NOT REFORM BUT RETURN TO THE QURAN

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The primitiveness, the ugliness and the contradictions displayed in the name of Islam make it indispensable to clarify where we stand and what should be done to redirect people who have been diverted from the true path described in the Quran. Muhammad Ikbal, ill at ease at the sight of this state of affairs, had made the following remark in the 1920s: “If we are resolved to describe Islam as a system of superior values, we are obliged, first of all, to acknowledge that we are not the true representatives of Islam.” Muhammad Abduh had, before him, expressed the same truth in the following words: “If the word ‘Islam’ associates in the mind problems, dilemmas and contradictions, this is due not to Islam itself, but to the Muslims. So long as the books taught at Al Azhar and similar publications exert authority, I see no future for this community. The spirit needed to awaken the public is inherent in the Quran. Everything remaining outside the sphere of the Quran is but an obstacle preventing the Quran from being understood and experienced.” The famous Turkish poet Mehmet Akif Ersoy had the following to say to describe the plight of Islam that the interpreters had corrupted in total disregard of the clear indications of the Quran: “If it is the Quran that is understood by the word ‘Islam’, we must be in a position to acknowledge that there is no such thing as Islam, since the Quran has been raised back to the heights and the Islam on the earth today has lost all contact with it.” An American professor of Arabic origin, Ýsmail Faruki, interprets the situation as follows: “Islam is not represented by the lifestyle and behavior of Muslims, nor is it represented by any one period of history of Islam, nor by any book written on Islam. Islam is the Quran.”

THE QURAN AND THE SECTS

God is the unique source of religion. The Quran is His revelation. But, according to the sectarians Islam is made up of God + the hadiths + the companions of the Prophet + the decrees of sectarian imams + the fatwas and the opinions of other imams that succeeded them. Between the two divergent points of view there can be no middle way. For a Muslim that sticks to the Quran, a third way, which would involve a marriage between the religion preached in the Quran and the religion preached by the sects cannot even be thought of. Such an attempt might, in a sense, pave the way for opportunists who are ready to issue decrees next to those of God. If one ever ventures to think that a hadith, an established tradition or a convention may be considered as part of the religion, the principle of the Quran’s self-sufficient attribute will of necessity be corrupted.

REASONS FOR ADDITIONS TO TO THE ESTABLISHED RELIGION AND FOR INVENTION OF HADITHS

In the first three chapters we settled the question of the self-sufficiency of the Quran and in the fourth we produced clear evidence to show that the hadiths sanctified and clothed in the garb of holiness could not constitute a source for Islam, by pointing to the method of collection. Assuming that the companions of the Prophet are free from all error, the question of the literal representation in the collection of hadiths proved the unreliability of it, no matter how honorable the intention may have been. We shall no longer be dealing with these in the present chapter. The object of our study will be the intentional interpolations. This will enable us to have an insight into the reasons of inventions of which we shall furnish examples in Chapters 6, 7, 8 and 9.

RAJM: STONING TO DEATH

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Sectarian Islam tried to revoke the Quranic verses and added something alien to the Quran: namely stoning to death. What is still more terrifying was the allegation of traditionalists who argued that there was a missing link in the Quran that had to be supplemented. According to their account, the verse that treated the stoning to death of the offender accused of adultery did exist but was eaten up by a goat.

In the meantime, we must not forget that all the sects without exception have vindicated this argument. Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Davudi Hanbal, Ibn Maja hold a brief for the existence of rajm. Yet, the retribution for adultery is well explained in the Quran. To introduce a new provision that contradicts the Quran shows the kind of mentality and the degree of faith in the Quran of the traditionalist Islamist.

WHAT IS MEANT BY OBEY THE MESSENGER (PROPHET)?

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Traditionalist Islamists nursing their ambition to provide evidence against the Islam preached in the Quran, refer to ayats that ordain to “Obey God and His messenger”, and set forth such arguments as: “We are told to obey the prescriptions of God and the Prophet”. In the said ayats, the Prophet is referred to only with the noun rasul (messenger).

52 – Those who obey God and His messenger and fear God and observe Him, these are triumphant ones.
24 The Light, 52

132 – You shall obey God and His messenger, that you may obtain mercy.
3 The Family of Imran, 132

SECTS

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Once the Quran came to be deemed not self-sufficient and the need was felt to supplement it with hadiths and ijtihads, the rise of numerous sects was inevitable. The four sects prevalent today of the Sunni and Shii sects have had the largest followers among many that have emerged in history.

