Page 21 - Bigotry: The Dark Danger

preted. From that, they developed the idea
that "We can only understand the Qur'an
through the hadiths." 1

Let us make one thing clear here; the
hadiths have come down to the present day as
the words of our Prophet (pbuh). While
some are entirely trustworthy and accu-

rate quotations and practices, others
have gradually been distorted and the
meanings of some have been
changed. There are two ways of
telling whether a hadith is really the
words or the practice of our Prophet

(pbuh) and that is if it is in agreement with
the Qur'an or if it has already occurred. It is
without doubt a slander against our Prophet
(pbuh) to maintain that words or practices

that conflict with the Qur'an actually belong to
the Prophet (pbuh) because our Prophet abided by
the Qur'an alone.

The idea that "We can only understand the
Qur'an through the hadiths" has wrought enor-
mous harm on the Islamic world because some Mus-
lims thinking along those lines began to fabricate

hadiths in the name of the faith. They even
eventually abandoned the Qur'an altogeth-
er, taking those hadiths alone as the source
of their religion. When fabricated hadiths conflicted
with the Qur'an, they even had the effrontery to say,
"This hadith overrules the commandment of the

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