Let us now examine the questions: Is the
Hadith binding in law? Is it an independent source of binding
Islamic regulations? To answer these questions we should examine the
verses where the believers are commanded to obey the messenger.
The Qur'anic injunction to obey the
messenger
The Qur'an lays down a general principle
that the messengers are sent only to be obeyed by the permission of
God (4:64). As a result, prophets from Noah to Jesus come and say:
I am a
faithful messenger unto you. Fear God and obey me! (26:107-108,
125-126, 143-144, 162-163, 178-179, cf. 3:50, 20:90, 26:110,
26:131, 26:150, 43:63, 71:2).
This general principle is then again and
again stated in the case of the last of the prophets:
O believers!
Obey God and obey his Messenger and those of you who are in charge
of ( your) affair. But if you have a dispute concerning any
matter, refer it to God and his messenger if you are believers in
God and the last day. That is a source of good (now) and is best
in the end (4:59; see also 47:33, 64:12).
The saying of
(true) believers when they appeal to God and his messenger for
judgment between them is only that we hear and we obey (24:51)
These are the
limits (set by) God. He who obeys God and his Messenger, he will
make him enter gardens under which rivers flow, where such will
dwell forever (4:13).
Say, Obey God
and his Messenger. But if they turn away, lo! God loves not the
disbelievers (3:32, see also 3:132, 5:92, 8:1, 8:20, 8:46, 24:54,
47:33).
O believers!
Respond to God and to the Messenger when he calls you to that
which gives you life, and know that God comes in between a man and
his heart, and that he it is unto whom you will be gathered
(8:24).
Never, by
your Lord (O Prophet), will they be believers, unless they make
you judge of what is in dispute between them, then find no dislike
whatsoever in their hearts regarding your decision, and submit
completely (4:65).
Establish regular
prayer and establish regular charity and obey the Messenger that
you may find mercy (24:56; see also 58:13).
Some writers also refer to 59:7:
That which
God gives as spoil unto his Messenger from the people of the
townships is for God and his Messenger and for the near of kin and
the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer, that it becomes not a
commodity between the rich among you. And whatever the messenger
gives you, take it. And whatsoever he forbids, abstain (from it).
Be mindful of God. Lo! God is stern in reprisal (59:7).
The words
"whatever the Messenger gives you, take it. And whatsoever he
forbids, abstain (from it)" have been taken to mean that
the Sunnah is binding. But it is possible to argue that in their
context these words apply only to the distribution of spoil in the
Prophet's lifetime and that they should not be lifted out of their
context and applied to the whole of the Sunnah for all times.
Consequently, we will concentrate only on the other verses where
believers are commanded to obey the Messenger.
Now there are three ways to understand
the injunction to obey the messenger:
The injunction pertains to the
position of the Prophet as the head of the community and is
similar to the injunction to obey the ul al-amr.
This interpretation is often given by
the Qur'an-only Muslims. But let us see if this makes sense. First
of all, we have seen considerable evidence above that the Qur'an
views the prophetic role of the Messenger as more than just a
deliveryman for the Qur'an, so that he headed the Muslim community
not just as any leader but as a prophet. Second of all, even the
verses under consideration, especially 4;59 do not support the
position of the Qur'an-only sect. Verse 4:59 first says "Obey God"
and then says "obey his Messenger and those of you who are in charge
of your affair (ul al-`amr)". The way in the second statement the
messenger and ul al-amr are put together might suggest that
the messenger is like the other ul al-amr in the matter of
obedience except that he is the overall head of the community and a
chief among them while others are in charge of various local and
more specialized tasks. But subsequently the verse says:
"But if you have a dispute concerning any
matter, refer it to God and his messenger". Now in this
statement the messenger is moved apart from those in charge of your
affairs. His mention has moved with that of God. If the messenger
were like other ul al-amr, then there should be a possibility
of a dispute between him and some of the other Muslims and we should
expect the verse to instruct that all disputes be referred to God,
that is, to the ongoing Qur'anic revelation. The fact that the
disputes are to be referred to God and the Messenger means that the
obedience to the Messenger is of a type different from that to the
ul al-amr.
That the Prophet is not just another
Muslim leader when he was not delivering the Qur'an is shown also by
4:65, where it is a condition of faith that those who call
themselves believers make the Prophet a judge in their disputes and
then feel no hesitation in their hearts to accept his decision. This
is something not true of other ul al-amr. One can accept the
decisions of all other Muslim leaders grudgingly or altogether
dispute their decisions, but not so in the case of the Prophet.
