The Quran Defends the Sunnah

By Nouman Ali Khan | 2026-01-08T22:05:14.502525+00:00 | Topic: Quran

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The Quran Defends the Sunnah

Nouman Ali Khan - Malaysia Tour 2015

Opening Prayer and Introduction

اَلْحَمْدُ لِلّٰهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِيْنَ، وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى سَيِّدِ الْأَنْبِيَاءِ وَالْمُرْسَلِيْنَ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَمَنِ اسْتَنَّ بِسُنَّتِهِ إِلَى يَوْمِ الدِّيْنِ. اَللّٰهُمَّ اجْعَلْنَا مِنْهُمْ وَمِنَ الَّذِيْنَ آمَنُوْا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالْحَقِّ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالصَّبْرِ. آمِيْن يَا رَبَّ الْعَالَمِيْنَ. ثُمَّ أَمَّا بَعْدُ فَأَعُوْذُ بِاللّٰهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيْمِ

مَّا كَانَ مُحَمَّدٌ أَبَا أَحَدٍ مِّن رِّجَالِكُمْ وَلَكِن رَّسُولَ اللَّهِ وَخَاتَمَ النَّبِيِّينَ

"Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but he is the Messenger of Allah and the last of the prophets."

رَبِّ اشْرَحْ لِي صَدْرِي وَيَسِّرْ لِي أَمْرِي وَاحْلُلْ عُقْدَةً مِّن لِّسَانِي يَفْقَهُوا قَوْلِي. آمِيْن يَا رَبَّ الْعَالَمِيْنَ

The Contemporary Challenge to Sunnah

A concept that I wanted to bring to everyone's attention. You know, sometimes I like talking about ayat of the Quran in a vacuum. And sometimes I like to talk about the ayat of the Quran in the context of the time and the age in which we live. One of the problems that I've seen occur as of late, and I think it's been around for a long time, but I've just seen more and more of it.

And I've seen emails about it, and I get contacted about it. This idea that we should really take the Quran very seriously, but the Prophet ﷺ, the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ is secondary. Or it's questionable, we're not sure if hadith is as protected as the Quran is, and the entire corpus of the sunnah, the legacy of the Prophet ﷺ. Even from a philosophical perspective, different kinds of criticisms are made.

Common Arguments Against the Authority of Sunnah

One kind of criticism made is, it's not as preserved as the Quran is. It's not as well preserved. Another kind of criticism made is, well even if it is preserved, well really what makes him the messenger, is the fact that he delivered the message.

And the message is the Quran. So really we should keep the eyes on the prize. The primary is the Quran, and we should not get distracted by that.

The sunnah is there, but it doesn't apply the way the Quran does. Some people have gone even as far as to say that taking the sunnah as a divine source of guidance, is tantamount to shirk, because you're taking the actions of a human being, and you're equating them with the words of Allah. So these kinds of arguments are floating around, they're made online, there are people that purport them, etc.

The Quran's Defense of Sunnah

And I was exposed to a lot of this criticism, or this kind of weird thinking later. But I did, I will tell you for myself personally, I became a student of the Quran, I keep saying almost 15 years ago. And I was fascinated with this book, and one of the first lessons that I could not escape, was how the best defense, the most powerful defense of the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, is actually the Quran.

There is no better defense of the legacy of the sunnah, than the book of Allah itself. In other words, there is no way somebody can actually say that they believe in the Quran, and they don't believe in the sunnah. The only way they can really say that, is if they don't study the Quran.

I think my mic got cut off, but I'll say it again. The only way you can really say that, is if you don't study the Quran itself. Or if you don't take each of its words seriously.

The Inseparable Nature of Quran and Sunnah

So I wanted to give you an example of that, just of that. Of how the Quran protects the integrity of the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. And how it is actually, it's really the way to view the sunnah, is that it's actually the Quran brought to life. That's what it is, it's the Quran from the words, brought into the life of a human being.

Because the sunnah is not just the words of the Prophet ﷺ, it's actually his actions as well. One really exciting project, that hopefully it comes to fruition, I talked to Shaykh Abu Bakr from Australia about, it's just a phenomenal project that he's working on, inshallah it's a bayyinah project soon, is that he wants to go through the entire corpus of sunnah, and tie every hadith to an ayah of the Quran. Just to illustrate how these two things are inseparable.

They're just inseparable. But anyway, today's discussion, I wanted to make it about legislation. Because one of those philosophical arguments is, Allah has the right to give laws.

But the Prophet ﷺ is just Allah's slave. He has no right to decide laws or judge. Law can only come from Allah.

And therefore the sunnah is secondary, Quran is primary. That sounds like a powerful argument at face value. Even if as you hear it, you're disturbed by it, I'm sure.

But it sounds like a pretty rational, powerful argument. I want to just explore one place in the Quran where Allah responds to this subject.

Analysis of Surah An-Nisa Verses 65-66

This happens in Surah An-Nisa. And Allah (عز وجل) says:

فَلَا وَرَبِّكَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ حَتَّىٰ يُحَكِّمُوكَ فِيمَا شَجَرَ بَيْنَهُمْ ثُمَّ لَا يَجِدُوا فِي أَنفُسِهِمْ حَرَجًا مِّمَّا قَضَيْتَ وَيُسَلِّمُوا تَسْلِيمًا

"But no, by your Lord, they will not [truly] believe until they make you, [O Muhammad], judge concerning that over which they dispute among themselves and then find within themselves no discomfort from what you have judged and submit in [full, willing] submission."

On the contrary, I swear by Your Master. Now these ayat, I believe these are ayat 65 and 66. Let me open them up in my mushaf too.

Those two ayat, 65 and 66. Okay. So here, one of the rare occasions in the Quran in ayah number 65 of Surah An-Nisa, where Allah decides to swear by Himself.

The Significance of Allah's Oath

Allah swears by time. Allah swears by the sky. Allah swears by the sun (وَالشَّمْسِ وَضُحَاهَا) (Quran 91:1) Allah swears by the morning. By the placement of the stars (فَلَا أُقْسِمُ بِمَوَاقِعِ النُّجُومِ) (Quran 56:75) And those are some magnificent creations of Allah. But this place is one of the more unique places in the Quran where Allah decides to make this point.

None of those creations are magnificent enough to give you an idea of the value, the power of what is being said. So He says (وَرَبِّكَ) I swear by your Rabb. But before I go on, one just quick precursor about the purpose of taking an oath.

Understanding the Purpose of Oaths

Like He says, I swear by your Rabb. What is the purpose for which an oath is taken, especially in the Quran? There are several reasons. I've talked about them in several lectures.

I'll be very quick today about this. The first reason is that you're angry. You stop. Stop it. I swear you better stop it. So when you say, I swear, it can be an expression of what? Anger.

Another purpose of the oath to swear is actually to get your attention, which is common in Arabic culture. It's not so much in other cultures, but in Arabic culture, in old Arabic culture, when you swore, you're trying to get people's attention. So when you swear, you usually swear by something that'll get people's attention.

So they'll say, Wa sabaha, I swear by next morning. So everybody's thinking, Oh my God, something bad is happening tomorrow morning. I better go listen.

They try to get the attention. The way we do try to get attention is, Excuse me, please, could you please listen? There's an important announcement. Please, please, kindly.

But their way of getting attention was just to call it out, take an oath. Another easy way to think about an oath is when you take an oath when you're not being believed. Why are you late? Oh, there's a lot of traffic.

Mm-hmm, traffic. I swear, I swear to Allah, it was traffic. So you swear because you're not being believed.

Somebody listening to you is not sure about the truth of what you're saying. But then the Quran adds another dimension. All of these are true, but the Quran adds another dimension to the oath that doesn't exist elsewhere.

The Quranic Dimension of Oaths

And the Quran adds the dimension that it actually, it takes two parts. It takes the thing you're swearing by and the subject, right? For example, Allah swears by time. That's the thing that He swore by, time.

