Hadith rejectors

Hadith rejectors (Arabic: منكرو الحديث), sometimes known as Hadith deniers, are Muslims who reject the authority of the hadiths. The hadiths are sayings attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad. People reject them for different reasons. Some people do not accept an extra-Qur'anic source of scriptural authority. Others say the Hadith has some problematic content, that it is not authentic and that it sometimes seems to contradict rationality. Opponents of the Hadith often say that the Hadith have nothing to do with Muhammad and his Sunnah. 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. Quranism emerged in the early 20th century CE, with significant intellectual foundations laid by figures like Abdullah Chakralawi (d. 1912 CE). 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 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. In the late 20th century CE, the Submitters played a significant role in popularizing a specific form of Hadith rejection in the West. The 21st century CE 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 (d. 870 CE) and Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj (d. 875 CE). For some Hadith rejectors, Hadith followers are considered pagans and infidels. For 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 (isolated/singular) 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.

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 (r. 634–644 CE) 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 (r. 717–720 CE). The debates surrounding Umar's policy, and similar actions by the first caliph Abu Bakr (r. 632-634 CE), 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.

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

Under the Abbasid caliph Al-Ma'mun, the adherents of Kalam were favoured and the adherents of Hadith were persecuted

In contrast to the early Ahl al-Hadith, who were strict adherents to the hadith corpus, Ahl al-Ra'y (The People of Reason) and Ahl al-Kalam (The People of 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 (singular) Hadith that form the traditional corpus. According to Turkish writer Mustafa Akyol, Ahl al-Ra'y remained doubtful of the methods of Ahl al-Hadith who compiled and canonised hadith, with "skepticism" or even "wholesale rejection" of hadith.

A notable figure associated with Ahl al-Ra'y was Abu Hanifa (d. 767 CE), who received significant criticism from prominent figures among Ahl al-Hadith. For his opponents, it seemed to them that he used ra'y (personal reasoning) 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 (ahad 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 (d. 765 CE), 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 (r. 813-833 CE), 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 (r. 833-842 CE) and Al-Wathiq (r. 842-847 CE), followed his policies. Unlike his three predecessors, Al-Mutawakkil (r. 847-861 CE) 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, opponents of the Hadith existed during the time of al-Shafi'i (d. 820 CE), Ibn Qutaybah (d. 889 CE), and al-Khatib al-Baghdadi (d. 1071 CE), all of whom lived during the Abbasid Caliphate. These opponents mainly included the Mu'tazila.

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 (consensus). For Mu'tazilites, the basic argument for rejecting the hadiths was that "since its essence is transmission by individuals, [it] 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 (d. 1954 CE), the Mu'tazilite Ibrahim al-Nazzam (d. 845 CE) "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 (d. 815 CE) 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 (d. 816 CE) also had little use for Hadiths.

Shia Isma'ilis had neither a Hadith collection of their own nor a distinct Isma'ili law before the establishment of the Fatimid dynasty in North Africa in 909 CE. Qadi al-Nu'man (d. 974 CE) is recognized as the foundational jurist of the Fatimid Isma'ili state who compiled the first comprehensive Isma'ili legal code, which relied heavily on Hadith. After al-Nu'man's works no further Hadith collection of significance was compiled by Isma'ilis. Excessive emphasis on the Batini (esoteric) sciences, identified with the 'olum ahl al-Bayt (sciences derived from prophet Muhammad's family), as opposed to the Zahiri sciences (exoteric, especially Hadith and jurisprudence) probably accounts for this lack of interest. Hadith was not a crucial ingredient of religious learning among the Isma'ilis and consequently it never assumed much importance in their later history.

