Quranism

Overview

Quranism is a modern current restricting religious authority to the Qur'an alone and questioning hadith's authority; scholarship dates it to the modern prophetic-authority debate ¹.

Perspectives

Sunni frame: the Sunna is an authoritative second source inseparable from the Book, as al-Shafi'i's Risala argues ².
Academic: a position born of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century authority debates, not a classical school ¹.

Opinions on the question

First opinion · Sunni tradition (the museum's frame)Main reference

The Sunna is an authoritative second source, inseparable from the Qur'an

Al-Shafi'i's Risala argues the Sunna is God's clarification of His Book's intent, so the sharia cannot stand on the Qur'an severed from His messenger's exposition {cite:risala-shafii}; on this Sunni scholarship grounds its rejection of hadith denial.

More opinions (1)

Academic viewSecondary opinion

A distinctively modern position emerging from nineteenth- and twentieth-century authority debates

Scholarship dates the Quranist current to the modern debate over prophetic authority — from nineteenth-century South Asia onward — rather than to a classical school {cite:musa-hadith-scripture-2008}.

Bid'a (religious innovation)

Introducing into religion what the Lawgiver's command did not bring; Ibn Rajab makes Aisha's hadith 'whoever introduces into this matter of ours what is not of it has it rejected' the scale of deeds in their outward form, as the hadith of intentions is their scale inwardly: every act not upon the command of God and His Messenger is thrown back at its doer, and whoever introduces into religion what God and His Messenger did not permit is no part of the religion; he pairs it with al-Irbad ibn Sariya's hadith 'beware of newly introduced matters, for every innovation is an error', deferring the detailed discussion of innovations to his commentary on it (hadith 28); in that commentary he reads 'beware of novelties, for every innovation is error' as a warning to the community against following invented matters, emphasised by the universal 'every innovation is error', and defines the intended innovation as what is introduced with no foundation in the Law to indicate it — whatever does have a legal basis is no innovation in the legal sense though it may be one linguistically; he couples it with Jabir's sermon report in Sahih Muslim 'the worst of matters are their novelties and every innovation is error', with his account of the Rightly Guided as those who know the truth and follow it — unlike the ghawi who knows and does not follow and the dall who does not know at all — and with his reading of 'you will see much disagreement' as foretelling the community's divergence in roots and branches (Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam pp. 581–601).

At a glance

Overview

Perspectives

Opinions on the question

First opinion · Sunni tradition (the museum's frame)Main reference

Academic viewSecondary opinion

People and things also explored

Sources

Ideas

Bid'a (religious innovation)