Are Hadith Necessary? An Examination of the Authority of Hadith in Islam
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ
Introduction
The Qur’ān and the Sunnah have served as the primary sources of Islam. Together with the Qurʾān, the statements and actions of the Prophet ﷺ form the basis of Islamic law and theology. Historically, all Islamic sects have acknowledged the necessity of at least some ḥadīths, even if few, to understand the Qur’ān. Despite their many theological and legal differences, Muslim sects have all drawn from these two primary sources: the Qurʾān, which is considered to be the direct word of God revealed to the Prophet ﷺ, and the Sunnah, which consists of the words and actions of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ inspired by God. In other words, the ḥadīth are reports about what the Prophet ﷺ said and did. Muslim jurists and ḥadīth scholars use these reports (i.e., ḥadīth) to understand the teachings of the Prophet ﷺ, which are called the Sunnah. Each ḥadīth is a piece of data about the Prophet ﷺ; when collected, these data points paint a larger picture which is the Sunnah.
Watch Why do we need hadith? with Dr Jonathan Brown
All Muslim groups consider the Qurʾān to be the most authentic and authoritative source, followed by the Sunnah. Because the Sunnah is needed in order to contextualize the Qur’ān, all Muslim groups have accepted the necessity of following at least some ḥadīth alongside the Qurʾān. This view has been held by all known Muslim groups, including all strands of both Sunnism and Shi’ism. This is important because the theory of consensus (ijmāʿ) holds that it is inconceivable for the entire Muslim community to agree upon falsehood. Whenever all living jurists agreed on a particular formulation of Islamic law, this consensus raised the formulation to an infallible representation of divine will. The possibility of error concerning formulations of law only existed when jurists disagreed. When they agreed on an issue, the fallibility of individual jurists was erased through the supervening principle of the infallibility of consensus. Consensus set boundaries on disagreement in the formulation of the law, and the authority of the Sunnah was outside of those boundaries.
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Because dissent is the norm in matters of Islamic law, it makes any consensus all the more credible and binding when it occurs. In other words, the unanimity of opinion (ijmāʿ)—in a religion that has countenanced in its history a vast array of differences—is considered one of the strongest proofs for the formulation of law or creed. Ḥadīth, therefore, form a necessary component of the religion (al-maʿlūm min al-dīn bi ḍarūra).
It was not until the nineteenth century that a movement emerged that rejected the entire corpus of ḥadīth and the authority of the Prophet ﷺ. This rejection of the entire ḥadīth corpus stems from a mistrust in the historical preservation of ḥadīth when compared to the Qur’ān or the fact that many ḥadīth clash with modern sensibilities. In an attempt to bypass any fabrications and ḥadīth that might contain discomfiting material, some have attempted to understand the Qur’ān on its own, without ḥadīth.
The necessity of hadīth
What does it mean to follow only the Qur’ān? Can the Qur’ān be understood entirely on its own without relying on any other sources? One of the primary problems of attempting to follow only the Qur’ān is that without any assistance or background from the Sunnah, the Qur’ān loses its meaning. Many of the Qur’ānic injunctions concerning prayer, pilgrimage, and commercial transactions require clarification. The Prophet ﷺ expounded on these injunctions verbally and demonstrated them in practice. These explanations had the force of law and Muslims understood them to be another form of revelation, which they called the Sunnah. Thus, the Sunnah as a concept came into existence simultaneously with the revelation of the Qur’ān and was part of the process of the creation of an Islamic system of jurisprudence.
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The rituals of Islam are prominent examples that demonstrate the challenges that ensue when trying to understand the Qurʾān without the Sunnah. Hadith rejecters have arrived at many different conclusions concerning Islamic law and rituals. What does ṣalāh mean? How often does one perform it, what does one say in it, and how many units does it contain? Muslims also differ over the details of prayer, but the fundamentals of prayer such as the number of prayers per day, the physical format, and certain core elements are agreed upon. Ḥadīth rejecters differ significantly with each other on fundamental aspects of the prayer, how it is performed, and the number of prayers each day. They argue that all the details are found in the Qurʾān, but in fact must resort to ḥadīth to understand these rituals in the Qurʾān.
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The rituals are but one example; even the meanings of particular words in the Qur’ān require the Sunnah to be understood. For example, some ḥadīth rejecters such as Edip Yuksel have attempted to translate and understand the Qurʾān using only the Qurʾān.
