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.
Yet, they fail to notice the immediate next verse.
4:60 Have you noted those who claim that they believe in what was revealed to you, and in what was revealed before you, then uphold the unjust laws of their idols? They were commanded to reject such laws. Indeed, it is the devil’s wish to lead them far astray.
In the book “Hadith Muhammad’s Legacy in Medieval and Modern World” by Professor Jonathan Brown, on page 165, it states:
“When Sunni legal theory matured in the eleventh century, it was accepted that, although ahad( i.e., non-massively transmitted) hadiths did not yield epistemological certainty (yaqin) that the Prophet had made that statement, they did yield a very strong probability ( zann). This was sufficient for fixing law and ritual. While almost all legal hadiths were ahad, the Quran was epistemologically certain, massively transmitted from the time of the Prophet. “
Sunnis admit that their Hadith corpus, at best, is conjecture ( zann / ظَّنَّ), and what does the Quran tell us about conjecture ( zann)?
6:116 If you obey the majority of people on earth, they will divert you from the path of GOD. They follow only conjecture (l-ẓana); they only guess.
6:148 The idol worshipers say, “Had GOD willed, we would not practice idolatry, nor would our parents, nor would we prohibit anything.” Thus did those before them disbelieve, until they incurred our retribution. Say, “Do you have any proven knowledge that you can show us? You follow nothing but conjecture (zann); you only guess.”
Additionally, a careful look at the Quran informs us that if we want to obey and follow the path of the messenger, the way we do this is by upholding the Quran alone.
25:27 The day will come when the transgressor will bite his hands (in anguish) and say, “Alas, I wish I had followed the path with the messenger.
Additional articles explainng how obeying the messenger does not mean following the Hadith can be found below.
Obey The Messenger ≠ Obey Hadith
Obey God and His messenger
Hikma = Sunnah
Another common argument is that when it is stated that the messenger delivered the scripture (Kitab) and wisdom (Hikma), the Hikma is implying the Sunnah.
The word Hik’m a ( الْحِكْمَة), which is typically translated as wisdom throughout the Quran, is almost always mentioned in association with the scripture ( kitab) (See: 2:129, 2:151, 2:231, 3:48, 3:81, 3:164, 4:54, 4:113, 5:110, 6:89, 45:16, 62:2).
2:129 “Our Lord, and raise among them a messenger to recite to them Your revelations, teach them the scripture and wisdom, and purify them. You are the Almighty, Most Wise.”
If we accept the traditionalist’s interpretation that the Hikma is something other than the Quran, then this would mean that God’s word does not contain wisdom. Such implications would be comically absurd. When we study the Quran, we see that Hikma is not something external to the Quran but something contained within the Quran.
43:1 H. M.
43:2 And the enlightening scripture.
43:3 We have rendered it an Arabic Quran, that you may understand.
43:4 It is preserved with us in the original master, honorable and full of wisdom.
10:1 A. L. R. These (letters) are the proofs of this book of wisdom.
(١) الر تِلكَ آياتُ الكِتابِ الحَكيمِ
Other articles on this topic can be found below.
Quran and Hikmah
The Problem with Calling Hadith Revelations
Hadith of God vs. the Hadith of Men
Hadith Prophesized and Warned About Quran Alone
Traditionalists love to refer to the following Hadith to argue that the Hadith warns of those who want to follow the Quran alone.
Narrated Al-Miqdam ibn Ma’dikarib: The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Beware! I have been given the Qur’an and something like it, yet the time is coming when a man replete on his couch will say: Keep to the Qur’an; what you find in it to be permissible treat as permissible, and what you find in it to be prohibited treat as prohibited. Beware! The domestic ass, beasts of prey with fangs, a find belonging to confederate, unless its owner does not want it, are not permissible to you If anyone comes to some people, they must entertain him, but if they do not, he has a right to mulct them to an amount equivalent to his entertainment.
Sunan Abi Dawud 4604
https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4604
Yet the problem with referencing this Hadith as an argument against following the Quran alone is that there are many more Hadith that go against following Hadith than there are ones warning about following the Quran alone, like the example below.
Here is an article for additional anti-Hadith Hadith.
