Quranism

Quranism (Arabic: قرآنية‎ Qur'aniyyat) is an Islamic view that holds the Qur'an to be the only authentic source of Islamic faith. Quranists generally reject, therefore, the religious authority and authenticity of hadith, sunnah, clergymen, madhhabs, as well as traditional sharia law, with the assertion that they are false attributes to the Islamic prophet Muhammad. This is in contrast to the Sunni, Shia and Ibadi doctrines, which consider hadith necessary for Islamic faith.

Terminology

Quranists are called Muslimoona Qur'aniyyoon (مسلمون قرآنيÙ'ونpan>): "Quranist Muslims", or Muslimoona Haqq (مسلمون حق ), meaning "true Muslims" (from Quran verse 8:4). They are called "MunkirÅ« l-ḥadeeth" (منكروا الحديث), meaning "hadith rejectors" â€" by their opponents. As they do not accept any source besides the Qur'an, they do not consider themselves members of a sect.

As many Quranists have a very individualistic interpretation of the Qur'an, rejecting sectarianism and organised religion as a general rule, it is difficult to gather an accurate estimate of the number of Quranists in the world today by doing a study of the Quranist organisations that exist. Another difficulty in determining their prevalence is the possible fear of persecution due to being regarded as apostates and therefore deserving of the death penalty by many traditional scholars like Yousef Elbadry, Mahmoud Ashour, Mohammed Ra'fat Othman and Mustafa Al-Shak'a.

Liberal movements within Islam include Quranists who interpret Islam as "a belief system committed to the liberal values of a democratic world". Quranism is similar to movements in other religions such as the Karaite movement of Judaism and the Sola scriptura view of Christianity. Similarly, the Mu'tazila were also described as hadith rejectors and comparisons have been drawn. Hadith rejection has also been associated with Muslim modernists. A minority of Quranists use tafsir commentaries to understand the context of a Quran verse.

Doctrine

Quranists reject the authority of hadith on theological grounds, pointing to verses in the Quran which they believe supports their view that all necessary instruction can be found within the Quran, without reference to the Hadith:

Nothing have we omitted from the Book, and they (all) shall be gathered to their Lord in the end. [Quran 6:38].

We have cited in this Quran every example for the people. But the human being is always most argumentative. [Quran 18:54]

"Shall I seek other than God as a judge when He has sent down to you this book sufficiently detailed?" Those to whom We have given the book know it is sent down from your Lord with truth; so do not be of those who have doubt. The word of your Lord has been completed with truth and justice; there is no changing His words. He is the Hearer, the Knower. [Quran 6:114-115]

The revelation of the book is from God, the Noble, the Wise. . . . These are God's signs that We recite to you with truth. So, in which hadith, after God and His signs, do they acknowledge? [Quran 45:2-6]

It is an honorable Quran. In a protected record. None can grasp it except those pure. A revelation from the Lord of the worlds. Are you disregarding this hadith? [Quran 56:77-81]

So in what hadith after it will they acknowledge? [Quran 77:50]

The extent to which Quranists reject the authenticity of the Sunnah varies, but the more established groups have thoroughly criticised the authenticity of the hadith and refused it for many reasons, the most prevalent being the Quranist claim that hadith is not mentioned in the Quran as a source of Islamic theology and practice, was not recorded in written form until more than two centuries after the death of the prophet Muhammed, and contain perceived internal errors and contradictions.

Examples

Criticism

Contemporary scholars such as Gibril Haddad have commented on the apostatic nature of a wholesale denial of the probativeness of the Sunnah according to the Sunni sect: "it cannot be imagined that one reject the entire probativeness of the Sunna and remain a Muslim". In his essay, "The Probativeness of the Sunna", Haddad explains that the foundation of Islam is the Qur'an, which cannot be described as God's word when one unconditionally rejects the probativeness of the Sunna (since the fact that the Qur'an is God's Word was not established by other than Muhammad's explicit statement that this was God's Word and His Book). As this statement is part of the Sunna/Hadith literature, to say that the Sunna is no proof is no different than a denial of an integral part of the religion according to Haddad. He also quotes from Yusuf ibn abd al-Barr, Ibn Hazm as well as other renowned early traditional scholars such as al-Shafi'i, al-Nawawi, Qadi Ayyad and Ibn Hajar.

