Trusting God and the Quran versus Bukhari's hadith collection, arguing the Quran is complete, detailed and easy to learn, and questioning how Bukhari could have sorted 600,000 hadiths in one lifetime. A compilation of verses on everything belonging to God follows, along with Masjid Tucson's interfaith soup kitchen and monthly scripture study group with a church and a Jewish congregation.
In God the believers should trust. That is
what God says throughout the Quran. Nobody who calls him or herself a
Muslim will doubt this fact. Muslims will actually become offended with
even the slight suggestion that they should trust Bukhari instead of God.
Of course they trust God, they would say. There should be no question
about that. However, that is not exactly what the majority of Muslims
are doing today. They are putting their trust not in the Almighty God,
but in the hands and mind of Bukhari who compiled volumes and volumes
of hadiths (sayings) attributed to Prophet Muhammad some 200 years after
the prophet’s death, without any authority from God and the prophet.
Why hadith?
The proponents of hadith argue that the Quran does not cover all the
details one may need to live an Islamic way of life. They also contend
that the Quran is difficult to understand, and therefore one needs to
refer to hadiths for explanation or clarification. Nothing can be further
from the truth.
It is true that the Quran does not give all the details some people expect
to have. However, when God says the Quran is complete and detailed (10:37),
why should anyone argue? For example, there are four prohibited food categories
in the Quran. They are simple and clear. However, according to hadith
books, there are so many prohibitions that anyone who may
want to follow these prohibitions diligently
will have a miserable life. However, God teaches us in the Quran that
making prohibitions and attributing them to God is a gross offense (3:97;
16:116). Therefore, bringing misery to oneself just because one may feel
holier is not righteousness. It is the exact opposite. It is double jeopardy.
Have a miserable life, plus incur God’s condemnation.
Say, "Who prohibited the nice things GOD has created
for His creatures, and the good provisions?" Say, "Such provisions
are to be enjoyed in this life by those who believe. Moreover, the good
provisions will be exclusively theirs on the Day of Resurrection."
We thus explain the revelations for people who know. 7:32
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Whom should we trust?
The point is that God gave us the freedom to choose what we eat
and how we eat, beyond the prohibited categories of food. When we
are not satisfied with what God enjoined us to do, what does that
make us? To make additional laws over and above God’s commands
to regulate our lives whether it is related to food, dress, or practices
of religion, is to be unappreciative of God, to say the least.
Furthermore, how can anyone rely on the accuracy of hadiths when
some of them are full of contradictions, nonsense, blasphemies and
lies against God and the prophet? How could recordings attributed
to Muhammad be free of misrepresentations, political and social
bias and distortions? Why should we put our trust in 43 volumes
of what Bukhari wrote down when God’s book is free of all
that, proven and fully protected, and only one volume?
Are all hadiths false?
Probably not. However, the real question is what do we do with
the hadiths. They may give us some historical perspective, but are
they also useful for our religious guidance? God tells us in the
Quran that His revelations are the best hadith (39:23), that He
made the Quran complete and fully detailed. It is sufficient for
our salvation (6:114). God also repeated several times in the Quran
“We made the Quran easy to learn. Does any of you wish to
learn?” (54:17,22,32,40)
So the argument that hadiths complement the Quran has no basis,
nor do we need hadiths to understand the Quran (12:111). It is in
fact tantamount to saying that God
does not know what He is talking about,
or suggesting that the prophet has defied God’s commands:
This [Quran] is the utterance of an honorable messenger.
Not the utterance of a poet; rarely do you believe.
Nor the utterance of a soothsayer; rarely do you take heed.
Indeed it is in one of the reported hadiths that Prophet Muhammad
asked his followers not to write down anything from him, except
the Quran, the revelations of God. Muhammad’s request is in
line with the Quranic teaching above. Knowing that he was a strict
follower of the Quran, because otherwise God would punish him, we
can assume that he probably made such a request. This is a demonstration
of the use of a hadith of the prophet for historical purposes. There
is nothing wrong with refering to hadiths as long as we do not use
them as a religious source and spiritual guidance beside the Quran.
We have to keep in mind how the hadiths were compiled and the process
of their supposed “authentication.”
Bukhari, the hadith compiler
Bukhari included in his book a collection of over 6,000 hadiths.
There are reports that he had heard or had access to more than 600,000
hadiths in his lifetime. He admittedly used extensive methods to
test the authenticity of the hadiths
and to sort them out. Basically he
accepted about 1% of the hadiths he encountered. He found the rest,
the 99% of them, to be unreliable or not worthy of publication.
If this is the case, the people who rely on hadiths are at the mercy
of Bukhari. They trust his judgment and his work more than they
trust in God and His revelations, about what is good and useful
to them for their guidance.
