A minority among the Muslims do not accept the various books of Hadith as being an accurate representation of what the prophet Muhammed said. They take the Koran as Criterion (Furqaan in Arabic), according to the Koran's own claim (2:185), accepting only those hadith [tradition or narration attributed to the prophet] which the Koran confirms and attests in totality. I represent that view in this paper.

The various books of hadith that we see in Muslim society today are the same in relation to Muhammed, as the Gospels are to Jesus. They are both similar in that both were complied [in what we possess today] centuries after Muhammed and Jesus respectively [unlike the Koran which was memorized and written down at the time of its revelation] and they both present no proof of authenticity [unlike the Koran in which numerous verses say:"In this is a sign [or proof],,,", and then asks you to refute it]. Therefore, objectively speaking both the hadith and the gospels do not present any evidence as to be considered a 100% reliable representation of the words of the prophets, Muhammed and Jesus.

Most Muslims who have taken on themselves the responsibility of teaching Islam to others have themselves abandoned the Koran by upholding hadith. They say without hesitation: "The majority of Shariah (Law) in Islam is contained outside the Koran in books of hadith and fiqh." Such a saying is a direct attack on the validity of the Koran, which claims to contain the complete Islamic law from God. We need to ask ourselves, what kind of submission (Islam) is this when you are rejecting God's words to follow your traditions.

"...If any do fail to judge by what Allah(God) has sent down (i.e the Koran), they are unbelievers." (Koran 5:45).

"...If any do fail to judge by that which Allah has sent down, they are tyrants(dhilamoon)." (Koran 5:45)

"...If any do fail to judge by that which Allah has sent down, such are evil-livers (fasikoon)." (Koran 5:47)

The Koran reports that the messenger himself will complain to God about his so called followers abandoning the Koran:

"And the messenger says,"O my Lord, my OWN people have forsaken the Koran." (Koran 25:30)

Muslims, those who claim also to believe in the hadith as being totally true, need to be objective and not subjective. They should, as concern for truth demands not change standards while evaluating phenomena. If they reject the Gospels as being true based on reasons that are valid, i.e contradictions, history etc (and they almost all do), then they should also reject the hadith on the same criteria. Hadith have the same problems of authenticity as the gospels do. Hadith do not represent the words of Muhammed just like the gospels don't represent the words of Jesus in total.

Hadith believing Muslims make big claims on the so called scientific compilation of Hadith. Let it be clear however, that no matter how scientific you are in your compilation of what is "false" to start with, the compilation cannot make it true. Even the criteria that is presented are un-objective, i.e the truthfulness of a particular narrator with a story of how truthful he was. To repeat, falsehood is not converted to truth by its scientific compilation.
 

The scientific method demands that "subjective" proof i.e how truthful a person was be ignored and the item tested on objective criteria. What does the content say?

A DILEMMA

Hadith doctors have traditionally evaluated hadith on its chain of narrators and its body text, according to their own criteria of what should be correct. However even according to their own standards, they fell into a dilemma. Some hadith exist which have according to them a "sound" chain of narrators i.e it was truthfully narrated but they dispute the text of the hadith. One example of this and their whole system collapses. The Koran gives us the standard for judging anything that is presented. If the Koran confirms it in total its true. If the material adds to or contradicts the Koran, its source is not God or his messenger.

HISTORY OF COMPILATION OF HADITH:

A) Out of the books that the majority of Muslims believe in as being authentic, Sahih Bukhari is presented as being the MOST authentic. However a analysis of the history of the books shows that it is anything but authentic. Imam Bokhari the collector of the narration lived in a period over 230 years after the death of the prophet. Out of the 600,000 hadith (narrations) that he collected, which were initially attributed to the prophet, he threw out as fabrication 592,700 of them and kept only 7300 as being genuine. They further reduce to 2762 hadith after repetition.

The margin of error in these numbers is so great, that any rational inquirer can see that accepting the book of Bukhari as containing all authentic hadith or even a majority of authentic hadith is stupidity. YET THE MAJORITY OF MUSLIMS UNQUESTIONABLY ACCEPT IT.

There are many scientific errors in the Book of Bukhari, as well as the other books . Some examples:

i)The prophet according to Bukhari in one of the narrations tells his companion Abu-Dharr Ghafari that the sun goes around the earth, in the apparent description that he gives (hadith 421, pg 283, vol 4 of M.Muhsin Khan's translation of Sahih Bukhari).

This erroneous view was very popular at the time Bukhari compiled his collection. However this is absurd, we know today that the earth rotates around the sun, proven by scientific evidence. The Koran not only corrected this erroneous notion but gave an accurate description of a round earth centuries before scientists discovered it.

ii)According to hadith no disease is contagious [Adwa]. This as we all know is inaccurate. What about the common cold and viruses like Ebola etc. [Hadith 649, page 435, volume7]

iii)Books of hadith contain many home-remedies, according to ideas prevalent at that time, which are scientifically absurd. The hadith mentions there being a cure for every ailment in black cumin seed [Hadith 591, pg400, vol7]. This is evidently not true. can it cure cancer or aids, not to mention even the common cold? Hadith suggests that we drink "camel-urine" to recuperate after an illness [Hadith 590, pg399, vol7]. This is disgusting, naturally speaking. Urine is toxic stuff . The Koran places extreme importance on cleanliness and clean eating (tayyab). The hadith mentions that "fever" is from the "heat of hell" [Hadith 621,622, page 417, vol7]. Atrocious.

The Hadith books insult the prophet by giving him a contradictory personality. In one instance it mentions that the prophet ate with a leper and in another it mentions that he refused to meet with a leper who had come to take allegiance at his hand and accept Islam. He told the man to leave and accepted his allegiance in absentia. Many other such stories are given.

The famous hadith about the fly: "If a fly falls into the vessel of any of you, let him dip all of it (in the vessel) and then throw it away [and use the material in the vessel], for in one of its wings there is a disease and in the other there is a healing [Bukhari, hadith 673, pg 452, vol7]

Things when blindly accepted even though it is clear that their source can never be the messenger of Allah can cause great harm. If the above was taken as fact there would be a wide scale outbreak of typhoid and cholera. As an example I would point you to a historical fact. Some people on reading the statement attributed to Jesus in the gospels, castrated themselves for the "sake of God". That statement was :"..and there are some who make themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven." Let us be rational and reasonable in our outlook and use our senses which God has given us. The Koran is the most rational book on earth.

MAA