Hadith rejectors

**Hadith rejectors** (), also known as **Hadith deniers**, are Muslims who do not accept the authority of the hadith. Hadith are sayings attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Different groups reject hadith for different reasons.

Some rejectors say that the hadith are not historically connected to Muhammad or his Sunnah. Others say that many hadith contradict the Qur'an and go against its sacred preservation, so they cannot be trusted. Some reject the hadith as a source of law, and some believe that Islam should be based on the "Qur'an alone". Others see the hadith as contradictory or in conflict with reason or science. Some also see hadith as a cause of sectarianism.

Some groups in Islamic history questioned or rejected hadith. These included the Kharijites and the Mu'tazilites. During the Abbasid Caliphate, especially under al-Ma'mun, the rise of rational thought allowed Mu'tazilites who questioned hadith to openly clash with Ahl al-Hadith. In modern times, groups including Neo-Mu'tazilites, Quranists, some Islamists, and independent Shia reformers, have continued earlier criticisms of hadith. There are also non-sectarian Muslims and a distinct group of Qur'an-and-Bible-only Muslims who reject hadith.

## Beliefs and practises 
Hadith rejectors dismiss Hadith collections as unreliable and untruthful.  They have concerns about how true the hadiths are and how well they were preserved. According to Dr. Farhad Shafti, Hadith rejectors usually do not consult hadith collections when studying Islamic topics. 

Most Hadith rejectors pray two units of Salat three times a day, deriving this structure from their interpretation of Qur'anic verses. 

Like the Khawarij and the Mu'tazila, modern Hadith deniers reject the punishment of stoning for adultery found in the hadith. They say that the Qur'an contains no verse that supports this punishment.

Hadith rejectors do not believe it is obligatory for Muslim women to cover their hair.

## Relations with Hadith followers
Hadith rejectors are the opposite of the "people of hadith" (Ahl al-Hadith).

Hadith scholars strongly disagree with Hadith rejectors and Quranists. This is because these groups criticize major hadith scholars like al-Bukhari and Muslim. Some Hadith rejectors, in turn, view Hadith followers as pagans or infidels. Sunni scholars classify Hadith rejectors into two types: innovators who deny that a specific hadith is truly from Muhammad, and disbelievers who knowingly reject an authentic hadith from Muhammad. Additionally, those who dismiss *ahad* (solitary) hadith as a basis for religious rulings are considered to be acting like Hadith rejectors. This is because they disregard major hadith collections such as Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. 

Since those who reject hadith are not a monolithic group, the Twelver Shia position holds that one should not generalize about them without first understanding the specific claims each group makes.

## Early history
Some historical reports say that Muhammad prohibited writing down hadith. Other accounts, found mainly in Shia sources but also in some Sunni works, claim that Caliph Umar enforced a "ban on hadith," which continued through the rule of the Rashidun Caliphate and into the Umayyad Caliphate, ending only under Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz. Debates over Umar's policy, along with reports that Abu Bakr burned his own hadith collection, represent some of the earliest tensions over the authority and role of hadith.

According to a report by al-Baladhuri, for the Umayyad governor al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, obeying hadith was not compulsory (fard). Another Umayyad leader who did not treat hadith as compulsory was the general Amr ibn Sa'id, who attacked Mecca to fight Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr.

## Early groups
, the adherents of *Kalam* were favoured and the adherents of Hadith were persecuted]]

A number of Kharijites are said to have rejected the use of hadiths. For example, the Bida'iyya, a sub-sect of the extremist Kharijite branch known as the Azariqa, specifically through the lineage of the Khazimiyya, rejected the hadith altogether. They rejected the five prayers and prayed only two or three times a day. The Haruriyyah, who were the first Kharijites, also opposed hadith.

Al-Shafi'i in his *Jima al-Ilm* refers to one group of Muslims who outright rejected the hadith. The group, whose identity is not identified, is believed by scholars to be Mu'tazilite. However, some believe they were Kharijite.

