It Takes More Courage to Repent than to Keep on Sinning

Developing Just Leadership

Abu Dharr

Rabi' al-Thani 16, 1442 2020-12-01

Opinion

by Abu Dharr (Opinion, Crescent International Vol. 49, No. 10, Rabi' al-Thani, 1442)

Every Muslim, whether highly educated or semi-educated, knows that the Prophet of Allah was a “Qur’an-in-the-flesh”. He explained and clarified the meanings of the Qur’an by what he said and what he did. What he did is on the record. He was persecuted in Makkah. He sent a companionship of devout Muslims to Africa to flee the persecution and discrimination of the Makkan mushriks. He himself fled Makkah to al-Ta’if hoping to find a support base there but that did not materialize. He was taken on a night sojourn from Makkah to al-Quds, and from there to a place where time and space terminate and the majesty and glory of Allah (SWT) inaugurate.

He met with a team of dedicated supporters from Yathrib, he attended the military struggles at Badr, Uhud, al-Ahzab, etc. He organized, accomplished and solved many other social and interactive feats that have become landmarks and benchmarks to all Muslims regardless of their school of thought or version of history. All these unquestionable developments are generally summed up in what is referred to as his Seerah (accomplished Prophetic profile).

What he said and what he is reported to have said is the issue at hand though. We do know that what our praiseworthy Prophet (pbuh) said was not recorded along with the revealed ayats of the Qur’an simultaneously. No one knows of any hadith scribes along with the Qur’an scribes simply because there were no hadith scribes. There are some hadiths that state in plain language the prohibition of transcribing the Prophet’s hadiths alongside the recording of the Quran. One of them is:

Ahmad, Muslim, al-Darami (the sheikh of al-Bukhari), al-Tirmidhi, and al-Nisa’i narrated on the authority of Abu Sa‘id al-Khudri the following quote from the Prophet (pbuh):

لا تكتبوا عني شيئا سوى القرآن فمن كتب عني غير القرآن فليمحه

“Don’t write down any of what I say except for the Qur’an and if anyone has written anything, he should erase it except if it be [ayats of] the Quran.”

Al-Darami’s version of this hadith is:

استأذنوا النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم في أن يكتبوا عنه فلم يأذن لهم

“They [al-Sahabah] asked the Prophet’s permission to record what he says and he did not give them permission to do so.”

Another narration by al-Tirmidhi by way of ‘Ata’ ibn Yasar on the authority of Abu Sa‘id who said:

استأذنا النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم في الكتابة فلم يأذن

“We asked the Prophet (pbuh) for permission to write [what he says besides the revealed ayats] but he did not give us permission [to do so].”

There are other injunctions and vetoes by the successors to Allah’s Prophet (pbuh). For those who are interested here are some references:

تذكرة الحفاظ للذهبي---- طبقات ابن سعد ---- تقييد العلم للبغدادي ---- مجلة المنار المجلد العاشر فصل كتبه المرحوم السيد رشيد رضا [Tadhkirat al-Huffaz by al-Dhahabi; Tabaqat Ibn Sa‘d; Taqyid al-‘Ilm, by al-Baghdadi; Mujallat al-Manar, Vol. 10, a chapter written by al-Sayyid Rashid Reda.]

So far so good. But wait; there has to be some intervening spoiler. There is. And here it is: there is a “hadith” that goes like this:

"ألا واني أوتيت الكتاب ومثله معه" وفي رواية أخرى "ألا واني أوتيت القرآن ومثله معه"

“I [meaning the Prophet (pbuh)] have been granted the Scripture [the Qur’an] and its equivalent along with it.”

This “hadith” is narrated by Abu Dawud, al-Darami, and Ibn Majah. It was not narrated by al-Bukhari or Muslim.

The perplexing aspect of this “hadith” is that if the Prophet (pbuh) was afforded an equivalent to the Qur’an by Allah (SWT) then why didn’t he order the scribes to write down that equivalent or counterpart to the Qur’an during his life when he ordered them to write down the Qur’an itself while he was still alive? Why didn’t he assign scribes to write down that other comparable amount of [privileged] knowledge?

This “hadith” contradicts the other hadith above where the Prophet (pbuh) says that nothing else besides the Qur’an should be transcribed and recorded. If the Prophet (pbuh) did say that he was given [from Allah] something equal to the Qur’an then why did he not say to the people: and do not write down the comparable and equivalent knowledge I have been given?

Doesn’t the ayat in surat al-Ma’idah say: اليوم أكملت لكم دينكم وأتممت عليكم نعمتي ورضيت لكم الاسلام دينا

Today I [Allah] have perfected for you your deen, and completed My blessings upon you and approved Islam as your deen. (al-Ma’idah: 3)

This “equivalency hadith” runs contrary to the Qur’an and contrary to other hadiths. And this is the type of hadith that has to be filtered out because it suggests that the Prophet (pbuh) did not fulfill his prophetic mission by disregarding what amounts to a twin body of knowledge from being documented and recorded! How can this “equivalency hadith” be matched with another hadith from the Prophet (pbuh) that says:

اني والله ما تمسكوا علي بشئ: اني لم أحل الا ما أحل القرآن ولم أحرم الا ما حرم القرآن" سيرة ابن هشام ”

“Indeed, by Allah, you have nothing against me as I certainly did not allow anything except that the Qur’an allowed it, and certainly did not disallow except what the Qur’an disallowed.” [Seerat Ibn Hisham]

All of this is a slap in the face of those who wittingly or unwittingly centralize the hadith and marginalize the Qur’an. Let us hold them up to their own standards if they care to take notice. Have they not listened to Abu Bakr who said:

بيننا وبينكم كتاب الله فاستحلوا حلاله وحرموا حرامه

“Between us and you is the Book of Allah; therefore, approve what it says is halal and reject what it says is haram.”

When our most illustrious Prophet (pbuh) was in the final moments of life and requested to have someone write down a message from him [to his ummah], ‘Umar responded: حسبنا كتاب الله [Allah’s Book suffices us]. At that moment in time when all the beloved of the Prophet (pbuh) were there why didn’t anyone object and say that the Prophet (pbuh) has what amounts to a complement to the Qur’an which has to be well-kept and safeguarded?!

After the battle of Yamamah and other battles when many companions of the Prophet (pbuh) were passing on to their Sustainer, ‘Umar goes to Abu Bakr and urges him to begin the process of collecting and logging the ayats of the Qur’an. Why haven’t we heard anyone say that the Muslims have lost “an equivalent” to the Qur’an and it has become a matter of earnestness and urgency to preserve the Qur’an only and not the Prophet’s excerpts?

When Umm al-Mu’mineen ‘A’ishah described the Prophet (pbuh) she said: “His moral behavior was the Qur’an.” She did not add that he had another equivalency to the Qur’an with him.

Where is everyone else: where are those who are honored by the Qur’an that gave them the title of “al-Muhajiroon” and “al-Ansar”, and those who attended the battles and wars, and those who pledged their allegiance to the Prophet (pbuh), and the Prophet’s family members, where were all these? Why didn’t they object and say that Islam is a tank half full and half empty: full with the Qur’an and empty with the absence of the Qur’an’s “equivalency”?

We will continue, with Allah’s help, to protect our memorable and moving Prophet (pbuh) by cleansing his exemplary character from the untrue “hadiths” related to him and from the misleading meanings attached to such “hadiths”. It is interesting to note that many of the hadith high priests who virtually “drag” the ayats of the Qur’an as secondary to the untruthful “hadiths” are the ones who legitimized the despicable behavior of brutes and beasts who are/were running amok in many Muslim countries from the sub-continent to the sub-Sahara. They decapitate, chew the organs of and deflower anyone who they deem as “kafir” relying on the precise “hadiths” that we are trying to take the wraps off and bring to light.

Many of these “poor souls” have been duped by the hadith-centric clergymen in the Arabian Peninsula, who themselves have been deceived by the regimes of the Arabian Peninsula, who themselves have been controlled by the Zionist/imperialist nexus. The fake “mujahideen”, the fake “‘ulama”, and the fake “Islamic emirates” drew on fake “hadiths” and produced for us the catastrophes that are still playing out for all to see and think through lest we enter into future years with more of the same atrocities while the Zionist and imperialist strategists are laughing at our inability to weed out ancient Isra’iliyat from our books of hadith and exclude contemporary “ulama” from parroting fake hadiths.

Say: [O Muhammad]: “What is there that is a most significant testimony?” Say: “Allah is witness between me and you; and this Qur’an has been revealed to me so that on the strength thereof I might warn you and all whom it may reach.” (Surat al-An‘am, ayat 19)