Sunni Islam:


The Triumph of Traditionism

Islamic Intellectual History: Lecture 2

Javad T. Hashmi, MD, MTS
PhD Cand. (Islamic Studies), Harvard University
Ramadan 2020
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 Principles of Religious
Literacy
• 1. Religions are not monolithic in nature, but rather, are characterized by a
great deal of internal diversity.

• 2. Religions are not ahistorical or static, but rather, they evolve and change
over time.

• 3. Religion is intimately and inexorably tied to culture, context, and all

aspects of society and life.

• 4. There is a difference between the devotional expression of particular

religious beliefs as normative and the nonsectarian study of religion that
presumes the religious legitimacy of diverse normative claims.

• 5. All knowledge claims are “situated” in that they arise out of particular
social/historical contexts and therefore represent particular rather than
universally applicable claims.
 To Review…
• The pre-Islamic period was characterized by jahl — not just
ignorance but barbarity, impetuousness, & being easily
excitable… prone to fits of rage & vengeance.

• The Qur’an & the Prophet called to hilm (civility, patient

perseverance, calmness & forbearance).

• The Qur’an called away from tribal to universal ethics.

• The Qur’an created the individual but also stressed the social.

• One God, one origin, one purpose, one end goal, one umma.
 Outside Resources
• Lecture 1 Deep Dive: Inclusivist and ExclusiFrom Mubarak
Hasan to Everyone: (07:14 PM)vist Readings of the Quran,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoRXjV_IgIc&t=106s

• Subscribe to my YouTube channel: Javad “Jay” Hashmi,

https://www.youtube.com/user/HistoryofEM

• Go to classroom.google.com & JOIN CLASSROOM with

code thn2id3

• On Khalil Andani’s Youtube: Jihad, War and Peace in Islam

by Dr. Javad Hashmi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=9l_9WwaoDYQ&t=5304s
 Now…

• We will move on to the first 200-300 years after the

Prophet’s death.

• My reservations about starting with Sunni

Traditionism.
 Sunni-Shi’a Split

• Question: Was/is the Sunni-Shi’a difference socio-political

or religio-theological in nature?

• Answer: Both. Principle 3 of Religious Literacy. Socio-

political and religio-theological grafted onto each other.

• It seems reasonable to me, however, to say that the initial

split was political and historically incidental.
 Historical Sources

• Very problematic — sources are heavily partisan.

• General trend has been to take hadiths and historical reports agreed upon by
Sunnis & Shi’as; this is historically problematic.

• I think all we can do is recount collective historical memories of the early

events.

• Upshot: Perhaps we should disengage our emotions from these discussions

and realize, for example, that the Umar ibn al-Khattab of Sunnism is different
than the Umar ibn al-Khattab of Shi’ism, just as the Jesus of Christianity is
different than the Jesus of Islam.
 General Theme 

of this Lecture

• After the death of the Prophet in 632 CE, there

was a sudden vacuum in socio-political, religious,
& spiritual authority.

• Muslim groups (of virtually all sects) sought to

replace and extend Prophetic authority in these
various aspects.
 Authority in Sunni Islam

• Caliphs took political authority.

• ‘Ulama took religious authority.

• Sufis (mystics) took spiritual authority.

Part 1: The Caliphs
 Succession Dispute

• The Prophet Muhammad dies in 632

CE.

• One group takes Abu Bakr (the

Prophet’s senior Companion & father-
in-law) as the Prophet’s successor
(Caliph).

• Another group considers ‘Ali ibn abi

Talib (the Prophet’s cousin & son-in-
law) to be the more rightful heir to the
Prophet’s authority.
 Sunni View
• “Sunni sources overwhelmingly maintain that the
Companions were driven by the exigencies of the
situation to hastily select a successor to the
Prophet. The situation was dire indeed in the
aftermath of his death.

• “Several Arab tribes in south and central Arabia

had risen up in revolt … assuming that their loyalty
to the [Medinese] had lapsed on the death of the
Prophet.” (Asma Afsaruddin, The First Muslims, p.
19)
 Saqīfa Banī Sāʿda 

(Portico in Medina)
• Ansar gathered at the Saqifa (courtyard) to nominate their own
leader: Sa’d ibn ‘Ubada (of the Khazraj).

• Abu Bakr & ‘Umar heard of this affair and rushed to the site.

• Abu Bakr offered ‘Umar & Abu ‘Ubaida b. al-Jarrah as two

options.

• Ansar replied by suggesting one leader from the Ansar and

another from the Muhajirs.

• ‘Umar took Abu Bakr’s hand and pledged allegiance.

• Falta: hasty affair

 Abu Bakr’s Speech
• “O gathering of Helpers, if this matter [i.e. Caliphate] is
deserved on account of inherited merit and attained on
account of kinship, then the Quraysh is more noble
than you on account of inherited merit and more
closely related than you [to the Prophet].

• “However, since it [i.e. the Caliphate] is deserved on

account of moral excellence in religion, then those who
are foremost in precedence form among the Emigrants
are placed ahead of you in the entire Qur’an as being
more worthy of it compared to you.” (Afsaruddin, p. 21)
 Caliph

• Khalīf in the Qur’an: used as successor & deputy

• Khalīfat Rasūl Allāh (the successor of the

messenger of God”)

• Khalīfat Allāh (God’s deputy)

Prophet’s mantle of authority

• Political

• Religious

• Spiritual (charisma)

• It seems that the early Caliphs claimed all three.

 God’s Caliph

• Muʿāwiya (603-680): “The earth belongs to God,

and I am the deputy of God.”

• Al-Walid II (Walid ibn Yazid) (709-744): He divided

history into the era of the Prophets & the Caliphs.
The Prophet brought the message & the Caliph
implements/executes it.
 Sunna
• The term sunna was used in a very different way in
early Islam.

• Sunna of the Prophet Muhammad.

• Sunna of Rightly Guided Caliphs (e.g. Abu Bakr,

‘Umar, ‘Uthman)

• Sunna of earlier prophets (David & Solomon).

• Sunna of later caliphs.

Sunna Not Coupled to Hadith
• “Sunna was not envisaged as a set of concrete rules, but rather
as a general example, an uswa hasana [a good example], such
as that set by the Prophet according to the Qur’an.

• “When the Umayyads are said to follow the sunna of David, the
Prophet, [‘Umar] Faruq or later caliphs, the message is that

• “they acted in the spirit of these people, not that they knew of
actual rulings from them, let alone transmitted from them in
Hadith.” (God’s Caliph, p. 55)

• “To say that someone followed the sunna of the Prophet was to
say that he was a good man, not to specify what he had done
in concrete terms” (Ibid., p. 64)
 Sunna in the Qur’an
• Sunna mentioned in the Qur’an 14 times.

• “Sunna of Allah” (sunnat Allah) = 9x

• “Sunna of the ancients” (sunnat al-awwalin) = 4x.

• “Sunna of those [messengers] whom we sent” = 1x

• Prophetic Sunna (sunna al-nabawiya) = zero

 Caliph ‘Umar’s Reforms
• Began the compilation of the Qur’an into one book.

• Instituted congressional Tarawih prayers.

• Banned slavery of Arabs.

• Umm walad rule: slave woman granted freedom after giving birth, upon master’s
death. Her child is born free.

• Banned mut’a (temporary marriage) [controversial].

• Triple divorce.

• Doubled the punishment for public intoxication.

• Suspended the hadd punishment of hand amputation for theft during a famine.

• Refused to give zakat to “those whose hearts are to be won over” as ordained in the
Qur’an.

