Hadith rejectors


Hadith rejectors, sometimes known as Hadith deniers, are Muslims who reject the authority of the hadiths. Reasons for rejecting the authority of Hadith include opposition to an extra-Qur'anic source of scriptural authority, problematic contents of the Hadith, authenticity of the Hadith, and their perceived contradiction with rationality. Opponents of the Hadith often say that the Hadith have nothing to do with Muhammad. According to Dr. Farhad Shafti, "A hadith rejector typically does not even consult hadith sources when researching an Islamic topic". Critiques of the rejectors of Hadith have existed both in the contemporary Islamic world and the greater modern-secular world.
Hadith rejectors often include Quranists, who consider the Qur'an to be the only dependable religious text. The modern Quranist movement emerged in the early 20th century, with significant intellectual foundations laid by figures like Muhammad Tawfiq Sidqi. While Quranism is a form of Hadith rejection, not all Hadith rejectors fit into the Quranist label, as their reasons, scope, and interpretations vary greatly. Other subsets of Hadith rejectors and skeptics, beyond the general category of Quranists, have included various historical and modern groups and movements within Islam, such as Ahl al-Ra'y, Ahl al-Kalam, some sects of the Mu'tazilites and Kharijites, and some modernist Muslims, neo-Mu'tazilites, and Shia reformers. The 21st century has seen a growing number in Hadith rejectors, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, a trend significantly amplified by online platforms where hadiths can be accessed in various languages.
Hadith followers, such as traditional Sunnis and Shias, often express strong disagreements with Hadith rejectors and Quranists. These disagreements stem primarily from fundamental differences in their approach to the Qur'an and religious practice, as well as the latter groups' criticism of Hadith scholars like al-Bukhari  and Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj. For some Hadith rejectors, Hadith followers are considered pagans and infidels. For many Sunni scholars, Hadith rejectors fall into two categories based on the nature and intent of their rejection; innovators who reject a hadith and do not accept it, denying that it is the words of Muhammad, and disbelievers who reject the hadith of Muhammad when one is aware that it is his hadith. Further, individuals who reject ahad hadiths as a source for commands are considered to be acting like Hadith rejectors, as they too disregard the canonical compendiums of Hadith such as Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim.

History

Muhammad, Rashidun and Umayyad periods

Historical traditions report that Muhammad prohibited the writing of Hadiths. Separately, historical accounts, particularly within Shia sources but also found in some Sunni works, state that caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab instituted a Ban on Hadith, which continued through the caliphate of the Rashidun caliphs into the Umayyad period and did not cease until the period of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz. The debates surrounding Umar's policy, and similar actions by the first caliph Abu Bakr, who is reported to have burned his own personal collection of hadiths, represent some of the earliest historical instances of tension regarding the authority and scope of Hadith.
In the early history of Islam, the sunnah of Muhammad was not necessarily associated with the hadith. The association between the sunnah of Muhammad and the hadith was established later, particularly by the Sunni hadith scholar Al-Shafi'i.

Ahl al-Ra'y, Ahl al-Kalam, Kharijites, Mu'tazilites

In contrast to the early Ahl al-Hadith, who were strict adherents to the hadith corpus, Ahl al-Ra'y and Ahl al-Kalam were skeptical of the authentication of hadith, doubting most hadiths were in fact the words of Muhammad. They refused to accept any hadith which was not mutawatir, thereby rejecting the bulk of ahad Hadith that form the traditional corpus.
A notable figure associated with Ahl al-Ra'y was Abu Hanifa, who received significant criticism from prominent figures among Ahl al-Hadith. For his opponents, it seemed to them that he used ra'y  in such a manner as to virtually nullify the legal value of Hadith. The disputes between Abu Hanifa and Ahl al-Hadith pertained primarily to his rejection of those isolated Hadiths, the apparent legal implications of which ran contrary to Abu Hanifa's conception of the normative principles of the law. Another leading figure of Ahl al-Ra'y was Ibn Abi Layla, who rarely adduced hadith or the opinions attributed to Muhammad's companions to argue a case, instead largely relying on his own ra'y.
Ahl al-Kalam rejected the authority of the hadith on the grounds that its corpus was "filled with contradictory, blasphemous, and absurd" reports, and that in jurisprudence, even the smallest doubt about a source was too much. Thus, they believed, the true legacy of the prophet Muhammad was to be found first and foremost in the Qur'an. Ahl al-Kalam is sometimes considered to contain the Mu'tazila and rejectors of Hadith.
Under the Abbasid caliph Al-Ma'mun, the adherents of Kalam were favoured and the supporters of Hadith were dealt harshly. Al-Ma'mun was inclined towards rational inquiry in religious matters, supported the proponents of Kalam and persecuted the adherents of Hadith. His two immediate successors, Al-Mu'tasim and Al-Wathiq, followed his policies. Unlike his three predecessors, Al-Mutawakkil was not inclined to rational inquiry in religious matters, and strove to bolster the Hadith as a necessary source of the Sunnah. According to Sunni sources, Hadith rejectors existed during the time of Al-Shafi'i, Ibn Qutaybah, and Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, all of whom lived during the Abbasid Caliphate.
Similarly, some sects of the Kharijites also rejected the hadith; there were some who opposed even the writing down of the Hadith itself for fear that it would compete, or even replace the Qur'an.
Mu'tazilites also rejected the hadiths as the basis for Islamic law, while at the same time accepting the Sunnah and Ijma. For Mu'tazilites, the basic argument for rejecting the hadiths was that "since its essence is transmission by individuals, cannot be a sure avenue of our knowledge about the Prophetic teaching unlike the Qur'an about whose transmission there is a universal unanimity among Muslims". According to the Egyptian historian Ahmad Amin, the Mu'tazilite Ibrahim al-Nazzam "almost used to believe in nothing other than the Qur'an and logic". The followers of Al-Nazzam were known as the "Nazzamiyah". Al-Nazzam believed that the Qur'an was a miracle only because of its divine inspirations. He rejected the theory of ijma and the independent legal authority of the hadiths, arguing that hadith reports give certainty only when corroborated by rational or perceptual evidence, regardless of how many people transmit them. Similarly, the Mu'tazilite Dirar ibn Amr rejected ahad Hadith and hadith outright in deriving law, yet unlike al-Nazzam, he approved the authority of ijma. The Mu'tazilite Abu Bakr al-Asamm also had little use for Hadiths.

Modern period

Hadith rejectors include Quranists, who view the hadiths as un-Quranic; they believe that obedience to the Islamic prophet Muhammad means obedience to the Qur'an; some further claim that most hadiths are fabrications created in the 8th and 9th century AD, and which are falsely attributed to Muhammad. The modern Quranist movement emerged in the early 20th century. Currently, it is reported that the Quranist movement encompasses tens of thousands to potentially a million followers globally.
Similar to Quranists, modernist Muslims also believe that the problems in the Islamic world come partly from the traditional elements of the hadith and seek to reject those teachings. Some modernist Muslims have applied historical-critical methods which incorporate external evidence like Islamic archaeology and scientific facts to critique the hadiths. This is similar to the methodology of medieval Muslim polymaths like Al-Biruni. According to Yasir Qadhi, Al-Biruni was "not pro-Hadith" and was "sceptical of the Hadith". Al-Biruni rejected hadiths which contradicted science, including those reported in Sahih al-Bukhari.
Neo-Mu'tazilites, who adopt some of the rationalist and interpretative methodologies of the classical Mu'tazilite school, have a relationship to faith that relativizes the hadiths and questions them. The reformist program of Syed Ahmad Khan included a rationalist, neo-Mu'tazilite understanding of Islamic scripture, questioning much of the corpus of Hadith as either apocryphal or relevant only to prophet Muhammad's day and age, rejecting the validity of ijma, broadening the horizon of ijtihad, and interpreting Biblical scripture from a sympathetic Muslim point of view. Syed significantly influenced the denial of Hadith in the Indian subcontinent by challenging their provenance and authorship. Another notable neo-Mu'tazilite is Ayatollah Seyed Kamal Heydari, who argues that the dominant trend in Iranian Shia seminaries since the 10th century CE has been to favor the hadiths over the Qur'an. He defines his position as "Qur'an-centric", favoring the Qur'anic text over the hadiths and rejecting the latter where they deviate from the Qur'an.
Mohammad Tawhidi, a Shia imam who identifies as a Muhtaat and reformer, has explicitly stated his rejection of the books of Hadith, and has stated, "The political, historical, social, ethical, and jurisprudential books that cover aspects of the life of Mohammad were written by scholars from many sects. They vary and contradict each other due to the different perceptions of Mohammad within all 70+ Islamic schools of thought. I encourage my co-religionists to review and evaluate their historical texts".
The Nation of Islam, which claims to form its foundation in Islam, has a "tangential relationship" with the hadith. The movement has been critisized by mainstream Muslims for its "inade­quate emphasis on the hadith". Instead of the hadith, the NOI is primarily guided by the Qur'an and the writings and teachings of its key figures, such as its founder Wallace Fard Muhammad and his successors Elijah Muhammad and Louis Farrakhan.