Quranic Principles and what they say about the position of 'Hadeeth and Sunnah' in Islam
The Quran, the final scripture from God to humankind is considered to be the first source of Islam. Hadeeth and Sunnah which is considered to be the secondary source in Islam, must find its validation from the Quran. The Quran is from God, after all, while Hadeeth and Sunnah , even if from the Prophet himself, are from humans.
PRINCIPLE 1 : By the Book that makes THINGS CLEAR (Quran : 44.2)
PRINCIPLE 2 :Say: "Shall I seek for judge other than God? - when He it is Who hath sent unto you the Book, EXPLAINED IN DETAIL." (Quran : 6.114)
PRINCIPLE 3: God has revealed the most beautiful Message in the form of a Book, CONSISTENT WITH ITSELF repeating itself in various ways (Quran : 39.23)
PRINCIPLE 4: And pursue not that of which thou hast no knowledge; for every act of hearing, or of seeing or of REASONING will be enquired into (Quran : 17.36).
PRINCIPLE 5: Do they not consider the Qur'an (with care)? Had it been from other Than God, they would surely have found therein MANY CONTRADICTIONS (Quran : 4.82).
PRINCIPLE 6: Blessed is He who sent down THE CRITERIA to His servant, that it may be an admonition to all creatures (Quran : 25.1)
These are the six principles which we will employ in judging Hadeeth and sunnah in light of the Quran. Lets go through the principles again :
1- The Quran MAKES THINGS CLEAR or it clarifies things
2- The Quran is EXPLAINED IN DETAIL
3- The Quran is CONSISTENT IN ITSELF and so will use appropriate terminology for the same concepts
4- Anything which is to be accepted as 'knowledge' must be either seen, heard or reasoned..
5- If anything is from God, it will be consistent. On the other hand, if it is from humankind, it will contain many contradictions.
6- The Quran also calls itself AL-furqan or the criterion which shows that it's position must be the starting point by which to judge.
In part 2, we will analyse how these Quranic principles can be employed to determine just how Islamic hadeeth and sunnah is.
Go to Application of Quranic Principles in Judging Hadeeth and Sunnah
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