And then the subject was that human beings are in loss, right? So there's the object, the thing, and the subject. What Allah does in the Quran is He takes the object, the thing that you're swearing by, and He makes it a proof of the subject. So for example, (وَالْعَصْرِ إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ لَفِي خُسْرٍ) (Quran 103:1-2) human beings are in loss.

What's the biggest proof that human beings are in loss? They're running out of time. You can gain a lot of money, you can't gain time. You can gain strength, you can't gain time.

You can never own it either. You can own property, you can own things, you can own clothes, you can own money. You can't own even one minute.

You can't own it. It's not up to you. So the ultimate proof of the loss of a human being is what? Time.

So the thing He swears by becomes proof of what's coming. So coming to this ayah, it is as though nothing in existence is strong enough proof for what He's about to say that the only thing that can truly prove what He's about to say is Himself. He uses Himself as proof for what He's about to say.

Direct Address to the Prophet

When He says, then no وَرَبِّكَ | swear by Your Rabb. By the way, the Kain رَبّك Your Master, the Ka from أنت you did that today, right? Goes back to the Messenger ﷺ. So actually this oath is a direct conversation with who? The Messenger of Allah ﷺ. We're indirect audience.

The direct audience of this ayah is the Messenger of Allah فَلَا وَرَبِّكَ Okay. Now the Messenger is about to be told something that is so powerful and the evidence of it and the witness of it is Allah Himself. Allah Himself testifies to what He's about to say.

The Strong Declaration About Belief

What is it that He's gonna say? First thing He says is لا يُؤْمِنُون They don't believe. The big truth that He was going to give to the Prophet ﷺ is what? They don't believe. Wow.

I don't wanna be part of them. If Allah in the Quran somewhere said, they don't believe, that's bad enough. When He swears by Himself, goes out of His way, not even to swear by something else, by Himself, making Himself the ultimate witness and proof, and then says they don't believe, He must be talking about a group of people who have no shred of iman whatsoever as far as He's concerned.

Like this is the strongest statement of saying someone doesn't have iman, I would argue in the entire Quran. There's no stronger way of saying somebody doesn't have iman. By the time you read this much, and I read this much, we're supposed to get really worried.

Because He doesn't say who they are. He just says they don't believe. I don't know who they are. I better find out. Because these are people in some serious, serious trouble.

Making the Prophet the Judge

He says حَتَّىٰ يُحَكِّمُوكَ They don't believe until they make you the judge. They make you the judge. They make you the hakim حكم To make someone a hakim. To make someone the decision maker. حكم also doesn't just mean, is different from قضى. قضى actually means a verdict.

Like a qadi is a judge, and he does قضى. So he does a verdict. حُكْم is actually a verdict and a judgment made with wisdom. Because حُكْم shares the same root with what word حكمة So when you do you're actually passing a verdict that is full of what? Wisdom. Okay.

Until they make you, I'll put it in that sense then, until they make you, the wise decision maker. Because in the word يُحَكِّمُوكَ the Messenger ﷺ has already been declared full of wisdom. Not only the decision maker, but also full of wisdom.

Now, I told you somebody argues that the decisions should be made not by the Messenger, they should be made by Allah. They should be made by the Quran. And the Quran should be the final decider. The Quran is saying, not they don't have any iman until they make the Quran the decision maker.

They don't have any iman until they take the revelation and make it the decision maker. Allah is saying they have no shred of iman, and He swears by Himself, until they make you, you, the decision maker. How personal is that? He tells him directly, until you are taken as the judge of everything that they do, they have no shred of iman.

The Unity of Quran and Sunnah for the Companions

I want you to, before we go on with this ayah, I want you to think about this very important concept. To us, the Quran is a book, and then the sunnah is a bunch of books. You know, when people think of sunnah, they think of, for example, books of hadith, among other things. Bukhari, Muslim, you know, Tirmidhi, etc., etc., etc., yeah? So this is Quran and this is what? Sunnah. Two separate departments in the library. Quran, sunnah.

Now think about the sahaba. Abu Bakr is sitting there, when he thinks of Quran, what does he think of? He doesn't think of a book. There is no book there. Whose voice plays in his head when he thinks of Quran? The Prophet of Allah ﷺ. And when he thinks of sunnah, what does he think of?

