by
arguing that it should be taken contextually and circumstantiall
SOURCE :
SOURCE :
Criticism of Hadith - Wikipedia
after Muhammad’s death the Muslims differed, and they fabricated thousands of hadith’s and
reports to support their various causes. From the day Abu Lu’lu’ah, the
servant of Mughirah, killed ‘Umar ibn al Khattab’ and ‘Uthman ibn
Affan’ assumed caliphate, the old pre-Islamic enmity of Banu-Hashim and
Banu-Ummayah reappeared. When, upon the murder of Uthman, civil war
broke out between the Muslims, Aishah fought against Ali and Ali’s
supporters consolidated themselves into a party, the fabrication of
Hadith’s spread to a point where “Ali ibn Abu Talib himself had to
reject the practice and warn against it. He reportedly said: “We
have no book and no writing to read except the Quran and this sheet
which I have received from the Prophet of God in which he specified the
duties prescribed by charity.”
Apparently, this exhortation did not stop the hadith narrators from
fabricating their stories either in support of a cause they advocated,
or of a virtue or practice to which they exhorted the Muslims and which
they thought would have more appeal if vested with prophetic authority.
When Banu Ummayah firmly established themselves in power, their
protagonists among their hadith narrators deprecated the prophetic
traditions reported by the party of ‘Ali ibn Abu talib’ and the later
defended these traditions and propagated them with all the means at
their disposal. Undoubtedly thy also deprecated the traditions reported
by ‘Aishah’, “Mother of the Faithful.”
Issues Concerning Hadith - Islamic Awareness
Since
the authenticity of the Quran, being the un-corrupted word of God is
not a matter of dispute, then it would make better sense to assess the
authenticity of any hadith by determining whether it is in harmony with Quranic truth or in fact, it is in violation of Quranic truth. Sadly, the hadith scholars are not interested whether any one hadith
contradicts the Quran or not. When there is a clear contradiction
between a Quranic verse and a hadith, they do not hesitate in labelling
the Quranic verse as one that has been abrogated by a hadith!
Testing the authenticity of any hadith
is only relevant for historic purposes and for the benefit of those who
wish to research the life of the Prophet. As we shall see later, the
Prophet himself prohibited his people from writing or documenting his hadith, which makes the whole collection of hadith books a very dubious matter indeed.
Consequently, if we try to apply the only logical criteria for assessing the hadith (its compliance with the Quran) we are immediately faced with serious contradictions between a large number of hadith
on one hand and the Quran on the other hand. However, if we accept that
the Prophet of God would have never taught anything that violates or
contradicts the Quran, we must conclude that any hadith
which contradicts the Quran, which is attributed to the Prophet, is
indeed a lie and a fabrication which the Prophet is innocent of.
SOURCE:
SOURCE:
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder