17. DID THE
PROPHET EVER CONTRADICT THE QUR’ĀN?
Did the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. ever
say something contradictory to what is in the Qur’ān? One of the duties of the
Prophet mentioned in the Qur’ān was to explain it to people. Allah says,
وَأَنْزَلْنَا إِلَيْكَ
الذِّكْرَ لِتُبَيِّنَ لِلنَّاسِ مَا نُزِّلَ إِلَيْهِمْ وَلَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ
(النحل:44)
And We have also sent
down to you (O Muhammad)
the Dhikr [reminder
(i.e., the Qur’ān)], that you may
explain clearly to men what is sent down to
them,
and that they may give thought (Q. 16:44)
The Prophet was ordered
by Allah to explain the rulings, the promise and the threat mentioned in the Qur’ān
orally and practically. He would explain and specify what Allah mentions in
general sense in the Qur’ān, such as the rulings dealing with prayer, zakat and
others (al-Qurṭubī’s commentary).
Allah ordered the Prophet to explain
what He meant in the Qur’ān, because the Prophet knew what He meant, because he
adhered to it, and because he was the best of creation and the leader of the
Children of Adam (Ibn Kathir’s commentary). His sayings and statements,
actions and tacit approvals which we call ḥadīth (Prophet’s tradition)
reach us through chains of narrators, some are reliable, and others are not.
Through studying the biography of each of these narrators scholars evaluate the
ḥadīth whether it is accepted as sound, or doubted, or even rejected,
because of the narrators’ weak memory, dishonesty, etc.
Before answering
this question, we also learn that beside the Prophet, the Qur’ān also explains
itself, so that verses of the Qur’ān dealing with one topic have to be studied
to know which verse explain what. Therefore, there is no contradiction in the
verses of the Qur’ān, and those who claim its existence have not learned
extensively the Qur’ān and its tools known as عُلُوْمُ الْقُرْآن (Sciences of the Qur’ān).
Allah does not contradict Himself in the Qur’ān.
Back to the topic, one of the ḥadīths which
seems to contradict the Qur’ān is as follows:
عَنْ أَبِى هُرَيْرَةَ
أَنَّ النَّبِىَّ -صلى الله عليه وسلم- قَالَ « مَا
مِنْ أَحَدٍ يُدْخِلُهُ
عَمَلُهُ الْجَنَّةَ . فَقِيلَ وَلاَ أَنْتَ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ قَالَ
وَلاَ أَنَا إِلاَّ أَنْ
يَتَغَمَّدَنِى رَبِّى بِرَحْمَةٍ (رواه مسلم).
Abū Hurayrah narrated that the Prophet s.a.w.
said: “Nobody will enter Heaven by his deeds.”
He
was asked: “Even you, O Messenger of Allah?” He
said: “Not even me, except that my Lord protects
me with
His grace.”(Reported by Muslim)
This means, based on this ḥadīth, despite our good
deeds, our effort to enter Heaven would be without avail, except with Allah’s
grace. This ḥadīth is apparently contradictory to the following Qur’ānic
verse:
الَّذِينَ تَتَوَفَّاهُمُ
الْمَلَائِكَةُ طَيِّبِينَ يَقُولُونَ سَلَامٌ عَلَيْكُمُ
ادْخُلُوا الْجَنَّةَ بِمَا
كُنْتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ (النحل:32)
Those whose lives
the angels take while
they are in a pious
state (i.e, pure from all evil,
and worshipping none
but Allah Alone) saying
(to them): Peace be
on you enter you Paradise
because of that (the
good) which you used to
do (in this world).”
(Q. 16:32)
According to this verse the angel will
tell pious people to enter Paradise for their good deeds in this world, either
as a good tiding, or it will be said to them in the Hereafter (al-Qurṭubī’s commentary). Allah will recompense pious
people who have been made good by Allah with “cleanness in their faith and purity
in their practicing Islam in their lives and in their death.” (al-Ṭabarī’s
commentary).
The
above ḥadīth does not object totally the validity of good deeds for the
condition of entering Paradise, but rather it gives conditions and restrictions
for their validity. In other words, people with good deeds in this world will
not automatically enter Paradise as if they have the key of it. There are
conditions for the acceptance of good deeds. Any good deed has to be done with ikhlāṣ,
sincerity, for the sake of Allah Alone, not for the worldly gain, not for riyā’
(show off). It has to be done with tawāḍu‘ (humbleness, humility),
that it is done for Allah’s pleasure with worry and uncertainty that He might
not fully accept it, because of its shortcomings. People who fulfill these
conditions would definitely enter Paradise with their good deeds as mentioned
in the above verse and as promised by Allah in the Qur’ān, namely, the reward
of accepted good deeds will be Paradise.
With
regard to people who do good deeds without fulfilling these conditions, their
good deeds will not be accepted, and therefore they will not enter Paradise,
unless Allah forgives them, and this is what is meant by the above ḥadīth. Without
Allah’s mercy and forgiveness, people who do good deeds with arrogance,
thinking that Allah would automatically admit them to Paradise disregarding the
quality of these deeds will be disappointed in the Hereafter that these deeds
would not be acceptable.
Like
the Qur’ān which has sciences (عُلُوْمُ الْقُرْآن) to study in order to understand it, the ḥadīth of the Prophet
also has sciences (عُلُوْمُ الْحَدِيْث)to
understand it. For the asbāb al-nuzūl (occasions which led to the
revelation of the verse of the Qur’ān), we also have asbāb al-wurūd
(occasions which led to the statement/saying/ḥadīth of the Prophet)
which shall be dealt with in due course.
The Ḥadīth or Sunnah[1]
of the Prophet cannot be fully understood literally by people who have no
background in Islamic knowledge. The Prophet had talked to different kind of
people in different occasions and times about different subjects within 24
years, and it is the duty of Muslim scholars to explain what the Prophet meant
in his statement, or he would be misunderstood by Muslim laymen, let alone
non-Muslims who keep trying to find any shortcoming in the Qur’ān.
One of
the things that hinder the progress of Islam is the presentation of Islam by
people who have no sufficient background of Islam, so that they explain the ḥadīth
out of context, and give their personal judgment based on it. For example, they
say that Islam is the a continuous arm struggle between Muslims and
non-Muslims, as the Prophet said: إِنَّ أَبْوَابَ الْجَنَّةِ
تَحْتَ ظِلاَلِ السُّيُوفِ (رواه مسلم) Verily,
the doors of Paradise are under the shadows of the swords (Reported by Muslim), whereas, in fact, the Prophet said it when the
Muslim army are facing their enemy in the battlefield.[2]
Others may think that having wealth is the opposite of piety, or zuhd,
whereas poverty is the right way to the Hereafter. Some others misunderstand
the term taqdīr, so that they would never try to improve their condition
morally, physically, socially, economically, etc. because they associate
taqdīr with fatalism.
The
late Shaykh Muḥammad al-Ghazālī (d. 1996)[3] in answering question no. 40 out of 100 questions in his book مائة سؤال عن الاسلام (One Hundred Questions about Islam, pp. 177-178) gives
us more explanation about this issue. He said that misunderstanding the Sunnah
of the Prophet will cause confusion among Muslims. These people, who do not
know about the wisdom of the Qur’ān, do not have any sense of the Arabic
literature, have no knowledge of human spirit and the condition of the
community, never learned extensively about the biography of the Prophet and
various situations he had gone through, either favourable or miserable. They
are unable to make distinction between daily routine and religious acts. For
these people, what they consider the Sunnah are eating with sitting
cross-legged on the floor and not at the table, brushing teeth with siwāk (a
small stick used for cleaning and polishing the teeth) rather than with toothbrush,
washing after urinating or defecating with stone rather than with toilet paper
(and of course cleaner with water); they stick the end of their turbans outward
till the napes of their necks, they give
priority to wearing white and loose garments, and for women to covering their
whole body, including their faces.