19 Hadith Against Sunnah
The Most Damning Hadith
Anti-Hadith Hadith of Sahih al-Bukhari
Using Hadith to argue against Hadith
List of Anti-Hadith Hadith
Hadith Were Always Narrated Along with the Quran
For the first couple hundred years after the death of the prophet, the main focus for most Muslims was the Quran. Sunni Islam did not become mainstream until around the year 848 CE, during the reign of the Abbasid Caliph Mutawakkil. Before that, people who propagated Hadith were fringe and not mainstream.
Consider that there was no formal effort by any of the first four Caliphs to formally catalog and compile Hadith like they did the Quran. Not only did they not make an effort to preserve the Hadith, but the history of Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali shows that they actively tried to suppress the spread of Hadith.
ABU BAKR AND HADITH
According to a narration some writers report from al-Hakim an-Nisaburi, Aisha stated the following:
Narrated ‘Aisha: My father had collected five hundred hadiths of the Prophet. On the night he did it, he tossed and turned in bed. I asked, “Do you have an illness or have you heard something?” In the morning, he said, “My daughter! Bring me the hadiths that I gave you.” I brought them. He wanted some fire and burned them. When I asked him why he burned them, he said, “I do not want to die having these hadiths with me because I am afraid that there are hadiths that are not originally as they are reported though I heard them from people whom I trust; I am afraid to narrate them that way”
After the demise of the Holy Prophet, Abu-Bakr gathered people and said, ‘You are reporting about the Messenger of Allah inconsistent narrations. People coming after you will be engaged in more intense discrepancy. Therefore, do not report anything about the Messenger of Allah, and if anyone asks you, you should refer to the Book of Allah as the arbitrator. You should thus deem lawful whatever is lawful therein and deem unlawful whatever is unlawful therein.’
Umar staunchly believed that the Quran was sufficient and was incredibly uptight regarding the spreading of Hadith.
Narrated ‘Ubaidullah bin `Abdullah: Ibn `Abbas said, “When the ailment of the Prophet (ﷺ) became worse, he said, ‘Bring for me (writing) paper and I will write for you a statement after which you will not go astray.’ But `Umar said, ‘The Prophet is seriously ill, and we have got Allah’s Book with us and that is sufficient for us.’ But the companions of the Prophet (ﷺ) differed about this and there was a hue and cry. On that the Prophet (ﷺ) said to them, ‘Go away (and leave me alone). It is not right that you should quarrel in front of me.” Ibn `Abbas came out saying, “It was most unfortunate (a great disaster) that Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) was prevented from writing that statement for them because of their disagreement and noise.
حَدَّثَنَا يَحْيَى بْنُ سُلَيْمَانَ، قَالَ حَدَّثَنِي ابْنُ وَهْبٍ، قَالَ أَخْبَرَنِي يُونُسُ، عَنِ ابْنِ شِهَابٍ، عَنْ عُبَيْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ، عَنِ ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ، قَالَ لَمَّا اشْتَدَّ بِالنَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم وَجَعُهُ قَالَ ” ائْتُونِي بِكِتَابٍ أَكْتُبُ لَكُمْ كِتَابًا لاَ تَضِلُّوا بَعْدَهُ ”. قَالَ عُمَرُ إِنَّ النَّبِيَّ صلى الله عليه وسلم غَلَبَهُ الْوَجَعُ وَعِنْدَنَا كِتَابُ اللَّهِ حَسْبُنَا فَاخْتَلَفُوا وَكَثُرَ اللَّغَطُ. قَالَ ” قُومُوا عَنِّي، وَلاَ يَنْبَغِي عِنْدِي التَّنَازُعُ ”. فَخَرَجَ ابْنُ عَبَّاسٍ يَقُولُ إِنَّ الرَّزِيَّةَ كُلَّ الرَّزِيَّةِ مَا حَالَ بَيْنَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم وَبَيْنَ كِتَابِهِ.
Sahih al-Bukhari 114
https://sunnah.com/bukhari:114
It is reported that Umar, during his reign as Caliph, did not allow the free travel of the prophet’s companions without his permission because he did not want them to propagate Hadith. It wasn’t until the reign of Uthman that this ban was lifted, and the companions were allowed to emigrate to some of the newly Muslim-conquered regions.
