Obey God and His Messenger

Probably the most typical argument against following the Quran alone is the argument that when the Quran says to “obey God and His messenger,” this means we have to uphold the Hadith. The fallacy in this argument is that the traditionalists who make this argument are presupposing that the Hadith are actual narrations from the prophet rather than conjecture that is being falsely attributed to the prophet.

For example, traditionalists love to cite the following verse for this argument.

4:59 O you who believe, you shall obey GOD, and you shall obey the messenger, and those in charge among you. If you dispute in any matter, you shall refer it to GOD and the messenger, if you do believe in GOD and the Last Day. This is better for you, and provides you with the best solution.

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ أَطِيعُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُوا۟ ٱلرَّسُولَ وَأُو۟لِى ٱلْأَمْرِ مِنكُمْ فَإِن تَنَـٰزَعْتُمْ فِى شَىْءٍ فَرُدُّوهُ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ وَٱلرَّسُولِ إِن كُنتُمْ تُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱللَّهِ وَٱلْيَوْمِ ٱلْـَٔاخِرِ ذَٰلِكَ خَيْرٌ وَأَحْسَنُ تَأْوِيلًا

Yet, they conveniently neglect that in matters of dispute, we are to refer to God and His messenger.

Additionally, if we read the next verse, we see that this does not mean judging by the laws of idols.