• Established the Bayt al-mal & instituted massive welfare & social security program.
 Caliphal Law
• khulafa al-rashidun al-muhtadun al-mahdiyyun

• “Being mahdiyyun, the caliphs are strongly associated with justice…

salvation was perceived as coming through the caliph” (p. 38)

• “God’s rope” (p. 39)

• “Whoever dies without an imam dies a Jahili death” (p. 40)

• “God-given law was formulated by God-given caliphs” (p. 50)

• “The caliphs were mufahhamun, made to understand by God on par

with Solomon, ‘the rightly-guided king’ (al-malik al-mahdi) … In short,
the ultimate source of caliphal law was divine inspiration: being the
deputy of God on earth, the caliph was deemed to dispense the
guidance of God Himself.” (p. 57)
 Abbasids
• Caliphal law/sunna continued under the early Abbasids.

• Caliph Ma’mun (7th Abbasid caliph, r. 813-833):

Supported the Mu’tazila (Islamic rationalists) & instituted
the Mihna (Inquisition).

• Office of Caliph had lost religious & spiritual

(charismatic) respect and “henceforth the caliph had to
satisfy himself with political power” (p. 97).

• Culmination of a gradual shift in religious authority to the

‘Ulama (e.g. Islamic jurists).
Ahl al-Sunna wa ’l-Jama‘a
• People of [Prophetic] Sunna & Consensus [of the
Sunni ‘Ulama].

• Ahl al-Hadith = Traditionists, represented by

Ahmad b. Hanbal

• Jama’a = ijma (scholarly consensus)

• The People of Hadith and Ijma

 Hadith in the Qur’an
• Hadith/ahadith & its variations = 36x in the Qur’an

• Means speech, narration, story, etc.

• [Q 39:23] God has sent down the most beautiful discourse (hadith), a
consistent Book…

• [Q 45:6] These are the signs of God that We recite unto you in truth. So in what
discourse (hadith) after God and His ayas do they believe?

• [Q 7:185] So in what discourse (hadith) after this (Qur’an) will they believe?

• [Q 77:50] So in what discourse (hadith) after this will they believe?

• [Q 20:9] Has the story (hadith) of Moses reached you?

• Not a single time referring to the Prophetic hadith.

 Prophetic Reports
• It seems natural to assume that the people would have
recounted the sayings & actions of the Prophet
Muhammad after his death.

• Prophet died in 10 AH.

• Sahifa Hammam ibn Munabbih (19-101 AH).

• Musannaf of Abd al-Razzaq al-San‘ani (126-211 AH).

• Contains narrations of the Prophet, Sahaba, & early

Muslim wise men.
 Early Ambivalence 

Towards Hadith
• Prophetic reports prohibiting writing down hadiths; others seem to allow it.

• Reluctance to narrate & record hadiths amongst some Companions,

including Abu Bakr & ‘Umar.

• Recording hadith but also burning them.

• ‘Umar considered compiling hadith but abandoned the project & banned it.

• Caliphal ban from the time of Abu Bakr to the early Umayyad period (‘Umar
II?) - roughly 100 year ban.

• Still occasionally referenced Prophetic precedent.

• Greater reluctance to writing down hadith than narrating them, but

hesitance exists with both.
Khatib al-Baghdadi (d. 463 AH)

• “It has been established that those who

disapproved of writing [hadith] initially did so to
prevent something else from being confused with
God’s Book, or taking attention away from the
Qur’an.” (Taqyid al-‘Ilm, p. 211)
 ‘Umar
• “[Do you really want] a Mishnah like the Mishnah of
the Jews?” (Quoted in Goldziher, Hadith, p. 6)

• “I had mentioned putting the sunan in writing to

you; afterward, I recalled that some people of the
Book before you had written a book with which they
covered God’s Book. Then they abandoned God’s
Book. As for me, by God I will never cover God’s
Book with anything.” (Taqyid al-‘Ilm, p. 198-9)
 Abdullah b. Mas‘ud
• “We said [to Abdullah ibn Mas’ud]: This is a
notebook that contains wonderful hadith.’ He said,
‘Give it [to me]. Girl, bring me a container and fill it
with water!’ Then, he began erasing it with his
hand, saying, ‘We have told you the best of stories)
[Q 12:3].” … Keep them occupied with the Qur’an
and do not occupy them with something else.’” (p.
204)

• “Do you want better stories than the stories of God,

or better hadith than the hadith of God?” (p. 206)
 Abu Musa al-Ash‘ari

• “The Children of Israel wrote a book that they

followed, abandoning the Torah.” (p. 209)
 Q 9:31

• They have taken their rabbis and monks as lords

apart from God…
 In Sum…
• In early Islamic sources, sunna refers to a general example,
not a codified set of rules.

• Sunna not limited to the Prophet Muhammad; included past

prophets & caliphs.

• Hadith collections included sayings of the Prophet, Sahaba,

and early Muslims.

• Concern about books of hadith “covering” the Qur’an and

becoming a Muslim Mishna (Talmud).

• The early Caliphs had a free hand in establishing their own

sunna & issue their own rulings…

• Eventually, however, their authority was limited to the political

realm, ceding religious authority to the ‘Ulama.
Part 2: The ‘Ulama
 Madhhabs
• Madhhab: particular opinion of a scholar. Came to stand
for legal school.

• Personal schools came into existence, dozens or

hundreds of them.

• Doctrinal schools started to form, eventually crystallizing

into the Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki, and Shafi‘i madhhabs.

• Eponymous founders.

• Geographical distribution.
Malikis & the Living Tradition
• Malik b. Anas (711-795/93-179)

• “In this early period, law did not primarily derive from the reports about the
Prophet (Hadith).” (Behnam Sadeghi, Logic of Law Making, p. 3)

• (Proto-)Malikis: ‘Amal Ahl al-Medina ‫( عمل أهل املدينة‬actions of the people of

Medina)

• “Malik considered the living tradition of his city, Medina, as a better guide
to the true normative practice of the Prophet (i.e. the sunna of the
Prophet): for example, an authentic hadith may describe a one-off practice
of the Prophet whereas community practice preserves the truly normative
practice of the Prophet.” (Ibid.)

• Al-Muwatta (The Well Trodden Path) - “texts develop a certain degree of

autonomy” (Shamsy, p. 35).
 ‘Umar b. ‘Abd al- ‘Aziz 

(r. 99-101/717-20)

• Quote used by Malik.

• “The Prophet and the holders of authority after him

established traditions (sunan). To adhere to them
means conforming to the book of God, perfecting
one’s obedience to Him, and strengthening His
religion.” (Quoted in Shamsy, p. 40)
Shamsy, p. 40
 Hanafis & the People of
[Reasoned] Opinion
• Ahl al-Ra’y: Hanafis, some were Mu‘tazilites (Islamic rationalists)

• Abu Hanifa al-Nu’man b. Thabit (699-767/80-150)

• “The term ra’y has been interpreted variously as common sense, rationalism, or
legal opinions.” (Shamsy, p. 22)

• “It was widely acknowledged that the Companions of the Prophet had engaged in
legal reasoning, in the sense both of applying general rules to specific cases and
of extending existing rules to new situations.” (Ibid.)

• Dialogical reasoning & analogical reasoning (qiyas).

• They believed that God had imbued human beings with ‘aql (reason, rationality,
common sense), which is a better guide to truth than isolated, unverifiable reports.

• They also relied on local (Iraqi) practice based on the idea that many of the
Prophet’s Companions had settled there.
 Maliki & Hanafi
Approach to Hadith
• Hadith was one data point amongst many others.

• If a hadith conformed to local, customary practice & widely

accepted principles, then it was accepted.

• Example: Hanafis used “the widely accepted principle, enshrined

in prophetic tradition, that states, ‘With liability comes [the
entitlement to] profit.’” Conclusion might differ from a specific
hadith about a particular issue.

• Used “widely accepted reports, especially those that contained

maxim like rules” (Shamsy, p. 27)

• “the majority of Hadith reports could thus play no role in the

dialectical method” (Ibid., p. 28)
Negative View of Reason
• Multiplicity of views, theological debates in the court

• “Disdain” for prophetic reports?

• Example: Financial restitution (tort) for 


1 finger = 10 camels;

2 fingers = 20 camels;

3 fingers = 30 camels;

4 fingers = 20 camels

• “Are you an Iraqi?” “No, rather, I am a scholar who

seeks firm proofs.”
 Hanbalis
& the People of Tradition
• Ahl al-Hadith: Led by Ahmad b. Hanbal
(780-855/164-241)

• Human reason is too subjective and, therefore,

dangerous.

• Follow hadith, even an isolated, weak hadith over

one’s own reasoning.
 (Proto-) Madhhabs 

(Legal Schools)

• 1. (Proto-)Malikis: Lived tradition.

• 2. (Proto-)Hanafis: Reason (aql).

• 3. (Proto-)Hanbalis: Hadith, i.e. text (naql).

 Imam Shafi‘i
• Muhammad b. Idris al-Shafi’i (767-820/150-204)

• Studies under Imam Malik, Imam Abu Hanifa’s student

al-Shaybani, and with Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

• Great synthesis: Formulates the four sources of

Islamic law.

• Restricted Hadith to the Prophet & elevated it to the

level of nass (scripture) alongside the Quran.

• He was basically a traditionist (i.e. follower of Ahl al-

Hadith) and fought off hadith-skeptics.
Four Sources of Islamic Law

• 1. Qur’an.

• 2. Sunna = Hadith.

• 3. Ijma (consensus) - not generative, only

confirmatory.

• 4. Qiyas (analogy) - very restricted form of reason.

 Other Tools
• “Al-Shafi’i developed and elaborated on a range of
specific hermeneutic techniques, especially abrogation
(naskh) and particularization (takhsis) for reconciling
seemingly contradictory scriptural statements and
analogical reasoning (qiyas) for extending existing rules
to new cases.” (Shamsy, p. 69)

• He prioritized the Qur’an— and really the Sunna/Hadith,

including single-transmitter Hadith reports — while
excluding local or lived practice.

• From local & lived practice to universal & fixed canon

 Canon
• “When the Qur’an and the Sunna are present [i.e.
applicable], no other [source] is consulted.” (Kitab
al-Umm, 8:764)

• He elevated the Hadith to the level of nass (textual

canon) alongside (or, practically, above) the Qur’an.

• Qur’an is Wahi Ghayr al-Matlu (unrecited revelation).

• See Hadith as Scripture by Aisha Musa

• “Gone was the existential certainty of being part of

an organic stream of normative tradition flowing
continuously from the prophetic time to
present.” (Shamsy, p. 71)
 Success & Influence
• Shafi’i gave Ahl al-Hadith (traditionists) the legal tools & reasoning to combat and defeat
Ahl al-Ra’y (rationalists). Ahmad b. Hanbal: “Our napes, as ashab al-hadith, were in the
hands of Abu Hanifa and not to be wrested away until we saw al-Shafi’i.” (in Shamsy, p.
196)

• Qur’anic Mihna (Inquisition) was one reason for the success of traditionists and defeat of
rationalists.

• All four madhhabs were drawn to each other.

• Hanbalis accepted qiyas.

• Malikis & Hanafis accepted hadith.

• Even Mu’tazilis & skeptics of hadiths could not resist the temptation to use those ever so
helpful words, Qāla Rasūl-Allāh (The Messenger of God said)…

• Hadiths became the defining feature of Islamic law, and Islamic law became the defining
feature of Sunni Islam.
 Divine Command Ethics
• Mu‘tazilis (Islamic rationalists) believed that human beings
could use their God-given human intellect (‘aql) to discern good
from bad. God’s rules would not conflict with our sense of
morality.

