REJECTION OF HADITH LITERATURE II

 REJECTION OF HADITH LITERATURE! PART - II

Muslims cannot deny that there are two sources of Islamic Philosophy. One is the book Quran and other one is Hadith literature. It would sound strange if I say both are misunderstood and are victim of wrong comprehension. Most of us aware that the translation of the book Quran is not up to the standard but very few know that even the Hadith literature is wrongly manipulated. You may hate Hadith however the truth is we cannot completely debunk it from Islamic literature.

You love the book Quran but you don't understand it. What is the benefit of loving and hating literatures if you cannot understand them? So much hate for Hadith signifies that we have not yet forgotten it. Those who claim to be Quran alone followers do not realize that they follow only Hadith based translations. The entire concept of today’s Islam is based on wrong understanding of Hadith; whether it is Traditional or Quran Alone Islam. We must be honest enough to confess that Hadith still rules our mind and we follow Hadith though unknowingly. 

Some of my learned friends think that Hadith literature has ruined or corrupted the message of the book Quran and Islam. The truth is our mind is corrupted and we need to reformat it. I was having the same opinion some 15 years back. To blame others for our incompetence is nature of most of the human beings. Here the easy target of criticism is Hadith because of our inability to infer the book Quran. We believe that we have been led stray by Hadith literature, that’s why we nurture so much grudge against it. The real problem lies in our conventional belief system; we think Hadith literature is about History of Islam that’s why it is unreliable.

  

Our greatest folly is that we think Hadith literature is History of Mohammad and his companions so we link almost every Quranic verse with particular event narrated by the Hadith. The problem is we give too much importance to Hadith literature by hating it. Hadith is just an additional supplement, if understood in the right essence it can help in giving extra light to some verses and overall understanding of Quranic message.   

The truth is we know nothing about the real contents of the book Quran except what we know through some oral narration or from Hadith literature. We know Mohammad more than what we know about Allah; this is because Hadith is ruling our mind 24x7. We easily get offended when somebody maligns the character of Mohammad but we are at ease and have no grudges when we ourselves day night destroy the divine character of God within us - 30:30 

Today's Islam is all about personality worship, we don't care about knowing the will of God but only care about imitating the lifestyle of personalities. The Philosophy of Islam is against all religious rituals and reverence of personalities but sadly we happen to see only personalities in the book Quran and Hadith literature. We have made the book Quran and Hadith literature as untouchable holy deity. 

 

I see constantly that there are two types of arguments going on social media platforms, one is that the book Quran is from God and that the Hadith literature must be rejected because it is man-made. This is the main fallacy in our perspective to understand the Philosophy of Islam.

Everything is from God, even Satan is from God. It is up to us to mine our minds for best, better, good, bad, ugly, evil or misleading literatures. We cannot understand the book Quran without man-made classical lexicons, grammar books and above all human intellect. Without going through tough mental exercise we cannot segregate what is good or best for us. Sometimes seemingly a helpful literature can be bad if we are not at the comprehension level of the author or not able to grasp the intended message emitted between the lines. 

God does not write books, every man-made invention, discoveries or even a story book is inspired by God. The quality of inspiration depends on the intensity of our focus.

History of Arabs has nothing to do with Islamic Philosophy. The philosophy of Peace is not a monopoly of Arabs or Muslims; its appeal Universal. It is wrong to infer that Hadith literature is about History of Islam or biography (sirah) of the person called Mohammed and his friends or foes. Those who believe that the message of the book Quran and Hadith is about human messengers, prophets and his companions can never understand the message of Peace. Islam is mental peace and soundness; it has nothing to do with the lives of personalities. Mental peace cannot be achieved through understanding the lives of personalities. 

The book Quran is the book of Islam (mental Peace) and you are free to have mental peace from any source or literature. Permanent Peace is very hard to achieve so you cannot ignore any source which helps you to achieve mental peace. Mental Peace (Islam) is more important and valuable than anything in the world. If your diamond ring happens to fall in a dirty commode you won’t hesitate to pick it up, clean it wash it properly then wear it again; you would never flush out. Same way there is invaluable diamonds in the Hadith literature which can enlighten our understanding of the book Quran. If we consider the entire Hadith literature as garbage and throw it out from the Islamic literature then it is very difficult or rather impossible to understand the entire message of the book Quran and Islam.  

