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The Quran => General Discussions => Topic started by: QM Moderators Team on January 09, 2014, 08:36:48 PM

Title: Do the Islamic Secondary Sources have Divine Religious Authority in Islam?
Post by: QM Moderators Team on January 09, 2014, 08:36:48 PM

This is an open question to all those that hold the traditional perspective. In particular, this question is for Khalid Zia to respond to.

Title: Re: Do the Islamic Secondary Sources have Divine Religious Authority in Islam?
Post by: optimist on January 09, 2014, 08:58:33 PM

Salaam!

I liked the following comment I read from an article;

Allah tells us that the Qur'an is light (4:174, 42:52). Can secondary "sources" such as hadiths shed light on the Quran, which is light? The answer to the question is “No”.   For a believer the Quran is like a sun, which always shed light.  Any light if found in any secondary sources is no more than a reflection of the light of the Quran. If we turn towards them for light, we turn away from the Quran.  If we allow them to come in between us and the Quran, we will find ourselves in the darkness of a spiritual eclipse, cut off from the light of the Qur'an.

Regards,
Optimist

Title: Re: Do the Islamic Secondary Sources have Divine Religious Authority in Islam?
Post by: Joseph Islam on January 09, 2014, 09:16:35 PM

Dear brother Khalid Zia,

As-salam alaykum

Further to your recent posts, please can you provide clear, unequivocal evidence from the Quran that it gives 'religious authority' to any secondary source (as defined below in Note [1]) for matters of religion that all future generations of Muslims are expected to follow by Divine decree.

I look forward to a fruitful discussion as a matter of due course.

Regards,
Joseph


Note [1]

ISLAMIC SECONDARY SOURCES

This term has been utilised to denote all manner of literature within Islamic thought which constitutes 'Ilm-e-Rijaal' (Knowledge of men) and resides outside the actual text of the Quran (i.e. anything that is not scripture) and which are used to make theological inferences and judgments.
 
These include canonised Ahadith reports, the Maghazi genre, Prophetic biographies, Islamic jurisprudence, consensus, opinions of Muslim jurists, analogical deductions, 'Ra'y' (independent reasoning), Muslim practices and all manner of sources which are not part of the Quranic text or used solely to understand its language.


Preservation of language:

I accept that the protection of the 'dhikr' (reminder) is assured by the Quran (15:9). This implies both the 'words' of the Quran and an appropriate ability to discern its 'meanings'. Otherwise, the 'dhikr' would be meaningless.
 
Therefore any source, including classical lexicons, works of grammarians, dictionaries or indeed, any Islamic secondary source as defined above which is used to understand the classical Arabic language is implicitly ratified by the Quran (15:9) to be used as best effort. These sources are not 'authoritative' in the sense the Quran is, but every attempt must be made to understand the language of the Quran that has reached the Arabs.
 
The Prophet was tasked with a responsibility to convey the message of the Quran in Arabic to his people. His people had a responsibility en masse to pass the message to mankind (22:78) both in Arabic and to convey its meaning to those who did not understand the language.

Title: Re: Do the Islamic Secondary Sources have Divine Religious Authority in Islam?
Post by: Sardar Miyan on January 13, 2014, 02:20:10 AM

In  a nut shell Bro Optimists post is very well taken. Thanks