Re: The Fallacies of Anti Hadith Arguments
I believe that we should come to the point for which this thread was created. Those people who reject completely hadith are definitely wrong. Academic scholars have put a lot of suspicion in hadith literature as now there are many fallacies coming from modern research methodologies e.g. Ibn Hisham wrote first sirat book (Sirat rasool ul llah), he didn't mention any dates, it is easy to forge the chain narration of people especially when collecting information of some event atleast a century or two before etc. But academic scholarship doesn't disregard all of them. It still has some truth. But how to know that it is truth or not. The simple and basic criteria is to see that whether it goes along Qur'an and Sunnah or not. Qur'an is much more authentic source of prophet Muhammad life and its transmission came to us through generation to generation without any flaw. Sunnah is present in the practice of Ummah and came to us through generation to generation without any flaw. If some practice is not Matawatur (continuous), its authenticity can be challenged. A narrative of the words, deeds or tacit approvals of the Prophet (sws) called Hadith and the knowledge gained from them can never be regarded as absolutely certain. Hence, a Hadith does not add anything to the content of Islam stated in the Qur’an and Sunnah. Ahadith (plural of Hadith) only explain and elucidate what is contained in these two sources and also describe the exemplary way in which the Prophet (sws) followed Islam. This only is the sphere of Hadith which falls within the ambit of Islam. Outside this sphere, there exists no narrative which can be called or accepted as Hadith.
The list of Sunnah which Javed Ahmad Ghamidi has developed based on this principle are:
Worship Rituals
i. The Prayer
ii. Zakah and Sadqah of ‘Id al-Fitr
iii. Fasting and ‘Itikaf
iv. Hajj and ‘Umrah
v. Animal Sacrifice and the takbirs during the days of tashriq1
Social Sphere
i. Marriage and Divorce and their relevant details
ii. Abstention from coitus during the menstrual and the puerperal period
Dietary Sphere
i. Prohibition of pork, blood, meat of dead animals and animals slaughtered in the name of someone other than Allah
ii. Slaughtering in the prescribed manner of tadhkiyah by taking Allah’s name
Customs and Etiquette
i. Remembering Allah’s name before eating or drinking and using the right hand for eating and drinking
ii. Greeting one another with assalamu ‘alaykum (peace be to you) and responding with wa ‘alaykum al-salam (and peace be to you)
iii. Saying alhamdu lilah (praise be to Allah) after sneezing and responding to it by saying yarhamu kallah (may Allah have mercy on you)
iv. Saying adhan in the right ear of a new born baby and saying ‘iqamah in its left ear
v. Keeping moustaches trimmed
vi. Shaving pubic hair
vii. Shaving the hairs under the armpits
ix. Circumcising the male offspring
x. Cleaning the nose, the mouth and the teeth
xi. Cleaning the body after excretion
xii. Bathing after the menstrual and the puerperal period
xiii. Ghusl-i Janabah2
xiv. Bathing the dead before burial
xv. Enshrouding a dead body and preparing it for burial
xvi. Burying the dead
xvii. ‘Id al-Fitr
xviii. ‘Id al-Adha
For more information, please see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizan