Transcription
Salam alikum brothers and sisters. So I've been meaning to make this video for a while now, and it's about a specific group of people who like to name themselves Quranists, or Quran alone, or whatever it is. And when they are in reality just what we call Hadith ejectors. There are groups of people who are spreading today; they are spreading amongst the ignorant Muslims, the people who are not, have not studied their religion; they've not studied Hadith, they've not studied the Quran; who are not aware of fundamental principles that a person should have as a Muslim. And they're also spreading among the converts, the people who are new Muslims.
The reason they are spreading among the converts is because some of these converts, obviously, they come from a Christian background, and they have a skepticism towards the Bible. So they, they tend to compare the Bible with the Hadith, and then they come to this kind of fear that, you know what, just like the Bible has been corrupted, perhaps the Hadith has been corrupted as well. And then they seep into using their doubts and manipulate those individuals because obviously they're not aware of what Hadith is and what it's the history of, or any of that. So they seep into this type of group of people.
Obviously, it's mainly, it's one of two reasons why a person would become a Hadith rejector and rejects Hadith. Either it's complete ignorance, meaning that he comes across something, comes across a Hadith, comes across a doubt, and he could not find an answer for it due to his ignorance; he completely decided to reject Hadith as a wholesale or reject a group of Hadith that he doesn't like because he couldn't find an understanding for these. So that's one reason. And the other reason is desires; people who want to interpret the Quran the way they want, who don't want to follow the specific kind of teachings on the in the Hadith; they want to do things their own way. And because of their own desires and wanting to avoid with all of these different types of things, they end up in the end rejecting Hadith and pretending that they are following the Quran.
You know, the interesting thing about this group of people is the fact is that the same Hadith that they deny has prophesized their coming. And the Prophet mentioned that this group of people will come. So us as Muslims who follow the Quran, who follow the Hadith, who as any Muslim should be, we're not really surprised by their existence; they're not really a new group of people coming. But there is a need for clarification for the individuals and the people who don't understand who these people are. So the Prophet, like in that which they reject, he said, "They will come a time when you'll find that a man reclining on his couch." Why did the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam say reclining on his couch? There are many reasons why the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that. The Prophet is alluding to his arrogance, for example, the way he's reclining on his couch, like the Kings used to recline on their couch. So he's reclining, that this person has arrogance in, in his heart. He's also implying the reality that this individual has not done much work; he's just reclining, relaxing, like he thinks he knows what he's doing; he thinks he understands what he's talking about. And then him reclining on his couch, what is, what is he going to say? So someone will narrate to him a Hadith from my Hadith; so someone will narrate something about me, which is basically what is. So someone will mention a Hadith of the Prophet. Then this man who's sitting on the couch, why is he going to say, "Between us and you is the book of Allah; what we find in it we take it, and what we find in, we say it's then it's." And then the Prophet, he responded to them, that that which the messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says is Haram, it is the exact same as if Allah is telling you this, the same thing. Why? Because as Allah says in the Quran, he does not speak of his own, rather it's Revelation from Allah coming down to the Prophet. So those individuals, like they've been already like spoken about by the same Hadith, which is like what people would refer to as irony, even though that term is not necessarily correct. But this is the reality is like they are rejecting the Hadith, and the Hadith is exactly describing them, describing the fact that they are people of arrogance who haven't done research, who don't understand what Hadith is or the Sciences behind it, and they're reclining on their couch, and then they say like, you know, "We find in the Quran is, find is." Also, he alluded to these individuals by saying that there was the verse of Rajm, the verse that talks about stoning the adulterers, person who commits adultery in the Quran, and this verse was uplifted; it was abrogated, as the Quran mentions in many places that there is abrogation. So that verse was abrogated, and then he said that the Prophet, he stoned the person who committed adultery after the verse was abrogated, and then he said, "Abu Bakr did as well," and then he said, "And we did as well," and then he says, "And I'm afraid that if time goes by, people, a group of people will come, and and they're going to say exactly what those Hadith rejectors say today; they will say that we don't find stoning in the Quran." You know, so they become misguided by leaving an obligation that Allah has revealed. So here is saying what is, is exactly talking about these groups of people; you'll find these groups of people completely denying stoning, and they say that stoning is not in the Quran; this punishment is like barbaric and obviously influenced by liberalism and this and that and desires and many reasons that we already mentioned. But you see how the Hadith, the, the same Hadith that they reject completely speaks about the reality and speaks about what they will do in the future, which we can see and observe with our own eyes. So this is a sign for us, for people who accept the Hadith and people who understand the historicity of the Hadith, that these people are not new people that are coming, but the, these people have been foretold by the Prophet and even spoken about by his companions, the likes of Umar, the second Caliph of Islam.
This video here is going to be kind of divided into three parts. In the first part, positive Arguments for why Hadith is a necessity for every Muslim, and I'll make different types of arguments; I'll give reasons, and, uh, in all of these parts, I'll try to depend on two things; I'll depend on the Quran itself because they pretend that they accept the Quran, and I'll also depend on common sense, you know, common sense, which hoping the people watching this video at least have, if they're sincere. And I would recommend people to actually watch the entire video, not to, uh, kind of take a part and then go run with it and try to refute a small part; no, watch the whole thing and then come to your conclusion, if you are sincere. If you're not sincere, then this is not for you anyways, because you're not looking for the truth. So first, I'm going to make these positive arguments as the first part. The second part, I'm going to do, I'm going to give logical criticisms and reasoning, also from the Quran, why those people are inconsistent and and they're completely illogical in their methodology and approach when we actually scrutinize it and look at it. And in the last part, I'm going to speak about the historicity of Hadith; why, why do we accept Hadith and the historicity of Hadith and all of that, which is going to be very beneficial in. So this video is not just for these groups of people, but it's not just for the ignorant people who, who got misguided by them; it's also for every Muslim, so they can benefit inshallah by one of two ways: either learning how to refute those individuals inshallah if they come across them, and if they present doubt, doubts to you; and obviously you yourself learning the importance of Hadith and its origins in the Quran and its origins in in the Islamic Revelation, and also learning what a Hadith is and its historicity and all of that, uh, so it's going to be very beneficial inshallah. So bear with me in, and the time this video could be a little bit like long, but it's not too long inshallah, cuz I, I'll even try to summarize it and not speak about like too many things. So, so bear with me inshallah, because this time, like, do that, this time is for the sake of Allah and for your benefit as a Muslim. You know, I know a lot of people have a TikTok kind of, you know, time attention or time span or whatever it is, but inshallah try to listen to this video, and inshallah you'll find it very beneficial inshallah for everyone. I will move into the first part inshallah.
