Mason Keller

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Quranism, and a History of the Hadith

Hadith (plural ahadith), meaning speech or report, is the Arabic word used by Muslims to
refer to a prophetic tradition. These traditions were collected around 230 AH, and have been an
important, but sometimes controversial, source of Muslim practice and legal theory ever since.
There have always been, however, Muslims who reject the Hadith as spiritually authoritative on
one grounds or another. Even the most well respected collections, called sahih or authentic,
contain things that are embarrassing or even offensive to the sensibilities of a well-educated
person. In addition to this, many people who reject Hadith do so on the basis that it competes
with the Quran for spiritual authority. There are even those who go so far as to say that
Muhammad himself has no spiritual authority except that to deliver the Quran; they reject any
significance of their prophets sunnah, or practices. These people have had many different names
historically, but today can be identified by the name Quranists or Quran Alone Muslims.
The purpose of the present paper to present the history, purpose, and structure of hadith
literature, and to additionally present the Quranist argument and practice. To this end, I reference
Hadith as Scripture by Aisha Y. Musa and The Canonization of al-Bukhari and Muslim by
Jonathon Brown. Additionally, I occasionally have made recourse to the Sahih al-Bukhari and
Sahih Muslim themselves for examples.
Hadith collections emerged out of the broader Hanbalite tradition of legal theory that can
also be termed ahl al-hadith which means partisans of hadith (Brown 50). Scholars in this
tradition rejected the ability of individual reason (ray) to produce authoritative rulings. Hanbal
is quoted as saying, You hardly see anyone applying reason, except that there lies, in his heart,
some deep-seated resentment. A weak narration from the Prophet is thus dearer to me than the

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use of reason (Brown 50). Hanbal died in 241 AH, and at this time the scholarship regarding
Hadith was primarily focused on authenticity, not authoritativeness: the earliest surviving works
from the ahl al-hadith were written by al-Shafii, who died in 204 AH, and there are no surviving
opposing texts from those who al-Shafii terms alh al-kalam or partisans of speech [of Allah]
(Musa 20). Moreover while earlier caliphs supported alh al-kalam, things changed in 232 AH
when al-Mutawakkil was made Caliph. Al-Mutawakkil and his successors supported the use of
ahadith instead of individual reasoning (Musa 63). In this time, the two most important hadith
collections were created. The first was collected by al-Bukhari, who died in 256 AH, and the
second was collected by Muslim bin al-Hajjaj, who died in 261 AH. These men, who were
disciples of Hanbal, sought to only collect the ahadith with the strongest isnads, or chains of
transmission (Brown 54-55). These ahadith are called sahih, meaning authentic, and the
collections are called Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. These collections, along with four
other non-sahih colections compiled by students of Bukhari and Muslim, form the Kutub alSittah which is taken as canon by most Sunni Muslims (Musa 63, Brown 55). These six
collections are important to the practice of Sunni Islam.
The hadith inform Islams practices by providing clarification for statements from the
Quran. For example, the hadith not only codify the five pillars of Islam, but also provide the
specific information concerning their practice. Specifically, the pillars are defined in the hadith
of Gabriel which is the 50th hadith in Sahih al-Bhukari. In this hadith, the angel Gabriel, in
disguise, comes to Muhammad and asks him what faith and Islam are, prompting Muhammad to
speak about the five pillars (Al-Bukhari 81-82). However, it takes many, many more ahadith to
clarify the specific nature of what Muhammad means. With regards to the practice of prayer, alBukhari has two books (8th and 9th) comprising 150 chapters of ahadith. Muslim, over three

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books, provides 183 chapters of ahadith expounding on almsgiving, fasting, and pilgrimage to
Mecca. There are additional sahih hadith about nearly every aspect of Islam; the English text of
Sahih Muslim is about 1800 pages. Such a large volume of sayings complicates the religion
enormously.
Each hadith is composed of two parts. The first is the isnad, sometimes called sabad,
which is the train of transmission from the writer to the prophet. The second part is the called
the matn and is the actual hadith or report (Newby 70). Many different classifications of hadith
exist, but the most important are sahih, hasan, and daif, meaning authentic, good, and
weak. A hadith may be classified as weak if its isnad is muallaq, or disconnected. Moreover,
hadith collections are organized in two ways (Brown 50-51). A collection can be musnad,
arranged by narrator, or musannaf, arranged by topic. To give further example, the eighteenth
hadith in Sahih Muslim is:
It is narrated on the authority of ('Abdullah) son of Umar (may Allah be pleased with
them) that the Holy Prophet (may peace of Allah be upon him) said: (The superstructure
of) al-Islam is raised on five (pillars), i. e. the oneness of Allah, the establishment of
prayer, payment of Zakat, the fast of Ramadan, Pilgrimage (to Mecca).
A person said (to 'Abdullah b. Umar the narrator): Which of the two precedes the otherPilgrimage or the fasts of Rarnadan? Upon this he (the narrator) replied: No (it is not the
Pilgrimage first) but the fasts of Ramadan precede the Pilgrimage. (Muslim 66)
The first part of this account which links the saying back to Muhammad, is the isnad. The actual
text of the hadith, here commenting on the five pillars of Islam, is the matn. Sahih Muslim is a

