Eight major areas of contradiction between the Qur’an and Hadith literature

Below I have only given the headings of these topics and the list of narrations from Hadiths that contradict the verses of the Qur'an. Brother Mohammed Abdul Malik has published texts of these narrations and the Quranic verses they contradict and his comments.27

Punishment for adultery:

Al-Bukhari: 8.816; 3.885 
Al-Qur'an: 24:2; 24:5-9 

Extremely adverse comments supposedly made by the Prophet against women:

Al-Bukhari: 1.301; 7.30; 1.490; 
Muslim 1032, 1034; 
Abu Da’ud 703 
Al-Qur'an 2.223; 4.19; 16.97; 33.35; 48:5-6 

To approach women during their menses, for sexual purposes:

Al-Bukhari: 1.298; 1.299 
Al-Qur'an: 2.222 

Aspects of character ascribed to the Prophet:

Al-Bukhari: 7.590; 7:252/253/254; 9.130 

The circumstances under which and when the parts of Qur'an were supposedly to have been revealed:

Al-Bukhari: 6.209; 6.203 
Al-Qur'an: 11:114; 11:5 

Celestial Science:

Al-Bukhari: 4.421 
Al-Qur'an: 36:38 

The companions of the Prophet:

Al-Bukhari: 5.546 
Al-Qur'an: 48:29; 8:63

Can anyone intercede on our behalf:

Al-Bukhari: 8.567 & 571; 1.98; 1.331; 5.224; 6.242 
Muslim 389, 747, 2071, 2516 
Al-Qur'an: 39.44; 2.254/255; 25.30; 2.48 &123; 6.51/70/94; 9.114; 7.188; 7.53; 21.100; 30.13; 34.23; 11.46; 46.9; 36.23; 40:18; 43.86; 74.48; 111.1/3; 35.14; 10.3; 19.87; 20.109; 21.28 

27  ‘A Study of the Qur’an’ by Mohammed Abdul Malek 
ISBN 0 9530907 2 8  For details please see pages 137 to 154.
 
 

Dr. Sayed Abdul Wadud:
   In his book 'Conspiracies Against the Qur’an' 28  Dr. Wadud has made some interesting observations on the subject of Hadith. The author records:

Origin of the Above-said Conspiracy –

Now let us see how and when this conspiracy against the Quran started. There was no collection of Ahadis present during the time of Muhammad (s.a.s.), nor was it compiled during the Caliphate of the first four Caliphs. Such collections were rather strongly resisted at that time. Even during the Caliphate of Bani Umaya no such thing ever existed. These collections made their first appearance during the Abbasid Caliphate.

    Dr. Wadud finds it noteworthy that the Six Collections that are said to be the utterance of the Rasool (s.a.s.), but none of those who collected them was an Arab: they are all Persians. There was no written recorded of what was collected. The collections were made 250 years after the death of Rasool (s.a.s.) depending on what was verbally related by the people all around. 

    The chart below adapted from Dr. Wadud’s work. (p. 53), shows that Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari, Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj al-Qushayri, Muhammad ibn Isa at-Tirmidhi, Abu Da’ud as-Sijistani, Muhammed ibn Majah and Ahmad ibn Shu’ayb an-Nasai were all residents of Persia: 

Name ofComposer Resident of Died in Year HadithsCollected Hadiths Published
Al-Bukhari              Bokhara      260 A.H.       600,000                 2,762
Muslim                   Neshapur     261 A.H.       300,000                 4,348
Tirmidhi                  Tirmaz          279 A.H.       300,000                 3,115
Abu Da’ud              Sistan           275 A.H.       500,000                 4,800
Ibn Maja                Qazveen       273 A.H.       400,000                 4,000
Nasai           Village inKhurasan 303 A.H.       200,000                4,321

One more observation by Dr. Wadud:

   [Hadiths} are supposed to be the collection of the sayings and deeds of the Rasool. But had the Rasool himself taken any step to make them a part of “Deen”? Did he try to preserve them as he did in the case of the Qur’an? The answer is that he did not take any step towards the preservation of anything except the Qur’an. He never asked the people to note down all that he said, he never asked them to learn his sayings by heart. He never tried to satisfy himself, whether they remembered all that he said correctly. In fact he never made any arrangement for the safe preservation of his own sayings for the future. (p.17)

   Dr. Hofmann was born into a Roman Catholic family in Germany. In 1980, at the age of fifty, he embraced Islam. Since then he has written several books on Islam in English and German, some of which are also available in Arabic. In his book, Islam 2000 29  Dr. Hofmann has made a number of scholarly observations that give a clear message to the Muslim ummah:

    Any “modern” Muslim will be full of admiration for what our forefathers achieved in collecting, sifting, compiling, and classifying the traditions concerning what Muhammad said, did, or tolerated. Also, no Muslim may deny that the Prophet did not only transmit but explained the divine message received by him, even through his behavior.

At the same time, it is a truism to state that Sunni, Shi’ite, and Ibadi Muslims do not honor the same compilations of ahadith, for each group holds onto its own set, which is not fully compatible with the others. And, of course, while we know how much pious scholars like al Bukhari and Muslim battled to weed out forged ahadith, who can be sure that they were entirely successful?

Doubts are justified, because the six orthodox hadith collections were all assembled by the same criteria. In particular, out of sheer veneration of the Companions of the Prophet, isnad (chain of transmission) and matn (text) critique did not go as far as it would have if modern linguistic and sociohistorical analysis had been applied.

Given the fact that tens of thousands of fabricated hadiths circulated within two centuries of the Prophet’s death, we simply have to admit that the Sunnah is not as reliable as we would all wish it to be. Let us be cruelly sober: Someone clever and ruthless enough to fabricate the matn of a hadith – be it for political or “pious” reasons – would he not be clever and ruthless enough to also fabricate its isnad?

And do we not all virtually smell that something is fishy with certain political ahadith, in particular those favoring ‘Ali, or Mu’awiyah, or men over women. Do we not feel more “comfortable” with the realism of traditions by A’isha and smile about some reported from the somewhat childish perspective of the lovable Abu Hurayrah? (pp.68-69)

Dr. Shabbir Ahmed, M. D.
   In his book, 'The Criminals of Islam', 30  at the end of an opening chapter entitled: “Wrongs from the ‘Right’ Bukhari”, Dr. Ahmed writes the following after quoting numerous passages from Al-Bukhari that are either “disturbing” or “grave insult to aesthetics and common sense”:

This chapter was only a glimpse from the voluminous Bukhari. Can you believe that even today there are people on God’s Earth according to whom denying a single narrative of Bukhari and Muslim ahadith instantly renders a Muslim into a Kaafir (infidel)?

An Islamic Website:
     A comprehensive detailed analysis of the twenty-five most commonly quoted hadiths by the believers that are in reality “weak, fabricated and baatil ahaadeeth”, along with the scrutiny of their narrators and the chains of narrations is placed on an Islamic website <www.allaahuakbar.net>. The primary interest of this website is “Correcting Misconceptions about Islaam and Refuting the Lies and Distortions of Enemies within and outside Islaam”. The entire list of these hadiths with the analysis is to be found under the URL: http://www.allaahuakbar.net/ahaadeeth/weak_fabricated_&_baatil_ahaadeeth.htm

My Personal Observations:
  In 1989, I published the book: 'Understanding the Bible – through Koranic messages'. (Book is available from <amazon.com>) In the concluding chapter, the following passage appears. It is as true and relevant today as it was then.

