Divine vs Man-made

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Extract from Chapter 4 of QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir PART I:

82. Afala yatadabbaroona alqur-ana walaw kana min AAindi ghayri Allahi lawajadoo feehi ikhtilafan katheeran

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4:82. Do they not then ponder over the Qur’aan? And had it been from anybody other than Allah, they would certainly find in it many a contradiction.⁵⁴

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54. This Verse gives the criterion to distinguish a divine book from a non-divine one. In other words, it makes a divine statement to the effect that any book authored by a man, howsoever learned he may be, is bound to contain errors.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 24^th of August 2018.

Hadeeth

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Hadeeth

Extract from Chapter 7 of QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir:

185. Awalam yanthuroo fee malakooti alssamawati waal-ardi wama khalaqa Allahu min shay-in waan AAasa an yakoona qadi iqtaraba ajaluhum fabi-ayyi hadeethin baAAdahu yu/minoona

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185. Do they not ponder over the kingdom of the heavens and the earth and whatever things Allah has created, and over the likelihood of their own death being near? What hadeeth⁷⁴ would they then believe in after this?

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74. This Arabic word has been used in the Qur’aan variously in the meanings of (i) story, (ii) discourse, (iii) speech, or (iv) the Qur’aan itself. In the context of the preceding sentence, in this very Verse, the word here could connote the broad statement as under:

The orderly behaviour of the entire universe gives enough proof of the existence of a super-intelligent Being faultlessly governing it. When that Being can so control such a gigantic thing, He can obviously do the far less complex task of managing and controlling, inter alia, every human life. It is this Being – Whom we call Allah – that is guiding mankind in the proper conduct of their lives, through this Qur’aan. Every human being should grasp this Reality before it is too late. No one knows when death would come. It may be just around the corner.

But the word hadeeth came to acquire another meaning after the completion of the revelation of the Qur’aan, and the departure of the Prophet from this world. Centuries after the death of the Prophet, his orally reported sayings, and those of his companions, came to be recorded in writing. And these recorded sayings came to be known as ahaadeeth (plural of hadeeth). Allah Almighty knows all about the future. And at the time of the revelation of this Verse, He was aware of this future meaning of the term hadeeth. He (Allah), in that sense, is disapprovingly hinting here at future generations of the Muslim Ummah believing in such man-influenced, error-prone ahaadeeth in preference to the well-explained teachings in the Qur’aan, which can also be taken as referred to by the pronoun hu in baAAdahu of the Arabic text. The Verse is thus telling us categorically that the Qur’aan is the best hadeeth; one need not go after other ahaadeeth.  

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 4^th of May 2018.

Qur'aan on Hadeeth

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Qur’aan on Hadeeth

Extract from Chapter 31 of QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir:

6. Wamina alnnasi man yashtaree lahwa alhadeethi liyudilla AAan sabeeli Allahi bighayri AAilmin wayattakhithaha huzuwan ola-ika lahum AAathabun muheenun

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6. And among mankind is such a one who, without adequate knowledge, bargains for the frivolous hadeeth to lead people away from Allah’s path, and holds this (Qur’aan) in ridicule.³ For such, as that one, awaits a disgraceful punishment.

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3. This Verse, I am afraid, is an accurate prediction of what most ‘Muslims’ are doing now, in my age (early part of 21^st century).

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 29^th of September 2017.*

*Due to personal indisposition, publication got postponed to 30th September, 2017. The delay is regretted.