The first argument I want to present is a simple idea. This idea is that the Quran mentions certain information; this certain information has been mentioned by the Prophet in the Quran. So Allah quotes the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam saying certain things in the Quran. So first, I want to establish a general rule and a principle that Quranists rejectors they have to accept because it's in the Quran. Allah says about the Prophet, "If the Prophet were to make up certain statements, lies about Allah, Allah is going to seize him," meaning that he's going to die; Allah is going to cause him to die and is going to punish him. So that means that the Prophet has no possibility of making up information about Allah. I'm sure us and the Hadith rejectors agree on that, but they completely deny any information from him anyways. But we agree on the principle that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam cannot make up statements about Allah, because if he did, he would be dead. Based on that verse of the Quran that you accept, and we already mentioned that the Prophet, he speaks his Revelation anyways. So now Allah says in the Quran, statement about the Prophet in Chapter 3 of the Quran, verse 124, says Allah is saying, "When you said to the Believers, 'Oh Prophet, isn't it sufficient for you that Allah is going to enforce you or give you 3,000 Angels descending?'" Now my question is to those, to those Hadith rejectors who only pretend the only Revelation that was revealed is the Quran, and there's no other sources of Revelation, and all the Hadith are not reliable, and we don't accept information from the Hadith, or we don't accept history and all of that; it's only the Quran; Quran alone is the only thing we accept. Now the question, question is, where did Allah say to the Prophet that Allah is going to enforce him with 3,000 Angels? Find me a verse in the Quran where Allah before told the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that he's going to, uh, enforce him with 3,000 Angels, then the Prophet went and told this information to the Believers. Because if that information is not in the Quran, and the Quran is the only Revelation, then where did the Prophet get this information that there is 3,000 angels that Allah is going to enforce the Believers with? And you got no option except to accept that there is another Revelation revealed to Prophet where he was told that he will be enforced by 3,000 Angels, unless, as I said, you pretend that the only source of Revelation is the Quran. Find us that verse; where does, is that verse in the Quran where Allah told the Prophet that he's going to enforce him with 3,000 Angels? So that's example number one. Example number two, and there's many, many examples by the way; I'll just give like few examples on this argument. Second example is Allah, for example, says in the Quran, 2:143, "The ignorant of the people they will say, 'Why, why did they move away from their...' Then Allah says, moving forward in the, in the verse, Allah says, 'So Allah says, 'We made...'" Here is referring to Allah; Allah is the one who made, yeah, according to the Quran, Allah made the previous as a test to see who will follow the messenger and who will turn on his back. So now the question is, in this verse, Allah says, "Direct yourself to Mecca," but Allah also says in the same verse that he made the previous a direction; he's the one who made it. Now find me in the Quran where is this command to follow the first, the before Mecca? Where is that command in the Quran? Because Allah is saying, "We made the previous," which means that the command to pray to a different Qibla before Mecca was from Allah. Now the question is, where is it in the Quran? Did Allah command the Prophet or the Believers to pray to a different Qibla other than Mecca? Because this verse here speaks about a different Qibla that Allah commanded the Believers to follow. If you cannot find, then if you're a sincere person and you have like any intellect, then you'd have to admit that there is another source of Revelation other than the Quran where this information was by Revelation conveyed to the Prophet, not through the Quran, but through another source of Revelation. Now the third example I'm going to give for this specific argument inshallah, and we end with this example for this specific argument, is Allah says in the Quran, Chapter 2, verse 187, "Allah has now made it permissible for you to have intercourse with women in the night of fasting, and the nights of Ramadan, the night of fasting; you can have intercourse with your women. And Allah says that he knows that you used to betray yourselves; see, he forgives you for basically disobeying his command and betraying yourselves in the past. So now, so now you're allowed to..." Where is that command where the Allah told them that they cannot have intercourse with them in the night? Because Allah is saying, "Now you can; it has become Halal for you; now it's become permissible for you to have intercourse in the night of fasting." So where is the first command where Allah said that you cannot do it? Same question again; where is that command in the Quran? If you cannot find that command in the Quran, then you have to accept the reality, the fact that there is another source of Revelation other than the Quran. So that is the first argument that we have, which is a positive argument for the Hadith, which shows that there is another Revelation other than the Quran. So that's the first argument.
The second argument that we're going to talk about is that the Quran speaks about something that, that it calls Hikma. If you want to translate it into wisdom, or you want to translate into something else, but Hikma in the Arabic language is referred to as wisdom; this is the most common meaning of the word Hikma. So Allah speaks about something that is called Hikma in the Quran. And here, before I give this argument, I want to talk about something very absurd and something very important to keep in mind because we will speak about it in the future as well. In the Arabic language and even in the English language and other languages, you have a word that is used for, to, for conjunction between two words; like, for example, "I like bananas and oranges." So when you say "and," you use it to have a conjunction between two things that are different from each other; you don't say, "I ate pineapple and pineapple." So when you use the word "and" for conjunction, it is not between the same thing; it is between two things that are different from one another. This is in English, and it's the same in Arabic. When you say like, "I and you," you do not say in Arabic, "I and I." So when the Waw, the letter Waw, which is like translated into "and" in the English, is used for conjunction, it is used for two things that are different from one another. Because what, what those Hadith rejectors tend to do is that they throw around all logic and they try to pretend that the word "and" is speaking about the same thing, and I will give examples for why they, they have to do that; they have no choice except doing that, and we'll speak about that now. So we said the second argument here is talking about something called Al-Hikma. So Allah says in the Quran in multiple different places that he's revealed something called Hikma, so that Hikma is revelation from Allah, and that Hikma is not the Quran; it's something other than the Quran. Why is it something other than the Quran? You look at the Quran, Chapter 2 of the Quran, verse 231, "And what he revealed to you from the Sunnah, the book, Quran, and the Sunnah." So here we have two things; we have the Quran and Sunnah; and both of them are Revelation; Allah saying he revealed to you. In another place as well, in Chapter 4 of the Quran, verse 3, Allah speaks directly to the Prophet; he says, "Allah revealed to you, oh Prophet, and..." So now here is the Quran because that is what was revealed to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, or upon the Prophet. And so now we have something called Sunnah that is revealed from Allah, and we would like those rejectors to tell us what is this? Why do they have to tell us what, what is this Sunnah? Because that Sunnah is not only a revelation from Allah, but it's also something that is being taught to the Believers, and who is teaching it? It is the Prophet, and it cannot be the Quran because we already said that Allah mentioned that it is something else other than the Quran. Allah says in the Quran, commanding the Prophet or mentioning to us as Believers in Chapter 2, verse 129, that "messenger is going to teach us the book, Quran, and..." So that which is revelation from Allah is going to be taught by the messenger and is not the Quran. So my question is now for those like Quranists rejectors, where is that Sunnah that is being taught by the Prophet? Where can we find it? In which book is it? Because it's other than the Quran; he already teaches them the Quran. So you cannot say it is the Quran. So I would like you to kind of share with us, with us, and show us where is that Sunnah that the Prophet was teaching and that is mentioned in many verses of the Quran. Like Chapter 2, verse 151, "teaches them the Quran and..." And many, many verses of the Quran; Chapter 3:164, again saying that he teaches them his verses and he teaches them the Sunnah and he teaches them the Hikma. So the Hikma is other than the Sunnah; that is something that is being taught by the Prophet; it is a revelation from Allah. Not only that, it is something that is recited or, or said out loud because Allah says in the Quran, Chapter 33, verse 34, "And, and recite what you hear in your houses from the verses of Allah, which is the Quran, and the Sunnah." So you recite the Hikma; what is this Hikma? That is revelation taught by the Prophet and being recited out loud, and it is not the Quran. Now we would like those Hadith rejectors to explain to us and tell us, because as we say, that is clearly without a shadow of a doubt, it is the, the explanations of the Prophet which expounds on the Quran. And you see that mentioned very clearly in Chapter 16 of the Quran, verse 44, where Allah says, "So we reveal to you the Sunnah, here we say Sunnah is a..." So you can explain to the people that which was revealed to them before. So there is something that was revealed to the people that the Prophet is going to explain using another Revelation. So there's two Revelations there; there's two things here mentioned; Sunnah is mentioned, and something else that was revealed. We say that something else that was revealed is the Quran, and here is the Sunnah, that the Prophet is going to use to explain to the people. But regardless whether you as a Hadith rejector want to give the interpretation of the Sunnah or not, you want to accept this a Sunnah or not, or you want to say that the Sunnah is or not, you still have a problem to deal with, and that problem is is that all of these verses are mentioning something other than the Quran, and it is saying that the Prophet is teaching it, and it is for us as Believers. So the question is for you and me as a Believer now, where do we find the other thing that the Prophet is teaching? So it's the prophetic teaching, not the Quran; we already established it, something other than the Quran. Can you tell us now as a Hadith rejector where do we find the other source of information that is not the Quran that is being taught by the Prophet? We'd like to hear your input. You can tell us what the Hikma is. If you don't want to tell us what is Hikma, you can explain to us what is that thing that the Prophet is going to teach that is other than the Quran. So that is the second argument.