How reliable was Bukhari? How did he manage to pick the “genuine”
hadiths from his collection of over 600,000 hadiths? Is it possible
to achieve this overwhelming task physically in one’s lifetime?
It is reported that Bukhari lived 62 years. Had he spent a mere
hour per hadith for compilation, checking the authenticity, and
for recording it, he would require 600,000 hours total. This translates
into more than 68 years! Assuming that he started collecting hadith
at birth; if he did not sleep, did not eat, did not do anything
else but work, he still would not manage to complete his work before
he died. Therefore it certainly defies logic, especially considering
the reported instances where he supposedly traveled to places that
sometimes took days, or weeks to check the authenticity of a given
hadith.
Quran: God’s authentic book
In any case, the truth is that we have the Quran, the word of God.
It is a protected book that no falsehood can enter. It does not
have any contradictions, nor any nonsense. We cannot say the same
thing for the hadiths.
Why do they not study the Quran carefully? If it
were from other than GOD, they would have found in it numerous contradictions.
4:82
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TO GOD BELONGS…
EVERYTHING
To GOD belongs everything
in the heavens and everything on earth,
…all decisions in the heavens and the earth…. 39:63
…absolute control of the heavens and the earth… 42:12
…the sovereignty of the heavens and the earth. GOD is Omnipotent.
3:189
…all kingship, and to Him belongs all praise, and He is
Omnipotent. 64:1
Say, “To whom belongs everything
in the heavens and the earth?” Say, “To GOD.”
He has decreed that mercy is His attribute. He will surely summon
you all on the Day of Resurrection, which is inevitable. The ones
who lose their souls are those who disbelieve. 6:12
GOD: there is no other god besides Him, the Living,
the Eternal. Never a moment of unawareness or slumber overtakes
Him. To Him belongs everything in the heavens and everything
on earth. Who could intercede with Him, except in accordance
with His will? He knows their past, and their future. No one attains
any knowledge, except as He wills. His dominion encompasses the
heavens and the earth, and ruling them never burdens Him. He is
the Most High, the Great. 2:255
Absolutely, to GOD belongs everything
in the heavens and the earth. Absolutely, GOD’s promise is
truth, but most of them do not know. 10:55
Compiled by Lydia
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Whom should we trust?
If we really reflect on the history of hadith collection and what happened
to Muslim communities after hadiths became norm, we can see the handiwork
of Satan. He basically managed to divide the religion into sects and confound
the truth with falsehood (3:71). He got people to turn their attention
away from God’s revelations. Consequently, the majority of Muslims
put their trust in Bukhari to understand the Quran and to practice the
religion, instead of trusting God to guide them to the truth (6:126).
We must be grateful to God and thank Him for He blessed us with the knowledge
that we do not need any source other than God’s revelations for
our salvation. God is sufficient for us and in God we trust.
Abdullah
Is GOD not sufficient for His servant? They frighten you
with the idols they set up beside Him. Whomever GOD sends astray, nothing
can guide him. 39:36
Therefore, put your trust in GOD; you are following the
manifest truth. 27:79
Masjid Tucson Activities
Soup Kitchen
We participate in an ongoing project to help feed the hungry in our town
in cooperation with Casas Adobes Congregational Church and Congregation
Or Chadash Jewish group. This project was started in 1993. By God’s
grace, we feed 350 to 400 homeless and poor families every month.
We use the kitchen facilities of Casa Maria, a Catholic run operation
in south of Tucson. We also use the facility of Masjid Tucson (ICS Center)
to prepare 600 sandwiches a day before since Casa Maria kitchen is too
small for our group. More or less three volunteers from each group make
the sandwiches. Children also participate in making the sandwiches. They
are great helpers.
Volunteers from the three communities run the soup kitchen. These volunteers
get together once a month. They buy all the necessary food for the soup
kitchen. They prepare, cook and distribute the food the next day at the
Casa Maria’s kitchen facility. May God accept the efforts of the
volunteers.
Interfaith Study Group
An interfaith scripture study group has been on going at the ICS Center
(Masjid Tucson) for years. The group meets at 7:30 p.m. on the first Monday
of every month. So far these scripture studies have been very fruitful
and lively. During the study, each group reads and discusses their scripture
for about half an hour. The Congregation Or Chadash group directs the
Torah reading. Casas Adobes Congregational Church members direct the Gospel
reading and the participants from Masjid Tucson direct the Quran reading.
By God’s grace, the Rabbi of Congregation Or Chadash group has accepted
the Quran as being the word of God, and there are others in his congregation
who believe the same. The group frequently publishes selected verses from
the Quran in their newsletters.
Sister Senobar coordinates both the soup kitchen activity and interfaith
scripture study.
Those who give to charity night and day, secretly and publicly,
receive their recompense from their Lord; they will have nothing to fear,
nor will they grieve. 2:274
About this work
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International Community of Submitters / Masjid Tucson