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For the sahabi, the Quran and the sunnah come out of the same mouth. The Quran and the sunnah are the same person to him. You see, al-Quran yamshi, like the sahabiah describes, the mother of the believer describes, Quran walking around.

كَانَ خُلْقُهُ الْقُرْآنَ

His character was Quran itself. If you want to see Quran come to life, you see the Prophet ﷺ. To him, to them, they were not two different sections of a library. They were one person, completely inseparable. Now to us, we think of this as one source and that as another source. We separated those two things.

The Comprehensive Nature of the Prophet's Authority

So he says (حَتَّىٰ يُحَكِّمُوكَ - hatta yuhakkimuk) Until they make you the decision maker. (فِيمَا شَجَرَ بَيْنَهُمْ - fima shajara baynahum) What incredible language. He says, until they make you the decision maker in whatever, whatever sprouts between them.

Shajara You know what the word (شَجَرَ - shajara) means, right? It's tree. (شَجَرَ - shajara) as a verb means something that comes out of the ground. Now the thing is, there are things that are still in the ground and there are things that will later on come out of the ground.

Yes? In this ayah, Allah is saying that whatever has already come out of the ground, whatever issues have already been raised and whatever issues will be raised in the future. In all of them, who should be the one deciding? The Messenger of Allah ﷺ. The Quran becomes inseparable from the sunnah. They're not two separate sources of legislation.

They are actually one and the same. They're one and the same. Actually the Quran is not to be understood without the Messenger ﷺ. How can you? (حَتَّىٰ يُحَكِّمُوكَ فِيمَا شَجَرَ بَيْنَهُمْ - hatta yuhakkimuka fima shajara baynahum) But that's not enough.

Beyond Mere Acceptance - The Requirement of Internal Satisfaction

Allah says in this ayah, even that is not enough. Even if somebody comes and says, Okay, fine. I will let the sunnah decide how I should be or what the decision should be. Even that's not enough. He says after that, (ثُمَّ لَا يَجِدُوا فِي أَنفُسِهِمْ حَرَجًا مِّمَّا قَضَيْتَ - thumma la yajidu fi anfusihim harajam mimma qadait)

Then they don't find inside of themselves, deep inside themselves, any tightness, a discomfort over whatever decision you made. (مِّمَّا قَضَيْتَ - mimma qadait) Now notice, instead of saying, (مِّمَّا حَكَمْتَ - mimma hakamta) Because the word was, (يُحَكِّمُوكَ - yuhakkimuk) The word was (حكم - hukm)

Now there's a switch. He says, (مِّمَّا قَضَيْتَ - mimma qadait) From whatever verdict you pass. Now the word with (قضاء - qada) I told you is any judgment.

What's (حِكْمَة - hikmah) or (حُكْم - hukm)? A judgment made with... You know why that's important? Because now Allah is saying whether the people see wisdom in what you do or not. Whether they see wisdom or not. Whatever verdict you make.

Whatever (قضاء - qada) you pass. They better not find any discomfort deep inside of themselves over your verdict. (وَيُسَلِّمُوا تَسْلِيمًا مِّمَّا قَضَيْتَ - wa yusallimu taslimam mimma qadait) And by the way, Arabic language remarkable.

There are advanced grammar things that I won't get to in this class. Something called عائد. You would say in Arabic (الضمير يعود إلى الموصول مِّمَّا قَضَيْتَهُ مِّمَّا قَضَيْتَهُ - ad-dhamiru ya'udu ila al-mawsuli mimma qadaitahu mimma qadaitahu) Whatever you decided, in particular. He says, (مِّمَّا قَضَيْتَ - mimma qadait) as if to say, the decisions you have to make are open-ended. They're not limited to one issue.

Virtually on any subject, when you make a decision, it's done. If the ayah was (مِّمَّا قَيْة - mimma qiya) there would have been a restriction. The ayah is (مِّمَّا قَضَيْت - mimma qadait) no pronoun added at the end.

It opens it up even more. SubhanAllah. In whatever decision you make, صلى الله عليه وسلم, that's it.

