Some Rebuttals of views Held by Disbelievers of Hadith (Munkareen e Hadith) (9)

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.