Juwayni
sunniport user
As Salamu 'Alaykum,
Kalam Research and Media recently put up a paper in which the author (Shoaib Ahmad Malik) quotes his teacher's alleged "expertise" to interpret a narration that he says was in Sahih al-Bukhari. What do we say about this type of reasoning? Quote:
2.3.1 Hermeneutics and Jurisprudence
The theological concerns that atheists have are problems of major proportions. As I have highlighted earlier, the central issue within the theological realm is a lack of familiarity with the principles of jurisprudence and hermeneutics. As noted by Abdullah Saeed, we are facing the problem of atomization wherein single verses are picked out of their collective thematic, linguistic, and historical background. If a physics textbook was interpreted similarly, then physics would become a distorted enterprise. More so than the Qur’an, the hadith literature poses a great challenge. The Qur’an has been determined, through the unanimous consensus of Islamic scholarly authority, to have the highest level of transmission (mutawatir), but only one to four hundred hadiths are agreed upon by consensus to be on the same level. The rest are divided between well-known hadiths (mashhur) and single narrations (ahad) which are discerned, filtered, and scrutinised through various and extensive methodologies of hadith verification. These methodologies are largely unknown to atheists and the general Muslim community. Atabek Shukurov, an expert Hanafi scholar, provides an interesting example in his book on the principles of hadith classification of how the failure to apply this methodology can lead to flawed interpretations:
Take the famous hadith of Ibn Umar which is narrated in Sahih al-Bukhari: “There is bad luck in three things: women, houses and transport”. The way this hadith has been narrated is very demeaning to women, as they are considered bad luck. It also encourages superstition which is an anathema to Islam. The Sahaba presented this hadith to Aisha who said “may God forgive Ibn Umar, he did not lie, but the Prophet [peace be upon him] was talking about the time of ignorance [before Islam] and the things people used to believe”. Therefore, the hadith expressed views that were diametrically opposed to the true Islamic position.
This is one of the simpler examples in which confusion can arise from within hadith literature; it also highlights how even one of the most authoritative texts after the Qur’an—Bukhari’s collection of hadith—is not immune to misunderstandings, and thus must be studied in extensive detail before what it contains can be properly interpreted.
Kalam Research and Media recently put up a paper in which the author (Shoaib Ahmad Malik) quotes his teacher's alleged "expertise" to interpret a narration that he says was in Sahih al-Bukhari. What do we say about this type of reasoning? Quote:
2.3.1 Hermeneutics and Jurisprudence
The theological concerns that atheists have are problems of major proportions. As I have highlighted earlier, the central issue within the theological realm is a lack of familiarity with the principles of jurisprudence and hermeneutics. As noted by Abdullah Saeed, we are facing the problem of atomization wherein single verses are picked out of their collective thematic, linguistic, and historical background. If a physics textbook was interpreted similarly, then physics would become a distorted enterprise. More so than the Qur’an, the hadith literature poses a great challenge. The Qur’an has been determined, through the unanimous consensus of Islamic scholarly authority, to have the highest level of transmission (mutawatir), but only one to four hundred hadiths are agreed upon by consensus to be on the same level. The rest are divided between well-known hadiths (mashhur) and single narrations (ahad) which are discerned, filtered, and scrutinised through various and extensive methodologies of hadith verification. These methodologies are largely unknown to atheists and the general Muslim community. Atabek Shukurov, an expert Hanafi scholar, provides an interesting example in his book on the principles of hadith classification of how the failure to apply this methodology can lead to flawed interpretations:
Take the famous hadith of Ibn Umar which is narrated in Sahih al-Bukhari: “There is bad luck in three things: women, houses and transport”. The way this hadith has been narrated is very demeaning to women, as they are considered bad luck. It also encourages superstition which is an anathema to Islam. The Sahaba presented this hadith to Aisha who said “may God forgive Ibn Umar, he did not lie, but the Prophet [peace be upon him] was talking about the time of ignorance [before Islam] and the things people used to believe”. Therefore, the hadith expressed views that were diametrically opposed to the true Islamic position.
This is one of the simpler examples in which confusion can arise from within hadith literature; it also highlights how even one of the most authoritative texts after the Qur’an—Bukhari’s collection of hadith—is not immune to misunderstandings, and thus must be studied in extensive detail before what it contains can be properly interpreted.
