The Answers to the Questions to Ahl-e-Sunna
Sorry Mod. I must post these lest some one thinks that the answers are not there. You may close the thread anytime you like.
This relates to the questions asked at the following thread.
http://www.paklinks.com/gs/showthread.php?t=185216
**1. It is an established fact that all things are recognised by their name, even Allah (swt) first taught names to the father of Mankind Adam (as). Your sect also has names such as Sunni, Ahl’ ul Sunnah or Ahl’ul Sunnah wa al Jamaah. Direct us towards any such verse of the Qur’an wherein any of these names have been indicated. **
Plain answer: no. such names are not present in the Quran.
Educated discussions often follow a logical path and should be consistent throughout. We must examine what exactly the questioner is trying to achieve here. My first take is that the question is patently stupid, fraught with five fallacies that I can readily see.
a) A name is the most important attribute of any entity.
b) A name is valid only if it is explicitly mentioned in the Quran. implying that, since these names aren’t (apparently) present verbatim, they are invalid.
c) Conversely, if a name is mentioned in the Qur’ân it can be used absolutely, and is a hard evidence regardless of the context.
d) Implying therefore, that bearing such a name is a grave offence and implicitly claiming that the ‘name’ shi`ah is present in the Qur’ân.
e) The whole argument is based on the premise that we consider this ‘name’ to be our most important attribute.
I will rephrase the question along with its covert implications as i understand: “the names Sunni, Ahl as-Sunnah, Ahl as-Sunnah wa’l Jamâah are not present in the Qur’ân. The name shiah is present in the Qur’ân therefore, the shiah are on the correct path or using the name shiah is right; and using other names is not”
**The fallacies: **
a) indeed, names are important but they are not the most important attribute of any entity. This is common sense. Someone who is an expert in a skill is far superior to someone who just carries a title. Many a moron carries the title of senior technology consultant. Calling oneself pious doesn’t suffice.
b) On the other hand, not mentioning a name doesn’t decrease the value of a thing nor deny its existence. Nowhere in the Qur’ân has the name of Sayyidah Hawwa’a (our first mother) is mentioned; nowhere in the Qur’ân is the name Makkah mentioned; (to the best of my knowledge; there is Makkah in âl-`imrân 3:96, but it is NOT Makkah). so also the name of Sayyidunâ khiDr nor names of thousands of prophets.
c) Just looking in the book and adopting what suits one’s whims is quite easy. The Qâdiyani false prophet claimed that since his name had Ahmed, he was the promised messiah as mentioned in the Qur’ân:
min ba`adî ismuhû aHmad (as-Saff; 61:6) (the one to come after me whose name is Ahmad.)
d) and e) we use the title only to differentiate from the fractious and splinter groups that lay claim to the name ‘Muslim’ as in the time of SaHabah riDwânullâhi alayhim ajmayîn. It is important to note that the title is not absolute; it is a description of us. We are Muslims. Our name is Muslim but the description is that we are ‘Muslims who are on the path of the Prophet and his group’.
The matter of who is on the Prophet’s path SallAllâhu `alayhi wa sallam is an entirely different matter, which we will not discuss here. It is only names that we are talking about.
**2. If these titles cannot be located in the Qur’an could you produce this title from any hadith of the holy prophet (s)? Produce any such ‘mutawatir’ ‘marfuu’ or ‘saheeh’ narration from your books with a complete source (meaning the name of the book, version number, page number, edition etc) wherein the names Sunni, Ahl’ul Sunnah and Ahlul Sunnah wa al Jamaah have been mentioned by the holy prophet (saww) as a sect of Islam. **
As mentioned earlier, the whole fallacy that it is only the name which counts prompts this question. Where exactly are the titles ‘ayatollah’ mentioned in the Qur’ân and Hadîth? Or for that matter: **Ja’afari, Ithnâ-asharî, Imâmiyyah, Zaydiyyah, Ismayîlî… ** and so forth?
I know of ithna-`ashar (twelve) mentioned in the Qur’ân that is concerning Jewish tribes. So since context is of no consequence, can we proceed with this argument that: - Jews are enemies of Allah (as mentioned in the Qur’ân).
