walaikum asalam Dear Br. Suhail
I am back. Thank you for your patience.
Let me comment on your email of May 31. You seem to have (slightly)
misunderstood the points I made about hadith. It would not be fair of
you to
put in my "mouth" what I did not say. So let me summarize myself:
1. The Qur'an is a perfect book, Allah's word.
2. The hadith is the nearest to perfection a human product can be.
3. The hadith DOES NOT contradict the Qur'an in any aspect which does
not
require interpretation.
4. People who collected Hadith (like Imam Bukhari) and those who
applied
Hadith (like Imam Abu Hanifa) were great scholars of the Qur'an. It
would be
absurd (illogical if you like logic) to claim that a scholar of the
Qur'an
would collect Hadith which contradict the Qur'an
Your objection to 4 would need to show that you (or G.A. Pervez or
Dr.
Fazlur Rahman) know the Qur'an better than Imam Bukhari and Imam Abu
Hanifa.
Correct me if I am wrong, but your position seems to be that in
the
year 1423 (A.H.) we are facing a mass of Hadith (you used the word
"thousands") which contradict the Qur'an. You are now going to tell us
what's
wrong with these Hadith and how they contradict the Qur'an. So for 1400
years, the scholars of the Qur'an could not see that the Hadith
("thousands")
contradict the Qur'an.
I THINK THESE POINTS CAN BE A STARTERS FOR A GOOD DISCUSSION
I hope you pondered the principle of INTERTWINING which I wrote
about
during my travel. Again, let me clarify:
1. Allah does NOT say "obey the Qur'an." Allah says "Obey Allah and the
messenger ..."
2. The Qur'an is the vehicle of Allah's word: it is not Allah himself.
3. The Hadith is the vehicle of Muhammad's (pbuh) word. The Qur'an is
not
Muhammad's (pbuh) word.
4. Is Hadith as reliable as the Qur'an? NO. No human production can be
as
reliable as the word of Allah.
5. Does that mean Hadith is unreliable? It means no such thing. If
anyone
says he will not rely on the Prophet (pbuh) and will take the Qur'an
only,
such a person is not a Muslim and has never been accepted as a Muslim.
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Now we come to interpretation. The Qur'an has urged us to use our
understanding (after it told us to follow Allah and the messenger and
to
accept the Prophet's USWA as our role model). Understanding has to be
applied
TO BOTH QUR'AN and HADITH. If understanding, ijtihad, come into play,
that
does not mean that the book is imperfect or that the USWA MUHAMMADI
(pbuh)
is not to be followed.
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You have given me an example of a Hadith which you think contradicts
the
Qur'an. You thought the Hadith contradicts 6:148 and 36:47 and you came
to
the conclusion that the Hadih's "message is to pacify and quell" while
the
Qur'an is saying you can make your own destiny.
I look at the same Hadith and it gives me a message which is the exact
opposite of the one you got. It has nothing to do with 6:148 and 36:47.
To me it is saying: You cannot be certain, based on your actions,
whether
you will go to paradise or hell. In the final analysis, your fate is in
the
hands of Allah. Does that mean, we should be "pacified"? Not at all:
Numerous
Hadith tell us that Allah can change our seeming destiny. Even if we
are put
in hell fire, he can purify us and take us out of hell and send us to
Paradise. Have you read those hadith?
We must always seek Allah's mercy and acceptance: never think that
we are
doing so well and Paradise is guaranteed to us. Also, do not look down
on
those who seem to be going to hell. At the end, it might turn out that
Allah
had "ordained" paradise for them.
You will see a contradiction only if you ignore other Hadith which
point out
that good works are essential. Thus the Hadith you quoted has a
purpose: To
stop people from being complacent and judgemental.
It's a beautiful Hadith. No way can it be considered a contradiction to
the
Qur'an. If you think the QADR aspect of the hadith is contradicting the
Qur'an, again I must point out that the Qur'an teaches QADR:
MIN NUTFATIN KHALAQAHU FAQADDARAHU (80:19)
Look up the Qur'an and you'll see numerous verses which are saying
exactly
what the Hadith is illustrating: that humans are NOT the ones who will
decide
what will happen . I'll help you a little:
"Whom Allah does guide- he is on the right path: whom He rejects from
His
guidance- such are the persons who lose." (7:178)
"....Allah has set a seal on their hearts and on their hearings ..."
(2:7)
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My dear brother-in-faith: Muslims changed the world when they
interpreted the
Qur'an with the help of the Hadithe Nabawi. Later when they gave up the
Prophet's interpretation of the Qur'an, they made the Qur'an a
plaything of
their individualistic whims. The result was disaster.
We must study the Hadith and apply the Hadith to understand the Qur'an
in its
context. The Prophet (pbuh) COMES first. Only if we accept him, can we
have
the taqwa required to understand the Qur'an.
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Articles on HAZRAT 'AYESHA age interpreted by Hadith
and
the BENEFITS OF CHILD MARRIAGE are now on my web site:
www.NewTrendMag.org
Also a critique of Pervez's idea that Imam Abu Hanifa did not give
first
priority to Hadith is on: www.NewTrendMag.org
Also look up an introduction to IMAM BUKHARI on the same site: Go to
java
frames, click on hadith.
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2001-06-05 Tue 21:21ct