History

Quranists believe, based on numerous historical accounts, that the Quranist sentiment dates back to the time of Muhammad. According to one account, Muhammad said:

Do not write anything from me except the Qur'an and [if] someone writes anything from me other than the Qur'an, destroy it.

Another account says:

It was reported to the Prophet that some individuals had put his traditions into writing. He mounted the pulpit and after praising God he said, 'What are these books that you are writing as reported to me? I am only a human being. Anyone who keeps such traditions must destroy them.' We collected those traditions and asked, 'O Messenger of Allah! shall we narrate hadith from you?' The Prophet said, 'Sometimes, you narrate hadith from me; there is nothing wrong with it. Anyone who intentionally attributes a lie to me has certainly prepared for himself a place in the hellfire.

This prohibition of hadith is claimed to have been continued by Muhammad's successor, Abu Bakr. According to one account, Aisha said:

My father compiled 500 sayings of the Prophet. One night he was sleeping but he was not at ease. I was sad and I asked him about the reason behind his uneasiness. As the sun rose up, he said, 'My daughter, bring out the traditions in your possessions. I brought them. He asked for fire and burned them.

According to another account, Abu Bakr said:

You report certain statements from the Messenger of Allah and on which you differ among yourselves. After you the differences will multiply. Do not narrate anything from the Messenger of Allah and if someone asks you, tell them, 'There is the Book of Allah between you and us; let us take as lawful (halal) whatever it permits and unlawful (haram) whatever it prohibits.

Quranists claim that this prohibition of hadith was continued by Abu Bakr's successor, Umar. According to one account:

'Umar ibn al-Khattab wanted to record the traditions (sunan) and for this purpose he consulted the Prophet's Companions who also encouraged him to do so. 'Umar reflected on this work for a month, asking for guidance from God until his resolve became stronger and said, 'I wanted to put the sunan into writing but I remember that communities (aqwam) before you compiled a book [regarding the sunnah of their respective prophets] and focused their attention to it while disregarding the Book of God. By God! Indeed I will never mix the Book of God with anything else!

According to another account:

It was reported to 'Umar ibn al-Khattab that there were written traditions and collections of traditions among the people. He considered it unfavorable and said, 'O people! It was reported to me that book [of hadiths] exist in your midst. [Be it known that] the firmest of them is the most beloved in the sight of God. When they brought the books to me so that I could express my opinion about them, the people thought that I would review and modify them according to textual differences and variations. However, as soon as the books were brought to me, I put all of them on fire.

According to another account, Muhammad's companion Zayd ibn Thabit said:

The Prophet commanded us not to write down hadith.

Quranist scholars believe the prohibition of hadith is permanent; however, some Sunni scholars believe it was only temporary. According to them, the prohibition was so that people wouldn't confuse the Quran with the hadith during the compilation of the Quran. They believe that once the compilation of the Quran was completed, the prohibition of hadith was abrogated. Other Sunni scholars don't find this explanation for the prohibition of hadith convincing. Muhmud Abu Rayyah said concerning this explanation:

This justification cannot convince any scholar or man of intellect, nor is it acceptable to any inquisitive researcher unless we regard the traditions as of equal elegance with the Qur'an and believe that the hadith's mode of inimitability (a'jaz) is the same as that of the Qur'an â€" a claim which will be unacceptable even to the proponents of this theory because this is tantamount to the invalidity of the Qur'an's inimitability and the breaking down of the foundation of the Qur'an's miracles.

During the Abassid Caliphate, the poet, theologian, and jurist, Ibrahim an-Nazzam founded a madhhab called the Nazzamiyya that rejected the authority of hadiths and relied on the Quran alone. His famous student, al-Jahiz, was also critical of those who followed hadith, referring to his traditionalist opponents as al-nabita (the contemptible). But unlike his teacher, he didn't completely reject the authority of hadith. A contemporary of an-Nazzam, al-Shafi'i, tried to refute the arguments of the Quranists and establish the authority of hadiths in his book kitab jima'al-'ilm. And Ibn Qutaybah tried to refute an-Nazzam's arguments against hadith in his book ta'wil mukhtalif al-hadith.

In South Asia during the 19th century, the Ahle Quran movement formed partially in reaction to the Ahle Hadith whom they considered to be placing too much emphasis on hadith. Many Ahle Quran adherents were formerly adherents of Ahle Hadith but found themselves incapable of accepting certain hadiths. In Egypt during the early 20th century, the ideas of Quranists like Muhammad Tawfiq Sidqi grew out of Salafism - i.e. a rejection of taqlid.

Organisations and branches

Tolu-e-Islam

Tolu-e-Islam ("Resurgence of Islam") is an organization based in Pakistan, with followers throughout the world. The movement was initiated by Muhammad Iqbal and later spearheaded by Ghulam Ahmed Pervez. In his writings and speeches, Pervez deductively analyzed Qur'anic verses with little or no emphasis on hadith. He also provided a new commentary on the Quran based on a re-translation of key verses, based on applying proper rules of classical Arabic and its conventions, which have been overlooked by the mainstream sects. Tolu-e-Islam followers do not reject all hadiths; however, they only accept hadiths which "are in accordance with the Quran or do not stain the character of the Prophet or his companions". The organization is loosely controlled. The organization publishes and distributes books, pamphlets, and recordings of Pervez's teachings.

Ahle Qur'an

"Ahle Qur’an" is an organisation formed by Abdullah Chakralawi, who described the Quran as "ahsan hadith", meaning most perfect hadith and consequently claimed it does not need any addition. His movement rely entirely on the chapters and verses of the Qur’an. Chakralawi's position was that the Qur’an itself was the most perfect source of tradition and could be exclusively followed. According to Chakralawi, Muhammad could receive only one form of revelation (wahy), and that was the Qur'an. He argues that the Qur'an was the only record of divine wisdom, the only source of Muhammad's teachings, and that it superseded the entire corpus of hadith, which came later. Ahle Quran scholars may use Tafsir when pursuing the interpretations of the Quran.

Submitters

In the United States it was associated with Rashad Khalifa, founder of the United Submitters International. The group popularized the phrase: The Qur'an, the whole Qur'an, and nothing but the Qur'an. After Khalifa declared himself the Messenger of the Covenant, he was rejected by other Muslim scholars as an apostate of Islam. Later, he was assassinated in 1990 by a terrorist group. His followers believe that there is a mathematical structure in the Qur'an, based on the number 19. A group of Submitters in Nigeria was started by Isa Othman.

Others

Quranists in Nigeria are sometimes referred to as Kalo Kato, which means "a mere man said it" in the Hausa language (referring to the hadith attributed to Muhammad). They're sometimes mistaken for an unrelated militant group founded by Muhammadu Marwa (also known as Maitatsine) called Yan Tatsine. One of the most well-known Quranist leaders in Nigeria is an Islamic scholar Malam Isiyaka Salisu. Other notable Nigerian Quranists include High Court judge Isa Othman and Islamic scholar Mallam Saleh Idris Bello.

Prominent Quranists

• Aslam Jairajpuri (1882â€"1955), an Indian scholar of Qur'an, Hadith and Islamic history best known for his books Talimat-e-Qur'an and History of [the] Qur'an. He was Distinguished Professor of Arabic and Persian at Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia.

• Rashad Khalifa (1935â€"1990), an Egyptian-American biochemist and Islamic reformer. In his book Quran, Hadith and Islam and his English translation of the Quran, he argued that the Quran alone is the source of Islamic belief and practice. He was also the initial discoverer of the numerical structure of the Quran.

• Ahmed Subhy Mansour (born 1949), an Egyptian American Islamic scholar. He founded a small group of Quranists, but was exiled from Egypt and is now living in the United States as a political refugee. One of his followers, Egyptian blogger Reda Abdel-Rahman, was freed on January 2009 after being detained for a year. Abdel-Rahman was imprisoned for writing blogs that reject the sunnah and hadith and claimed he was tortured in order to reveal the password to his e-mail. Mansour was dismissed by Al-Azhar University after expressing his rejection of hadith.

• Chekannur Maulavi (born 1936; disappeared July 29, 1993), a progressive Islamic cleric who lived in Edappal in Malappuram district of Kerala, India. He was noted for his controversial and unconventional interpretation of Islam based on Quran alone. He disappeared on 29 July 1993 under mysterious circumstances and is now widely believed to be dead.

• Ibrahim an-Nazzam (775â€"845), an Afro-Iraqi philosopher, theologian, jurist, historian and poet who founded a madhhab called "Nazzamiyya". He was a nephew of the Mu'tazilite theologian Abu al-Hudhayl al-'Allaf. One of his students was al-Jahiz.

• Ghulam Ahmed Pervez (1903â€"1985), Pakistani Islamic scholar and founder of Tolu-e-Islam.

• Mohammed Shahrour (born 1938), a Syrian reformer and Emeritus Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Damascus who writes extensively about Islam. Shahrour was trained as an engineer in Syria, the former Soviet Union and Ireland. Like other Quraniyoon Muslims, he does not consider hadith as authoritative.

• Asarulislam Syed (born 1951), a Pakistani American neurologist, psychiatrist and founder of the Jannat Pakistan Party.

• Edip Yuksel (born 1957), a Kurdish American philosopher, lawyer, QurʾāniyÅ«n advocate, author of NINETEEN: God's Signature in Nature and Scripture, Manifesto for Islamic Reform and a co-author of Quran: A Reformist Translation. Currently teaches philosophy and logic at Pima Community College and medical ethics and criminal law courses at Brown Mackie College.

Notable Quranist translations of the Qur'an

• Edip Yüksel, Layth Saleh Al-Shaiban, Martha Schulte-Nafeh, Quran: A Reformist Translation, Brainbow Press, 2007.
• Rashad Khalifa, Qur'an: The Final Testament, Islamic Productions, 1989.
• Shabbir Ahmed, Qur'an As It Explains Itself, [publisher?], 2003.
• The Monotheist Group, The Message: A Pure and Literal Translation of the Qur'an", Brainbow Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-9796715-4-8 .

See also

• Liberal movements within Islam
• Criticism of Hadith
• Hadith of Umar's ban on hadith
• Qur'an and Sunnah
• Sola scriptura
• Karaism

References

Further reading

• Aisha Y. Musa, Hadith as Scripture: Discussions on the Authority of Prophetic Traditions in Islam, New York: Palgrave, 2008. ISBN 0-230-60535-4.
• Ali Usman Qasmi, Questioning the Authority of the Past: The Ahl al-Qur'an Movements in the Punjab, Oxford University Press, 2012. ISBN 0-195-47348-5.
• Daniel Brown, Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought, Cambridge University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-521-65394-0.

External links

• Lecture on Issues with Quran Only Approach by Dr. Khalid Zaheer
• 19.org
• (English) International Quranic Center
• Quranic.org
• Quran-Islam.org
• Quran's Message.com
• Quranix.net, a website featuring various English translations of the Quran.
• The Message of Islam / For People Who Think
• Tolu-e-Islam
• free-minds.org, popular Quranist website with a forum of sizable membership.
• How Can We Observe The Salaat Prayers By Following The Quran Alone?
• Islamic-research.org, popular Quranist / Quran-alone website sharing Quran information and articles.
• quran-alone.com, Quranist web directory sharing study tools and translations.
• a research "Mind manipulation against the religion of God