The Authority of Hadith in Transactions, Beliefs, Manners, and Other Chapters of the Religion

The Shaykh : If the questioner has actually expressed the doubt well, then I am speaking within the limits of what I have read and heard. Since the questioner says that they doubt some of the hadiths, he has placed the hadiths, even if only by reporting what others say, into two categories: a category whose authenticity they doubt, and a category whose authenticity they do not doubt. What is it that makes them not doubt the first category, and what is it that leads them to doubt the second? If what leads them to not doubt the first category is the science of hadith, with its principles and its critique and vindication of narrators, then we will then refer to this science regarding the second category in which they have doubt. But if they believed in the authenticity of the first category arbitrarily, without relying on a science that has weight, status, and a long, extensive service, then there is no difference for us between their belief in the authenticity of these hadiths that they authenticated by their desires, not by the science of hadith, and those hadiths that they rejected, because they also rejected them by following their desires. So this group either believes with us in the absolute authority of hadith, as you heard in the lecture, in rulings and beliefs, or they join one of the first two groups: the Quranists, who claim to explicitly deny hadith absolutely and that the religion, Islam, is only the Quran, or they join the second group, which is the sister of the first, the Qadiyyah, with the verbal and political difference that this group resorts to, unlike the first, as you heard. They say, "We take the Book and the Sunnah," and the criterion for knowing the correct from the defective in the Sunnah is what agrees with the Book; that is correct, and what does not agree with it is not correct. Thus, they have demolished the science of hadith from beginning to end. I want to remind you here, on this occasion, of a very important matter. There are matters related to the Shari'ah and to the life of the Messenger and the life of the Companions, indeed the life of every nation, that fall into a category that can be said to be neither in agreement with the Book nor in contradiction with the Book. What is the way to know this category, whether it exists or not? The Quran did not address it, neither negatively nor positively, neither by negation nor affirmation. For example, a very simple example: The Messenger of Allah lived for sixty-three years. Is this hadith in agreement with the Quran? Say with me "agreement." You know that the meaning should be present in the Quran. It is not said of such a hadith that it is in agreement with the Quran, nor is it said that it is in contradiction with the Quran, as I mentioned earlier, that the Quran did not address this detail at all. And so on, dozens of hadiths, indeed hundreds and thousands of hadiths, related to the core of the Shari'ah in beliefs and rulings, of which it cannot be said that they agree with the Quran or that they contradict the Quran. Therefore, the Muslim who is well-versed in the Book and the authentic Sunnah finds himself compelled to believe that there is something other than the Quran. And some of the verses you heard in the lecture and the hadiths are sufficient, so that we do not return to repetition. So what is the way to know this other thing that every researcher feels? I mean, where do we take the biography of the Messenger (peace be upon him) from? Where are the details of the expeditions and missions and the like taken from? The Quran first did not address except some of the expeditions, and when it did address them, it did so with much brevity. And in the expeditions, many rulings were legislated regarding voluntary offerings, war spoils, and the like. Where are all these matters known from, and it is from the way of the Sunnah? What is the way to know this Sunnah? We have no way, by the consensus of the Muslims, except the way of the scholars of hadith. At that time, we say to this questioner: We ask every doubter about any hadith, what led you to doubt? If the doubt stems from his lack of faith in hadith in the first place, you have heard the response to him with what has no response. And if the doubt of every person in any hadith stems from his ignorance of the science of hadith, the answer is like jurisprudence completely: . And if the doubt occurs because he did not digest the meaning contained in the hadith, due to his culture, due to his ignorance, due to, due to, and so on, of other matters like emotions, environment, and their effects, and the like, then at that time we say to every question, there is an answer. That is, every hadith that any person doubts, we are ready, by the grace of Allah, to research with him until we eliminate his problem. And in many cases, the hadith is of the kind that is said in the language of the common people, "This dead person does not deserve this condolence," meaning it is a weak or fabricated hadith. Then at that time we relieve him and we relieve ourselves with him. But in many cases, the hadith is authentic, but this authentic hadith must also be understood with a correct understanding, just like the Quranic text completely. And here is a question I want to answer on my way, meaning in answering this first question. Another question is that the questioner asks that in some hadiths in which the scholars differed, or that people did not encompass, we answer that the Quran, although it is preserved in terms of narration between the two covers, sometimes there is a difference in understanding some of the texts. So the correct understanding, we are certain, exists in this nation. This correct understanding is not lost, but it is not present with every person, even scholars, let alone others. The correct understanding of a verse in which people differed is necessarily present in a group of this nation, and it is not necessary that it be preserved and known by every individual of this nation in every past or future time. So it is the same with the hadiths. The hadiths spoken by the Messenger (may Allah's prayers and blessings be upon him) are also preserved by the nation, but not by every individual of the nation.