So the third argument is, is quite basic; that argument is a basic, clear command in the Quran, and it will come back to a point that we mentioned as well, and that point is the word "and," right, which is conjunction between...
The two different things: there are tens, literally tens of verses in the Quran, and you can even say hundreds if you want to combine just the meaning of obedience towards Allah and the messenger. In the Quran, you'll find tens of verses. Now I'm going to mention just some of these verses that are in the Quran, and then I'm going to ask a question to those Hadith rejectors that they can perhaps explain to us.
Allah says in the Quran, "Obey Allah and the messenger that you may attain peace." Allah says, "All you who believe, obey Allah and obey the messenger." Allah says, "And obey Allah and obey the messenger." Allah says, "Obey Allah and his messenger." Allah says, "Obey Allah and his messenger." Allah says, "Say, obey Allah and obey the messenger." Allah says, "Just obey the messenger," the messenger alone here without even obeying Allah. Allah says, "Who believe, obey Allah and obey the messenger." Allah says, "Obey Allah and obey the messenger." And these are all different verses; I'm not just repeating the same verse. These are all different verses that are all essentially saying, "Obey Allah and obey the messenger," or "obey Allah and his messenger," "obey." And there are many, many, many verses; I'm not going to mention all of them, and they're mentioned in different wordings. Like, for example, "And obeys Allah and his messenger, He will admit him into paradise," and "Who obeys the messenger has obeyed Allah," and "Who obeys Allah and the messenger, then he will be rewarded; he will be from those that Allah has bestowed favor upon." So they're all saying the same thing essentially, but all of it in different wordings, and tens of verses in the Quran.
Now when you speak to Hadith rejectors, they try to pretend the word "and" doesn't mean "and," and it is not a conjunction between two things. So it's not like the obedience of Allah is different from the obedience of the messenger. We would say that makes zero sense for many reasons. First, we would say is that would render the meaning, the words of Allah, first meaningless. Because essentially Allah is saying—when the Hadith rejectors say—when Allah says, "obey the messenger," it is referring to the Quran, or it's referring to obeying Allah. So then we would say that renders the Quran meaningless. Why? Because it would mean that all of these verses are saying, "obey Allah and obey Allah, obey Allah and obey Allah, obey Allah and Allah." So that that is the meaning of the verses according to those Hadith rejectors. And these are tens of verses, and all of them mention the messenger by name, and some of them just mention the messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam without even mentioning Allah, and some of them saying obeying the messenger is obedience to Allah, which means clearly that there are two types of different obedience.
So first, it renders verses of Allah meaningless; second, it opposes language when you have a conjunction between two words; and thirdly, it just shows that the Quran, according to them, is not eloquent because there are repetitions of words without a necessity to repeat them. So if someone else was revealing the Quran, it would be easier and more eloquent for him to just mention, "obey Allah," because according to them, if you obey the messenger, it means to obey Allah, so it is—it means the Quran. So then Allah saying, "obey Allah," is enough; he doesn't say—he doesn't need to say, "obey the messenger." But in reality, all of these verses are like a thorn in their throats. They know that these are two different types of obedience; that's why Allah mentions two types of obediences. He doesn't just say, "obey Allah and his messenger," but he says, "obey Allah and obey," so he adds the word "obey" specifically for the messenger to show that these are two different types of obediences, which shows the importance of listening and obeying to the messenger in that which he will be teaching. And where is that thing that the prophet is teaching? Because the prophet is sent to everyone; he's not just sent to his companions. So me and you and all the Believers need to find that thing, and that is, as we say, is of course the Hadith.
The next argument I want to talk about is the argument of generalities. What is the argument of generalities? It is the argument that the verses in the Quran, many of those verses of the Quran, are quite general; they're not specific, but rather they're general in their commands. And the question is to those Hadith rejectors, how do we understand these verses? Who helps us to understand how to perform or do these commands that are found in the Quran? According to whose understanding should we be following regarding these verses in the Quran or regarding these commands in the Quran? And the thing is, when you look at these verses in the Quran, and these commands can be understood in hundreds of different ways, depending on the person's intellect and depending on what games he wants to play with the Arabic language and whatever he wants to do. So now, according to us, we say that the Hadith will restrict those meanings. If it does not give you the right meaning, the only meaning, it restricts those meanings to two or three different meanings, for example, and which are all accurate. So the Hadith is explaining and expounding on the Quran and giving you the details that are missing that you do not find in these verses, and gives you the understanding of the generalities that you find in these verses, how to completely understand them and implement. While when you look at the—they have no way of understanding them.
So Allah says in the Quran that the prophet is an example for us to follow. For whoever wishes Allah on the last day, he has to follow the messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam. How do we follow the example of the Prophet when—when it is not found? The Quran is the words of Allah; it's not the words of the Prophet. So we need the example of the prophet in order for us to follow the prophet and for us to understand those general commands that are found in the Quran. And I'll give an example: praying Salah. How do we know how—how to pray Salah? And you know you find the—the—saying is praying the Salah has been passed down through—which is the actions of the people. That's how we know how we pray; we don't need like anything. The prophet prayed, and people saw him how he prayed, and then they passed it on to the next generation, and this is how we know how to pray. So we don't need the Hadith for that. Some Hadith rejectors will make this argument, but the argument is still faulty because the question is, where did the prophet get how to pray from? Because according to you, the Quran is the only revelation. So did he make up how to pray? We already established that he cannot make up how to pray. So how did he know how to pray for people to imitate him generation after generation today for us to know—to know how to pray? So your understanding will still remain to be faulty, and you will end up like, obviously, an idiot, with—in the nicest way to say—is that saying that anyone can make up any way of how to pray, like certain individuals, like, "I'll pray whatever way you want to pray, any any time you want to pray, any amount you want to pray," according to their own understanding of the prayer.