Shaykh
al-Ghazīlī said further that these people consider that all customs and traditions
of the Bedouin Arabs are in general the Sunnah of the Prophet. As the customs
of the Arabs put women in the second position within the community in the name
of Islam, they are not allowed to frequent the mosque, are not allowed to seek
knowledge at schools, to participate in propagating and defending Islam in
military field, etc. The case is contrary to people who fully understand
the Ḥadīth of the Prophet. They know that these customs and traditions
are wrong and contradictory to the Qur’ān and the Sunnah of the Prophet.
However, some of those who consider themselves experts of Islam defend their
“self-claimed truth” fanatically, and claimed that those who are not with them
to be strongly influenced by modern culture.
According
to Shaykh al-Ghazālī, although the Sunah of the Prophet is the second
source of Islam after the Qur’ān, in order to avoid confusion, there are some
people only who are required to learn it extensively. They are the ‘ulamā’ (Muslim
scholars) who have learned religious knowledge extensively, those who are
involved directly with it, such as Muslim leaders, judges, dā‘iyah (Islamic
propagators), and experts in the special fields where mastering the knowledge
of Ḥadīth is highly required. As for laymen, if they can understand just
forty ḥadīths it would be sufficient for them. In any case, people who
do not understand the Qur’ān should not cite ḥadīths or give fatwa (formal legal opinion) on
Islam concerning the affairs of other people.
Shaykh
al-Ghazālī had ever witnessed a group of errand lads who made themselves busy
in teaching the Sunnah. Then they moved to Yemen hoping that the revival
of Islam would start from there. It is the revival which is extremely far away
from reality in life and from the possibility of conquering the world. They
might hope that some pious jinn would help them and provide them with bombs in
war time and with food, clothes and medicines in peace time. He said that this
is a kind of madness which has many varieties and manifests itself in many ways
(الْجُنُوْنُ فُنُوْن).
(CIVIC,
6 November, 2015)
المصادر:
المكتبة الشاملة
تفسير الطبري (ت. 310 هـ(
تفسير القرطبى (ت. 671
هـ(
تفسير ابن كثير (ت.
774 هـ(
محممد الغزالي. مائة
سؤال عن الاسلام. القاهرة: نهضة مصر, الطبعة الرابعة, 2005 م
https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/محمد الغزالي
[1] Sunnah (pl. sunan) is properly a custom
or practice, and later narrowed down to the practice of the Prophet or a ḥadīth.
Sunnah includes the Prophet’s sayings, deeds and tacit approvals. In
this respect it is often synonymous with Ḥadīth in general sense. Sunnah
dealing with legal judgment means
meritorious.
[2] A similar ḥadīth indicating that the Prophet
said it when he was facing the enemy is this. He said لَا تَمَنَّوْا لِقَاءَ الْعَدُوِّ وَسَلُوا اللَّهَ
عَزَّ وَجَلَّ الْعَافِيَةَ فَإِذَا لَقِيتُمُوهُمْ فَاصْبِرُوا وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ
الْجَنَّةَ تَحْتَ ظِلَالِ السُّيُوفِ (رواه البخاري و مسلم و أحمد و أبو داؤد و
غيرهم) “… do not wish to meet the enemy, and ask
Allah the Almighty well-being, so when you meet them be patient, and be
informed that Paradise is under the shadows of swords …” (Re[ported by
al-Bukhārī, Muslim, Abū Dū’ūd, Aḥmad and others)
[3] Shaykh Muḥammad al-Ghazālī (1335-1416/1917-1996) was an
Egyptian Muslim scholar and thinker, and one of prominent and influential
Muslim scholars of the 20th century who called for Islamic concepts
in modern time and opposed religious extremism and exaggeration. He wrote over
fifty books, and his criticism over the ruling systems in the Muslim world was
one of many problems he was facing during his stay in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
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