We were born and raised as Sunni Muslims in Sunni Muslim Majority Bangladesh. For as long as we can remember, the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad was part of our daily existence. In our early years, the Quran was always on the top shelf in our family room and our Madrasa. This was the same in every Muslim house, we can remember. We were taught that the Quran was the word of our Allah revealed to our Prophet Muhammad for the guidance of mankind in this World. That it contained guidance on every aspect of our life from how to conduct our social and family and business affairs through religious rituals to how to urinate and wash ourselves. Literally, it was a complete code of practice for the creation of Allah, not just Muslims.

 

But, what our parents and Madrasa teachers never taught us was that Hadith or (the so called Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad) did not come from the Quran, but from people who came many generations after the death of our Prophet Muhammad. We like millions of students of the Quran in the early years of our learning life did not know the difference between Quran and Hadith. All we knew was that you had to eat, dress, urinate or have a shower in a prescribed manner because the Prophet Muhammad did the same, and Allah said we would be punished if we did not follow the Quran and the Prophet. We refer to “eat, dress, urinate or shower” because those were important activities of our early life experiences. These activities slowly expanded to how to speak to elders, how to avoid the company of girls, how our sister’s had to wear the veil in public, men grow a beard, etc. We were constantly reminded that if we did not follow the rules we would be punished by Allah in Hell. Then came a time when we did not question anything to do with Islam. We just accepted everything as coming from what we thought was the Quran.  

 

We have never doubted the Quran. We have always believed the Quran to be the Word of Allah. We also genuinely believe that Prophet Muhammad was chosen by God to deliver His message. We are very proud Muslims.

 

When we came to the UK for our education, all we saw was Islam and Terrorism being quoted in the same sentence in the media. We also noticed how the media and politicians used the word “Islamist” and “Islamism” to separate the activities of the Terrorist from the religious activities of “Muslims” and “Islam”. At the time, these labels to us seemed very childish because we felt like the many other Muslims around the World that the Western politicians had created these labels for two  reasons: (1) to justify killing Muslims who were at War with them ; and (2) to prevent Islamophobia in the West by appealing to the non-Muslim public that innocent Muslims living in the West should not be targeted as they are followers of Islam and are peaceful people also being targeted by Islamists,  but that it was the “Islamists” who were killing innocent people and that the West was at War with Islamism not Islam. This seemed childish because whichever way you viewed it, the people being killed were Muslims, and because of the way terrorism was being interpreted by Muslim scholars in Bangladesh. The West had oppressed Muslims for so many centuries, and we Muslims were defending our religion and property (for example, Palestine) because our Governments were in the pockets of Western governments. This was the understanding we had arrived in the UK from Bangladesh with. Therefore, we were not bothered about the way Islam and Muslims were being portrayed in the Western media.  All we knew was that normal Muslims had suffered so much that they had decided to take on the fight to defend their religion and property themselves because their Governments were not standing up for their religion or rights.

 

Overtime, while searching the internet for articles on ‘islam’ to increase our understanding of Islam,  we encountered an idea which we had not encountered or contemplated before, the idea that Quran stood on its own and rejected any other source of revelation. This was the “quranism” doctrine which was to change our life in ways we could not even imagine back then. It took us few years to come to accept this principle due to the fact that we were very much entrenched in traditional Islam. During this time, we researched into traditional Islam as much as we could and found questions which were unanswered back then and remain unanswered till today. These questions scared us because they undermined what we held dear in the world, our religion.

 

What was most confusing for us was that as children we were taught that the Torah and Bible were corrupted because their followers changed the Torah and Bible to suit their needs. What we discovered was that what Muslim scholars have done to the Quran is the exact same thing the Jewish scholars did to the Torah, and the Christian scholars did to the Gospels of Christianity. Indeed the time span between death of Messenger Muhammad, and the compilation of Sahihs was almost the same as that between the departure of Jesus and compilation of the Bible. How can Sunni Muslims reject one but accept the other?

 

We discovered that some of the things that Muslims demand from the followers of the faith like how to urinate, what to brush your teeth with (“miswak”), growing a beard, wearing of face veil by women, earthly desires etc are not actually in the Quran but to be found only in the Hadith. What was most troubling for us was the idea that important rules that we follow on apostasy, war, adultery, and fornication and other important aspects of the Muslim codes of behaviour came not from the Quran but from Hadith written some 200 years after the death of our Prophet Muhammad.  

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When we started telling other Muslim friends that we had doubts that Hadith was part of Islam, they told us to repent and warned us against making anti-hadith comments in public because as Muslims we had to believe in the Quran and the Hadith. If we rejected Hadith, we would become disbelievers (kafirs) and could be put to death for apostasy. The internet is full of websites and articles from scholars of Islam challenging the Quranist position and calling those who follow the Quran but not Hadith as apostates (see https://islamqa.info/en/9067; https://islamqa.info/en/115125; https://en-gb.facebook.com/notes/monthly-at-tahreek/why-hadith-rejectors-are-kafirs/417634338522/; https://thethinkingmuslim.com/2013/08/28/rejecting-hadiths/; https://www.albalagh.net/prophethood/response_rejecters.shtml ). 

 

But we were so convinced that we decided to become Quran-only followers, and to set up a website to convey why we rejected Hadith as part of Islam.  We wanted to share our story and findings and to start a meaningful conversation on true Islam. As Muslims it is our duty to spread the true message of Islam. We are not alone. The Quranist movement is being  adopted by highly educated Muslims around the World.

 

The population in Bangladesh according to the World Bank estimate in 2016 was 163 million. According to Wikipedia, in 2011, the Muslim population of Bangladesh was 146 million,  which made up 90% percent of the population. Bangladesh is the fourth largest Muslim populated country.  Most Muslims in Bangladesh are Sunnis. We want the Muslims of Bangladesh and the World to know why Hadith is the root cause of all the divisions and extremism within Islam. In fact, the rise we are witnessing in terrorism in Bangladesh stems from fabricated Hadith for which there is no evidence in the Quran. The Sunnis attribute these fabricated Hadith to the Prophet Muhammad and demand submission in the name of sunnah of the Prophet.

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If you look at the evidence in support of the claim that Hadith are not part of Islam, we think it's logical. The arguments against hadith are so much superior from the Quranist side. We researched on this topic a lot. You will find these arguments on our website and can decide for yourselves that Quran alone is what Allah wanted all of us to follow. We believe Quranism has unlimited potential to change the face of Islam for better as well as to offer humanity solutions for its current problems. 
 

SUMMARY OF QURANIST CLAIMS

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• We, Quranists, do not make a distinction between obeying Allah and obeying His Messenger. Anyone who obeys the Qur'an has no other option but to obey the Messenger too. Had we been living with Prophet Muhammad, we would have no hesitation in blindly following his orders. What we do make a distinction between is Allah and Hadith collectors like Bukhari, Muslim, Nassai, Ibn Majah, Tirmidhi and Abu Dawud. We accept Allah's Word that He has protected the Quran from corruption, but why should we accept the words of these hadith collectors? Are they as infallible as Allah?

 

• Qur'an is sufficient and does not need any further explanation.

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• Hadith is the same as the gospels of Christianity. Indeed the time span between death of Messenger Muhammad, and the compilation of Sahihs was almost the same as that between the departure of Jesus and compilation of the Bible. How can Muslims reject one but accept the other?

 

• The Messenger, may have elaborated on items like mode of salah. Such hadith is probably from the Messenger, and should be obeyed. But what about the hadith that contradict the Qur'an.

 

• The root cause of Muslim decay is their reverence for the hadith.

 

• Allah has protected only the Qur'an -- not Islam -- from corruption.

 

• Allah expects from His slaves exclusive servitude. When Sunnis talk of Quran and Sunnah, the Qur'an is undermined for its exclusivity is lost

 

EVIDENCE IN THE QURAN HADITH BEING AS PART OF QURAN/ISLAM

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While there is no direct commandment in the Quran to create a set of books to add to Gods laws, the Quran does in many places say: "Obey God and his messenger." To many this means obey God and the authentic Hadiths such as Bukhari and Muslim. To us, however, this does not mean obey God and Bukhari. This is because Bukhari was not a messenger and Prophet Muhammad did not write or compile the Hadith. The Hadith were compiled almost 250+ years after the death of Prophet Muhammad. He didn't follow Bukhari, only Quran. They were not authorised by God or Prophet Muhammad. Let's look at these verses to see what God means by "obey the messenger":

[5:92] Obey God and obey the messenger, and beware. If you turn away then know that the SOLE DUTY of the messenger is to deliver the message clearly.

[64:12] Obey God and obey the messenger. If you turn away, then it is only required of Our messenger to deliver clearly.

Majority of the Sunni and Shia Muslims have taken "Obey the messenger" to mean eat dates because the prophet liked dates and to brush your teeth with miswak and ride a camel because the Prophet did. How does this have anything to do with worshipping God?

The other verse often used to justify the creation of Hadith is vesrse 59:7. But this verse is about distribution of wealth and spoils of war and has nothing to do with adding new religious laws.
 

EVIDENCE IN THE QURAN AGAINST HADITH BEING PART OF QURAN/ISLAM

[6:114] "Shall I seek other than God as a judge when He has sent down to you this book sufficiently detailed?" Those to whom We have given the book know it is sent down from your Lord with truth; so do not be of those who have doubt.

[6:115] The word of your Lord has been completed with truth and justice; there is no changing His words. He is the Hearer, the Knower.

[6:116] If you obey the majority of those on earth they will lead you away from God's path; that is because they follow conjecture, and that is because they only guess.

Is Hadith not conjecture and guessing?

[25:30] The messenger said, "My Lord, my people have deserted this Quran."

[77:50] So in what message after this will they believe?

[17:73] They nearly diverted you from what We inspired to you so that you would fabricate something different against Us, and then they would have taken you as a friend!

[53:23] These are but names/attributes that you made up, you and your forefathers. God never authorised such. They only follow conjecture, and wishful thinking, while the guidance has come to them from their Lord.

[16:89] The day We send to every nation a witness against them from themselves, and We have brought you as a witness against these. We have sent down to you the book as a clarification for all things, a guide, mercy and good tidings for those who have peacefully surrendered.

[45:6] These are God's signs that We recite to you with truth. Then in what statement after God and his verses will they believe?

[31:6] Among the people, there are those who accept baseless statement to mislead from the path of God without knowledge, and they take it as entertainment. These will have a humiliating retribution.

So the evidence against Hadith in Quran is there, whether the scholars like it or not. What about Sunnah?. Yes the word "Sunnah" is used in the Quran a few times. But never used for the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad. Only the Sunnah of God. Here's an example:

[33:62] This is God's Sunnah with those who have passed away before, and you will not find any change in God's Sunnah.


[2:231] ....Do not take God's signs lightly; remember God's blessings towards you, and what was sent down to you of AL KITAAB (the book) and AL HIKMAH (the wisdom), He warns you with it. Be conscientious of God and know that God is Knowledgeable in all things.

But as you can see the word Sunnah is not used here. The word Hikmah is used. Hikmah means wisdom, not Sunnah. This has nothing to do with following the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad.

Anything else that Allah did not mention, is not important.

[10:59] Say, "Have you seen what God has sent down to you from provisions, then you made some of it forbidden and some lawful?" Say, "Did God authorisee you, or did you invent lies against God?"

[16:116] You shall not invent lies about God by attributing lies with your tongues, saying: "This is lawful and that is forbidden." Those who invent lies about God will not succeed.

 

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