Friday, June 25, 2010

Zaidis judge ahadith by the Qur'an, not the other way around

According to a Zaidi brother/scholar from Arabia, the Zaidi scholars only accept ahadith (i.e. reported sayings of the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w.) which are compatible with the Holy Qur'an. He writes:

"Regarding the ahadith (reported sayings) of the prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) their authenticity is to be judged by comparing them with the principals laid down in the Holy Qur’an, and any reported sayings of the Prophet which contradict with the Qur’an in any way are invalid." (Brother Owais).

In this regard, there is agreement between the Zaidis and the 12 Imamers, according to the following quote from their book "Tathkira bi Usool al Fiqh":
“And the intellects permit that the Book may be abrogated by the Book, and the Sunna by the Sunna, and the Sunna by the Book, however the tradition has brought that Allah ta`ala does not abrogate His speech by (anything) other than His speech with His saying "What we abrogate of a verse or cause to be forgotten We bring a better than it or its like". (2:106) So we know that the Book is not abrogated by the Sunna, and we permit what is other than that of what we have mentioned.”
This may sound obvious to anyone with reason, however Sunni math-habs try to reconcile the Qur'an with their ahadith (refusing to accept that any of their ahadith could be erroneous), instead of reconciling the ahadith with the message of the Qur'an.
To read more, click on comments....

7 comments:

  1. To give an example, there is a reported hadith (saying) of the Prophet that “Allah comes down (yanzilu) in the third part of the night” which is found in Sunni ahadith collections.
    This hadith is rejected by Zaidis and 12 Imamers because it does not say anywhere in the Qur’an that Allah descends, and the concept of Allah descending goes against the names Allah gives to Himself in the Qur’an such as “Assamad”, which means limitless in time and space, infinite, everlasting.
    However, the Sunnis are unable to reject this hadith because it comes to them from Abu Hurairah, one of their most honoured hadith transmitters, and if they were to reject one of his reports, that would bring into question all of his other reports, and he has narrated more ahadith than any other individual in their famous ahadith collections.
    So instead of rejecting the hadith, they have tried to interpret certain verses of the Qur’an in a way that reconciles the Qur’an with their hadith, pointing to verses saying that Allah is “Most High” for example, to reason that if Allah is “High” that proves he can “come down”. The Hanbali creed, inspired by Abu Hurairah’s narrative, even goes so far as to say that “Allah is separate to and above His creation”.
    To any person with reason, (i.e. a mu’tazilah) Allah being “Most High” refers to him being far above anything that mere humans could ever imagine or attain to. Elevating the ahadith, which are basically reports/recollections by mere mortals, to a position of more importance than the Holy Quran, revealed by Allah himself, may seem illogical to anyone with reason, but not to sunnis, because the decision (to let the ahadith take precedence) was made for them centuries ago by their revered scholars. To admit that their scholars were in error would be to admit the unthinkable; that the Zaidi and Shi-ite scholars might be right.
    Even when it is pointed out to them that Abu Hurairah only met the prophet shortly before his death, (around the time of Khaybar), and that he became a paid employee of the ruthless anti- Hashemite leaders after the prophet’s death (as Governer of Medinah), they still prefer his narrations over those of the Prophet’s descendants. These barely rate a mention in the sunni ahadith collections, due to the anti- Hashemite political climate at the time they were published. The Zaidis have Musnad Zaid, which provides Muslims with ahadith from an impeccable chain of narrators from the prophet’s family. When it has been translated to English, converts will finally have access to a collection of ahadith that sits comfortably with the Holy Qur’an, in sha Allah.

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  2. Bismillah taala, as salamu alaikum from chile, i am too a muslim convert of madhhab zaydi; We are a group of brothers in Latin America interested in knowing about the madhhab Zaydi we need to contact an institution or sheikh Zaydi, my mail is mustafachile@gmail.com. We have material translated into Spanish (exemple: Tajreed-tahaara (ritual del salat) - ( An Abridgement of the School of the Two Imams:The Star of the Messenger’s Family, al-Qasim bin Ibrahim andThe
    Guide to Truth, Yahya bin al-Hussein (Book of Ritual Purity and Book of Prayer) By Imam al-Muayyad Billah, Ahmed bin al-Hussein bin Harun .) and we are working on more translations, and a web site (wwww.zaydiyyah.com.ar and www.zaydi.org in construction). And A brother has a blog with Spanish translations of fiqh Zaydi http://zaidiyya.wordpress.com/

    We need to have a wise guide to proceed with the work of Spanish-language broadcast Zaydi school, insha.Allah taala you can help us

    Mustafa Ali
    mustafachile@gmail.com
    info@islamenchile.com
    info@al-dawa.org

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  3. mashallah brother Un Viaje espiritual
    this blesses blog keep surprising me ...!! u really is a miracle ...!! how Zadi in Yemen get war over all sides thinking that they will be disappeared .. brothers and sisters from Australia,USA and Chile saying that: Their intention is to extinguish Allah's Light (by blowing) with their mouths: but Allah will complete (the revelation of) His Light, even though the Unbelievers may detest (it)
    may allah save u Un Viaje espiritual

    and i think i can help u brother as much as i can
    awsmakka@hotmail.com

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  4. Salaam Mustafa from Chile, thanks so much for making contact. The blog at zaidiyya.wordpress is fantastic, maa sha Allah! Please keep in touch about your website, www.zaydi.org ,when will it be ready?
    If you want to have an English section I would be happy to help out!

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  5. As-Samad actually means (The Self-Sufficient Master, Whom all creatures need, He neither eats nor drinks). He is the One to Whom all of creation turns for all of their needs, for He is in and of Himself absolutely perfect, in His Names and Attributes and Deeds.

    you question and reject outright Allah's ability to descend as befitting His Majesty. but do you not realize Allah also mentions in the Quran:

    “Indeed, your Lord is Allaah, Who created the heavens and the earth in Six Days, and then He rose over (Istawaa) the Throne (really in a manner that suits His Majesty).
    [al-A’raaf 7:54]

    “The Most Gracious (Allaah) rose over (Istawaa) the (Mighty) Throne (in a manner that suits His Majesty).
    [Ta-Ha 20:5]

    we need to be careful in trying to use our limited knowledge and understanding to reject authentic hadeeth and understand that not everything is within our ability to comprehend completely, rather once proven authentic we hear and believe. did the sahaabah question or reject the many sciences of the Quran that is only just become common knowledge in our times? we accept the Quran without question. know that the authentic Sunnah has the same source and chain of narration.

    this is how it is explained by the late Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen:

    Rising over (istiwaa’) and descending are two of the practical attributes which have to do with the will of Allaah. Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jamaa’ah believe in that, but in this belief they avoid likening Allaah to any of His creation or discussing how He is. It cannot occur to them that Allaah’s descending is like the descending of any of His creatures or that His rising over the Throne is like the rising over of any of His creatures, because they believe that there is nothing like unto Allaah and He is the All-Hearer, All-Seer. They know on rational grounds that there is a great difference between the Creator and His creatures, in their essence, attributes and actions. It cannot occur to them to ask how He descends, or how He rose over His Throne. The point is that they do not ask how His attributes are; they believe that there is a ‘how’, but it is unknown, so we can never imagine how it is.

    We know for certain that what is narrated in the Book of Allaah or the Sunnah of His Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) is true and is not self-contradictory, because Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):

    “Do they not then consider the Qur’aan carefully? Had it been from other than Allaah, they would surely, have found therein many a contradiction”

    [al-Nisaa’ 4:82]

    because contradictions in the reports would mean that some of them were showing others to be false, and this is impossible in the case of that which Allaah and His Messenger tell us.

    Whoever imagines that there are any contradictions in the Book of Allaah or the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), or between the two, it is either because of his lack of knowledge or because he has failed to understand properly or to ponder the matter correctly, so let him seek further knowledge and strive to think harder until the truth becomes clear to him. Then if the matter is still not clear to him, let him leave it to the One Who is All-Knowing and let him put a stop to his illusions and say, as those who are firmly grounded in knowledge say, “We believe in it; the whole of it (clear and unclear Verses) are from our Lord” [Aal ‘Imraan 3:7 – interpretation of the meaning]. Let him know that there is no contradiction in the Qur’aan and Sunnah and no conflict between them. And Allaah knows best.

    See Fataawa Ibn ‘Uthaymeen, 3/237-238

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  6. In Yusuf Ali's translation of Qur'an "istawaa" is translated as "established" on the Throne, not "rose over" the Throne", (and Yusuf Ali adds in his footnote "arsh is of course, metaphorical, symbolizing authority and power"). I guess you are using a Salafi Qur'an, if so I suggest you purchase a translation which does justice to the words of Allah...
    In his book, Ihyaau Uluum addeen, Imam al Ghazali said: "...places do not contain Him, nor do the directions, earth or heavens. He is attributed with "istawaa" over al "arsh" in the Qur'an,... it is an istawaa that is clear of moving and containment..."

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  7. Salaamun aleikum.

    The best metaphorical rendering of "arr’Rah’maa’nu a’lal ar’shis ta’waa" I have seen thus far is:

    "The Rahmaan has established the reign of mercy, the new world order of mercy for all."

    See

    http://munir123.wordpress.com/2010/06/24/the-throne-of-allah/

    Fi amaan illah

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