The purpose of History is to know the culture; it glorifies and vilifies persons, although it is not always reliable. The philosophy of Islam has nothing to do with personalities and their personal way of life. Having said that our first priority must be to understand the book Quran with the basic belief that Islam has nothing to do with History, Geography and Science, it is a book of human psychology. The names that represent personalities are actually characters in our own psyche (nafs), narrated in parabolic figurative language in theophany format. 

The book Quran and Hadith is about us. It is not about sky God or about His human deputy Mohammad. The book Quran and Hadith teaches us through parabolic figurative language in theophany format on how evolve our own character and how to handle our psyche. It teaches us that divinity and mortality lies within us. We need to discover it and shun away the attraction of satanic forces. My thesis will look hypothesis to many because I have converted the entire so called biography of Mohammad and other human prophets / messengers into exemplar living parables orchestrating inside us. 

It is a fact that nature of humans is curious and this curiosity led to discoveries, inventions, development and evolution of self. If we confine our curiosity to just one book and expect to know the entire subject then we are not seeking knowledge but trying to validate what we already know. 

Sadly Muslims are not concerned about the evolution of self they are more concerned to defend their own dogma by copying or reviving the 1400 years old civilization of Arabia. They think Arab culture is Islam and Arabic is the favored language of God.

The book Quran and Hadith is not for literal reading, if we do so we will miss the gems in them. Note Hadith literature cannot supersede  the book Quran, it only helps overall comprehension.

I would not elaborate more as it will be very tedious for me to explain. Generally I share my articles only to trigger the mind; it is not for debates and arguments. I am just exercising my power of freedom to express my understanding.

All these years I was very unsympathetic towards Hadith literature. I thought it is a conspiracy against Islam. I never took help of Hadith when understanding the book Quran. But when I understood the book Quran it helped me to understand some Hadith too and it reciprocated with my understanding of the Quran.

If we take Hadith as a book of rituals, history of founder of Islam and his companions then your stance is right that it can't be of any help in deciphering the book Quran.
To be honest I take the help of Hadith based translations when I translate the Quran but you won't find even find a shred of Hadith element in my translation. The base of my interpretation is based on traditional knowledge but its an upgraded and improved version of traditional translation with new meanings and new theme supported by Arabic etymology and linguistics.
My understanding of Islam is based on the strong foundation of Quran but I won't deny that some Hadith helped me to change my stance of enmity towards the entire Hadith literature.
I am saying it again that we cannot understand Hadith if we have not understood the primary book Quran.

The entire Quranic language is symbolic, first we need to understand that. Giving examples of single verses from the Quran won't help, we need comprehensive study.
I don't follow any rituals of religion Islam, I don't believe in any History of Islam. I don't glorify or vilify any personalities because they are all characters within.
I think I am the only one who practically follows the book Quran but my contention is I don't reject anything if it helps to broaden my understanding of Quran and Islam.


Sometimes my confidence in my understanding sound very egoistic but in reality I am a very humble person. I am not a defender of Hadith nevertheless I said we must understand it from a new dimension, understanding from old dimension will fetch zero results.

IMPORTANT REMINDER:  

The Arabic word حَدِيث (Hadith) and its derivatives occurred 36 times in the entire book Quran. None of these words mean the Hadith books written by Persian or Arab Imams. It is only because wrong interpretation of the Hadith literature that rules our mind 24x7 so we assume that the word حَدِيث (Hadith) means the books compiled by Imams.

Another important reminder the word الْقُرْآنُ (Al-Quran) and derivatives appeared 88 times in the entire book Quran; none of its meanings connotes the meaning of 114 chapter Arabic language book Quran. It is only because wrong interpretation of Hadith that rules our mind we are forced to think that the word الْقُرْآنُ (Al-Quran) means holy book of Muslims.

 

 

 

REJECTION OF HADITH LITERATURE I

 REJECTION OF HADITH LITERATURE. PART - I

It is a sign of an immature mindset to reject or ban books or literature on the basis of their beliefs. In my view, any intelligent student or a researcher would never reject any literature of his interested subject however redundant the content of the literature may appear. He would sincerely go through it if he desires to find important truth about it. A critical researcher would never hold any literature infallible before scrutinizing it thoroughly. 

For any critical mind or a researcher no book is divine or perfect unless it passes through the check-meter and that check-meter is not based on blind beliefs but upon deep and impartial knowledge of that particular field. 