And why are we saying the verses of the Quran can be completely general? If you want to generalize, I'll give an example: when Allah says in the Quran, "establish Salah," what is Salah? What does Salah mean? Someone will say, "Okay, yeah, Salah is to pray." Okay, so how do you pray? Someone says, "Okay, Salah means to raise your hand and make Dua to Allah and this and that, because in the Arabic language you use the word Salah and Dua in conjunction. So Salah here actually means Dua, so it means to supplicate." So when Allah says, "establish the Salah," it means supplicate to—okay, that's one person is going to come and say that. Another person is going to say, "No, no, no, the word Salah actually comes from the word Salah in the Arabic language, which means a connection, so it means connect to Allah; does not actually mean pray by raising your hands and performing those actions." Then you find another Hadith says, "No, no, no, actually Salah, it is—yeah, actually actually prostrating and this and that, but do it according to my way because I understood this verse this way, so this is how you should do it." And then every Tom, Dick, and Harry comes and brings his own understanding. For example, Allah says in the Quran that the divorced women they have to wait. The word in the Arabic language is—has two opposite meanings: one meaning is purity, and one meaning is menstruation. So these are two meanings in the Arabic language. The people of Hijaz, the region of Hijaz, understand it to mean purity, and the people of—understand it to mean menstruation. According to Hadith rejectors, when he divorces his woman, some Hadith rejectors will—will—will say it means this, or other rejectors would say it means that. But the Hadith helps you to understand which one is it, using the examples of the Prophet, using and other examples. But the point is, which one are you going to take if you are a Hadith rejector, if you completely have no like authority for the Hadith? Because we can say there are two meanings, and the two meanings we can even say they're valid based on the Hadith, but you—which meaning is the correct meaning according to you? Because the meanings are opposing each other, and you completely reject the—. For example, Allah says in the Quran about—but the word here can—it mean they sold him, according to some Hadith rejectors, and it means they bought him, according to some others. If you just use the language essentially, he will end up with all of these different meanings, and you'll end up confused, not knowing where to apply when and to apply what according to his understanding, because language can give you tens of meanings, especially the Arabic language, for one word, and tens of understandings based on that, and tens of different groups following different things. When Allah says, "the thief, the male and female," chapter 5, about cutting—now cutting, what does it mean? According to some—according to some, cut your relationship with them; according to some Hadith rejectors that I heard, according to another Hadith rejector, it is this. What is the meaning? And is—if they steal anything, is—if they steal anytime, is—if they steal at any age? All of these restrictions that the Hadith gives you—the amount that they steal and how they steal and all of that are not found in the Quran. She means—now according to you, if you see anyone steals in anywhere, in anywhere, any amount, you should do—and then you should explain to us first what "means" means; it doesn't mean cutting. What does it mean? Does it mean like, boy cutting? What does it mean exactly? I can give hundreds of examples showing that this—this idea of generality—by necessity, you need someone who gives you a restriction for these verses that can be understood generally, and you can go to extremes in your understanding of the Quran regarding certain verses about fighting, for example, or attacking the disbelievers or this that. A person can easily go extreme by understanding them generally without any restrictions of Hadith—of whom you can attack, whom you cannot attack, and all of these other restrictions that we have. So that is the argument: using the Quran, looking at it like this with generalities is not going to help you, and you will end up creating hundreds of different sects, and that cannot be guidance, and Allah claims that the Quran is guidance.
The next argument here is to do with the prophecies in the Hadith, and we mentioned one in the beginning of the video, and my argument goes as follows: Allah says in the Quran, "Say, no one in the heavens and the Earth knows the Unseen except Allah." So that means that the Unseen is specified for Allah; it's not for other people. He—he is the only one who knows the Unseen. Allah mentions the only exception as the messenger by saying, "the knower of the Unseen." He does not tell the Unseen to anyone except what he pleases from a messenger. So a messenger, Allah can tell him some of the Unseen, can let him some knowledge of the Unseen, like the prophet. He told us all of these events that will happen in the future that were of the Unseen for the prophet and his generation. So he told us, "in the future, these things will happen." So only a messenger can know the Unseen. And now when we look at this and the Hadith—when you look at the Hadith today, we find tens of examples of information about the Unseen. And if you are a Hadith rejector who pretend that the Hadith is not—has no revelation in it, then you have to explain to us, where did those authors of those books of Hadith that are thousands of years before or—over a thousand years before us—where did they get this information that these things will be happening today in front of our eyes? And we mentioned many examples of things that will happen: the prophet talking about the Bedouin Arabs competing in building tall buildings, how the prophet named the countries that will become Muslim, how the prophet spoke about usury and interest and how they will be widespread, how he spoke about the Roman and Persian Empire. All of these different examples of the Unseen that are mentioned in the Hadith, which we use as evidence that Islam is the truth, that the prophet is a messenger of God. You, as a Hadith rejector, based on the Quran, no one can know the Unseen except the messenger of God. So if this Hadith is not coming from the prophet, how did the authors know the Unseen? You got no option except to disbelieve in the Quran by saying that other people can know the Unseen, or to admit and accept the fact that this information reliably and historically traces back to the prophet.
The last argument I'm going to make—uh, regarding positive arguments for the Hadith and its necessity—and when we look at the Quran and common sense, we have to accept the Hadith is a necessity for you as a Muslim to follow Islam correctly. Now the last argument I'm going to mention is the argument of different recitations of the Quran. Now we know for a fact that there are different recitations of the Quran that are being—uh, read in the Muslim world today. For example, saying Malik and saying—saying—and saying—all of these are different recitations that Muslims are reciting today. If you go to Morocco, or if you go to Algeria, you go to Mauritania, you will hear the people reciting Malik. If you go to other parts of the world, you'll hear them reciting Malik. And there's no issues for that for us as people who accept the Hadith, because we know that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said in the Hadith that the Quran has been revealed in seven—in seven different dialects, and—and you can recite the Quran in multiple different ways. So it's not one way of how you recite the Quran. So for us, we got no issues that there are different recitations of the Quran; that does not attack the Quran in any way, shape, or form. But for you as a Hadith rejector, you've got to tell us which one is correct: is it—or is it—and do you believe the Quran has been changed? Because if you say it's Malik, it's not Malik, then you're affirming that the Quran has been changed, and that opposes the Quran, chapter 15, where Allah says that he revealed the Quran and he's going to preserve it. So if Allah said he's going to preserve it, it must be preserved. And if it is preserved, then people cannot be reading it in different ways—millions of people around the world—because that will mean it is not preserved literally, because there's many people who read it and think it's the Quran. So if you say Malik is the only right way, or Malik is the only right way, then you've admitted that the Quran has been changed, because the other word is not going to be the words of Allah; it's going to be the words of human beings. And if you say that both of them are correct, then show us where does the Quran say that the Quran has been revealed in many different ways—reading the Quran can be in many different ways. Where is that in the Quran? Where does the Quran mention that Allah revealed the Quran in different dialects and different ways of recitation? You need to show us where does the Quran say that explicitly—not your own twist and games—where does the Quran explicitly say that it's been revealed in different ways for you to recite it in different ways, right, with different dialects. So if you cannot find—find us that in the Quran, then you have to accept—and by no doubt it is in the Hadith—and the Hadith is the evidence—uh, and Hadith is revelation from Allah, and it explains this idea, this phenomena that Muslims have accepted for 1,400 years—that there is other revelation other than the Quran, and that Allah revealed the Quran in different dialects and different—. Okay, so now moving on to the second part of the video, which is the criticism and logical inconsistencies of those Hadith rejectors, and how their methods is completely inconsistent and illogical, and I will give a very easy example.
