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WHAT DOES THE
QUR'AN
MEAN by SAYING that it
EXPLAINS ALL THINGS?
A Refutation of Westernized
Pakistanis
who Attack Hadith
by
Kaukab Siddique
In 1861 a Christian missionary writer named
William Muir wrote a book titled
THE LIFE of MAHOMET in which he attacked Hadith.
A famous Muslim scholar of
the time, Sir Sayyid Ahmed Khan answered Muir in
detail. Unfortunately Sir
Sayyid was himself a great admirer of British
power and was deeply overawed by the
majesty of the British Empire. He gradually
succumbed to Muir's attack and
start casting doubts on some segments Hadith.
Gradually he narrowed down the
efficacy of Hadith to a very few aspects of life.
Through Sir Sayyid influence on westernized
Indian
Muslims, the attack on
Hadith gradually entered the mentally defeated
segment of what we today call the
Pakistani elites or the Pakistani ruling class.
In 1896 a Jewish scholar named Goldziher launched
a massive attack on Hadith
in his publication Muhammedanische Studien. It
was not translated into English
until 1967 but in 1950, its major thesis was
taken up and built on by another
Jewish scholar Joseph Schacht in his book ORIGINS
OF MUHAMMADAN JURISPRUDENCE.
Under the influence of Sir Sayyid, a number of
writers under severe
inferiority complex to the west emerged. The most
important of these was Ghulam Ahmed
Pervez who carried out systematic and scurrilous
attacks on Hadith. His
magazine Tolu-e-Islam, started in 1938, became a
rallying point for anti-Hadith
writings with a clear pro-government bias.
In the 1960s came Dr. Fazlur Rahman who carried
out a more sophisticated
attack on Hadith.
All these anti-Hadith efforts were tackled by
scholars of various schools of
Islamic thought in Pakistan. Abu Ala Maudoodi was
the most famous of these but
there were others whose rebuttal of the
anti-Hadith people was more far
reaching than his. [Maudoodi was too polite
towards the attackers.]
The anti-Hadith people became irrelevant in
Pakistan but they have found some
support among Pakistanis in
America.
One of them
has set up shop in Florida
and attracted admirers by denouncing Imam
Bukhari's Sahih. A bunch of these
characters are busy on the Internet abusing the
Hadith under the slogan of
"QUR'AN ONLY." Every now and then I receive their
emails.
I am willing to listen to any critique of the
Hadith, and even of the Qur'an,
if it is written in scholarly language and based
on honest investigation. It
should not take the shape of abuse, out of
context listing of quotations and
downright fabrication. The arrogance and
deliberate efforts of these people to
remove Prophet Muhammad's (pbuh) leadership from
Islam forced me to give them
some of my valuable time.
IF THE QUR'AN CONTAINS EVERYTHING and HADITH IS
NOT NEEDED ....
I pointed out that the QUR'AN DOES NOT MENTION
RAPE. I asked the anti-Hadith
people to give me chapter and verse from the
Qur'an. What is rape, what is its
punishment and how is this punishment to be
implemented? Give chapter and
verse. I sent my question to all the Pervaiz
followers and other anti-Hadith
people. They are unable to give chapter and
verse.
So the Qur'an does not mention the punishment for
rape. It's given in Hadith.
[My book LIBERATION of WOMEN THRU ISLAM is the
only book in English which
gives the Hadith on rape.] Qur'an and Hadith have
always been together.
So let's look at the verses of the Qur'an which
are misused by the Pervaizi
cult and other anti-Hadith people.
SURA 16 VERSE 89
This is one of the verses which the "Qur'an Only"
cult [Pervaizis] keep
repeating. They quote it as follows:
"We have sent down to thee the Book explaining
all things." [16:89]
Actually the whole verse is as follows:
"On the Day we shall raise from all Peoples a
witness against them, from
amongst themselves: And we shall bring thee [O
Muhammad] as a witness against
these: And WE have sent down to thee the Book
explaining all things, a Guide, a
Mercy, and Glad Tidings to Muslims."
[Note the extra-Qur'anic role of the Prophet,
pbuh, as witness against his
people. If Muslims are Muhammad's, pbuh, people,
then he, as leader through his
teachings, is a witness against them till the Day
of Judgement.]
NOW FOCUS ON THE WORDS "explaining all things"
["tibyaanal-li-kulli shay'in"
in Arabic.] Does this mean that the Qur'an covers
every possible issue and
leaves nothing out, with emphasis on ALL?
Other verses of the Qur'an indicate that this is
an idiom which indicates
that fundamental or generic issues of a great
variety are covered. Seminal issues
are covered. For instance, harshness towards
women is forbidden, as in Sura
Nisa. But it does not mean that EVERYTHING is in
the Qur'an. Let's understand
this terminology from the Qur'an itself.
For instance, about the Tablets or Commandments
given to Moses, the Qur'an
uses just about the same words:
"And we ordained for him in the Tablets in ALL
MATTERS, admonition and
EXPLANATION of ALL THINGS, (and said): "Take and
hold these with firmness, and
enjoin thy people to hold fast by the best in the
precepts: Soon shall I show you
the homes of the wicked.' " [7:145]
[The Arabic for the words I have put in capitals
is "min kulli shay'in' and
"tafsillal-li-kulli shay."]
Evidently ALL things could not possibly be
written on explained on the
Tablets. It is simply idiomatic expression for
essentials and fundamentals.
Now focus on the word ALL [kull in Arabic]. Does
it mean LITERALLY ALL and
EVERYTHING in Arabic? Let's see what the Qur'an
says:
"And thy Lord taught the Bee to build its cells
in hills, on trees, and in
habitations: Then to eat of ALL ["kull'] of the
fruits (of the earth) and follow
the ways of thy Lord made smooth... [to the end
of the verse]" [16:68-69]
Obviously the ALL here is idiomatic and not to be
taken literally. No Bee can
possibly eat of ALL the fruits, literally.
"And proclaim the Pilgrimage among men: they will
come to thee on foot and on
EVERY {"kull} camel lean, through deep and
distant highways." [22:27]
Again the EVERY camel has to be idiomatic. It
cannot be taken literally to
mean that every possible camel will be ridden by
the pilgrims!
In the story of the Queen of Sheba (known as
Bilqis), the Hoopoe says:
"I found a woman ruling over them and provided
with EVERY THING {"kull
sha'yi"}, and she has a magnificent throne."
[27:23]
Evidently Bilqis did not LITERALLY have every
thing. It is an idiom to
indicate that she has all the fundamental riches
of the world.
To conclude this section, the Qur'an includes ALL
the fundamental and seminal
issues which humanity needs but there are many
important things not in it
which were taught by the Prophet (pbuh.) [Also,
once Qur'an and Hadith are
understood they can be used as basis for Islamic
understanding, BUT BOTH do not
cover many things for which ijtihad, qiyas, and
many other forms of reasoning are
needed.]
The Hadith of the Prophet (pbuh) explain how
Muhammad (pbuh) understood and
implemented the verses of the Qur'an. Everything
he taught is as much a part of
Islam as is anything in the Qur'an.
Rape was defined and punished by the Prophet
(pbuh) and he also indicated
that the woman's word be accepted and the man be
punished after proper
investigation. It's in the Hadith, NOT in the
Qur'an.
[Inshallah, we will continue this discussion of
verses of the Qur'an which
are being misused by the anti-Hadith people. An
attack on Hadith is an attack on
Islam.]
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2003-08-23 Sat 19:31ct