The mindset of any genuine researcher is to dig-out the valuable facts from mythology. A sincere researcher can go to any limit to find those valuable facts which he is anxious to know. He has to rigorously and persistently search even if the literature he/she is studying clashes with his/her own belief. The researcher must not investigate his/her targeted topic according to his personal likeness, he must never leave any stone unturned and must not hesitate to enter into unknown territories. The job of a researcher is to fact check and look for glimmer of light in the heap of darkness of ignorance.

Nowadays some seemingly advanced religious people completely reject Hadith books as man-made garbage. They think Hadith literature distorted the message of the book Quran but this is not completely true. The truth is Quran Alone followers unknowingly follow centuries old Hadith literature even if they blatantly deny it. 

We treat the book Quran as direct revelation from God to Mohammad only because we have been informed by Hadith literatures. We assume Mohammad ibn Abdullah of Hadith same as mohammad rasulallah of the book Quran only because our core understanding comes from Hadith literatures. 

Majority of people don't listen or read books which clashes with their core belief. One who is thirsty to know must not ignore or hate or fear of getting stray if his/her primary knowledge of Islam is strong. No literature have the power to lead you stray if your commonsense is intact. The book Quran is based on rationality, logic and thinking, if you have a unbiased sound mind then you can listen, study and read anything, you won't get stray. We cannot treat Hadith books as garbage if we are searching to know about the facts of Quran and Islam. But to find facts from the Hadith literature they must have thorough knowledge of the book Quran and Islam.

It won't be wrong if I say that we have not understood the Hadith books because we have not understood the primary book Quran. We have not been able to segregate useful Hadith only because we have not understood the book Quran completely. We are summarily rejecting the entire Hadith literature as if we have mastered the book Quran and we don't require help from any other literatures. 

If we are aware that the Hadith literature contains at least 5% of valuable material we won't dump the entire literature summarily by terming it as garbage. We need to meticulously mine the entire Hadith literature if we wish to find that scarce valuable literature even if it is in the heap of garbage. For a sincere fact-finder even a small key or hint is enough to open the ancient treasure chest. The book Quran is that treasure chest which is still locked and it won't open with the traditional keys or mindless recitation. 

Note I am not defending Hadith literature but I am criticizing recent translators, interpreters exegete and decipherer who have not applied their reasoning faculty and just copy pasted the perception of their ancestors. First they have not deciphered the message of the book Quran and brazenly calling themselves as Quran alone followers. You can only reject Hadith Literature, Lexicons, Grammar books, Exegesis when you have completely understood the message of the book Quran. I am very confidently asserting that we have not understood the book Quran and we are banning books which may assist us in understanding the book Quran. 

We all know that the book Quran is the only valid document of Islam, all other sources are secondary nevertheless no honest Muslim can deny that their basic learning or understanding of Islam came to them through their ancestor, environment, clergy and Hadith. We don't know anything about the the book Quran except what we have been fed through clergy and Hadith books. We have never applied our own mind and efforts, we have totally relied on books written by others or heard various discourses.

All categories of books or literatures are authored by human beings, some are popular and liked by the majority of people, others are good liked by some specific group of people, some books are average and some are bad, it all depends upon individuals mindset. Writing books is a human skill, God don't write books in specific languages. The language of God is silence and it is heard only by those who have sense of listening. The book of God speaks in our own language, we don't to have to learn from any outside source as Rehman is our Teacher.

Some people find some books very attractive which are bad or senseless in others eyes, so it depends how much one is evolving or is in static state. 

In my 32 years of research in the field of Islam I never considered Hadith books parallel to the book Quran. Later on as I gradually understood the theme of the book Quran I realized that I am studying Hadith based Quranic translation and rejecting Hadith. Our entire understanding of Islam is through Hadith, but we completely reject Hadith and take pride in calling ourselves as Quran alone Muslims.

When I started my own translation / interpretation of the book Quran I realized that there are some verses which we cannot understand without the correct background knowledge of Hadith. Once upon a time I used to hate Hadith Literature and thought that the compilers of Hadith were enemies of Islam. After my in-depth involvement in the translation of the book Quran I realized that like the book Quran, Hadith literature too is the victim of wrong comprehension and thus has a totally inaccurate interpretation. 

The book Quran and Hadith uses figurative language in theophany format, that's the reason today's well versed Arabic literate cannot decode the enchanting message of the Quran. No doubt the percentage of corrupt Hadiths is very large compare to its volume. But we cannot ignore the wealth of indicators it gives to a sincere researcher. 

To many my discourse may appear absurd but it is necessary for me to express my views. Now I am not concern about applause or criticism because truth must be spoken and this is my truth and I am not soliciting for agreement.   

Thank you.