Now the Hadith rejectors say that we reject Hadith because men are fallible and they can make mistakes, and—and we don't trust that they completely transmitted this information—this information correctly. Now we will ask them this simple question: who transmitted to you the Quran? If you claim that the Hadith—it is corrupted because men are fallible and they make mistakes, we will say also you have to use the same argument at the Quran, because the people who give you that—the Hadith are the same people who give you the Quran. Last time I checked, no Hadith rejector was living 1,400 years ago, and none of them met the prophet and took the Quran from his hand; rather, they took it directly from—uh, their surroundings—from the Quran that is being printed around them, which traces back and comes back to the same people, same individuals, same companions, same narrators that narrate the Hadith. There's no difference between the narrators of the Quran and the narrators of the Hadith. You get some Hadith rejectors who say the Quran says that Allah is going to preserve it; that's why we believe it's preserved. But the problem with that is that you cannot use the Quran without establishing first it's preserved, because this verse could be a corruption. We can argue that this verse that says the Quran is going to be preserved, it is itself corrupted; someone added it later on; it's not from Allah. So you have to first establish that the Quran is not—is not corrupted, and then next we say, "Okay, we understand this verse now. Okay, that Allah said it. Now okay, we accept that is preserved." But how do you establish first? You need to establish first how it is preserved, and how is passed down to you. So we would like those Hadith rejectors to tell us, explain, give us a rational reason of how did they get the Quran, and isn't it the same companions, the same fallible men that you claim that pass down the Hadith are the same fallible men that pass down the Quran to you? So this is a clear logical inconsistency and picking and choosing what you want to follow because you do not—not want to follow the Hadith, not because you are a truth seeker.
Now the second logical problem with those Hadith rejectors is the idea of who should we follow. I have made different—like I can name the amount of different Hadith rejectors I met, and all of them have their own understanding, and some of these understandings I—I was like shocked from the—how funny these understandings are. And this is not a claim I'm making; that's a fact. If you go online and you just research online for those Hadith rejectors, watch their videos, each and every single one of them believes that he's a prophet who knows how to understand Islam. He doesn't say, "I'm a prophet," but he believes it because he's legislating, and he thinks that his way is the right way of understanding the Quran. You go to the other one, he—he's a completely different understanding of the Quran. You go to a third one, a completely different understanding of the Quran. And all of them have the same methodology, which is rejecting the Hadith. So who should we follow according to you guys? Who should explain to us these general verses that we already mentioned in the Quran? Which sect should we follow? Which Hadith rejector is your next Messiah that you're going to follow and imitate what they say to you? Because you have to—you said there's guidance, and Allah is guiding us. So where can we find the Quran—a direction—to which rejector, which one of you should we take, which understanding should—
We take—and if you say, know—that you look at the Quran yourself, and you come to the understanding that will end, uh, result in hundreds of millions of other people who don't understand the Arabic language, like many of their rejectors who are just making up their own understanding. And then everyone will go his own way, and that is completely wrong, and it does not make any sense. So you have to tell us, who should we follow?
And do not forget the Quran is against you. Why is it evidence against you? Because the Quran says that we should follow the majority, the group of the Believers. Allah says in the Quran that whoever opposes the messenger—like all of you, you are the opposers of the messenger—who reject the speech of the messenger and goes any direction other than the way, other than the way of the Believers. So the Believers have a way; the Believers, as a, as a group, according to the Quran, have a way. And if you oppose the messenger and go in any way other than the way of the Believers, the majority of the Muslims, then that person Allah is going to punish and send to the Hellfire. So that means the group of the Believers, the Jama'ah of the Believers, the whole of the Believers have a way, and you cannot be making your own way. And you all already admit and agree and know that you are a minority; you are a fringe minority; you are not even 1% of Muslims. So you have to explain to us who should we follow. And the Quran tells us, follow the majority. How can we not follow the majority when this verse is telling us to follow the majority? Yeah, so it's telling us that the group of the Believers, if they agree on something—not the things that they disagree upon—but if they agree on something, then those Believers you have to follow and tread the same path that they follow. So you explain to us who should we follow, and do not deviate from this question and say that the majority are misguided or this or that. Do not play games; tell us who should we follow, because the Quran is supposed to be guidance for us.
There is a huge problem with those Hadith rejectors. This problem is to do with language. The Hadith rejectors play games and pretend that there is no such thing as the Arabic language that has been established, that the common folk of the Arab people they understand what the Arabic language is. So whenever a verse opposes their understanding, they completely reject it and say, "Although that's incorrect meaning, but it is a meaning…" We say this in classical dictionaries. We say, "Oh, don't rely on the, on the poets; rely on the Quran. The Quran is the way where you get your knowledge." So the question is, who defines the words in the Quran? Where do you get your sources of language? And please understand, answer these questions as a Hadith rejector. We want to show your logical inconsistency, because many of the meanings that they give are based on these dictionaries and how the language is understood among the common people. But whenever a verse opposes their way and opposes their understanding, they pretend as if language does not matter anymore. Oh, no, no, no, we follow the Quran, not the language. Don't follow the poets; don't follow the books of, uh, dictionaries; don't follow this and that; follow the Quran. So you explain to us, as Hadith rejectors, where do we get the definition of the words in the Quran from? The Arabic language? Where, how do you understand the Arabic language? Please tell us. Enlighten us, and please allow us to know how, how do you understand the Quran? How do you understand the Arabic language? How do you decipher the words that are in the Quran that are in Arabic? Which dictionaries do you use? Whose understanding of the Arabic language do you use?
Now, the one thing which is very important is that those Hadith rejectors here, they pretend and claim that they follow the Quran, but in the same time you'll see them opposing the Quran, clear-cut things. For example, the idea of testimony, because the Hadith is a testimony of people. So when they claim that men are infallible and they make mistakes, so why did Allah rely on those men's testimony as a valid source of information in many of the verses? So, for example, Allah says in some of the verses, "And get two witnesses from your men," so those men will testify, and their testimony is a valid source of information, because there will be, there will be punishment based on these testimonies; there will be money that is lost; there will be things that are important. So Allah says that this testimony is a valid source of information. Also, Allah says, "If someone who is disobedient comes to you, the news, then research that news," which means that if he's not a disobedient person, we can rely on his testimony and accept what he says as a reliable thing. So if the Hadith is coming from people who are reliable and they're giving us a testimony, then that is based on the Quran, because the Quran accepts testimony clearly, and Allah accepts testimony. So if you pretend to follow the Quran, explain to us—if you say that we cannot take people's testimony and people are fallible and they make mistakes—then how can Allah rely on fallible people when it comes to punishments and, and people's money and wealth and all of that and information that is being delivered to the Muslims? How can Allah rely on those people if you claim that men are fallible?