The Ultimate Level of Submission

And then after that, finally, finally, this is the last part of this ayah. The last part of this ayah is about submission. What's the Arabic word for submission? Good.

The Arabic word for submission is, Islam. But you know, Islam in Arabic is an alternative for the word Islam is (تسليم - taslim) Islam, another alternative is (تسليم - taslim).

And (تسليم - taslim) is different in two ways. (تسليم - taslim) is different in that (تسليم - taslim) is more powerful. The word (تسليم - taslim) is more powerful.

So it's not just submission, it's unusual form of submission. And (تسليم - taslim) is also continuous. Islam is one time (تسليم - taslim) is continuous.

The ayah is saying, after you've made the decision,(وَيُسَلِّمُوا تَسْلِيمًا - wa yusallimu taslima) And they would completely and continuously give themselves in submission. And (يُسَلِّمُوا - yusallimu) would have been enough, but Allah adds (تَسْلِيمًا - taslima) This is another piece of Arabic grammar, it's called (مفعول مطلق - maf'ul mutlaq) Which means submission, on top of submission, on top of submission. There would be an absolute, complete submission before what? Before what? When you think of submission, you always think of submission to Allah.

Islam, we submit our will to the will of Allah. In this ayah, what is submission to? To the verdict passed by the Prophet ﷺ, whose wisdom you don't even see. If it was the wisdom you see it, then it would have been (حَمْتَ حُكْم - hamta hukm) It's (قضيت - qadait) And it's not just a one-time submission, it is what? Continuous submission.

And it is submission like no other submission. Oh my God! Oh my goodness! You have to put so much trust in the decision of Rasulullah ﷺ, and you're feeling uncomfortable with his decision, Allah swears you have no iman. May Allah not make us from them.

The Context of Trust in Allah's Wisdom

Now the last thing. If you look at the next ayah, very quickly, Allah talks about trusting Him. In order to understand this ayah, you should know something.

يُرِيدُ ٱللَّهُ لِيُخَفِّفَ عَنكُمْ ۚ وَخُلِقَ ٱلْإِنسَـٰنُ ضَعِيفًا

Allah intends to make your burden easy for you. The goal of the laws of Islam is to make life harder, to lighten your burden. (لِيُخَفِّفَ عَنكُمْ - liyukhaffifa 'ankum) Now, with that in mind, imagine a crazy situation.

Imagine you don't understand the wisdom in anything Allah says. Allah gives you a law, and you're like, that doesn't make any sense. And so Allah gives you Himself some hypothetical situations.

وَلَوْ أَنَّا كَتَبْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ
Had we made it law over them, had the law been on you and me,
أَنِ اقْتُلُوا أَنفُسَكُمْ
That you must kill your own selves. Suicide. Would that be a logical law? From the human logic, does suicide make sense? No.

أَوِ اخْرُجُوا مِن دِيَارِكُمْ
Or leave your own homes. Even if you have a home, become homeless. These two things make absolutely no sense. On the one hand, you're sacrificing your life. On the other hand, you're sacrificing your home. It doesn't make any sense.

Allah says, had it been the case, hypothetically, if that's what the law was, if that's what the law was,

أَنِ اقْتُلُوا أَنفُسَكُمْ أَوِ اخْرُجُوا مِن دِيَارِكُمْ مَّا فَعَلُوهُ
Very few except very few among them. Most people would have said, this is crazy, this doesn't make any sense.

What was the ending of the last ayah? Absolute and complete what? Submission. In the next ayah, he says, if I gave you things that didn't make sense to you, you wouldn't have done it. Very few of you would actually have submitted.

إِلَّا قَلِيلٌ مِّنْهُمْ ۚ وَلَوْ أَنَّهُمْ فَعَلُوا مَا يُوعَظُونَ بِهِ لَكَانَ خَيْرًا لَّهُمْ وَأَشَدَّ تَثْبِيتًا
And had they done whatever they were being given advice to do, it would have absolutely would have been better for you.

Allah told you to die, it would have been better for you to die. If Allah told you to leave your home and be homeless, He would never tell you that unless it was what for you? It was better for you.

