Over the past several weeks i've been reading an increasing number of comments on the Blogging
Theology channel and on Facebook and by email from people who say things like this, and this is a
quote from one of them telling me, 'Don't be a Sunni but rather be a free-thinking quranist Muslim
like me. The hadith literature contains many texts which are completely foreign to islam many of them
cause confusion and evil thoughts among people who believe them the quran is the only source so far
that is free from impurity'. Interesting word 'impurity' um so um that is typical of the Quranist
narrative that i've become a little bit more familiar with because there's so many messages
from these people um so i just wanted to reflect a little on this obviously i'm not a scholar i can't
issue fatwas and rulings and whatnot it's just my own personal observations really
but um just wanted to share with you some thoughts from this text 'The Principles
of Islamic Jurisprudence' by Mohammad Hashim Kamali who is a Professor of law at the International
Islamic University in Malaysia. He's chairman of the International Institute of Advanced
Islamic Studies in Malaysia as well and this text is a standard undergraduate work used
at the University of Cambridge where they teach Islamic studies, Professor Tim Winter
at Cambridge uses this, he's also known of course as Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad
and i just wanted to share with you just a very brief extract here because it really
gives the traditional sunni perspective on this in terms of where where Muslims turn to
for rulings and authority according to the quran itself. So on page 38 it says to give an example
the following quranic ayah provides the textual authority for all the material sources of the
sharia namely the quran the sunnah consensus and analogy the ayah reads oh you who believe obey God
and obey the messenger and those of you who are in authority and if you have a dispute concerning
any matter refer it to God and to the messenger end quote that's the fourth chapter uh verse 59
so um the professor then says obey God in this ayah refers to the quran as the first source
and obey the messenger refers to the sunnah of the prophet and those of you who are in authority
authorizes the consensus of the ulama the last portion of the ayah and if you have a dispute
validates qias for a dispute can only be referred to God and to the messenger
by extending the rulings of the quran and the sunnah through analogy to similar cases in this
sense one might say that the whole body of us is a commentary on this single quranic verse al-shatebe
further observes that wherever the quran provides specific details it is related to the
exposition and better understanding of its general principles most of the legal content of the quran
consists of general rules although it contains specific injunctions on a number of topics
broadly speaking he concludes the quran is specific on matters that are deemed to be
unchangeable but in matters that are liable to change it merely lays down general guidelines
end quote so that's a fascinating verse from the quran itself authorizing uh us to look to to god
and to the sunnah of the messenger and to those of you who are in authority
um as well so what about the hadith well this is a great book to study hadith if you're
a western english-speaking reader hadith muhammad's legacy in the medieval and modern
world this is the second edition of professor jonathan a c brown's work on this subject his phd
uh was in the hadith itself bukhari and muslim and i just wanted to uh read a short section here
of on authority when it comes to the sunnah in law and he says although all muslims believe that
the quran is the primary source of islamic law throughout islamic history the vast preponderance
of muslims have also affirmed that the teachings of the prophet adjust augment and explain the holy
book although they have disagreed on how and to what extent it occurs the quran is not a detailed
legal manual only about 500 of the book's verses provide legal injunctions even on major questions
such as ritual prayer the quran is often vague for both sunni and shia islam the prophet sunnah
has thus proven an essential resource for explaining and supplementing the quranic message
as the companion imran ibn hussein told a person who wants to take religious law only from the
holy book and not from the sunnah quote indeed you are an idiot do you find in the book of god prayer
explained do you find in it fasting explained indeed the quran ordains this but the sunnah
explains it and then brown goes on as the lens through which the quran is understood the sun of
the prophet has control the way in which muslims have interpreted the quranic revelation and then
he goes on to discuss this in considerably more detail that there are many uh authentic hadith
principally in the great collections of bukhari and muslim and sunni normative sunni islam
has clearly looked to them for rulings on law on on the details of the application or whether it be
how to fast and ramadan or zakat or going on hajj to saudi arabia and so on all these details
uh how to do it how to practice the faith are found in the sunnah and there's a according to
the broad consensus of sunni islamic scholars there is there are uh reliable hadiths to guide
us in that indeed the quran expects muslims to refer to this because as that chronic verse says
you must refer to god and the sunnah of the prophet and to those in authority over you
and you can't obey that injunction unless you turn to the hadith so that's my impression um i do uh
recommend that this is an undergraduate text it's it's seriously advanced but absolutely fascinating
and i i've enjoyed reading i haven't finished it actually but i enjoy reading a lot of it this is
much more accessible and it's a very uh scholarly work has excellent reviews uh hamza youssef
president and founder of zaytuna institute says this work is in my opinion without parallel in
the english language stunning in its scope it enables one to grasp a highly complex subject
in well-written and clear prose essential reading and i certainly agree with that statement so um
i think if one is going to be an orthodox sunni muslim i'm following the practices right back to
the sahaba there's a quote there from a companion who says uh you know you're an idiot if you just
follow the uh quran and exclude the practice of the prophet um the quranic the quranist
perspective would seem to fall short quite a bit but that's just my opinion till next time