Dear Sword,
Wa alaikum assalam
Thank you for sharing this link.
In my humble view, the brother(s) that are arguing from a traditional perspective are
correct on many fronts.
First of all, the argument regarding language is correct. I have discussed this in many of my writings and the post
[1] below also summarises my position. The Quran
cannot be understood without reliance on secondary sources.
In another post, I share the following:
- "Neither did the Quran invent a new language, nor was it intended to be a lexicon or dictionary. The Quran cannot be properly understood without relying on a vehicle to understand the language whether these are classical lexicons, spoken Arabic or else. Otherwise the Quran would be whittled down to something akin to Egyptian Hieroglyphics with no granodiorite stele such as the Rosetta Stone, or any other source to assist.
Therefore, the Quran simply cannot be understood based on the book itself. It would become meaningless. It would be like giving an Arabic Quran to a community of Chinese speaking folk who know nothing of Arabic or its script and to ask them to translate the Book and use it as guidance. It would arguably be a preposterous suggestion.
Therefore, I do believe that any 'source' that assists the understanding of the Quranic classical Arabic is implicitly ratified by the Quran (15:9) which assures the protection of the 'dhikr' which for me implies both the 'words' (kalam) and an appropriate ability to discern its meanings."
[2]Furthermore, the question of the authenticity of the Ahadith corpus is also
not founded on the
unreliability of the classical Arabic language in which it is transmitted. Rather, it is founded on questionable content (matn) and transmission. The mere fact that the veracity of a particular hadith can be ‘questioned’ is proof that the ancient Arabic language in which the Ahadith is transmitted is accepted as reliable.
The other main point that was possibly being missed in the argument is that the
'Arabic language' or the
'authenticity' of the Ahadith corpus is not the main issue here.
From a Quran-centric perspective, the core contention is with the
'religious authority' of the secondary sources, especially in the corpus format we have received it today. The Quran provides no Divine religious authority for secondary sources as it does for itself. Utilising secondary sources to understand a language does not provide unfettered religious authority over all its contents. Therefore in the context of the video, just because one relies on secondary sources to understand the language of the Quran, does not automatically legitimise the secondary source corpus canonised centuries after the death of the prophet with Divine religious authority.
Sure, the secondary sources possess a wealth of wisdom and capture the practices of generations of Muslims in antiquity and how they interpreted the Quran in their respective eras, which we would be foolish to dismiss out of hand. However, this corpus does not equate to 'Divine Scripture' and should always be open to intellectual critique and academic rigour. A particular
'sunna' can also be time bound as discussed in the article
[3] below:
Finally, the
'ayats' (Quranic verses) and the
'hikmah' (wisdom) are indeed two separate notions. Albeit
'hikmah' (wisdom) can be
'extracted' from the verses of the Quran and applied in different contexts (as would have arguably be done at the time of the prophet), this does imply they are one of the same. The traditional brother is once again correct with his argument in this regards. I have discussed this in article
[4] below and respectfully assert that 'hikmah' clearly denotes the 'enlightenment' or 'wisdom' one acquires from an accumulated body of work or knowledge.
I hope this helps, God willing
Joseph
REFERENCES:[1] TWO CRUCIAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE 'QURANIST' (ISM) AND 'QURAN-CENTRIC' APPROACHhttps://www.facebook.com/joseph.a.islam/posts/542672849203180[2] Quran followers put on notice!http://quransmessage.com/forum/index.php?topic=1252.msg5872#msg5872[3] TIME-BOUND SUNNAhttp://quransmessage.com/articles/timebound%20sunna%20FM3.htm[4] DOES 'HIKMAH' (WISDOM) MEAN SUNNA OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD? (pbuh)http://quransmessage.com/articles/hikmah%20FM3.htm