There are yet more passages in the Qur'an that set the Prophet apart
from other Muslim leaders or ul al-amr. Thus in 24:63 the
Qur'an tells the believers not to make the calling by the Prophet
like calling by one of them of another. In 48:10 the Qur'an says:
Surely, those who swear allegiance to you (O
Prophet) do but swear allegiance to God. The hand of God is above
their hands. Therefore whoever breaks (his pledge), he breaks it to
the injury of his own should and whoever fulfils what he has
covenanted with God, he will grant him a great reward (48:10).
In 4:80 we read: He who obeys the Messenger
obeys God and he who turns away, (he will reap the consequences of
his choice, for). We have not
made you (O Prophet) a warder over them. Another verse
tells the believers: do not put yourselves
forward in the presence of God and his messenger ... lift not your
voices above the voice of the Prophet nor shout when speaking to him
as you shout one to another, lest your deeds come to nothing while
you perceive it not (49:2). Even more, the Qur'an says
that the Prophet is to be preferred by the believers over themselves
and his wives are like their mothers (33:6) who are not to be
married to any other man after him (33:53). Can all these things, or
even most of them be said of any other Muslim leader? The
Qur'an-only Muslims point to 33:43 where God and the angels are said
to bless (salla) believers just as they are said to bless (salla)
the Prophet (33:56) and conclude from this that there is no real
difference between the Prophet and other believers. But the fact
that in some matters the Qur'an speaks about the Prophet and the
other believers in a similar way does not mean that the Prophet is
like the believers. The verses mentioned above, which are ignored by
the Qur'an-only Muslims, clearly show otherwise.
We may thus justifiably conclude that
the obedience to the messenger cannot be considered as obedience to
him as simply a leader and head of the community. This leads us to
the consideration of another possibility.
The injunction to obey the Prophet
pertains to his role as the messenger of God but since his role is
that of the deliveryman the obedience to him is obedience to what
he delivers the Qur'an. In other words, the obedience to the
messenger is the obedience to the Qur'an;
This is another interpretation favored
by the Qur'an-only sect. But this too should be excluded. We have
presented above considerable evidence from the Qur'an to show that
the messenger cannot be regarded simply as the deliveryman.
Moreover, the obedience to the messenger is often mentioned along
with obedience to God. If obedience to the messenger is the
obedience to the Qur'an, then what is the obedience to God? One may
take obedience to God as a much wider concept, so that it is not
exhausted by obedience to the Qur'an. Thus if in a particular matter
it somehow becomes clear to us (through ilham and nur
mentioned earlier) that a certain course of action is the right one,
then we are duty bound to follow that course of action even if it is
not clearly indicated in the Qur'an. In that case, it would be
possible to take obedience to the messenger as obedience to the
Qur'an. That is, the meaning would be: obey God in whatever guidance
he shows you through whatever means but also obey the revelation
sent down on the messenger (Qur'an). Such an interpretation,
however, will not support the contention of the Qur'an-only sect.
For, the moment it is admitted that the believers may be guided by
some God-given resources within them apart from the Qur'an they
would have to admit that the Prophet could also provide some
guidance by God-given resources within him apart from the Qur'an and
his resources are much more trustworthy than those of the rest of
us.
Thus in the verses under consideration,
the obedience to the messenger is neither obedience to him as a mere
leader of the community nor is it simply obedience to the Qur'an. It
must be interpreted in the remaining, third, sense:
(Conclusion). The injunction to obey
the Prophet pertains to the position of the Prophet as the
messenger of God and means that at least some part of his Sunnah
should be obeyed.