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Allâh subHânahu wa taâla has referred them by the words ithnâ-ashar (twelve)
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the shiah claim a name ithnâ ashar
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ergo, the shi`ah are the enemies of Allâh.
I know the fallacy in the argument but I am just giving back your own counterfeit coin.
The assumption, that we are a ‘sect’ of Islam (as in parted group), is of your own concoction. We never consider ourselves as a ‘sect’. The Islam we follow is the original, mainstream – followed and taught by the SaHâbah, the companions of the Prophet SallAllâhu alayhi wa sallam. Yes, to differentiate with the sects that sprouted later, we call ourselves Muslims, who follow the Sunnah and the Jamâah. If a group is walking along the path, those who move away from it are the splinter group.
In short, Sunni or Ahlus Sunnah.
**3. If these are not to be found in the hadeeth, then at least come up with an exact date, month and year of hijrah from the history of Islam when these names were adopted as your identity. **
An exact date, month and year of Hijrah’ is probably not possible for many cases. Even those who claim that their name is shi`ah cannot give ‘an exact date, month and year of Hijrah’ when their name was ‘adopted’.
If it was from an âyah, I ask them to produce ‘an exact date, month and year of hijrah’ when the âyah was revealed.
whoever is asking the question forgets that it was not a time where every single word was recorded – recorders with timestamp were not invented yet. moreover, words are added to the vocabulary, with time and with need.
Even though, the word Sâ`ah is mentioned in the Qur’ân, meaning ‘the hour’, no one meant it to be a wristwatch in those days. The word clock in the eighteenth century didn’t indicate a digital watch. If a ‘scientist-Islami’ (people obsessed with finding correlation with Islam and modern science) exclaims ‘hah, look! The wristwatch is mentioned in the Qur’ân 13 centuries ago’, one may pardon the smiles around.
In that context, sâ`ah or ‘the hour’ is a period, a notation of time. Clock in the industrial age meant a device that kept time, composed of gears and wheels to differentiate this with electronic clocks, a new term was invented: digital clock but the function of the device was the same - it is basically a timekeeper.
Hadîth as a science and a branch of knowledge, or fiqh or numerous other terms were adopted later when a need to identify them arose. Similarly, during the time of SaHâbah (raa), they were simply Muslims but as splinter groups arose, each claiming the name ‘Muslim’, a term was adopted to indicate the original group and that was Ahlu’s Sunnah.
I guess this must have happened sometime around the time of Imâm al-aaDHam Abû Hanifah raDiyAllâhu anhû or a little after him, since his book fiqh al-Akbar doesn’t use this term. Muslim scholars began to use these descriptions to distinguish the true followers from the fringe groups – the Mu`tazilah, the Khawârij, the Rawâfid, etc. the term Rafidî must have been in vogue much earlier as it is attributed to Imâm Zayd bin Ali or Ibrâhîm who named them the Râfidî (rawâfid) or the rejecters.
**4. What were you famously known as before adopting these names? **
We were, are and shall always have the name Muslim, Mu’min – ahl al-Haqq’. It is the name Allâh subHânahu wa taâla has given us but there are also sinister groups laying a claim to that name. Hence, we ‘describe’ ourselves as Muslims who follow the Sunnah of the Prophet SallAllâhu alayhi wa sallam and that of his Jamâ`ah.
**5. Why have you forsaken your previous title? **
Another ludicrous assumption see the answer above.
**6. Could you provide decisive evidence with regards to the meanings of Sunni, Ahl Sunnah and Ahl’ul Sunnah wal Jamaah? **
For the lexically and logically challenged, the answers have been given above but still I will dumb down:
Sunni is a contraction of Ahlu’s Sunnah just as Shia is of Shiatul Ali.
Ahlus Sunnah is a short form of Ahlus Sunnah wa’l Jamâ`ah
Ahlus Sunnah wa’l Jamâah means, the followers of the Sunnah of the Prophet SallAllâhu alayhi wa sallam and that of his group, his companions. raDiyAllâhu `anhûm.
If you have so much of aversion of contractions and abbreviations, why have you been using (SWT) in your questions? What does it mean? And so forth. One can keep on asking puerile questions.
**7. Which one is the most ancient of the three titles? **
Why this obsession with titles? See answer 6 above.
cont’d
