Usool ul Hadith (Fundementals of Hadith) Part 3

Now that I have already mentioned all of the evidences of the Qur’an, now I will show some other evidences for the Authority of the Sunnah.  The Fifth Category of evidence for following the Ahadith of Prophet Muhammad PBUH, are the Ahadith in which he ordered obedience to his Sunnah.

I will break this down into three points.

The first point:  Prophet Muhammad PBUH, him self says that he was given wahi along with the Qur’an, just like the Qur’an says.  “Verily I have been given the Qur’an and something like it” (Abu Dawood, Classified as Sahih)

The second point:  Prophet Muhammad PBUH said “It will soon happen that a person will be sitting in content/relaxation and he will say ‘Whatever comes to you, take it from the Qur’an, that is sufficient for you.’ ” and then the Prophet PBUH said, “Know that everything that I make Halal, is as if Allah (SWT) made Halal, and everything that I make Haram, is as if Allah(SWT) has made Haram.” (Musnad Ibn Ahmed, Ibn Majah , Classified as Sahih)

This is very special, because the Prophet PBUH had predicted the coming of people like the Submitters Internationals (A group who rejects the Sunnah and beliefs in a so called Messenger of God the disgraced Rashad Khalifa) He PBUH predicted and warned us of these heretics like Ghulam Pervez.

The third point:  Is the fact that Prophet PBUH commanded the Sahaba to preserve his Sunnah, and forbade them from lying about his Sunnah.

Prophet PBUH said, “May Allah brighten the face of a person who has heard my speech, and then memorized it and understood it, and passed it on to others, it may be possible that the one that hears it, understands better than the one who narrates it” (at Tirmidhi)

Out of All the Ahadith narrated, the one with the most chains of narrations is one.  Out of All the Mutawatir Ahadith, this one has the most chains of narration.  It has been narrated with over 70 different chains of narrations.  It is recorded in almost every book of Ahadith.  You will find in the 6 major books of Ahadith belonging to Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamah, you will find it in the Ahadith books of the Shi’i, the Khuwarij were aware of this hadith, and so were the Mutazilis.

Prophet Muhammad PBUH said, “Who ever lies about me, will find a place in Hell.”

The sixth category is logic or common sense.  Before I begin with the evidences, I want to remind everyone that Islam is a logical religion, but it is not based purely on logic.  Everything in Islam is based on the order of Allah and his Messenger.  All the orders are logical, but none of them come straight from logic.  As Ali ibn Abi Talib RA said “Islam is logical, but it is not based on logic.  If it was, we would wipe the bottom of our feet instead of the top of our feet (during Wadhu).”

Allah All Mighty says in the Qur’an:

“And Establish the Prayer”

Does Allah mention how many Raka’s you have to pray?  Does Allah mention the exact timings of Fajr?  Does Allah tell us what to recite in Prayer?  Does Allah say what goes in what Order?  Does the Qur’an say recite Fatiha?

There is a group that started about 20 or 30 years ago, in Arizona. They are called Submitters.  Their founder was named Rashad Khalifa(The idiot who came up with the 19 theory, and then claimed to be a messenger of God, Alhumdulillah Allah saved us from him by killing him), they do not follow the Sunnah, and they actually say it is Shirk to follow the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad PBUH.  If you go to their official site they have a description of prayer, funny thing is they say one must recite Fatiha, and the follows the number of Raka’h like Muslims do.  Only problem with that is the Qur’an does not say how many Raka’h to pray, nor does it say to recite Al Fatiha.  This is their official literature on how to pray:

http://www.masjidtucson.org/submission/practices/salat/howtoperformsalat.html

The Last evidence for the authority of the Sunnah is the consensus of Muslims.  Not just Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamah, but even the other groups.  The Shia have concept of the Sunnah (ie  Usul ul Kaafi), the Khuwarij even accepted the Sunnah.

InshAllah, I will try to get the final part of Usool ul Hadith this week, and InshAllah try to get Uloom ul Hadith Started soon.