The history of Judaism tells us that about seventeen centuries after the death of Moses the professional scribes (soferim) and rabbis constituted the heart of rabbinic Judaism. They introduced the Mishna – the corpus of legal and other matters. These rabbinical teachings became the basis for the Talmud. The Jerusalem Talmud was based upon Galilean Gemara (commentaries, traditions, history and folklore) and the Babylonian Talmud was based upon Iraqi Gemara. The combination of these two Aramaic commentaries along with the authoritative teachings of rabbi Judah ha-Nasi became a document of growing authority over the Torah (the “Law”). The respect these rabbinic works gained, during the second and third century C.E. has guided Judaism since then. The religious courts of Jews have since then recognized them as unrivalled documents. The Koran tells us that Jews have imposed upon themselves several customs and practices that God never intended. They are self-imposed hardships.

From an Islamic point of view, if at any date in the future any categorized document of the reported Hadith was to become a document of growing authority over the Koran, like the Talmud, then Islam would also be deviating from the path of true Islam. At times Muslims do impose upon themselves additional hardships and burdens that the Koran had never dictated. One does notice, on rare occasions, incidents of such improprieties and imposed hardships, but one has to think twice before raising one’s voice against deeply rooted national customs and traditional practices and being labeled as a heretic.

   This study has conclusively demonstrated that the Hadith literature in circulation today has major flaws. The resultant effects are:

   The Muslim Ummah is being misled into believing or practicing things that they should not.

   The opponents of Islam and the enemies of the Prophet, have material with which to tarnish the images of Islam and the Prophet and thereby confuse a young pious generation of Muslims by quoting narration after narration on the Internet. 

    These ridiculous hadiths can seriously challenge the minds of new converts and also of those who are about to join the 'Deen of Allah'.

   Muslims doing the work of Daw'ah or Public Debate may have considerable difficulty defending the quoted weak, faulty or implanted narrations. 

The Corrective
   The best action to resolve this dilemma would be to withdraw all the narrations that are in circulation and replace them with authentic and approved reprinted hadiths. Today, the Ummah is divided. There is no leadership that can enforce what is good for the Ummah and eradicate what needs to be eradicated. In other words the essential task of revision may be a distant possibility and not for our generation, as I envisage.

  The next best thing that concerned (overwhelmed) Muslims, young and old, men and women can do is to propagate widely and loudly the true facts concerning the Hadith literature without fear of being outcast or labeled as apostate. The majority of ordinary Muslims who read or hear these Narrations must be made aware of the fact that each and every narration published and circulated today cannot be accepted at its face value. The names and reputations of the compilers do not necessarily legitimize their narrations. To think or propagate otherwise would be to say that these compilers were the infallible individuals. Allah alone is Infallible. Anything that is in conflict with or contradicts the Revealed Verses should be immediately discarded irrespective of who is the preacher, narrator or compiler. If one is unwilling or hesitant to discard such narrations then in reality one has inadvertently disregarded the revealed text that reads; "Allah's guidance is the (only) guidance…” (Qur’an 6: 71). Readers should be encouraged to develop the critical tools necessary to look for faulty hadiths and remove them from oral circulation. Muslim scholars need to address this most pressing issue that undermines all facets of Islamic life and experience.

   This study of Hadith literature is critical, as the title suggests. Yet one can hardly overlook the fact that it is primarily based upon the research of Muslim scholars of our era. These most recent Islamic works collectively suggest that there are many “re-narrated” reports attributed to the Prophet that leave us with unanswered questions. In this era of cyberspace communications, global exchanges of views, and sophisticated textual analysis, the excuse of insufficient data is no longer true or acceptable. The traditional attitude that only scholars are competent to interpret dubious narrations merely evades the serious issues facing the Ummah.

     Islam takes pride in being a lucid, rational and above all easy to understand faith. Consequently, attempts by the traditionalist or Ulemas to either suppress or criticize thinking Muslims who have reservations about these dubious narratives so closely related to the Prophet’s life run contrary to our tradition. It would be a judicious decision to face the uncertainties and doubts as they were faced in the third and fifth centuries Hijri and re-examine the unreliable narrations. These should be weeded out and no longer promoted as authentic reports. The dialogue has already begun – in cyberspace.

Akbarally Meherally

May Allah Guide the Ummah to HIS DEEN
based upon HIS REVEALED WORDS. Ameen 

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