By: Dr. Ahmad Shafaat
(March 2005)
Muslims agree that the Holy Qur`an is a miraculous expression of a message for humanity formulated directly by God himself in his own words and preserved by his promise and command. Moreover, the Qur`an itself tells us again and again that it consists of bayyinat, teachings made as clear as possible in a human language. It also tells us that it explains everything. This makes the Qur`an the primary source of Islamic teaching. The Hadith/Sunnah is a secondary source. That is why the Hadith/Sunnah does not represent the words/actions of God in a direct way, although the authentic ahadith are also inspired by him. That is also why God, his Messenger, or the Companions did not take any decisive steps to codify Hadith/Sunnah and therefore it has not been preserved in a pure form like the Qur`an.
The secondary role of the Hadith/Sunnah means that we should first understand the Qur`an on its own terms, bringing from outside only linguistic and historical facts that are established with tawatur. Once this is done we should use ahadith, most of which are not mutawatir, to elaborate the Qur`an but not to derive any fundamentally new teaching or laws. That is, everything in Islam must start with a foundation in the Qur`an on which the Hadith/Sunnah can build further without adding anything to, or otherwise changing anything in the foundation[1].
Even when using the Hadith/Sunnah as a secondary source, we need to pay due attention to the question of the authenticity of ahadith used. As noted in the Introduction, in providing a legally binding elaboration of any Qur`anic teaching, the Holy Prophet (sall allah ‘alayh wa sallam) would necessarily have communicated with the Companions in such a way as to reach a large number of them and they in turn would have then passed the Prophet’s message to a large number of Successors. Such communications would reach a large number of Hadith experts in earlier centuries in an acceptable way and thus would find their way into the books compiled by them. Also, these communications would be narrated by more than a few Companions in the first generation and from each Companion by more than a few Successors.
Hence in order to elaborate a teaching in the Qur`an in a legally binding way we should only use ahadith that fulfill at least the following two conditions:
1) They are found in most of the Hadith collections of earlier centuries, say the first three centuries. Isolated ahadith from isolated or late sources should not be used.
2) They should have come to us with varied, unbroken, asanid, reaching at least two Companions and from each Companion at least two Successors.
Guided by the above principles, we now discuss in the next four chapters the Qur`anic prohibition of riba.
(March 2005)
Muslims agree that the Holy Qur`an is a miraculous expression of a message for humanity formulated directly by God himself in his own words and preserved by his promise and command. Moreover, the Qur`an itself tells us again and again that it consists of bayyinat, teachings made as clear as possible in a human language. It also tells us that it explains everything. This makes the Qur`an the primary source of Islamic teaching. The Hadith/Sunnah is a secondary source. That is why the Hadith/Sunnah does not represent the words/actions of God in a direct way, although the authentic ahadith are also inspired by him. That is also why God, his Messenger, or the Companions did not take any decisive steps to codify Hadith/Sunnah and therefore it has not been preserved in a pure form like the Qur`an.
The secondary role of the Hadith/Sunnah means that we should first understand the Qur`an on its own terms, bringing from outside only linguistic and historical facts that are established with tawatur. Once this is done we should use ahadith, most of which are not mutawatir, to elaborate the Qur`an but not to derive any fundamentally new teaching or laws. That is, everything in Islam must start with a foundation in the Qur`an on which the Hadith/Sunnah can build further without adding anything to, or otherwise changing anything in the foundation[1].
Even when using the Hadith/Sunnah as a secondary source, we need to pay due attention to the question of the authenticity of ahadith used. As noted in the Introduction, in providing a legally binding elaboration of any Qur`anic teaching, the Holy Prophet (sall allah ‘alayh wa sallam) would necessarily have communicated with the Companions in such a way as to reach a large number of them and they in turn would have then passed the Prophet’s message to a large number of Successors. Such communications would reach a large number of Hadith experts in earlier centuries in an acceptable way and thus would find their way into the books compiled by them. Also, these communications would be narrated by more than a few Companions in the first generation and from each Companion by more than a few Successors.
Hence in order to elaborate a teaching in the Qur`an in a legally binding way we should only use ahadith that fulfill at least the following two conditions:
1) They are found in most of the Hadith collections of earlier centuries, say the first three centuries. Isolated ahadith from isolated or late sources should not be used.
2) They should have come to us with varied, unbroken, asanid, reaching at least two Companions and from each Companion at least two Successors.
Guided by the above principles, we now discuss in the next four chapters the Qur`anic prohibition of riba.
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