A Qur'anist friend of yours truly kindly paid a visit today. And yours truly made it sure to bring in Qur'anism in the conversation.
But first about Qur'anism and the Qur'anists. These are the people who believe in Qur'an only and reject the Prophetic Traditions. And this tendency hold some attraction for the young and impressionable minds because of the intellectual inclination of the arguments presented in favour of this ideology. The minimization of religious overhead is an added attraction. Isn't Qur'an only simpler than Qur'an+Hadith - they ask.
So this friend was told that he is a Qur'anist. He was pleased. Perhaps he heard the word for the first time. Clearly he discovered this profound ideology all by himself. When it became apparent to him that yours truly has negative feelings about Qur'anism it was time for him to admonish yours truly for devaluing Qur'anism.
But one more thing has to be taken care of now. If so many people are discovering Qur'anism independently then does it not confirm its truth? Answer : No. Reason : Everybody goes through the natural phase of questioning whether there is a purpose behind the creation of the universe. This question has neither Scholastic (Kalam) answer - you can argue quite convincingly for both of the answers. Nor the question has empirical answer. What experiment will you do to determine the purpose of life? The answer can only come from Divine revelation.
And then one more thing before we come to the real purpose of the post. Above arguments and the arguments below are only for those people who feel in their hearts that rejecting Hadith can not be the correct thing to do. We say this because many people were not convinced by these arguments or were not even willing to consider them. In reality this is also a question of guidance. Allah(SWT) guides those whom He wills.
And finally the purpose of this post. The purpose was to present two arguments by Mufti Taqi Usmani Sahab (DB) in refutation of the Qur'anists (also called Ahl-ul-Qur'an or the Hadith rejectors.) These are taken from his book An Approach to the Qur'anic Sciences (p.48-49 of the edition published by Adam Publishers, Delhi) (English translation of 'Uloom-ul-Qur'an) as follows.
(1) In Al-Baqarah (2:143) Allah (SWT) says : And We appointed not the Qiblah which you (O Prophet) have had except in order that We might know who followed the Messenger from those who turned back on their heels.
Here Allah(SWT) attributes the appointment of first Qiblah to Himself. But there is no Verse in the Holy Qur'an that asserts that first Qiblah is hereby appointed to you on this day. Clearly the information about the first Qiblah came through that Wahy that is not part of the Holy Qur'an. Any Muslim must think for himself about the wisdom of this argument before imagining to convince the Qur'anists about its truth. They are not your responsibility (to convince) but you are.
(2) In Surah At-Tahreem (66:3) Allah (SWT) says: Then she informed about it (to the other) and Allah (SWT) disclosed that to him (the beloved Prophet (PBUH)), he had made knwoen to her a part of it
and passed over a part ...
This is a matter about a house hold incident in Prophet (PBUH)'s life whose details need not concern us here. The delicate point is that though Allah(SWT) tells us that He told about the even to the Holy Prophet (PBUH) but the story itself is not narrated in the Holy Qur'an. clearly there is part of Islam that is taking place in the life of beloved Prophet (PBUH) but it is not completely reported in the Holy Qur'an.
Mufti Taqi Usmani Sahab (DB) adds that many such incidents can be compiled but only two are presented as samples. The point is that one or two are sufficient to convince those who have an open mind while even an opus will not be sufficient to convince a person who is determined to exclude the truth.
So above two events were from Mufti Taqi Usmani Sahab (DB). What yours truly presented to the visiting Qur'anist was Surah 'Ahzab (33:21) : There has certainly been for you in the Messenger of Allah an excellent pattern for anyone whose hope is in Allah and the Last Day and [who] remembers Allah often.
Here beloved Prophet (PBUH) is being hailed as the best ideal/model/sample for us. A Qur'anist must believe it because it is in the Qur'an. But the whole of the life of the beloved Ptophet (PBUH) is described in the Hadith literature. If they claim to follow the Qur'an then they must obey this Verse.
Our friend was not amenable to this argument also but he really had no argument against it.
But first about Qur'anism and the Qur'anists. These are the people who believe in Qur'an only and reject the Prophetic Traditions. And this tendency hold some attraction for the young and impressionable minds because of the intellectual inclination of the arguments presented in favour of this ideology. The minimization of religious overhead is an added attraction. Isn't Qur'an only simpler than Qur'an+Hadith - they ask.
So this friend was told that he is a Qur'anist. He was pleased. Perhaps he heard the word for the first time. Clearly he discovered this profound ideology all by himself. When it became apparent to him that yours truly has negative feelings about Qur'anism it was time for him to admonish yours truly for devaluing Qur'anism.
But one more thing has to be taken care of now. If so many people are discovering Qur'anism independently then does it not confirm its truth? Answer : No. Reason : Everybody goes through the natural phase of questioning whether there is a purpose behind the creation of the universe. This question has neither Scholastic (Kalam) answer - you can argue quite convincingly for both of the answers. Nor the question has empirical answer. What experiment will you do to determine the purpose of life? The answer can only come from Divine revelation.
And then one more thing before we come to the real purpose of the post. Above arguments and the arguments below are only for those people who feel in their hearts that rejecting Hadith can not be the correct thing to do. We say this because many people were not convinced by these arguments or were not even willing to consider them. In reality this is also a question of guidance. Allah(SWT) guides those whom He wills.
And finally the purpose of this post. The purpose was to present two arguments by Mufti Taqi Usmani Sahab (DB) in refutation of the Qur'anists (also called Ahl-ul-Qur'an or the Hadith rejectors.) These are taken from his book An Approach to the Qur'anic Sciences (p.48-49 of the edition published by Adam Publishers, Delhi) (English translation of 'Uloom-ul-Qur'an) as follows.
(1) In Al-Baqarah (2:143) Allah (SWT) says : And We appointed not the Qiblah which you (O Prophet) have had except in order that We might know who followed the Messenger from those who turned back on their heels.
Here Allah(SWT) attributes the appointment of first Qiblah to Himself. But there is no Verse in the Holy Qur'an that asserts that first Qiblah is hereby appointed to you on this day. Clearly the information about the first Qiblah came through that Wahy that is not part of the Holy Qur'an. Any Muslim must think for himself about the wisdom of this argument before imagining to convince the Qur'anists about its truth. They are not your responsibility (to convince) but you are.
(2) In Surah At-Tahreem (66:3) Allah (SWT) says: Then she informed about it (to the other) and Allah (SWT) disclosed that to him (the beloved Prophet (PBUH)), he had made knwoen to her a part of it
and passed over a part ...
This is a matter about a house hold incident in Prophet (PBUH)'s life whose details need not concern us here. The delicate point is that though Allah(SWT) tells us that He told about the even to the Holy Prophet (PBUH) but the story itself is not narrated in the Holy Qur'an. clearly there is part of Islam that is taking place in the life of beloved Prophet (PBUH) but it is not completely reported in the Holy Qur'an.
Mufti Taqi Usmani Sahab (DB) adds that many such incidents can be compiled but only two are presented as samples. The point is that one or two are sufficient to convince those who have an open mind while even an opus will not be sufficient to convince a person who is determined to exclude the truth.
So above two events were from Mufti Taqi Usmani Sahab (DB). What yours truly presented to the visiting Qur'anist was Surah 'Ahzab (33:21) : There has certainly been for you in the Messenger of Allah an excellent pattern for anyone whose hope is in Allah and the Last Day and [who] remembers Allah often.
Here beloved Prophet (PBUH) is being hailed as the best ideal/model/sample for us. A Qur'anist must believe it because it is in the Qur'an. But the whole of the life of the beloved Ptophet (PBUH) is described in the Hadith literature. If they claim to follow the Qur'an then they must obey this Verse.
Our friend was not amenable to this argument also but he really had no argument against it.