Akhta wa Awham fi Adkham Mashru Tasufi li Hadm al-Sunna
- Author died
- 1429 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat Wahba
Akhta wa Awham fi Adkham Mashru Tasufi li Hadm al-Sunna (Errors and Illusions in the Largest Arbitrary Project to Demolish the Sunnah) is a polemical and apologetic work by the Egyptian scholar Abd al-Azim al-Mutani (d. 1429 AH / 2008 CE), written to defend the authority and compilation of the Prophetic Sunnah against modern denialist arguments.
Background and Publication
The material of the book originally appeared as a series of weekly articles published between 1996 and 1997 CE in the Egyptian newspaper Aqidati, issued by Dar al-Tahrir for Printing and Publishing. Prompted by concerns over the influence of anti-Hadith ideas among readers and certain mosque imams, the author compiled and published the collected articles in a single volume in 1419 AH / 1998–1999 CE through Maktabat Wahba in Cairo, as part of the series La Budda min Din Allah li-Dunya al-Nas (God's Religion is Essential for Human Life).
Purpose and Scope
The book serves as a targeted refutation of a contemporary project titled Tabsīr al-Ummah bi-Haqīqat al-Sunnah (Enlightening the Ummah on the Reality of the Sunnah). That project was planned in three large volumes, the first of which alone exceeded six hundred pages. Al-Mutani explicitly chose to omit the opposing author's personal name from his critique, preferring to concentrate on dismantling the arguments and methodology advanced in the text.
Core Arguments and Themes
Al-Mutani structures his response around several recurring themes and allegations raised in the opposing project:
- The Allegation of Innovation in Hadith Writing: The opposing author claimed that writing and compiling Hadith was an unauthorized innovation (bid'ah) that led the Muslim community into misguidance. Al-Mutani counters this by contextualizing the early narration in Sahih Muslim regarding the prohibition of recording texts alongside the Quran, demonstrating that it forbade confusing written transcripts with the Quranic text while explicitly permitting oral narration and transmission.
- The "Quran Only" Thesis: Al-Mutani rejects the assertion that the Quran was intended to function in total isolation from the Prophet's guidance in matters of creed, ritual acts of worship, and civil transactions. He argues that essential pillars of Islam—such as details of prayer, zakat, fasting, and pilgrimage—are fundamentally dependent on the Sunnah's exposition of general Quranic commands.
- Harmony between the Quran and Sunnah: Refuting the idea of an inherent conflict between scripture and Prophetic traditions, the author categorizes the Sunnah's legislative relationship to the Quran into clarifying ambiguous rulings, corroborating established obligations, and articulating specific details authorized to the Prophet ﷺ.
- Defense of Early Scholars: Al-Mutani strongly criticizes the opposing work for disparaging the Companions, jurists, and prominent Hadith masters such as al-Bukhari and Muslim, repudiating claims that early Hadith transmitters acted with deceit or negligence.
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