Like the Kharijites, early Ibadis are also said to have rejected hadiths while accepting the Sunnah. The founder of Ibadism, Abd Allah ibn Ibad, is likewise said to have rejected the authority of hadith.

European critics of hadith assert that non-orthodox, independent Muslim thinkers of the 8th and 9th centuries CE not only questioned the authority of the Hadith altogether but openly mocked the system as a whole.

Ahl al-Ra'y (The People of Reason) and Ahl al-Kalam (The People of *Kalam*) were skeptical about hadith authenticity. They doubted most hadiths were in fact the words of Muhammad and accepted only *mutawatir* (mass-transmitted) hadith. 

Ahl al-Ra'y remained doubtful of the methods of Ahl al-Hadith who compiled and canonised hadith, with "skepticism" or even "wholesale rejection" of hadith.

Ahl al-Kalam rejected the authority of the hadith on the grounds that its corpus was "filled with contradictory, blasphemous, and absurd" reports, and that in jurisprudence, even the smallest doubt about a source was too much. Thus, they believed, the true legacy of prophet Muhammad was to be found first and foremost in the Qur'an. 

Under the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun, the adherents of Kalam were favoured and the supporters of hadith were dealt harshly. Al-Ma'mun was inclined towards rational inquiry in religious matters, supported the proponents of Kalam and persecuted the adherents of hadith. His two immediate successors, Al-Mu'tasim and Al-Wathiq, followed his policies. Unlike the three caliphs before him, Al-Mutawakkil was not inclined to rational inquiry in religious matters, and strove to bolster the hadith as a necessary source of the Sunnah. 

Early schools of jurisprudence, including parts of the Maliki tradition, also dismissed hadith, holding a non-hadith-based conception of the Sunnah.

The Mu'tazila questioned the reliability of the hadith. The Mu'tazilites rejected hadith as a basis for Islamic law, even though they accepted the Sunnah and ijma (consensus). Their main argument was that hadith, being transmitted by individuals, cannot provide certain knowledge the way the Qur'an does, since the Qur'an's transmission is universally agreed upon by Muslims. During the Abbasid Caliphate, especially under al-Ma'mun, the climate of rational thinking allowed Mu'tazilites who questioned hadith to openly clash with Ahl al-Hadith. 

The Mu'tazilite thinker Ibrahim al-Nazzam relied almost entirely on the Qur'an and rational thought, practically rejecting the hadiths. His followers were called the Nazzamiyyah. Al-Nazzam held that the Qur'an's miraculous nature came from its divine inspiration, rejected ijma, and denied that hadith had independent legal authority. He argued that hadith could only be trusted when supported by reason or direct evidence, no matter how many people transmitted them. 

Another Mu'tazilite, Dirar ibn Amr, rejected *ahad* (hadith which is not mutawatir) and was known to reject hadith outright in deriving law, though he accepted consensus. Dirar observed that different sects related contradictory hadith in support of their positions. He therefore upheld consensus instead of hadith. Dirar's rejection of hadith in favour of consensus continued outside Mu'tazilism with al-Shafi'i's opponent Ibrahim ibn Ulayya and the Hanafi Bishr al-Marisi.

The Mu'tazilite Abu Bakr al-Asamm also had little use for hadiths.

Al-Jahiz was affiliated with the Mu'tazilite school of thought to which he belonged and founded an offshoot known as the Jahiziyya school. Al-Jahiz was averse to hadith, rejecting any hadith, regardless of how well attested it appeared, if it conflicted with empirical observation.

## Modern groups
, who helped advance Hadith denial in the Indian subcontinent]]

Some Alevis critisize the authenticity of hadith. Alevis view the Sunnah and hadith, as defined by Sunni orthodoxy, as Arab elitist innovations. When Alevis believe the Qur'an does not give enough information, they turn to other sources. They hold that Sunnis corrupted the authentic words of Muhammad, so they rely instead on texts such as the "Nahjul Balagha" (a collection of sermons, letters, and sayings attributed to Ali), the "Buyruks" (attributed to Safi-ad-Din Ardabili or Ja'far al-Sadiq), and stories of Alevi leaders.

