The Matter of Hadith Rejecters

The Prophet ﷺ predicted hadith rejection

Narrated Al-Miqdam ibn Ma'dikarib (r.a) that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Beware! I have been given the Quran and something like it (i.e. Sunnah & Hadith), yet the time is coming when a man replete on his couch will say: Keep to the Qur'an; what you find in it to be permissible treat as permissible, and what you find in it to be prohibited treat as prohibited.” [1]

The prophetic hadith predicts the appearance of such persons among the Muslims who will openly reject the hadith and challenge them while sowing doubts in the hearts of others of their soundness. Such people have come to appear in our times who proudly refer to themselves as "Ahle Quran" i.e. the people of the Quran, a misleading term because they are not identified by affirming the Quran but by the rejection of hadith. If they were truly affirming the Quran then there is no dearth of ayahs in the Quran that explicitly say to "follow the Prophet" or "obey him" or "take whatever he gives’"etc. Therefore the correct term for them would be Munkareen e Hadith i.e. those who reject hadith or Hadith Rejecters.

Please note that these Hadith Rejecters are not one type, they are 3 main types. The flagship of misguided groups is that they are prone to further divisions. Khalid Baig, an Islamic writer from South Africa has divided them in to 3 Groups and explains each:

The first group holds that the job of the Prophet ﷺ was only to deliver the Quran. We are to follow only the Quran and nothing else, as were the Prophet's companions. Further, Hadith is not needed to understand the Quran, which is sufficient for providing guidance.
The second group holds that the Companions were required to follow the Prophet ﷺ but we are not as we're not the companions.
The third group holds that, in theory, we also have to follow Hadith but we did not receive Hadith through authentic sources and therefore we have to reject all Hadith collections.

First Group

How can this group hold the first position yet profess belief in the Quran while it clearly says: "And We have sent down unto You the Message so that you may explain clearly to mankind what was sent down to them, and so that they may give thought."[2] "Allah did confer a great favour on the Believers when He sent among them a Messenger from among themselves, who rehearses unto them the Signs of Allah, purifies them, instructs them in Scripture, and teaches them Wisdom, whereas previously they had been in plain error."[3] Verses like these clearly mentions words like "explain clearly", "instructing them in scripture" which anyone with common sense would agree as to be Prophets words and actions.

Second Group

How can anyone hold the second group's position, limiting the Prophethood to 23 years, yet profess belief in the Quran, while it says: "We did not send you except as Mercy for entire universe."[4] "And We have not sent you (O Mohammad) except as a giver of good news and a warner to all mankind."[5] These 2 Verses mention that Prophet ﷺ was sent to all generations i.e. for the past, present and future generations, so if he was alive and explaining the early generation to whom he was sent then naturally for the upcoming generations would be his hadith or words as he himself would not be present, simple.

Third Group

The Third group's position is that since they didn't receive the hadith then how can they follow it? This obviously is contradicting because the people who collected the Quran are the same people who collected hadith, hadith has come to us through the same channel as Quran i.e. Companions of the Prophet. Since Allah ﷻ has promised to protect the Quran (Al Quran 15:09) then if the same Allah orders us to 'Obey the Prophet' in the Quran, don't you think He would preserve sources of Prophetic words? After all who inspired the early Muslims to compile the Prophet’s words and actions in a systematic way through a branch of knowledge that we know today as science of hadith (ilm al hadith). This effort of their’s is unparalleled as compared to achievements of all other non-Muslim nations and their scholars. No doubt they could not have succeeded in it had it not been Allah’s will. It should be common sense for a Muslim believer.

How did Hadith Rejecters appear?

The hadith rejection concept was alien to the Muslims till about 150 years ago when Muslims were colonized. This was the first time that the majority of Muslim world came under domination of such powers that were secular in their approach towards everything, even education. When their way of life came to dominate the Muslim world amid the weakening of the Ottoman Empire then the new Muslim generation influenced by the way of life of the West was inspired to believe that the only way to have success in this world materially is by abandoning the traditional Islamic knowledge of their ancestors as the Western people have done of their’s after Renaissance. Hadith knowledge was seen as an obstacle by some modern Muslim thinkers inspired by secular philosophies. This led towards them promoting this theory that Muslims do not need hadith if they choose to be "developed". The efforts to reinterpret the Islamic texts led towards birth of many confusions among Muslims which are still observable. Hadith rejection is one of such confusions of which the Prophet ﷺ warned us more than 14 centuries ago.

References:

[1] Sunan Abi Dawud 4604 - www.Sunnah.com

[2] Al Quran 16:44

[3] Al Quran 3:164

[4] Al Quran 21:107

[5] Al Quran 34:28

[Courtesy of Zaid Shah | Rizqan Kareem | Most Excellent Sustenance]