From: ALACH@mscf.med.upenn.edu
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: As-Sunnah is an Islamic Proof
Date: 3 Aug 92 19:26:28 GMT


 bes@cco.caltech.edu (Behnam Sadeghi) wrote and said:
===========================================================
>
>In article <711577544@lear.cs.duke.edu> ALACH@mscf.med.upenn.edu writes:
>
>>There are some people today, whether they are non-
>>Muslims, atheists or apostates, whether orientalists or 
>>others, who say exactly the same thing. They also went a 
>>step further and said that some of the hadith is anti-
>>Qur'anic....               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>That there exist some hadiths that are anti-Qur'anic is
>acknowledged by all Muslim scholars.  Muslim scholars 
>tell us that a great many hadiths were fabricated.  Otherwise,
>they wouldn't have developed the systems for rating ahadith
>in the first place.
>
>For example, Imam Ash-Shafi'i, whom you repeatedly refer to,
>did not accept all hadiths blindly, as you can verify by referring
>to his works (e.g. ar-Risalah or Umm; the first one is also
>available in English translation by Majid al-Khudduri).
>
>was-Salam,
>Behnam Sadeghi
==================================================
	Answer: It is true that there are ahadith that are
	fabricated and they fall under the (Mawdu^)
	categotry of hadith, however we do not
	make a statement like the one above.
	We never use in the course of speaking
	about the hadith that is used as referenece	
	that it is anti-Qur'anic.
	If the hadith is Mawdu^, then it is not
	considered of the sayings of the prophet
	salla-l-lahu ^alayhi wa sallam, and is not
	referred to as a hadith per se. It is evaluated
	under the general guidelines of the science of
	the hadith but it is not a hadith of the prophet.
	This is not like the da^if hadith. The da^if
	hadith, which is not mawdu^, should be narrated
	with a narration that indicates that it is
	da^if. We say it may be possible that the 
	prophet said this hadith.
	Any hadith that we say that the prophet
	may have said it cannot be anti-Qur'anic.
	There are ways to evaluate the isnad and
	matn of the hadith. Both the isnad and the
	matn prove whether the hadith is authentic
	or not and to what degree.
	The mawdu^ hadith is the saying of someone
	lying about the prophet.

	In many occasions people may misinterpret the
	hadith and think that it is against al-Qur'an.
	This is impossible. I proved why it is so.
	They may also misinterpret the Qur'an and say
	that it is against such and such hadith. This is
	also impossible.

	I have to remind you that evaluating the matn
	and the sanad of the hadith is the job of
	the expert in the field who has enough knowledge 
	about this process (he is called al-muhaddith al-hafiz).
	You can refer to the book of the fundamentals of al-hadith
	if you want to elaborate on this issue further.

	Moreover, explaining al-Qur'an and/or al-hadith is not
	done by establishing our mere opinions about them. The 
	person has to refer to what has been documented about them.	
	We, the Muslims, are the followers of the previous
	generations. The issue of performing al-'ijtihad is for the
	mujtahid. None of us is a mujtahid. If someone, here on
	the network, claims to be a mujtahid then let the Muslims institutions
	world-wide learn about his ijtihad, or else let us all
	abide by the Islamic Knowledge and avoid giving judgements
	without knowledge.
	
	What i mentioned here is enough for the time being.

G Housieni	 
	
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