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.