Also, the inconsistency that they have is the idea of accepting some Hadith and other Hadith they don't accept, because they end up realizing that they cannot know how to pray; they cannot know how to give Zakat; they cannot know what is Ramadan; which month is Ramadan; and what is—they cannot explain anything in the Quran without using Hadith. What they end up doing is that they end up accepting some Hadith and rejecting others, and they have a game that they play. They say that we accept the Hadith that are in line with the Quran. And what they mean by that, we accept any that does not contradict the Quran, even if it adds new information, but this information does not contradict the Quran; we accept it. But the problem in this inconsistency is, if you accept the Hadith, then you're admitting that there can be reliable information passed down, because you're accepting that these Hadith are okay, which means that we can pass down reliable information from the Prophet. Now, what is the criteria for us to know what is being passed down is correct or not? So if this, if those individuals have passed down information and you say that this information is correct because it's in line with the Quran, in the same time you're saying that they have passed down reliable information, which shows that they're able to pass down information reliably, which opposes what you said before, is that they're infallible and they make mistakes. So it's either infallible and they make mistakes, or they can pass down knowledge reliably because they pass down things which are in line with the Quran. So you cannot play this game by picking and choosing what you like and ignoring what you don't like, and that's why this idea of Hadith is completely illogical, because it has to reject all history. The fact is, Islam did not start with those Hadith rejectors; it did not start 100 years before this. This history of Hadith has started from the time of the Prophet, and if it did start with the Prophet, then you, you have to completely reject the entire Islamic literature and history that has all of the information, because they believe scholars are traitors; they believe the people who wrote biographies are traitors; they believe everyone is a traitor, and their understanding of the Quran is a correct understanding. So essentially what they're saying is that you have to reject all Islamic history, all Islamic literature that that has been written now, and all of those Muslims were fallible traitors that they manipulated the religion, and no one has passed down the correct information except them today. And if this is not irrationality and illogical inconsistency, then I don't really know what is.
Okay, so we come to our closure, in sha Allah. One very important part of this video, which is the idea of the historicity of Hadith, which is very important for Muslims, uh, so pay attention, in sha Allah, to what we are about to say and keep it in mind, because understanding it will help you a lot as a Muslim, just to generally understand how Hadith grading works, and, and why do we accept certain Hadith, why we don't accept certain Hadith, etc. So before we start actually going into this topic, I want to mention one, one very important thing, because the Hadith is history after all. So we want to, to compare this Hadith, which is history, to the Western history that many of those Hadith rejectors accept, or just normal history. They accept the history of their country; they accept the history of the Westerners. When it comes to a Hadith, they pretend that it's, it does not work. So how does Western history, or non-Muslims—how, how do they actually view history, and how do they know if something is reliable or not? And I'll give a basic example. Let's say, for example, uh, what they do is that they find the letter; the letter is written down in the past, uh, and it has, say, a signature of a king of the time, and the information within that letter goes in line with, with the general information they have with the political kind of atmosphere at the time, right? So it does not oppose the general political atmosphere of the time, and it is signed by, by that King; his name is there. Basically, that's, say, that's it; means I signed by that king, and the carbon dated to around the time that the king lived. So they say this letter is completely historically reliable; we don't have any issues; no skepticism towards it; we accept that as, as valid history. And now all of these people that you hear are not even—this is maybe the high standard of them accepting something to be reliable—all of these things that I mentioned to you, most of the history is even—there's a less criteria, a much weaker criteria for them to accept. Like, for example, you hear about Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle said, Socrates said, like Plato said, and none of this can be established that it is from them or it is from their time or any of that, or Alexander the Great did this or he didn't do that. So you find those people, or many of the people, pretend this history is accurate and accept this history; they never question this history. When someone tells them Aristotle said, or Plato said, or this person said, or that person said, and they want to question Hadith, and they don't even understand how much scrutiny does it take for Muslims to say the specific Hadith is authentic or this specific Hadith is weak, which is a complete double standard and hypocrisy when it comes to looking at the historicity of something. So essentially, if you reject Hadith, you have to reject all history, Western history and non-Western history, because you're not going to find anything or anyone that goes into depth and so much scrutiny as Muslims do when it comes to the Hadith. And if you don't believe me, that's what we are about to demonstrate right now, and then you can look at us demonstrating that, come to your own conclusion. Does anyone in the world go to such scrutiny to determine whether something is accurate or not accurate?
Let's talk about Hadith. What is a Hadith? A Hadith is that which was transmitted from the Prophet, from a statement—so something that he said—or an action, a specific action that he did, or something that he approved of. So something happened in the presence of the Prophet, peace be upon him, and he was okay with it; he didn't say that the people don't do or do not do—or the description of the Prophet, whether in his character, his manners, or how he was created, like his arms, his head, how he was created. So anything of the statements, the sayings, the actions, the approvals, all of these things are what we call a Hadith. That's the definition of what Hadith is. And that Hadith is divided into two parts; it's divided in what we call isnad, which is a chain of narration, the individuals who narrated this information, who gave us this information. So we say Alex narrated from Mark, narrated from John, that he, the Prophet, peace be upon him, said this. So Alex, Mark, and John, they are the isnad, the chain of narration. And then that the Prophet, peace be upon him, said, like 1 + 1 = 2, for example, hypothetically. So this statement, 1 + 1 = 2, the actual statement that the Prophet said, we consider that the matn—the matn is the actual wording that the Prophet said—and the isnad, or the sanad, is the chain of narration, the individuals who pass down this information. And now all of this Hadith—the statements and actions of the Prophet, peace be upon him—are like generally divided into two main categories: authentic and weak. Now, obviously there's a lot of more, uh, different categories, but I don't want to go into too deep, because I know people will get lost, so we'll just stick with those two main categories. So the authentic, what are these authentic? The authentic Hadith is that which is transmitted from the Prophet by a person who is trustworthy—so a person who is known in his community to be a trustworthy individual, who is a good individual, and he's a practicing Muslim, and he is a strong memorizer. So the first condition is, he is a trustworthy individual; second is that his memorization and memory is very strong. If it becomes weaker, then he's no longer fitting that criteria. So whoever he heard from has to also have these two conditions; has to be strong in memory and has to be an a good individual, known in the community to be a good individual. And the chain has to be connected; so the chain has to go all the way back to the Prophet, peace be upon him. There cannot be any people missing in the chain; you cannot narrate from someone you that was not living at your time, that was living 200 years before you, because you cannot meet him or you cannot take information from him. So you, that person has to be, it has to be possible for you to meet that individual. Not only that, but also the chain has to go all the way back to the Prophet. So if the information reaches a companion of the Prophet only, but it does not reach the Prophet and he doesn't say the Prophet said, then that's a statement of a companion; it is not a Hadith of the Prophet, peace be upon him. If it reaches a student of a companion, then it is not a narration of the Prophet, rather it is a statement of a follower of a companion of the Prophet. So this is what authentic Hadith is: that which is narrated by a trustworthy, just individual, well memorized, a strong memory, who narrates from someone like him, tracing all the way back to the Prophet, and it cannot be, uh, irregular, and they cannot have any defects; that narration cannot have any defects. Now, defects and irregularity, these are like big things that there's a whole science written on that, but I'll give a very basic example of, of shuyukh, which is, for example, irregularity is where you have one person who told the story, and then there were six people sitting down; five of those people narrated the story in, in a way, and one individual narrated the same story, but he added extra information that the other five did not say. That would mean that this extra part that was