In Tadhkirat al-huffaz, al-Dhahabi reported from Shu’bah, from Sa’id ibn Ibrahim from his father, that Umar detained Ibn Mas’ud, Abu al-Darda’ and Abu Mas’ud al-Ansari, saying to them: You have narrated hadith abundantly from the Messenger of Allah. It is reported that he had detained them in Medina, but they were set free by Uthman.
Ibn Sa’d and Ibn Asakir reports from Mahmud ibn Labid that he said: I heard Uthman ibn Affan addressing people from over the pulpit: It is unlawful for everyone to narrate any hadith he never heard of during the time of Abu Bakr and that of Umar. Verily that which made me abstain from narrating from the Messenger of Allah was not to be among the most conscious of his Companions, but I heard him declaring: “Whoever ascribing to me something I never said, he shall verily occupy his (destined) abode in Fire.”
ALI AND HADITH
Narrated Abu Juhaifa: I asked Ali, “Do you have the knowledge of any Divine Inspiration (wahi) besides what is in Allah’s Book?” Ali replied, “No, by Him Who splits the grain of corn and creates the soul. I don’t think we have such knowledge, but we have the ability of understanding which Allah may endow a person with, so that he may understand the Qur’an, and we have what is written in this paper as well.” I asked, “What is written in this paper?” He replied, “The understanding, releasing of the captive, and that a Muslim should not be killed by a disbeliever.
حَدَّثَنَا أَحْمَدُ بْنُ يُونُسَ، حَدَّثَنَا زُهَيْرٌ، حَدَّثَنَا مُطَرِّفٌ، أَنَّ عَامِرًا، حَدَّثَهُمْ عَنْ أَبِي جُحَيْفَةَ ـ رضى الله عنه ـ قَالَ قُلْتُ لِعَلِيٍّ ـ رضى الله عنه هَلْ عِنْدَكُمْ شَىْءٌ مِنَ الْوَحْىِ إِلاَّ مَا فِي كِتَابِ اللَّهِ قَالَ وَالَّذِي فَلَقَ الْحَبَّةَ وَبَرَأَ النَّسَمَةَ مَا أَعْلَمُهُ إِلاَّ فَهْمًا يُعْطِيهِ اللَّهُ رَجُلاً فِي الْقُرْآنِ، وَمَا فِي هَذِهِ الصَّحِيفَةِ. قُلْتُ وَمَا فِي الصَّحِيفَةِ قَالَ الْعَقْلُ وَفَكَاكُ الأَسِيرِ، وَأَنْ لاَ يُقْتَلَ مُسْلِمٌ بِكَافِرٍ.
Sahih al-Bukhari 3047
https://sunnah.com/bukhari:3047
For further reading on the subject:
Excerpts & Thoughts from Hadith Literature by Muhammad Zubayr Siddiqi
How Hadith and Sunnism Destroyed Islam and Rationality
Evolution of Hadith Reliance in Sunni Islam
What do you need to see to renounce Hadith?
Umar Advocated Quran Alone
Abu Hurayra
Need Hadith to judge
One common argument made for justification for the upholding of Hadith besides the Quran is that it was the messenger’s job to judge, and it is the duty of the believers to obey his judgment. Some of the strongest verses in the Quran used to attempt to justify these points can be found in the following two verses.
4:65 Never indeed, by your Lord; they are not believers unless they come to you to judge in their disputes, then find no hesitation in their hearts whatsoever in accepting your judgment. They must submit a total submission.
33:36 No believing man or believing woman, if GOD and His messenger issue any command, has any choice regarding that command. Anyone who disobeys GOD and His messenger has gone far astray.
The error made in thinking these verses support the upholding of Hadith besides the Quran can be understood by asking, “by what mechanism did the messenger judge?” Or put another way, did the messenger judge by the Book of God, or did he judge by some other means that is not contained in the Book of God? What we find when we research the Quran is that the messenger judged by the Quran alone.
More articles on this topic can be found below:
How did the messenger judge?
Muhammad Received Revelations outside of Quran
There are numerous examples in the Quran that the prophet received revelations referenced in the Quran that occurred outside the Quran. Below are three examples.