That's the level of trust you have to have in Allah.

لَكَانَ خَيْرًا لَّهُمْ وَأَشَدَّ تَثْبِيتًا
And it would have been more firm as a well thought out decision. Now the placement of this ayah is incredible.

The Priority of Trust in the Messenger

Because this ayah is about trusting Allah. But it comes right after you have to trust who? The messenger's decision. صلى الله عليه وسلم Allah put the trust in the messenger before he put the trust in himself.

People like to say I have a relationship with Allah. I don't need a relationship with the messenger of Allah. صلى الله عليه وسلم You're thoroughly confused. You're deeply confused. Not if you study this book. This book is calling on a very strong relationship with the messenger of Allah.

The Historical Example of Hudaybiyyah

I keep referring back to Hudaybiyyah. I'll just tell you one thing about Hudaybiyyah. One of the negotiators who came to meet with the Prophet ﷺ on behalf of Quraysh.

And he thought that he's gonna come and scare them. Because nobody messes with Quraysh. So he walked in on the camp of the Muslims.

And the Muslims, some of them are from Aus. Some of them are from Khazraj. Some of them are exiles from Mecca. Some of them were former slaves. Some of them are Persian. Some of them are Roman.

They're all different people. So you will walk into a train station and all these different people. Everywhere else when you go in Arabia, you go into a tribe, you see those people of the same tribe.

Yes? And when you see an army, you see army of one tribe. Then you see army of other tribe. When he walks into the Prophet's ﷺ company, he sees people of one tribe or different tribes? He sees people of different tribes.

And so he walks up to him. And he says, Seriously? You're gonna fight Quraysh with these people? As soon as the fighting begins, they will run away from you. They'll run away.

In his mind, he could not understand. If you don't belong to the same tribe, how can you have loyalty? The people who are willing to die for you will be the people of your own tribe. The Quraysh are united, man.

And you've got this train station with you? They're all gonna run away. And you know, as he was talking, he heard one of the worst curses ever recorded in Islamic history. I can't even translate it.

Somebody in the crowd said something. And he said, Who dares say that? And Abu Bakr came out. That was me.

Abu Bakr, the nicest man. He got so angry, he cursed him. Anyway, long story short, the guy goes back.

The Testimony of the Enemy

And now he's supposed to tell Quraysh, What happened? So when he goes back, Quraysh says, What happened? And he goes, You can't beat them. Why can't we beat them? What are you talking about? He goes, That man, when he spits, they fight each other to catch the spit. When he sweats, they fight each other to catch the drops.

When he makes wudu and gargles, they drink the water. They are obsessed with him. I've been to kingdoms. I've been to courts of kings. I have seen the royal palaces. I have never seen people love and show a loyalty and respect to their leader like I've seen Muhammad and his followers.

I've never seen it. That's...

وَيُسَلِّمُوا تَسْلِيمًا
The enemy who came to insult you walks away with like, I've never seen anything like this. I've never seen anything like it.

The Divine Connection Between Prophet and Allah

This is the concept of how the Quran defends the integrity of the Prophet ﷺ. The last comment I wanna make is actually trusting in the wisdom of the sunnah of the Messenger ﷺ is actually trusting Allah.

مَّن يُطِعِ ٱلرَّسُولَ فَقَدْ أَطَاعَ ٱللَّهَ
Allah said it explicitly. Whoever has obeyed the Messenger, all they've done is obey Allah.

وَمَا يَنطِقُ عَنِ ٱلْهَوَىٰٓ

He doesn't make stuff up. All the wisdom and all the practices and all the advice that he's giving you is coming from who? It's coming from Allah. It's bringing the Quran to life by Allah's guidance.

Warning Against Misusing the Sunnah

I know I said last thing but one last thing, I promise. That's this. There is a crime against the sunnah though. There's a crime against the sunnah that I wanna warn myself of and all of you of. And that is when you say something is sunnah and it's not. Or when you say something is sunnah but you don't really understand how and when that sunnah was established.

So you draw your own conclusions about that sunnah, that hadith. The thing about a hadith is, for example, that the Prophet ﷺ said it at a certain place. He said it to a certain group of people.