Neo-Mu'tazilites, who revive some of the rationalist methods of the classical Mu'tazila, take a critical approach to hadith and often question their authority. One example is Syed Ahmad Khan. He promoted a rationalist, neo-Mu'tazilite reading of Islamic texts. He argued that many hadith were unreliable or only relevant to prophet Muhammad's own time, rejected the authority of ijma, expanded the role of ijtihad, and even interpreted Biblical texts sympathetically (see: Muslim Hebraism). He rejected the traditional views on authenticity of the canonical collections of hadith. His ideas strongly influenced hadith skepticism in the Indian subcontinent. 

In the early 20th century CE, Orientalist scholars, most notably Ignaz Goldziher, argued that hadith could not be reliably traced back to Muhammad. Their critiques later influenced some Muslim thinkers to adopt more skeptical, and in some cases fully rejective, attitudes toward hadith literature.

Some believe the "Qur'an-only" rejection of hadith is a new variation on an old Salafi theme.

Quranists also reject the hadith. They believe the Qur'an is the only source of guidance in Islam and the only book needed by Muslims. Quranists such as Ahmad Subhy Mansour hold that Muhammad was never the source of religion or *sharia* legislation, and that his role was confined to conveying the Qur'an. They maintain that Muhammad was not permitted to answer religious questions on his own accord, but was required to wait for revelation in the Qur'an. They believe hadiths are fabrications ascribed to Muhammad decades and centuries after his death. These include hadiths compiled by al-Bukhari. They deem ascribing such hadiths to Muhammad as utter disbelief (*kufr*) in terms of faith.

Prior to the emergence of modern Quranism, Abdullah Chakralawi founded the Ahl al-Qur'an movement which was influential mostly in the Punjab region. The movement took the hadith as relevant only to the human situation of prophet Muhammad, took only the injunctions of the Qur'an as compulsory, and denied the excessive emphasis that Ahl al-Hadith put on hadith. It performs Salat differently from Ahl al-Hadith and has abolished the adhan and Eid prayers. In 1920 CE, the Lahore High Court in Pakistan gave legitimacy to the Ahl al-Qur'an group as a Muslim sect.

Many modernist Muslims believe that some problems in the Islamic world stem from traditional hadith teachings, and they therefore seek to question or reject them. Some apply historical‑critical methods, using fields like archaeology and science, to evaluate hadith, similar to the approach of the medieval scholar al-Biruni. According to Yasir Qadhi, Al-Biruni was "not pro-Hadith" and was "sceptical of the Hadith". Al-Biruni rejected hadiths which contradicted established scientific knowledge, even when they appeared in Sahih al-Bukhari.

Submitters follow the teachings of Rashad Khalifa. They reject hadith and believe in the "Qur'an alone", along with Khalifa's "Code 19," and regard him as a "Messenger of the Covenant." Submitters do not regard themselves as Quranists, arguing that their beliefs, especially about Khalifa's status and certain practices, are fundamentally different.

In Malaysia, the Anti-Hadith Group (AHG), also known as the Anti-Hadith Movement (AHM), was influenced by Kassim Ahmad, who rejected hadith as a basis for Muslim theology and law. According to him, the hadith are sectarian, anti-science, anti-reason, and anti-women. The AHM is made up of Muslim modernists, Ahl al-Qur'an, modernist Salafists, and traditionalist Salafists.

## Other groups
, who objected to the use of Hadith in determining Islamic rulings]]

The "Mofliukhunovtsy" is a movement in Tatarstan that rejects hadith, founded by N. Mofliukhunov. The movement refuses to recognize the legitimacy of many Sunni rites and traditions, and condemns pilgrimages to the historical sites of Bulgary and Biliar as being "pagan". It is regarded as a trend in Islamist ideology.