Introduction to Usool ul Hadith (Fundementals of Hadith)

A recent phenomenon in the west has begun where; “Muslims” will examine their religion.  They will speak on Fiqh (law), Aqeedah(theology), and other issues, and they will leave out the Sunnah.  For the most part this new phenomenon is called “modernism”.

No “Muslim” would ever say that I don’t believe in Prophet Muhammad PBUH, or I would not obey him if he told me something.  But now they try to find ways around this.  Some of these excuses are “well hadith weren’t really preserved” or “Imam Bukhari died 200 years after the Prophet”.  “I don’t know what Prophet Muhammad actually said” is the same as saying “we don’t care what Prophet Muhammad PBUH said”.  If you deny that the Sunnah has been preserved, the end result is denying the Sunnah itself.

Let’s first start off with some simple definitions.  The meaning of the word “Sunnah” linguistically means path, a way.  “Sunnah” is a simple path, or a road.  The Sharia(Islamic Rulings) definition of “Sunnah” depends on who uses it, and what context.  The scholars of Fiqh(law) define “Sunnah” to be “that which is not obligatory to do, but if a person does it he is rewarded.”  This is the most commonly known meaning of “Sunnah”.  According to the Scholars of hadith, “Sunnah” is defined as “All of the actions, the statements, the tacit approvals, and the physical characteristics of the Prophet.”  According to the Scholars of Aqeedah, the “Sunnah” is defined as what the Muslims believe.  The Theology of the Muslims is called the Sunnah.  That is why Ahlus-Sunnah wa al Jamaah, take the name that they do.  They are the people of the Sunnah, meaning they follow the theology of Prophet Muhammad PBUH.  For example when Imam Ahmad Raheemullah wrote a book about Aqeedah (theology) he titled it Usool ul Sunnah(Fundamentals of the Sunnah).  Now lets define the word “Hadith.”  Linguistically “hadith” is the opposite of “khadeem”, “Hadith” it means “something that is new”.  A person’s statements are called “hadith” because he said something new that he didn’t say before.  From a Sharia point of view, “Hadith” is a statement of Prophet Muhammad PBUH.

What is the difference of Sunnah and the Hadith?  Hadith is something that is tangible.  You can open up Sahih Bukhari, and read what the Prophet said.  The Sunnah is something that is Abstract, it can be found in Hadith, but it is an action so it is not tangible.  Sunnah is something that he did, so there is no such thing as a Sahih(authentic) Sunnah or a Daef(weak) Sunnah, but there are Sahih Hadith and Daef Hadith.  When we are talking about the Sunnah, we are talking about a methodology, when we are speaking of Hadith, we are speaking of a specific statement, specific chain of narration, it may be authentic or weak.  Hadith is what preserved the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad PBUH.

What is the status of Sunnah in Islam?  The scholars of Islam have three very similar opinions.  The first opinion is that the Sunnah is second only to the Qur’an.  We find an Ayah and Hadith about something, we accept the hadith first and then also accept the hadith.  The second opinion, which is the majority opinion, is that the Qur’an and the Sunnah are equivalent in weight.  This does not mean that Qur’an and Sunnah are equivalent in blessing, no doubt the Qur’an is the most blessed book and the holiest book, but this means they are equivalent in a Fiqh (legal) point of view.   The third opinion, which no scholar actually had this opinion, is that the Sunnah is stronger than the Qur’an, but this opinion has been referred too.  The reason for this was that the Qur’an needs the Sunnah to be understood, but the Sunnah does not need the Qur’an to be understood.  One should note that the no scholar has the third opinion.  The strongest opinion is the second opinion.  One should always remember that this is regarding Fiqh (law) and not Barakah (blessing).

InshAllah, in the next post I will be jumping into daleel, for following the Sunnah.  The next post should be up on Monday InshAllah, and it will be a shorter version of an Authority of Sunnah course.