He said it to a certain family. And you know when you walk in on someone's conversation and he's already talking to someone, he's not giving a lecture to everybody, he's talking to someone in particular, right? Could it be that he's dealing with a special situation? It could be, right? Now if you don't know that, you would think that he's giving a policy for what? Everyone. So you have to know background.

You have to know context for the sunnah. You can't just read the translation of a hadith and say, I know what that means. I know how to apply it.

Because that's also unfair to the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. It's unfair to not know how it was applied, how it was meant, you know? And so this is actually a big danger because people will make you feel guilty, you're not following sunnah. You're not following what it says right here in Bukhari. Right here.

But when you ask the question, when was this said? Who was this said to? How was it understood? How was it acted on? What are the other subject matters on this same hadith? How do you do it?

The Importance of Proper Scholarship

You know, when I got into this subject, I noticed, I don't go on Facebook and Twitter or whatever. I just post something beneficial or something or my team will do it. I don't have time for social media, personally. They do a good job, alhamdulillah. I think, I don't know. You know.

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But once in a while, they'll send me some things that people ask. How come you never talk about hadith? I get a lot of that. Why do you only talk about Quran? You know why I do that? Because I love the sunnah so much that I'm scared to talk about it, something that I don't fully fully grasp.

When I have a question about a hadith, I literally fly. I'll take a flight to a muhaddith and sit with them and ask them. Because I want to understand it properly.

Because it's happened too much, too many times in my own life. When I was learning about Islam, I learned about a hadith and I sat in a halaqa and somebody explained it to me. And I thought I knew what it meant and later on I found out that was completely wrong.

It was completely missing the entire context. And I got so scared that I'm gonna hear the messenger's words, and not be able to decipher.

You know, Quran studies I've been doing for 15 years, I kind of know what to do. I know which tafasir to go to, which language sources to go to, which books to study. But hadith science is a complicated science. It's a deep science.

I don't have the brain cells for it. But there are some people I know that do. Alhamdulillah.

So I need to take advantage of them. And I do this out of awe and out of appreciation of the people who like, they've dedicated 40 years to studying just hadith. That's no small task.

The Danger of Superficial Knowledge

And they sit there and then there are people who've maybe got a copy of, they don't even have a copy of it. They have a Google version of like the books of hadith, and now they're ready to own the sunnah of the Prophet. And they compare themselves to these ulama. It's so silly.

It's just silly. One of my teachers, you know, one time he said that he was teaching a hadith, and one of those students, like one of those Google students, sitting in the class, he goes, Shaykh, man qala hadha? Who said this hadith? What's your dalil that this is sahih? So the Shaykh says, you know, narrated by so- and-so, son of so-and-so, by so-and-so, you know what happens with the names? So he gives them like 20 names, off the top of his head. And he goes, is that okay? And the student says yes.

He goes, you idiot, I just named all the students in the class. People want to feel like they're, I got the authentic dalil. You don't know what you're talking about.

You don't know. It's so hard for people to accept what they don't know. It's so hard.

I have, may Allah not make me from those kinds of people. I have no problem accepting what I don't know. And I'd rather go ask someone who spent their life studying this stuff.

And I'd rather, I'd much more seriously take their opinion and their research and ask them hard questions too than, you know, just do Google searches myself. At least, especially when it comes to the sunnah of the Prophet, I think it's a sensitive subject. That's my own view.

You don't have to take my view, but that's my own view. And my view of that has become more sensitive because of my study of the Quran. Because of its study.

Closing Prayer and Final Remarks

So may Allah (عز وجل) make us really loyal followers of the sunnah of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). And may Allah (عز وجل) make it easy for the beautiful sunnah of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) to become widespread. And the misuse of it to become a thing of the past.

بَارَكَ اللهُ لِي وَلَكُمْ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

It's called Quran Cover to Cover. I'd like you to check it on Al-Bayyinah TV. Just do a little bit of it everyday. And before you know it, you'll have gone through the entire Quran in translation with me. Hope you can take part.

اَلسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