In order now to proceed beyond the above
very valuable conclusion we need to raise the question whether
obedience to the messenger, even in the third sense above, was only
meant for the time of the Prophet or whether it is meant for all the
generations of Muslims. In view of the Qur'anic belief that the
Prophet Muhammad was the seal of the prophets, any Qur'anic
injunction is binding for believers till the day of judgment unless
it is abrogated or circumstances change in such a way that it ceases
to fulfill the very purpose for which it was given in the first
place or it is in some other clear way seen to be of temporary
validity. Consequently, the injunction to obey the messenger is
binding till the day of judgment, for, there is nothing in the
Qur'an which suggests that the injunction was temporary. Indeed,
this injunction occurs in the middle of the injunction to obey God
and the injunction to obey ul al-amr. Since the first
injunction (obey God) as well as the third injunction (to obey ul
al-amr, when they assume power according to the Qur'anic
teachings) are clearly eternal, it is natural to understand the
second injunction (obey the Messenger) as eternal also. It may be
objected here that since God and the ul al-amr are always
with us while the Prophet is not, hence the injunction to obey them
is eternal while the injunction to obey the Prophet was applicable
only during his lifetime. This objection assumes that for a person
to be obeyed he should be present to give orders. This assumption,
however, is not valid. For how can we obey God and refer our
disputes to him? To be sure, unlike the Messenger, God is present
with us always but we cannot hear or see him; hence we can obey him
primarily by obeying the Qur'an which has come down to us from
centuries ago. In a similar fashion, although, we can see and hear
the Prophet no more we can still obey him by obeying his Sunnah that
has come down to us from centuries ago. Further support for the
eternal validity of the injunction to obey the messenger is provided
by the following verse:
Establish
regular prayer and establish regular charity and obey the
messenger that you may find mercy (24:56).
Here the injunction to obey the
messenger comes alongside the injunctions to establish prayer and
charity. These last two injunctions are clearly eternal and it will
be completely arbitrary if we singled out the third one as of
temporary validity.
An extra-Qur'anic argument of the
Qur'an-only Muslims is that parts of the authentic Hadith do not
have any applications now. For example, the Madinah Charter,
although based on eternal principles confirmed by the teachings of
the Qur'an, has no longer any validity. But this argument is shallow
because regard for circumstances is necessary even in the
application of the Qur'an and some Qur'anic injunctions are no
longer generally applicable. For example, the Qur'an enjoins the
Muslims to be prepared for defending themselves against aggression
and in this connection mentions horses. The underlying principle is
eternal, but the form given to it by the mention of horses is no
longer generally applicable. Similarly the Qur'an enjoins fasting
from dawn to dusk, but one needs to use ijtihad as to what to
do in areas of the globe where the time interval between dawn and
dusk can be several days or weeks or months. That in the use of the
Hadith we have to similarly take into account the changing
circumstances is therefore not an argument that it cannot be binding
like the Qur'an till the judgment day.
In their search for arguments to support
their view the Qur'an-only Muslims have come up with some other
arguments. Thus they say that the verses where obedience to God is
coupled with obedience to the messenger are explained by other
verses where obedience is made due only to God. In this connection
they quote verses such as these:
Say, "I
exhort you to do only one thing: that you get up (taqumu)
for God in pairs or as individuals, then reflect. Your comrade is
not suffering from madness; he is only a warner unto you in the
face of terrible doom" (34:46). Turn (anibu) to your Lord
and commit (aslimu) to him before the retribution comes to
you ... (39:54).
In these verses there is no mention of
the Messenger and so, according the Qur'an-only Muslims, only
obedience to God, that is, obedience to the Qur'an, is required. But
these verses do not really talk about obedience (ta'ah). In
any case, if there are verses where only the obedience to God is
mentioned, there are others where only the obedience to the
Messenger is mentioned. We have already quoted the following verse:
Establish
regular prayer and establish regular charity and obey the
Messenger that you may find mercy (24:56; see also 58;13).
Another argument of the Qur'an-only
Muslims is based on verses where the Prophet is asked to judge on
the basis of what God has sent down or of his book etc. For example:
So judge
between them by what God has sent down ... (5:48)
Those who judge not by
what God has sent down are the disbelievers (5:44)
The argument is that the Prophet in his
capacity of the Messenger governed, when he was not making
time-bound decisions, only on the basis of the Qur'an. But judging
by the Qur'an does not exclude judging by some thing else such as
the ilham, nur and hikmah that the Prophet was
favored with. These verses only demand that the judgment should be
completely consistent with the Qur'an. They do not demand that the
judgment cannot be extra-Qur'anic. That there could be
extra-Qur'anic judgments of the Prophet that should be obeyed is
shown by many of the verses discussed above. It is further supported
by the following verse:
And when it
is said to them, Come unto what God has sent down and unto the
Messenger, you (O Prophet) see the hypocrites turn from you in
aversion (4:61).