• Ahl al-Hadith (traditionists, as represented by Hanbalism)

disagree: We need textual reports (naql) to know good from
bad.

• Ash’arism rejects the Mu’tazili view of human reason. Whatever

God says is just and right.

• Ash’arism becomes established orthodox theology and

Mu’tazilis fade away.
 Victory of Traditionism
• Human reason and opinion were seen to be too subjective, whimsical, &
dangerous — resulting in the splintering of the umma.

• “With the passage of time, [these] scholars came to call for the placement
of greater emphasis on the hadith ascribed to the Prophet. Hadith were
[thus] connected with the concept of sunna…

• “There were many figures, including the Prophet Muhammad, his

Companions and the Followers, whose views the earliest Muslim scholars
considered authoritative to some degree.

• “The demand which sprung up in some quarters that special emphasis be

given to the hadith of the Prophet is best understood as a product of the
impulse towards uniformity… A single authority would [hopefully] produce
a single answer.” (Eerik Dickinson, Development of Early Sunnite Hadith
Criticism, pp. 2-3)
 Hadith Forgery
• Yet, the problem was that each side forged its own
hadiths.

• System of hadith authentication is clearly not

complete hooey.

• Question is: does the Hadith enterprise

successfully sift the real from the forged, or has the
horse already left the barn?
 Example

• “Whoever attributes to me what I did not say, let

him take his seat in Hellfire.” (Bukhari & Muslim)
Behnam Sadeghi
 Islamic Law
• No matter what, we cannot deny that the fiqh paradigm
(i.e. Islamic jurisprudence/law) over time created an
impressive and internally systematic body of knowledge
(even if its [“external”] foundation are [possibly] shaky).

• ‘Ulama became a (semi-)independent body and

became the fountainhead of Islamic religious learning.

• They are a “transnational” body of scholars who are

united by the same source texts, which are then
channeled through shared doctrinal schools.
 Extension of the Prophet’s
Religious Authority

• “The scholars are the heirs of the Prophet.”

 Hadith over the Qur’an
• Ahmad b. Hanbal: “I say, the Sunna [=Hadith] indicates
the meaning of the Qur’an.” (in Shamsy, p. 196)

• Shafi’i had rejected the idea that the Hadith can abrogate
the Qur’an, but in practice, this was done.

• Muhammad b. Nasr al-Marwazi (d. 294), in Sunna, a

commentary on Shafi’is Risala, affirms that Sunna/Hadith
can abrogate the Qur’an.

• Maxim: “The sunnah (=Hadith) is the judge over the

Qur’an, and not the Qur’an over the sunnah.” (Cited in
Graham, Divine Word, p. 14)
 Judith Romney Wegner

• “The parallel between Islamic Sunna and Jewish

Mishnah as the second root of the law was
perceived by Muslim jurists [themselves.” (“Islamic
and Talmudic Jurisprudence,” p. 39.)
 Jonathan Brown
• “Among Western readership, the question, ‘What does
Islam say about’ some issue is usually followed by
reference to the Quran … Yet the Quran is not the source
to which a curious reader should refer in order to answer
the question ‘What does Islam say about’ a particular
issue.” Instead, it is the Sunna, which, for all practical
purposes, is carried through the Hadith. (Hadith, p. 3)

• He compares the Hadith to the “oral Torah, which

transmitted the authoritative interpretations of [the
Written Torah]” and was “set down in written form in the
Mishna.” (p. 271)
 ‘Umar
• “[Do you really want] a Mishnah like the Mishnah of
the Jews?” (Quoted in Goldziher, Hadith, p. 6)

• “I had mentioned putting the sunan in writing to

you; afterward, I recalled that some people of the
Book before you had written a book with which they
covered God’s Book. Then they abandoned God’s
Book. As for me, by God I will never cover God’s
Book with anything.” (Quoted in Taqyid al-‘Ilm, p.
198-9)
Javed Ahmad Ghamidi I
Javed Ahmad Ghamidi II
Fazlur Rahman
 Lecture 2 Deep Dive A!
Hadith & Ijma: 

Epistemic Challenges to Sunni Islam

Islamic Intellectual History: Lecture 2

Javad T. Hashmi, MD, MTS
PhD Cand. (Islamic Studies), Harvard University
Ramadan 2020
What Does a Hadith Consist of?

• Matn (content): Prophet said, “Actions are by

intentions.”

• Isnad/sanad (chain of narrators): So-and-so said

to so-and-so that so-and-so said to so-and-so, who
received it from so-and-so, that the Prophet said…
Jarh wa Ta’dil ‫الجرح و التَعدیل‬
َ

• Criticism & praise - Narrator criticism

• Subjecting each narrator in a chain to criticism

(reliable or not?)

• Two main criteria: 


[1] Uprightness (‘adala ‫ )عدالة‬and 

[2] Accuracy (dabt ‫)ضبط‬
 Grading a Hadith
• 1. Uprightness ‫ عدالة‬and accuracy ‫ ضبط‬of each
narrator.

• 2. Connected chain ‫ اتصال‬without interruption

‫انقطاع‬, anomalies ‫ شذوذ‬or defect ‫علة‬.

• Grade of Authentic (sahih), Good (hasan), dhaif

(weak), or fabricated (mawdu).
 Importance of Sahaba
• We have books of Rijal on every generation except
the Sahaba.

• Rectification of the Sahaba ‫تعدیل الصحابة‬

• They are all upright without exception ‫ كلهم عدول‬and

by consensus and we do not ask about them (i.e.
their status as narrators) ‫ال یسأل عن حالهم‬.

• This is why the Sunni view of the Sahaba is so

generous.
 Definition of Sahabi
• Whoever met the Prophet as a Muslim and died
upon Islam. ‫ ومات على اإلسالم‬،‫من لقي النبي مؤمنا به‬

• Includes whoever met the Prophet, even for a brief

(fleeting?) moment, whether the Prophet narrated
from him or not, sat with him or not, or even saw
him in the case of the blind, or whether or not the
person was mature or a young boy.
 Problems?
• What about the Hypocrites?

• Even if we accept the idea that the best generation

is that of the Sahaba, does this mean that they
were all upright without any deviation whatsoever?

• OK, even if we accept the idea that they were all

upright, what about the second condition (i.e. their
accuracy)?
 Certain Knowledge?

• Ahad: isolated, solitary; does not confer certainty

• Mutawatir: successive, mass-transmitted; conveys

certainty

• Vast majority of hadiths are isolated (ahad).

 Solution
• Hadiths may be mass-transmitted in meaning (mutawatir al-ma’ani
‫ )الخبر املتواتر املعنوي‬if not in exact wording (mutawatir al-lafzi ‫الخبر‬
‫)املتواتر اللفظي‬.

• Certainly true (yaqini) knowledge is only necessary in matters of

theology (aqida); probabilistically (zanni) true is sufficient in
matters of law.

• Hadith collections are accepted due to ijma (consensus).

• Ijma is the foundation of Sunni legal theory.

• “Ijma in the usage of al-Shafi’i had no generative power.” (Shamsy,

p. 87)
But, what is Ijma based on?

• No mention of it in the Qur’an.

• It is, however, mentioned (kind of) in the Hadith.

• Isn’t that circular logic?

 “My umma will never agree
upon error.”
• But, this hadith is itself not mutawatir.

• How would you know ijma is reached?

• Who is included in “umma”?

• Couldn’t it mean the opposite, i.e. that there will

always be a dissenter holding onto the truth?

• Any argument derived from this text is itself

probabilistic.
 In Sum…

• Hadith & ijma have problematic foundations.

• Can these be overcome? That decision is left to

you.
End of Deep Dive