According to one hadith a man’s calf should be covered, according to another it might be uncovered; according to a commentary of a hadith bleeding would render a man canonically unclean, according to another, touching a woman’s hand would have the same effect. Those who were responsible for corrupting religion by reverting to sources other than the Quran tried to come to a settlement of such issues by having recourse to sects. In this way, the Islam of the Quran was transformed to the Islam of the sectarians. On the other hand, it so happened that the founder of a sect took into his head to enjoin the covering of a man’s body from the waist down to his knees based on a certain hadith, while another denied the authenticity of it. The founder of another sect thinks otherwise and disregards such a prohibition. The fact is that a given hadith was liable to be interpreted differently, but not the Quran since it is the unique source of Islam.

ATTITUDE OF THE FOUR CALIPHS TOWARD THE HADITHS

Those who have acknowledged the existence of books other than the Quran as sources for Islam in the belief that the Quran was not self-sufficient, and who have tried to understand Islam basing this on the hadiths, think that the happiest period of Islam was in fact the period during which the Prophet reigned and next to it the period of the Four Caliphs that followed it. However, their behavior has betrayed their speculative approach. It is a fact that the Four Caliphs banned the copying of all hadiths and did everything to thwart the attempts to copy. What is more, the time was the period after the death of the Prophet. Had they so wanted, they could have collected an infinite number of hadiths, and the result would have been much more reliable, given the fact that they would have obtained their information from the people who had seen and talked to the Prophet. What they did, however, was to outlaw the creation of sources next to the Quran. It may be worthwhile to quote here the remark of Darekutni, the celebrated hadith transmitter: “A sound hadith among those invented is like the only white hair on the skin of a black ox.” A time came when the number of invented hadiths exceeded the genuine ones. The most renowned book of hadiths came out in the period when the political, material and moral interests had prevailed. The authors were certainly oblivious to the Four Caliphs’ approach to the issue. Although the said Four Caliphs are an object of praise today, they ignored their attitude toward the hadiths:

CONTRADICTORY HADITHS

As we have seen, God says that the Quran is protected and free from all contradictions. God brings testimony to His statement by the fact that the Quran is His own word. By analogy, we deduced in Chapter 6 that hadiths could not constitute a source for religion as they clashed even with the Quran. These discrepancies are proofs of our contention. We shall be witnessing the fact that truth and falsehood are inextricably mixed together. It would be worth while to note that even though, when a given hadith does not conflict with the Quran and is not contrary to reason, it does not necessarily follow that it is the word of the Prophet and need not be taken as such. Religion cannot be based on such conjectures. Therefore no hadith can be considered having a religious connotation.

116 – If you obey the majority of people on earth, they will divert you from the path of God. They follow only conjecture, they only guess.
6 The Cattle, 116

36 – Most of them follow nothing but conjecture. Surely, conjecture is no substitute for the truth. God is fully aware of everything they do. But most of them follow nothing but fancy: truly fancy can be of no avail against truth. Verily God is well aware of all they do.
10 Jonah, 36

We are warned against abiding by conjectures. To try to found religious concepts on conjectures like hadiths would be baseless, since we have been provided with a miraculous, guarded and sound source without any contradiction like the Quran. Now we are going to illustrate the incongruity between hadiths in 10 examples.

WOMEN IN THE QURAN AND IN THE FABRICATED RELIGION

The issue about women has had the most additions to the established religion. Women were lowered to the level of a slave, of a servant employed in household affairs and a sex instrument at the disposal of her husband, justified in the light of concocted hadiths and sectarian interpretations and viewpoints. The majority of the fair sex, unable to make any distinction between what is truly revealed and what is fabricated, continued to trudge along the path designated by men who went on preaching the words reported to have been told by the Prophet to the effect that paradise lay under the feet of mothers. We shall presently see how sincere their approach to womankind has been.

Koran and the Liberation of Women

“O Humankind! We have created you male and female and have divided you into nations and tribes that you recognize each other. The best of you in the sight of God is the one most socially aware (taqwa- literally – “extremely careful”).” Koran 49:13