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However, they still rely on extra-Qur’ānic material and ḥadīth tradition because they consult Arabic dictionaries. The earliest Arabic dictionary, Kitāb al-ʿAyn was written by al-Khalīl b. Aḥmad (d. 175/795). This dictionary and others like it were passed down by the same scholars who preserved ḥadīth.
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How do we know the authenticity of this dictionary? It has been ultimately passed down through the same generations that passed down ḥadīth. If scholars gathered en masse to fabricate sayings about the Prophet ﷺ, then everything in Islamic history, including Arabic dictionaries and the Qurʾān, must be similarly suspect to be false and fabricated.
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The idea that one can use only the Qur’ān to understand and translate the Qur’ān does not work without resorting to extra-Qur’ānic texts. For instance, the word ẓihār is found in chapter 58 verses 2-4. Ḥadīth literature defines ẓihār as a husband’s saying to his wife, “You are like the back of my mother to me,” which was a statement of irrevocable divorce. Yuksel translates ẓihār according to this traditional understanding. However, the verb ẓāhara does not appear anywhere else in the Qurʾān with this meaning; throughout the rest of the Qurʾān it means to aid or give help.
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Jonathan Brown states, “By the Reformist Translation’s stated methodology, the verse should be read, awkwardly if at all, ‘He did not make your wives to whom you granted aid from as your mothers.’”
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The Sunnah is therefore necessary in order to uphold the Qurʾān as a meaningful text.
Texts do not speak for themselves; readers always provide context and bring their assumptions to their understanding of texts. The Sunnah is meant to provide context to the Qur’ān to ensure it is interpreted within certain boundaries; without it, the Qur’ān would be decontextualized, vague, and meaningless. When one encounters any text, there is a process of interpretation that takes place, and this is no different for the Qur’ān.
Extra-Qur’ānic sources are necessary to understand the Qur’ān. If the Qur’ān is stripped of all context, it becomes a text that is full of vague meanings. For instance, the historical context of the Qur’ān is only found outside of the Qur’ān. The Qur’ān makes no mention of the time period in which it was revealed, it makes references to Badr, Uhud, and Hunayn, and the Prophet’s wives, expecting the reader to know what these are. The Qurʾān presupposes that the reader is aware of the context in which it was revealed. There are universal parts of the Qurʾān, such as the nature of God, that can be understood independently of the historical context in which it was revealed. However, there are other parts of the Qurʾān that are bound to the Prophet’s life and historical context. The Qurʾān speaks of Zayd, the companion of the Prophet ﷺ and it presupposes that the reader knows who Zayd is so that the legal implications of the Prophet’s marriage to Zayd’s ex-wife are understood. Without this history, we would not be able to understand the Qur’ān itself.
Early Muslims only knew what constituted the Qur’ān because they relied on the Prophet’s words. They only knew what the Qur’ān is because of his declaring it as such. When the Prophet ﷺ spoke, how did people around him distinguish between what parts of his speech were his own and which were Qur’ān? This could have only been distinguished by the Prophet’s indication that a particular verse was the speech of God and not his own. One must, therefore, depend on the declarations of the Prophet to know what the Qur’ān is. Otherwise, there is no way to differentiate between the Qur’ān and the Prophet’s words. This means his declaring something as part of the Qur’ān is authoritative and the declaration itself is extra-Qur’ānic. Without it, we would not know what the Qur’ān is.
When the Qur’ān states, “Surely We have revealed the dhikr and We will most surely be its guardian” (Qur’ān 15:9), it includes the Sunnah. Ibn Ḥazm notes that scholars are in agreement that all revelation is called dhikr. He argues that the preservation is not limited to the text of the Qur’ān, but it extends to its meaning as well. If the Prophet’s explanation is needed in order to understand the Qur’ān, then it is necessary that this explanation be preserved as well.
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Without ḥadīth, the Qur’ān would be a text without meaning, which would mean it was not preserved. For example, the verses that address intoxication give contradictory advice:
• The Qur’ān states that dates and grapes provide intoxicants and good provision (Qur’ān 16:67);
• Wine has some benefits, but its harm outweighs its benefits (Qur’ān 2:219);
• Muslims should not approach prayer while intoxicated (Qur’ān 4:43); and
• Muslims should completely abstain from wine. (Qur’ān 5:90-91).
Without the ḥadīth to provide context, how does the reader know which of these verses was revealed first? Were intoxicants prohibited at first and then gradually allowed except when one was praying or were they allowed at first and then gradually prohibited? The Sunnah provides the necessary context to these verses and others like them. Muslims differ over the interpretation of the Qur’ān, but the Sunnah provides a context that limits the boundaries of interpretation.
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