added is either a mistake or irregularity is something that is the narrator has made a mistake in attributing it to that narrator when he did not narrate it. So we know that through tracing all of those different chains of narrations, and we look at those people who narrated the Hadith, and we see like if the majority are narrating one thing and just one person who had an extra statement that the other people did not narrate, even though they're all hearing the story from the same person, then we say the extra statement that was made is irregular, and that statement can be rejected. Now, also the idea of hidden defects; there are defects that can remove the reliability of a Hadith, and there are defects that do not remove the reliability of the Hadith. So the Hadith can be authentic even though if there's a hidden defect. For instance, if we say that the narrator says, "I heard from Omar," which is a companion of the Prophet, and he actually heard it from Abu Hurairah. So both of those two different people are reliable, but the narrator, there's a hidden defect there; he made a mistake, and he heard it from a wrong person; he did not hear it from Omar; he actually heard it from Abu Hurairah, but he mixed the two individuals. So that's a defect, but a hidden defect. Another hidden defect, for example, is someone narrates information; he attributes it to the Prophet while actually he was not from the Prophet, but it was a story that was heard from the people of the scriptures; that would be considered a hidden defect, and it will affect the Hadith. Now, the Hadith is no longer an authentic narration that you have to believe in, rather it's information taken from the people of the scriptures. So as I said, I don't want to go into very strict details to show you how much those people who are rejecting Hadith have no clue of how much work the people have put to, to authenticate these narrations, and for us to come to this conclusion. These narrations have to be historically reliable. So it's not just like we found the letter and the King was signing it, but we know who the king is; we have the full biography of the king; we know who, who wrote the letter; which handler of the king wrote the letter; we know his student who took the letter from him, and we know, uh, his son and his son and his son and his friend and whoever narrated the information until it reaches today, seeing it in front of our own eyes. This is our criteria, not the criteria of the weak Western history that you accept, but our criteria is even further and much more stricter for us to accept anything coming from the Prophet or not coming from the Prophet, and how precise were those people actually, uh, in, in passing down the information. I'll give like two, two very basic examples. There's a great scholar who's called—is a great scholar who used to handle the grading of Hadith and handle also seeing who is reliable and who's not reliable. One day they have something called testing the person who narrates the—so as we said that the person who narrates Hadith has to have a strong memory—so what they do is that they used to, to test the reliability of the memory of these individuals. The people that are known to be trustworthy that narrate narrations of the Prophet used to go and test them. So he went one time to one of his teachers, which is, who's a major scholar who is well known of strong memory, but even though he was well known of strong memory and in the community they know that this person has a strong memory, they said, "Still we have to actually investigate; we have to actually see whether he has a strong memory or not; let's actually test him." So what he did is that he went to him, and then he mixed some of his narrations with another person's narrations in order for him to test if whether he's actually having a strong memory or not. So that was a regular thing that the scholars used to do at the time; they used to go to different narrators, and they used to test them, and you do not know when they're going to test you; who is going to test you. So if you have a weak memory, then they will label you, after testing you, that you have a weak memory, and then people, whoever narrates from you, that narration would be not reliable; will be doubted because the memory of that individual is not strong. Also, for example, they were very specific; used to sit in a sitting, and a person narrates Hadith, and then there are students who are taking the Hadith and writing it down. So he noticed when an individual who slept, so then wrote down at which number of the Hadith did he sleep; he slept when the fourth Hadith was being narrated, and then when he woke up again, wrote down that he woke up at the 11th, 11th Hadith. So they were so strict to make sure what he directly heard and what he did not hear. So if that individual leaves the sitting of knowledge and goes and narrates a Hadith, they will say to him, "Where did you hear this Hadith from? You were sleeping; we know that you didn't hear this Hadith from that sitting, so where did you get this information from?" So they were so strict to the extent to make sure that the individuals, even though they're sitting down in the same setting of knowledge and they're writing down, that what exactly they heard.
100% And we can even see this idea of reliability; it was there from the beginning, from the time of the first Caliph of Islam, right directly after the death of the Prophet. Alam, the first Caliph of Islam, who ruled only for like 3 years after the Prophet. In his time, they were still questioning people when they bring information. For example, there was a grandmother or old woman who came to Abu Bakr Siddiq, and she said, "Do I have anything from inheritance?" So Abu Bakr told her, "I do not see any verse in the Quran, and I do not know any Hadith of the Prophet that you have anything to take from the Inheritance." Then he asked the people around him. So here it shows that Abu Bakr is looking for who heard Hadith from the Prophet. Then one of the Companions, and M, he stood up and he said, "I heard the Prophet, Alam, said that she should be given the sixth of the Inheritance." So then Abu Bakr did not just accept his information, even though he's a reliable person, a strong member; he even asked him, "Was there anyone else other than you who heard this information?" Then another companion, Muhammad Masl, he also said that I heard this information. So then Abu Bakr accepted the information. So this idea of scrutiny was there from the beginning, and that's the whole reason we have gradings; that is the whole reason we have an authentic Hadith and a weak Hadith, because the scholars spent years grading and looking at those people who are passing down the Hadith: Is this person actually reliable or not? Or is he trustworthy or not? And based on all of these years that they spent investigating, they ended up coming to the conclusion whether this is a reliable Hadith or not a reliable Hadith. And that's why Abdah Muak, who was from the Salaf, was from the righteous predecessors, he said, "The chain of narration, the Isnad, is a part of the religion. And if it wasn't for that chain of narration and authentication, anyone will say anything." And that is a difference between the Islamic nation and other nations: that they accept unreliable information from anyone, like the Bibles, for example, written by unknown people, while Muslims will have to have the biography of every individual in the chain.
Now someone might ask, "Where are those biographies? Where are these biographies of these individuals? Where are they coming from? Where are they written?" These biographies of these individuals are written in multiple, multitude of different books. For example, I can name tens of books right now, actually hundreds of books—books that are just relying on having the biographies of the individuals who make those narrations. And these books will have the statements of the people who are contemporary to them. So the people who are contemporary to the narrator will either say, "He was a trustworthy person," or they would say, "He was a weak person." So these books have their biography, have their life, and have the statements of what their community, who were contemporary to them, said about them. So it is strict to that level. So anyone that we do not know in the chain of narration, we will reject that narration completely because we do not have history about the individual, his reliability, and we do not know what his community said about it. So every chain and any narration that someone will say to you, "This is the authentic narration," the individuals in the chain, we are able to show you without a shadow of a doubt that those people are reliable and trustworthy, and we show you their biographies. I will give an example in a minute. But the last thing I want to say—two points I want to make—one point is: Is that Bukhari, for example, or certain books of Hadith, uh, the narrations that are written in in these books—it's not only Bukhari who wrote those narrations. You will find other people with other books of Hadith from different regions, from different countries, in different times narrating the same exact information through a different route, through a different source, which shows that's why we have something called M, which you have a mass transmission of the same information by individuals who cannot have met each other and took this information from one another, but they were further apart from each other. There were many, multitude of different people that they could not have met each other and agreed that we will narrate this information. So in Bukhari, almost every Hadith in Bukhari, you will find it narrated in another book; you will find it narrated in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad; you'll find it narrated by other scholars, by other individuals other than Bukhari that narrate this same information through a different route, which shows that there is a multitude of people who heard from the same source, and that this source is reliable.
