Munkareen
e Hadith say Quran cannot be interpreted in human words.
Such
a view is not only quite baseless but also denies the need of wholesome
understanding of Quran. If we admit the
need of understanding Quranic verses as a whole, it is what is called
understanding of Quran and it is always done in our own words. For instance,
Quran states, at one place that “if good
comes to them, they say, "This is from Allah "; and if bad befalls
them, they say, "This is from you." Say, "All [things] are from
Allah." It means both the good and the bad are from Allah (al-nisaa-78). But,
in the very next verse, Quran states that the good are from Allah and the bad are
from human himself (al-nisaa-79).
Now
if someone wants to clarify this 'ashkal', whatever would be his reply, such
reply would not be Quranic Words; such reply would be that person's own words (
I am not saying everyone would be entertaining that 'ashkal', but definitely
someone would be having that ‘ashkal’). The
clarification of any ‘ashkal’ entertained by any person regarding a Quranic
verse is called understanding of Quran and it is always in our own words. We
cannot help adopting wholesome understanding of Quran in our own words. Hadith
being divine interpretation/ meanings of Quran guides us to resolve any such
'ashkal' so that we may have wholesome understanding of Quran without damaging
the real meanings of Quran.
In fact to know text/'matan' is something
different from understanding of text though both are functions of human
conscious. To practice a text, knowing is not enough: we have to understand the
text. Our Nabi's ﷺ communication
of Quranic Wahi is the result of process of knowing the ‘Wahi’ whereas
communication of Quranic meanings (Hadith) is the result of process of
understanding of wahi. To practice Quranic text, its understanding is essential
and Hadith is wholesome understanding of Quranic text. As both the processes i.e. knowing the Quran and
understanding of Quran is relating to
Nabi’s ﷺ conscious, we
cannot undermine any one process at the cost of the other.
If
a person cannot communicate his understanding of something completely, that
means his understanding is faulty. Our Nabi ﷺ
communicates Quranic meanings completely as and when they are revealed to our
Nabi ﷺ. Being a Nabi ﷺ, he is the only person entitled
to communicate Quranic meanings completely because it is basic function of
Nabuwwah to communicate meanings of the Book revealed. Our Nabi ﷺ performed the job of communicating the meanings of
Quran in the form of Hadith. We cannot understand Quran completely without
Hadith. If we would try to understand Quran completely relying on our own
wisdom, without resorting to Hadith, we would definitely commit blunders
because a common human intellect is fallible. But our Nabi ﷺ communicated Quranic
meanings/ Hadith through ‘Wahi Ghair Matlu’; that is why there is no fault in
our Nabi’s understanding of Quran.
Munkareen
say hadith is adopted on authentication of narrator. No in fact hadith is
accepted through a research process. Even if a hadith is authenticated by a
trustworthy narrator, even then it is not taken as sahih hadith if chain of
narration does not reach our Nabi ﷺ.
It clearly means adoption of a hadith does not depend upon a narrator: it
depends upon a scientific research process which of course includes
qualification of the narrators.
Some
people are confusing Nabuwwah with Wahi; these are two different things. Nabuwwah
is a status granted to a man through Wahi, and Wahi is Allah's Deed. That is
why imperatives of having Eman in Nabuwwah and Wahi are different. We may have
Eman in Nabuwwah (in life of Nabi ﷺ)
without ascertaining that Nabi ﷺ
is a truthful person; but we cannot have Eman in Wahi (Quran and Hadith)
without ascertaining that Wahi is rightly attributed to our Nabi ﷺ. That is why if a wrong verse is
inducted in Quran, we reject it as being not rightly attributed to our Nabi ﷺ; in the same manner, if a wrong
hadith is inducted in the Body of Ahadith, we reject such hadith as wrongly
attributed to our Nabi ﷺ. It
is a separate topic that what hadith is rightly attributed and what is not. The
important is that we adopt only such ahadith and such Quranic verses which are
rightly attributed to our Nabi ﷺ.
The Munkareen e Hadith are strange stuff: they adopt what Quranic verses are rightly
attributed to our Nabi ﷺ but deny such Hadith which are rightly
attributed to our Nabi ﷺ. They plead that they accept Quran because
Quran has been transferred from collectivity to collectivity and as such
chances of changes in Quran do not exist. Well ! that means the real issue
relates to ascertainment of fact that Quran is rightly attributed to our Nabi ﷺ. In the same manner, if it is ascertained (through some means
other than those adopted for Quran) that a hadith is rightly attributed to our
Nabi ﷺ , we have to adopt such hadith. That means text (whether Quran or Hadith) if rightly
attributed to our Nabi ﷺ must be adopted.
‘Eman
bil ghaib’ is not an Eman without reason: though it may be Eman without having
direct physical contact through physical faculties with the person/ entity in
which one has Eman bil ghaib. In Allah and Nabi ﷺ
we do not have Eman bil ghaib without reason. It is western propaganda that we
do it without reason. In Nabi ﷺ
we have Eman because we have before us whole life of our Nabi ﷺ. In fact Eman in Nabi ﷺ means Eman in whole life of Nabi ﷺ; means that whole life of Nabi ﷺ is life of a Nabi ﷺ. It may be appreciated only Hadith
gives us a complete account of life of our Nabi ﷺ; that
means we cannot have Eman in Nabi ﷺ
without Eman in
Hadith. In Allah we have Eman because we have whole creation before us,
and this creation makes us believe in this creation’s Creator i.e. Allah. Our
Eman bil ghaib in Allah and Nabi ﷺ
is not without reason though it may be without direct physical contact with
Allah and Nabi ﷺ.