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musannaf collection, so this hadith is presented with three other ahadith under the heading of,
Concerning the Saying of the Apostle: Islam is founded on five fundaments (Muslim 66-67).
The hadith literature was not always the basis for mainstream Muslim thought. In fact,
until around 232 AH, the alh al-hadith were unpopular. During the Rashidun years especially,
the idea of collecting and writing down hadith was looked down upon. There are several reports
about the Caliph Umar regarding his views on hadith. The first story comes from Ibn Sad:
Umar wanted to write the Traditions, so he spent a month praying for guidance; and
afterward, he became determined to write them. But then he said: I recalled a people
who wrote a book, then they dedicated themselves to it to it and neglected the Book of
God (Musa 23).
This represents a major fear of the early Muslims. As leader of the Ummah, Umar was worried
that codifying and canonizing hadith would result in the community placing less importance on
the Quran. Ibn Sad also narrates a more striking tale regarding Umar and the hadith:
The Hadith multiplied during the time of Umar; then he called on the people to bring
them to him, and when they brought them to him, he ordered them to be burned.
Afterward, he said, a Mishna like the Mishna of the People of the Book (Musa 24).
Here, Umar compares Hadith literature unfavorably to the Mishna, which is the written
collection of the Oral Torah. It is part of the Talmud, which is the second most important text in
Judaism. Ibn Sad also narrates one final tradition regarding Umar, which illustrates his
unilateral opposition to ahadith, as opposed to just written ahadith.
We were headed toward Kufa and 4Umar accompanied us as far as Sirar. Then he made
ablutions, washing twice, and said: Do you know why I have accompanied you? We

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said: Yes, we are companions of Gods messenger (peace and blessings be upon him).
Then, he said: You will be coming to the people of a town for whom the buzzing of the
Quran is as the buzzing of bees. Therefore, do not distract them with the Madiths, and
thus engage them. Bare the Quran and spare the narration from Gods Messenger (peace
and blessings be upon him)! Go and I am your partner. (Musa 26)

Although the Quran espouses a relatively simple and easy religion, it seems that Umar was well
aware of how attributing authority to ahadith can complicate things. It wasnt until long after
Umar that the ahl al-hadith gained momentum and support.

The earliest works we have in opposition to this viewpoint are from al-Shafii and Ibn
Qutayba (d. 204 and 276 AH respectively) (Musa 62). Shafii wrote primarily to convince
opponents that accepting the hadith as authoritative was required to be a Muslim. Moreover,
Shafii and Qutayba are the sources for the arguments of early Quranists, since none of their
writings have survived (Musa 18). Shafiis pro-hadith arguments can be found in his Risala and
in Kutub Jimaal-ilm, of which a translation is provided in Musas Hadith as Scripture.
Although the work has four sections, two are particularly relevant: The Section relating the
Doctrine of the Group that Rejects all Reports and The Section Relating the Opinion of Those
who Reject Isolated Reports (Musa 114-148). Shafii argues in favor of what Aisha Musa calls
duality of revelation (Musa 2). This is the idea that the authority of the hadith implicit in
accepting that the prophetic sunnah is revelatory in nature. He does this by arguing that the word
hikma, translated as wisdom, refers to the prophetic sunnah. He then appeals to Quran 62:2:

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It is He who has sent amongst the unlettered a Messenger from among them, to rehearse
to them His Signs, to sanctify them, and to instruct them in the Book and Wisdom,
although they had previously been in manifest error.
By this he argues that the sunnah is indeed a revelation. Acceptance of this argument, and
consequently the hadith literature has led to modern Muslim law and theology.
Debate concerning the authority of the hadith might have subsided after 300 AH, but the
ahl al-kalam still exist today. The so called Quran alone Muslims, or ahl al-Quran, are of
particular note. These people object to particularly embarrassing ahadith, or to the notion of a
non-Quran religious authority. They face persecution not only in countries like Egypt, but also
in the Dar al-Harb (Musa 83). Rashad Khalifa, the most radical Quranist from the modern era,
was killed at Tucson, Arizona in 1990. He and his peers argued using various ayat from the
Quran. The most commonly referenced ayat are those, like 75:16-19, that can be used to argue
that Muhammad had no duty or authority but delivering the Quran (Musa 91). Additionally,
Quranists also commonly cite those ayat that speak on the perfection, finality, and completeness
of the Quran. They also reference those ahadith which are both sahih and embarrassing in an
effort to show how the hadith cannot be divine revelation. For example, one absurd hadith from
Sahih Muslim is in book 28:
Buraida reported on the authority of his father that Allahs Apostle (may peace be upon
him) said: He who played chess is like one who died his hand with the flesh and blood of
swine (Muslim 1385).
The question remains, How can these people practice Islam without the prophetic
sunnah to describe the specifics of their faith? The answer is ultimately that these specifics are

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unnecessary, and that Quran as a whole is sufficient. Where as in Sunni Islam, each prayer and
each rakaah of the prayer is prescribed. The Quranist viewpoint is that any prayer is valid, as
long as it satisfies what is said in the Quran (Jaff). Similarly these people also find the
appropriate doctrine regarding the other tenets of Muslim faith in the Quran. The biggest
difference between these Quranists and the Sunnis is that the Quranists embrace ray or
individual reasoning about religious practices.
Ultimately, those Muslims who reject the Hadith still remain a minority. That said, their
existence is an indicator that the question of the hadith is more than a question for historians of
Muslim law and theology. I have attempted to cover as much of the early debate as I could
reasonably capture, but lack of primary sources obscures the earliest arguments from us. I have
also tried to include, if only briefly, the chief players and vocabulary in the study of hadith
literature.

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