Even though I mention all of this to you, this is all to do with the oral preservation of it, but we also have early written manuscripts of Hadith. So there is no doubt that there is a historicity to the Hadith. For example, Imam Hammam, who was born 19 AH, like nine years after the death of the Prophet, Alam, he was a student of a direct companion of the Prophet, Abu Hurairah. He wrote from Abu Hurairah the narrations that he heard directly from the Prophet, and we still have it today, found today, carbon-dated, and you can read it, and you can find there—you can read it one by one. Imam Malik was born in the first century, like 80 years, 83 years after the death of the Prophet. We have his full book; he has a book called Muwatta Malik; we have it full today; you can open it today; you can buy it, purchase it. We have its manuscripts. So we have very early manuscripts; we have obviously Bukhari and Muslim and all of these other books—I have many books—we have very early sources as well which have narrations of the Prophet, which shows without a shadow of a doubt that these Hadith are historically reliable and they are tracing down to the Prophet because these Hadith that you see carbon-dated, you find the other books have the same Hadith through different roots, which shows that they're all taken from reliable sources. Even though that this is one manuscript that has a Hadith, you'll find another person who is not—who is not Abu Hurairah—who has the same exact information, who is from a completely different country narrating the same exact information that you find in that carbon-dated manuscript, which shows without a shadow of a doubt that it is historically reliable.
The last thing I want to do is this: I want to give an example of narration, a very basic example, to bring the idea closer to the people's minds. So let's get a Hadith, for example, a very basic Hadith. For example, here is narrated on Muslim, number 650: So narrated that Malik heard from Nafi', who heard from Ibn Umar, who heard from the Prophet. So now we have what we called in the beginning a chain of narration, a group of people who are passing down the information. We have Malik, we have Nafi', we have Ibn Umar, and then we have the Prophet, the source of the information. We said, in order for us to accept this information, those individuals have to live close to each other, to have to have met each other, and have to have gotten information one from one another. And I also mentioned that we have their biographies and what they did in their life, and I will—I will give an example, and the example is here in front of us today. Now who is—we open one of the books of that has the history and biography of the people, for example, who's written by an individual called Al-Dhahabi. He tells us now who is this individual who is narrating. So he starts first by telling you his name: His name is Nafi', and then he says he—he gives him a title: He says "the scholar." He was a scholar in the region of Medina, and then he gives you his lineage. Then he says that he—he wrote narrations and he wrote information in his country, which is Medina, and he did in Hijaz, and he did in Iraq, and he did in Sham, and he did in Egypt. Then it says he met young students of the Companions; for example, he met Ibn Shihab, he met 'Ata', he met Malik (which we just said he narrated from), he met Al-Hasan, he met Qatadah, he met Urwah ibn Zubayr, he—he—he gives you the people of the students of the Companions, examples, and he mentions names upon names that he has met. And then he also mentions the names of the people who narrated from him, who heard information from him. So we said Muslim. Now Muslim is narrating—the narrator. He heard from him; Al-Bukhari heard from him; Muhammad heard from him; Ahmad heard from him; Shuba heard from him; Muhammad heard from him; his son and heard from him; Zakariya heard from him; and then he goes on to—what is his date of birth? He was born 142 AH, the Islamic calendar. And then he says that what people said said about him: He said Ahmad, who was a great scholar, what did he say about him? He said, "He did not see anyone of the people similar to the greatness of Nafi'." So he praised him. Another individual, he said, "Nafi' died, and he was the scholar of the whole earth." So he's praising him; he's saying he was a reliable individual. And now he goes on and on and on. There's a long page here of the individual who spoke about him, who said his reliability, who said when he was born, who said... And I can do that with every single person in the chain. The second person in the chain, Imam Malik. Who is Imam Malik? His name, his full name and heritage: He's Abd al-Malik ibn Anas. I can give all his biography: Which year he was born? He was born 93 AH. Who did he narrate from? His mother, she was called... He narrated from... and he narrated from... The point is, every single individual in the chain—same thing, Nafi'. Who is Nafi'? Was a student of Abdullah ibn Umar. Was his name? He was a scholar; his name was Abdullah ibn Umar. And now who is Abdullah ibn Umar? Abdullah ibn Umar was a direct companion of the Prophet, and he was the son of Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second Caliph of Islam. Now I can go on and on and give you the full history and biography of every single individual that you see in the chain in front of you.
So when we accept any information and we say as Muslims that this—the Prophet Muhammad, Alam, said this, we know for a fact that Prophet Muhammad, Alam, said this because we have the—the huge, the biggest amount—we have the biggest amount of scrutiny towards our Islamic texts because we know, as we said, that this is religion, and the people took it very seriously. Then whatever the Prophet, Alam, says is very important; it is to be passed down to the next generation in order for those people to know what to do with their afterlife. So there is no doubt that the Hadith is historically reliable. And as I said, if you want to reject the Hadith after everything I just mentioned to you, which is by the way just not even 10%, even 5% of the science of Hadith, the amount of scrutiny that goes into the narrations and the different branches of the definitions of Isnad, and when is a Hadith considered problematic, what types of hidden defects are there—I didn't even go to—let's even say 1% of the whole like understanding of the science of Hadith. So even though this small information I gave you now, if it's not enough for you to understand that there is no doubt that the Hadith is historically reliable, and if all of the evidences I've given you are showing you why the Hadith is a necessity and why your point of view that you've taken is completely—completely inconsistent and illogical, then no one can guide you except Allah. And as I said in the beginning of this video, this video is directed towards the people who are sincerely looking for the truth; it's also directed towards the Muslims so they can have a better understanding of the necessity of Hadith, the Hadith of the Prophet, Alam, the messenger of Allah, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and the importance of this religion. And in the last, I want to say something very basic: Do you really think as a Muslim that Allah is going to allow 99.9% of Muslims to be misguided, and He is only going to give the truth and guidance to you and your group of Hadith rejectors? Do you, as a rational individual, have not enough trust in Allah that you believe that He will allow the overwhelming majority of Muslims today to be misguided and to follow a Hadith that is being fabricated, that none of it is actually attributed to the Prophet, Alam, and all of it is lies, and Allah has allowed all of these lies to be spread down and for all of these overwhelming majorities of Muslims to follow His guidance? Does that really make any rational sense? And we end on that note, inshallah. May Allah guide us all to the truth.