Principles Of Understanding Quran , Sunnah And Hadith
As Salam o alikum and thank you all for your consideration …….. I have no issues with the principles rather I am totally appreciating these principles and completed meezan lectures on principles………..I am also convinced by them and find them totally Natural and Rational …….,.. ……,. Question is simple that principles must have enlisted or compiled by ultimate source of Deen i.e Prophet Muhammad SAWW……… Shouldn’t principles of others be called as innovation? I am not moving forward in meezan lectures and completely want to address principles first……. Thanks
So it means that Prophet Muhammad (sws) should’ve taught us how to understand the language of Quran first and then Quran should be revealed? The understanding of a language and its application in a particular time period is a matter of linguistics and not of religion. The principles prescribed in this regard by any scholar will be judged according to common sense and on the basis of available knowledge / principles of linguistics. If anyone is to criticize any such principles, he should do so with the same knowledge of linguistics or by identifying any loopholes in the principles so presented. Just by calling those principles an innovation in religion is not a very logical approach since this is beyond the sphere of religion. It is a prerequisite to understand any book. Same is the case with Sunnah, which was in its purest form when initiated by the Prophet (sws) himself and Muslims were practicing it day and night in their lives. It is later on that Sunnah and Ahadith got mingled up and there developed a need to separate those two on the basis of available knowledge. There has never been any disagreement on the mutawatir part of Sunnah that has been transmitted with Ijma of ummah from generation-to-generation. The only disagreement in this regard relates to status of ahadith and their interpretation. As it happens with any ideology that with some time passed, that ideology takes a form of knowledge and then whole philosophy starts building around that knowledge (i.e. ilm-e-kalam), with rules laid down, principles prescribed, dos and don’ts, pros and cons, criteria for judging what’s within and outside of that ideology. This all happens naturally so that the ideology stays alive and much more organized for the masses. The same thing happened with Ahadith collection, there was no such thing at the time of Prophet(sws), it only happened later somewhere around the second century hijri when narrations of Prophet (sws) started circulating recklessly with many of them fabricated, now was the high time for some higher intellects to screen them and make principles on how to make sure that they don’t fall outside of the overall framework of religion (which has always been crystal clear to everybody). And hence, the principles of hadith narration came into being and a new branch of ilm-e-hadith was born (naturally). This is all in line with how human knowledge progresses and any act of Prophet (sws) otherwise would’ve rendered the whole religious ideology unnatural. There is no such thing as innovation when determining and defining principles of understanding sources of religion and placing them within the overall framework of religion. This practice is not itself religion, but based on knowledge of linguistics, tradition, history and common sense; and should be critiqued as such.