For the Sunni theologian al-Ghazali (d. 1111 CE), the Batiniyya, specifically the Isma'ilis who ruled the Fatimid Caliphate and the Alamut state (whose people were also known as the Order of Assassins), did not "really" believe in the veracity of prophet Muhammad as they substituted the authoritative guidance of Muhammad as found in the Hadith and Sunnah with the authoritarian teaching (talim) of their Imams. Al-Ghazali propounded his anti-Batinite polemics in his book Fada’ih al-batiniyyah wa fada’il al-mustazhiriyyah or al-Mustazhiri ("The Infamies of the Batinites and the Excellences of the Mustazhirites"), composed in 1094 CE and dedicated to the new Abbasid caliph al-Mustazhir (r. 1094-1118 CE).

However, Isma'ilis do not reject the concept of the Sunnah, but define it differently than Sunnis. In Nizari Isma'ili intellectual discourse, a sharp distinction is maintained between the Sunnah of Muhammad and the Hadith literature. In Nizari Isma'ili polemics, Hadith are "fragments and snippets" that lack the holistic context of the "living breathing organic practice". Nizari Isma'ili apologists argue that Muhammad never commissioned a compilation of Hadith, nor did he leave behind a book entitled Sahih al-Bukhari or Sahih Muslim. The Nizari Isma'ili argument suggests that reliance on Hadith alone is fraught with peril due to the historical vagaries of transmission. For Nizari Isma'ilis, the true Sunnah can only be accessed through the lens of the Ahl al-Bayt (the Family of the House). The Imam is considered the "Speaking Qur'an," and thus, the living embodiment of the Sunnah. Consequently, the Sunnah is not merely what Muhammad did in the past, but what he would do if he were present today—a guidance made accessible through his "spiritual successor".

Quranists, modernist Muslims, Submitters, neo-Mu'tazilites, and Shia reformers

Syed Ahmad Khan, who significantly influenced the denial of Hadith in the Indian subcontinent by challenging their provenance and authorship

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 (pseudepigrapha) created in the 8th and 9th century CE, and which are falsely attributed to Muhammad. The modern Quranist movement emerged in the early 20th century CE. 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 (d. 1052 CE). According to Yasir Qadhi (b. 1975 CE), 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.

Submitters are followers of the Egyptian-American biochemist Rashad Khalifa (d. 1990 CE) who established United Submitters International (USI) in Tucson, Arizona. Submitters reject the Hadith and believe in the "Qur'an alone" plus the specific mathematical code (19), which Khalifa popularised, whom they consider a "Messenger of the Covenant". Submitters do not consider themselves to be Quranists, as the two are fundamentally different in their core beliefs, specifically regarding the status of Khalifa and the understanding of certain practices. Quranists have accused Khalifa of "extremism in lying and extremism in disbelief". Former members of the Submitters, such as Edip Yüksel, have criticized the group for developing cult-like behavior and idolatry regarding Khalifa following his death. Despite splitting from the group, Yüksel continues to uphold the "Code 19" which he believes is a miracle. Like the Submitters, Yüksel argues that Qur'anic verses 9:128-129 were added to the text decades after prophet Muhammad's death. They claim these verses disrupt the "Code 19".

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 (d. 1898 CE) 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 (consensus), broadening the horizon of ijtihad (independent reasoning), and interpreting Biblical scripture from a sympathetic Muslim point of view (see: Muslim Hebraism). 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 (b. 1956 CE), 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" (ghor'an-mehvar), 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".

Other movements

The Nation of Islam (NOI), 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 (b. 1877 CE) and his successors Elijah Muhammad (d. 1975 CE) and Louis Farrakhan (b. 1933 CE).

The government of Libyan revolutionary Muammar Gaddafi (r. 1969-2011 CE) and Gaddafi himself were severely criticized by Saudi religious authorities, primarily due to his "rejection" of the Hadith and refusing "to accept the ijma (consensus) of the Companions and Muslims on Islamic matters". Gaddafi himself undermined the authenticity of the Hadith, and quelled opposition from religious scholars and activists, particularly Salafists, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Sufi Senusiyya. Gaddafi's interpretation of the Qur'an was deeply intertwined with his unique, self-styled brand of Socialism, which he outlined in his Green Book.

See also

• Muslim Hebraists
• Protestantism