Here coming to the Prophet means coming
to him for guidance and judgment, as is indicated by the previous
verse which talks of "coming for judgment (like going to court)" (yatahakamu).
And since coming unto the Messenger is mentioned apart from coming
unto what God has sent down, it is natural to understand that the
judgment of the Messenger was, though consistent with the Qur'an,
was not entirely limited to a simple application of it.
Thus at least some part of the Sunnah is
binding in some way till the day of judgment. Now we need to ask
more precisely what part of the Sunnah is binding and in what way.
In this connection the verses about obeying and following the
Prophet and looking towards his uswah hasanah imply that it
is a collective obligation for the ummah to determine the
authentic ahadith of all sort and look at all of them and then seek
guidance from them. This guidance may be in the form of
recommendations or suggestions or they may be in the form of orders.
When guidance in Hadith is in the form of orders it is obligatory
for every Muslim to whom it reaches to obey it. In other words to be
engaged in the sacred Hadith project is a collective obligation of
the ummah and to obey what is found to be regulatory Hadith
is an obligation on every Muslim.
The Hadith not an
independent source of guidance/law
We earlier argued that the Hadith is
secondary to the Qur'an. In relation to the question of how far the
Hadith is binding this means that the Hadith is not an independent
source of guidance/law. That is, if it becomes clear that the Qur'an
is pointing in one direction while some ahadith point in another,
then the Qur'an will be followed and the ahadith will be considered
as unauthentic. And of course, the application of both the Qur'an
and the Hadith has to take into account the circumstances under
which they are being applied.
One way to clarify the question of
independence of the Hadith is to consider the question whether the
statements in the Qur'an and the Hadith can abrogate each other.
There are four possibilities:
The Qur'an can abrogate the Hadith and
the Hadith can abrogate the Qur'an.
Neither the Qur'an can abrogate the
Hadith nor the Hadith can abrogate the Qur'an.
The Hadith can abrogate the Qur'an but
the Qur'an cannot abrogate the Hadith.
The Qur'an can abrogate the Hadith but
the Hadith cannot abrogate the Qur'an.
To say that the Hadith is an independent
source is to choose one of the first three possibilities. To say
that that the Hadith is not an independent source is to choose the
fourth possibility. And repeated affirmation in the Qur'an of its
essential completeness (Chapter 2) and the fact that the Qur'an
alone has been preserved reliably clearly points in this latter
direction.
The role of the
suhabah (companions)
Since the companions of the Prophet
played a decisive part in the transmission of the Sunnah and Hadith,
it seems fitting to examine what the Qur'an has to say about their
role. In this connection the most relevant Qur'anic passages are
those where the companions or the Muslims generally are described as
the best community or witnesses over humanity:
You are the
best community raised for humanity; you enjoin what is right and
forbid what is wrong and believe in God (3:110).
Thus We have appointed
you a community of the middle (wasat) that you may be
witnesses over ('ala) humanity and the Messenger may be a
witness over you. And We did not make the qiblah which you
(O Prophet) used to turn to except (a means) to distinguish him
who follows the Messenger from him who turns back from his heels,
and this was surely hard except for those whom God has guided
aright. God was not going to make your faith fruitless. For, most
surely God is affectionate and merciful to humanity (2:143). And
strive in the way of God as is his due. He has chosen you and has
not laid upon you in religion any hardship, the religion of your
father Abraham. He has named you Muslims before and in this
(Qur'an) that the Messenger may be a witness (shahid) over
you and you may be witnesses over humanity. So establish regular
prayer and practice regular charity and hold fast by God. He is
your protecting friend, and what a protector and what a helper
(22:78). O Prophet! We have sent you as a witness (shahid)
and a bringer of good tidings and a warner (33:45).
The word wasat can mean "best" or
"just and balanced". The two meanings are connected by the fact that
"best" is where various elements come together in a balanced way.
The word shahid, in addition to the usual sense of "witness
in a court of law", has two other related senses in the Qur'an:
Someone who sees what is going on
around him in his society and points toward what is just and right
by speech, action, and shining example. The ultimate degree to
which this role can be performed is to give one's life, if
necessary. This is why a person killed in the way of truth and
righteousness is also called shahid.
Someone who on the day of judgment
will be brought forward by God to establish his judgment,
especially his judgment against the wrong-doers.
The first role can qualify and lead a
person to the second role. Thus the Messenger is a witness in both
senses:
O Prophet!
Truly We have sent you a witness, a bearer of glad tidings, and a
warner, as one inviting to God with his permission and as a
light-giving torch (33:45-46). We have truly sent you as a
witness, as a bearer of glad tidings, and as a warner. That you (O
human beings) may believe in God and his Messenger and may aid him
and revere him, and celebrate his praise morning and evening
(48:8-9).
In these verses the Prophet is a witness
in this world, bearing testimony to truth, justice and
righteousness. This naturally leads him to be a witness in the
second sense, mentioned in the following verses:
One day We
shall raise from every people a witness against them from among
themselves and We shall bring you (O Prophet) as a witness against
these (your people): and We have sent down to you the book
explaining all things, a guide, mercy, and glad tidings to those
who commit (16:89; see also 4:41).
The two senses of the term "witness" are
also applied in the Qur'an to the Prophet Jesus. Thus in 5:117 Jesus
defends himself on the day of judgment with the words:
I did not say
to them except what you commanded me, that serve God my Lord and
your Lord. I was a witness over them so long as I was with them,
but when you caused me to die, you were the watcher over them, and
you are witness of all things".
Here Jesus is a witness during his life
in this world in the sense that he watched over his followers and
kept them, or tried to keep them, on the right path by his teaching
and example. In the following verse, if it refers to him as is
generally understood, Jesus is a witness in the hereafter (in the
second sense):
And there is
none of the people of the book but must believe in him before his
death; and on the day of judgment he will be a witness against
them (4:159).
A witness in the hereafter is probably
understood to be a witness against. But this is not necessarily the
case for witness in the first sense. This is clear because the
Prophets Muhammad and Jesus were witnesses over the community of
believers but not witnesses against them.
The suhabah are not explicitly
described as witnesses in the hereafter, although there is nothing
in the Qur'an that excludes the possibility. Their witness is
primarily understood in the Qur'an in the first sense. Some
commentators, e.g. Ibn Kathir have taken shahid in the second
sense and understood 33:45 to mean that the Prophet and the Muslims
would act as witnesses in the day of judgment against other nations
who rejected their prophets. This interpretation is supported
by a number of ahadith from books like Ahmad and Hakim not known for
their reliability. If, however, we read the verse with our mind free
from the Hadith, as we must before we have firmly established the
reliability of the ahadith used, then it becomes clear that in 33:45
the "witness" refers to a role in this world and not the hereafter.
It is probable that the community
entrusted with the role of witnesses in 2:143 and 22:78 is first and
foremost that of the companions (suhabah) of the Prophet,
since in 22:68 Abraham is described as "your father", a description
that is applicable properly to the companions among the Muslims.
Thus the progression of Islam in history is divided into two
momentous stages. In the first stage the Prophet prepares a
community of followers consisting primarily of his own people in the
Arabian Peninsula. During this stage he is a witness over the
community of his followers. In the second stage the companions take
the Islamic message to a large part of the then know world and Islam
is forever established as a world religion. In this stage the
companions are the witnesses over humanity.
But what about the ages after the
companions? In these ages Muslims generally are meant to perform the
role of witnesses. For the Qur`an commands all believers:
O believers!
Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to God, even as against
yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be
(against) rich or poor: for God can best protect both. Follow not
the lusts (of your hearts), lest you swerve, and if you distort
(justice) or decline to do justice, surely God is well-acquainted
with all that you do (4:135). O believers! Stand out firmly for
God as witnesses to justice and let not hatred of a people incite
you not to act equitably. Act equitably, that is nearer to
righteousness, and be mindful of God. Surely God is aware of what
you do (5:8).
The companions continued the mission of
the Prophet by transmitting the Qur'an. They also passed on to other
Muslims whatever living memories they had of his words and actions (Hadith),
as and when the occasion arose. In transmitting the Hadith the
companions followed the normal way of the times in which they lived,
for, as we argued earlier it was God's plan to leave the
transmission of the Hadith to normal human processes. The companions
did not produce comprehensive compilations of Hadith. Only when the
time of the companions passed did a more systematic writing of the
Hadith started. This was very usual in earlier times. The disciples
of a teacher learnt from the teacher but did not write down what he
said or did in comprehensive documents. Once the age of living
witnesses was over, the writing started. This is the normal human
process of transmission to which preservation of the Hadith was
entrusted by God.