Some Rebuttals of Views Held by Disbelievers of Hadith (Munkareen e hadith) (3)

The intellectuals who disbelieve in Hadith as a source of Deen say such Quranic commandments which have been initiated by Quran are ‘qatiauddalal’ and as such need not be understood through external source like Hadith. But such Quranic commandments which have not been initiated by Quran (because such commandments were present in the previous religions/ Books and have passed down to the Muslims through culture; they call such commandments as Sunnah) are not ‘qatiuddalala’ because such commandments need to be understood through external source i.e. culture. In this way they  put up criterion to differentiate between ‘qatiuddalala’ and ‘not qatiuddalala’ by maintaining that ‘qatiuddalal’ commandments are those which are initiated by Quran and as such need not be understood through an external source; and ‘not qatiuddalal’ are those commandments which are not initiated by Quran and were present in the previous religions/Books and need to be understood through external source.

 On the basis of this above mentioned criterion, when we look into Quran, we hardly find any commandment which was not present in previous Books/religions, and which has not been passed down to the Muslims through history/culture. In this regard it may be appreciated that facts described in Quran need to be differentiated from the principles contained in the facts. Facts occur only once and cannot be repeated; but it is the principles contained in the facts, which are commandments and acted upon by the followers of a Nabi (a.s). The principles/commandments contained in Quran are almost the same which have have been described in previous Books whether such commandments are relating to Eman, pious deeds, bad deeds, relating to religious rituals, jihad/qattal, political, moral, economic and social fields; if not all, preponderant majority of Quranic commandments are found in the previous Books also. If Quranic commandments contained in the previous Books are ‘not qatiuddalala’ and need to be understood through external source, it would mean not only those commandments which are called as Sunnah by disbelievers of Hadith but also majority of Quranic commandments would have to be understood through external source and such external source may be no other than Hadith, as has been explained in previous parts of this article. In other words, disbelievers of Hadith have to believe that ahadith describe meanings of Quran and Quran as a whole cannot be understood properly and correctly without ahadith; it means ahadith are part of Deen. 

Disbelievers of Hadith also say 'haque and batil' is not to be decided on the basis of majority; it is something to be decided on the basis of 'Daleel'. Well! even if 'haque and batil' is to be decided on the basis of strength of 'Daleel', even then we would have to accept some authority which would decide whose daleel is stronger than the others' because we cannot be judge of our own case. It may be appreciated that 'haque and batil' is to be decided primarily on the basis of wahi; in case of difference of opinion as to what is principle contained in wahi about a certain issue, matter is referred to learned people who find out the relevant principle contained in wahi; of course daleel of both parties is listened and these learned people decide issue on the basis of majority opinion, because Daleel dictates that a single person's wisdom cannot be preferred to majority people's wisdom, keeping all  other factors constant. The people who do not accept decision of majority people regarding ‘haque and batil’ are actually driving people towards dictatorship of minority. If minority opinion is adopted by the government, it always splits the nation apart intellectually as well as practically, because majority does not come along with minority opinion in its thinking and actions; rather majority uses its resources quite in the opposite direction, which results in a split up nation. Disbelievers of Hadith plead that matter of 'haque and batil' is to be decided on the basis of Daleel, not on the basis of majority; for example, they plead, we do not have to accept majority view, if the majority says that Allah is not One. This logic is misleading. It may be appreciated that sanctity attached with majority opinion is Muslim Ummah specific, and many Islamic texts state about sanctity of majority opinion among the Muslims; but in case of non-Muslims, it is not necessary  that majority opinion should be taken as correct. Minority thinking which is contradictory to collective thinking of Muslim Ummah is always negative in its nature. Minority thinking among Muslims always sets intellectually or practically one group of Ummah against the other one; thus we see in the present age, disbelievers of Hadith condemn Shiite group, mystic tradition in Islam, Brailvi group and other Muslim groups. It is the biggest mark of minority thinking that minority thinking never works for unity of Ummah; it always works for disunity of Ummah. 

Another symbol of minority thinking contradictory to collective thinking of Muslim Ummah is that it is always prone to change principles of Deen to make Deen suited to minority thinking’s designs. Thus in the present age too we see herald of minority thinking contradictory to collective Islamic thinking are very much prone to change Deen's principles in the face of problems which they cannot solve keeping within Deen due to their shallow understanding of Deen.  In the face of corrupted form of Islamic mysticism, they deny mysticism as a principle of Deen; in the face of terrorism, they deny domination of Islam as an Islamic principle; in the face of fabricated ahadith, they deny Hadith as a part of Deen; in the face of women emancipation (from moral values), they deny ‘hijab’ as an Islamic principle; in the face of interest based economic system, they plead that all forms of interest are not un-islamic; and so on so forth. Going through pattern of thinking of disbelievers of Hadith, we are compelled to believe they are not  genuine scholars but they are genuine defeatist (continued).