Ghulam Ahmad Pervez, founder of Tolu-e-Islam, is often accused by traditional Sunnis of being a Hadith rejector. While Tolu-e-Islam accepts individual hadith that it believes aligns with the Qur'an and portrays prophet Muhammad and his companions in a positive light, it questions the overall reliability of the classical hadith collections, viewing them as later interpretations rather than Muhammad's exact words. 

Pervez also distinguished clearly between Sunnah and hadith and rejected hadith as a binding legal source. He believed an Islamic state should be built on the Qur'an, operate through a Sunnah-based social order, and use hadith only as supporting material rather than law.

The Yan Tatsine was a militant sect founded by Muhammad Marwa, also known as Maitatsine ("the one who curses"). The sect allegedly regarded Maitatsine as a prophet, is reported to have performed two rakats in Salat, rejected the hadith, avoided praying toward Mecca, and employed charms and ritual "magic" as part of their armed uprisings against the Nigerian army and those outside their sect.

In the 1970s CE, Muammar Gaddafi began rejecting the use of hadith for Islamic law. This brought strong criticism from Sunni groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT), who even demanded he hand power over to them. Gaddafi responded by executing HT members. Saudi religious authorities also accused Gaddafi of rejecting hadith, denying the Sunnah, and ignoring ijma. Gaddafi was accused by some of being a Marxist and of holding heretical beliefs that contradicted the hadith. Gaddafi promoted his own form of ijtihad, and he also claimed that all Muslims follow the Sunnah and are "Shias by default." 

The Zumratul Jamiu Mumin (ZJM) is a society in Nigeria that regards only the Qur'an and the Bible as sacred books of Allah for determining religious matters. To them, the use of hadith is an aberration. 

A similar sect in Nigeria is the Isawa, who reject the hadiths and all established Muslim traditions and instead preach that the Qur'an alone and the Christian scriptures should be the foundations of a Muslim's faith. They are also called "Yan Sap" because they pray Salat by going straight into prostration, and they interpret the Qur'an directly, rejecting classical tafsir and other forms of exegesis.

Members of the Islamist sect in Mozambique that later came to be known as Al-Shabaab were described as refusing to 'know the sayings of the Prophet,' adopting scripturalist, Qur'an-only views. Among their distinctive practices was performing Salat three times a day instead of five.

The Open Mosque was founded by Dr. Taj Hargey in Cape Town, South Africa. It is led by Hargey's "non-sectarian" approach to Islam, which includes rejecting hadith.

Former followers of Turkish cult leader Adnan Oktar say he "repudiated" all hadith and treated the Qur'an as his "only point of reference", pointing to the major changes he made to hadith-based practices, such as reducing the daily prayers from five to three and ending the requirement for women to wear veils.

Mohammad Tawhidi, a Shia imam who identifies as a *Muhtaat* and reformer, has explicitly stated his rejection of the books of hadith and has stated: "The political, historical, social, ethical, and jurisprudential books that cover aspects of the life of Mohammad were written by scholars from many sects. They vary and contradict each other due to the different perceptions of Mohammad within all 70+ Islamic schools of thought. I encourage my co-religionists to review and evaluate their historical texts".

## Recent growth 
In the 21st century CE, Hadith rejectors have grown, especially in the Arab world, the Middle East, North Africa, and the West, partly because online access has made hadith widely available in many languages.

In Malaysia, anti-Hadith groups have spread in many sectors, such as the educational sector. They have successfully trained cadres among Muslim scholars. They are supported by specific intellectual and influential parties.

## See also 
*Muslim Hebraists
*Non-denominational Muslim
*Islamic philosophy
*Islamic Golden Age
*Essenes
*Karaite Judaism
*Sola scriptura
*Protestantism

## References